About Meal Plans

• About Meal Plans
• How do Meal Plans Work on the POS?
• How a Meal Plan is Calculated
  • Refunds on a Meal Plan
• Person Marked Off-Premise (i.e., LOA) in MealSuite System
• Meal Plan Reports

About Meal Plans

Meal plans can be set up for diners. When designing a meal plan, the following needs to be determined:

• Is it points-based, dollar-based, prepaid, or unlimited?
• What is the time period of the meal plan before it is reset (day, week, month)?
• Can an unused meal plan value be rolled over to the next period if not used in the current period? And if so, how much can be rolled over?
• What diner category in the system will the meal plan be available for? For example, you can have a meal plan for different staff categories: nursing, volunteers, administrative staff, etc.
• At what POS locations can the meal plan be used?
• What category of menu items/products, and meal periods (breakfast, lunch, dinner) can the meal plan be used for?

How do Meal Plans Work on the POS?

If the POS location has been enabled with the Auto use meal plan if enough balance is available option, then when a diner with a meal plan is seated in the POS, the system automatically detects that they are on a meal plan.

If the POS location has not been enabled with the Auto use meal plan if enough balance is available option, then when a diner with a meal plan is seated in the POS, the prompt below appears asking if the diner would like to use their meal plan. The POS end-user would then tap the Use Meal Plan button to enable the meal plan.

Note: When seating a diner with a meal plan of 0 points or 0 dollars, the prompt above will not appear.  After the diner is selected for seating, the meal plan name and balance of 0 is shown under their name, as per screenshot below. 

In addition, depending on the facility and meal plan type, it may be that the facility is configured with a “meal plan product” that must be selected by the POS end-user each time to allow for tracking of meal plans used in the system and reconciliation in accounting. For example, meal plan products of “Resident Meal - Breakfast”, “Resident Meal - Lunch” and “Resident Meal - Dinner”.

This end-user step of selecting the “meal plan product” can be prevented if the POS location is configured to automatically add the product if a meal plan is used; see Configuring POS to Automatically Add Product to Meal Plan for more information. 

To see how items are covered on a meal plan on a POS order, see the following article: POS - Meal Plan Coverage for an Order.

How a Meal Plan is Calculated

A meal plan can be limited or unlimited. A limited meal plan means only a specific amount can be spent in a given period, and if the resident exceeds that amount they have to cover that excess with another form of payment tender.

By default meal plans are tax-exempt, meaning anything covered by the plan will not have tax applied to it. If the meal plan limit is exceeded, then tax needs to be applied on the exceeded amount. The POS handles this by using a formula to prorate the meal plan value across all items, which calculates the new item prices to be taxed according to each item’s tax rate.

The prorate formula is as follows:
The individual item price divided by the total price of all items multiplied by the meal plan value.

In the scenario below, a $20 meal plan limit is exceeded and the resident has to pay a bit extra.

In the scenario below, the $20 meal plan limit is not exceeded, and therefore the prorate calculations do not apply.

Refunds on a Meal Plan

When a refund is issued, the meal plan balance can be calculated as follows depending if the item can be returned to inventory or not:

100% Discount - If an item is to be refunded and cannot go back to inventory (such as an item from a restaurant meal), then a 100% discount is applied to the item on the ticket, as this will allow for cost and inventory tracking. Assume the apple pie is 100% discounted from the meal: this drops the total price below the meal plan limit and therefore the prorate calculations do not apply.

Void - Assume it is a $10 meal plan limit applied to some items in the facility tuck shop, and one of those items is being returned because of the cashier’s mistake. Because the item is not consumed or damaged it will be returned to inventory. In this situation, the returned item is voided from the original ticket and the calculations redone.

Person Marked Off-Premise (i.e., LOA) in MealSuite System

When a person is marked-off premise in the MealSuite core system, they will be subsequently set as archived in Touch via their diner profile in Touch Admin. When a person is archived in Touch, any meal plan will not be suspended so that the meal plan can continue to be used, such as what is required when family or loved ones need to use the meal plan.

Meal Plan Reports

The following POS Detailed reports track meal plan transactions and/or balances (click a link for instructions on running the report):

• Meal Plan Transactions Report - provides a breakdown of each meal plan transaction and the amount (or points) debited.
• POS Meal Plan Balance by Date Report - a snapshot of a diner's meal plan balance for any calendar day, including the last reload date and reload amount.
• Meal Plan Spending Breakdown Report - provides a daily summary of a diner's meal plan spending by meal (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner), with totals for each day across a selected date range.
• Diner Facing Statement - a printable statement of Excel® workbook for one or more diners with their meal plan transaction and bill-to-room transactions. 

Note that another means to run the Diner Facing Statement report is from the meal plan itself. To do so:

1. In Touch Admin, select People Management > Meals Plans. The Meal Plans screen appears.
2. For the meal plan you want to run the Diner Facing Statement report for, click Accounts.
3. Click the Generate Statement Package link. The Generate Statement Package screen appears.
4. Define the report's criteria via the following filters:
   1. Start Date and End Date
   2. Format - Printable Page (opens a screen with the transactions) or Excel Workbook (downloads Excel file of the transactions).
5. Select the diners whose statement packages you want to generate.
6. Click the Generate Report button to generate the report in the selected format.

The following POS Summary reports are available to track meal plan transactions and/or balances: 

• Sales and Payment Summary Reports > Meal Plan Activity by Type
• Payments Summary Reports > Meal Plan Use by Plan Type and Diner
• Payments Summary Reports >Meal Plan Activity by Tender Type
• Payments Summary Reports > Meal Plan Refunds by Tender Type and Diner