- About Diner Charge Accounts
- How Do Diner Charge Accounts Work on the POS?
- Viewing Diner Charge Account Balances for Diners
- Viewing Diner Charge Account Transactions of a Diner
- Creating and Automatically Assigning a Diner Charge Account
- Manually Assigning Charge Account to Diner (if Auto-Assign not used)
- Applying a Credit to a Diner’s Charge Account
- Deactivating or Reactivating a Diner Charge Account for a Diner
- Disabling a Diner Charge Account in the System
- Enabling a Diner Charge Account in the System
About Diner Charge Accounts
A diner charge account allows diners to pay their ticket (or portion of their ticket) from an assigned charge account. For staff members, the transactions from the diner charge account can be recorded in the facility’s accounting system (via an export interface) for subsequent deduction from the staff member's payroll account.
How Do Diner Charge Accounts Work on the POS?
If the diner is assigned an active diner charge account, then when a diner is being checked out on the POS, the Charge Account button is available.
Upon tapping the Charge Account button, the POS screen displays the balance to be charged and the current balance of the charge account.
Note: If more than one diner charge account is assigned to the diner, then that diner charge account is also shown for the POS to select.
When payment is made, the POS screen refreshes to display the amount applied against the charge account.
Viewing Diner Charge Account Balances for Diners
- Click People Management > People. The People Management screen appears.
- Click the Manage Diner button for the diner whose diner charge account balance you want to view.
- Scroll to the Point of Sale charge Accounts section, where the Current Balance column lists the current balance for each assigned plan.
Viewing Diner Charge Account Transactions of a Diner
To view the transactions made on a diner charge account by an individual diner, complete the following steps:
- Select People Management > People. The People Management screen appears.
- Click the Manage Diner button of the diner whose transactions you want to view. The Diner Information screen appears.
- Scroll down to the Point of Sale Charge Accounts section.
- For the charge account whose transactions you want to view, click its View Activity button. The Transaction History screen appears, listing individual transaction records made under the charge account. A transaction record contains the following:
- Date and time of transaction
- Transaction ID
- Ticket ID
- Type of transaction
- POS location
- Notes that may have been entered when the transaction occurred
- Amount of credit or debit
- Account balance
Creating and Automatically Assigning a Diner Charge Account
- In Touch Admin, select People Management > Charge Policies. The Charge Policies screen appears.
- Click the Add a Diner Charge Policy button. The Charge Policy screen appears.
- Enter or select the following:
- Name - name of the charge account.
- Customer Finance System or Internal Tracking Code - Optional
- Covered Items are Tax Exempt - with this check box selected, any items/products paid for through the charge account are not charged taxes and override the default tax settings for the products or categories.
- Maximum Account Limit - enter the maximum credit limit for the charge account.
- Automatically assign any diner in the designated categories below. If not checked, charge accounts will need to be manually added to a diner. - with this check box selected, then in the field below, select the diner categories (Staff, Residents, Guests) the charge account is to be associated with (hold down the shift key to select multiple diner categories). Any diners associated with a selected diner category will be automatically assigned the charge account. If you would like to manually assign the diner charge account to diners, then leave the check box blank.
- GL Account - Optional - select the GL account to be associated with the charge account for tracking in your facility’s accounting system for subsequent deduction from the diner’s payroll account. Note that GL accounts are set up by your MealSuite CSM (customer success manager). If you are a MealSuite CSM, click here for internal instructions on setting up a GL account.
- Business Line for Finance Reporting - Optional
-
Automatically reset the balance on all accounts on a regular schedule - with this check box selected, then when the balance of a diner’s account reaches $0 the account will be automatically reset to the Maximum Account Limit according to the schedule parameters below (which is typically based on payroll scheduling):
- Date of first reset - select the date the first reset is to trigger.
- Time the re-occurring reset should happen - enter the time of day a reset will occur.
- Reset interval - select the interval allowed between resets: Daily, Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly.
- Click the Save button to apply your changes.
- You are returned to the Charge Policies screen, where the newly listed diner charge account is listed.
Manually Assigning Charge Account to Diner (if Auto-Assign not used)
When a diner charge account is set up (as per above steps), it is usually set up to be automatically assigned to diners. If the diner charge account was not set up to be automatically assigned to diners, then you can manually assign it to diners. To do so, complete the following steps:
- In Touch Admin, select People Management > People. The People Management screen appears.
- Locate the diner who you want to assign a diner charge account to and click the Manage Diner button.
- Scroll down to the Point of Sale Charge Account section.
- Click the Assign a Charge Policy button.
- A pop-up appears displaying the available charge accounts.
- Click the Add button of the diner account to add.
- Click OK to the confirmation message and close the pop-up.
- The newly-added diner charge account is listed.
Applying a Credit to a Diner’s Charge Account
You can apply credit a diner’s charge account. Doing so will override any auto-reset schedule for the charge account. To apply credit to a diner's charge account, complete the following steps:
- In Touch Admin, select People Management > People. The People Management screen appears.
- Locate the diner whose diner charge account you want to credit and click the Manage Diner button. The Diner Information screen appears.
- Scroll down to the Point of Sale Charge Accounts section.
- For the diner charge account you want to credit, click its Credit button. The Credit Amount pop-up appears.
- Enter the amount to credit, click the Credit button, and click OK to the confirmation message.
Deactivating or Reactivating a Diner Charge Account for a Diner
You can deactivate or reactivate a diner charge account for an individual diner. To do so, complete the following steps:
- In Touch Admin, select People Management > People. The People Management screen appears.
- Locate the diner whose diner charge account you want to deactivate/activate and click the Manage Diner button. The Diner Information screen appears.
- Scroll down to the Point of Sale Charge Account section.
- If a charge account is currently active for the diner, you can deactivate it by clicking the Deactivate button.
- If a charge account is currently deactivated for the diner, you can activate it by clicking the Activate button.
Disabling a Diner Charge Account in the System
To disable a diner charge account currently in use in the system, complete the following steps:
- In Touch Admin, select People Management > Charge Policies.
- In the Diner Charge Policies section, locate the diner charge account to disable and click its Disable Policy and Accounts button.
- Click OK to the confirmation message that appears.
Enabling a Diner Charge Account in the System
To reenable a diner charge in the system, complete the following steps:
- In Touch Admin, select People Management > Charge Policies.
- In the Diner Charge Policies section, locate the diner charge policy to enable and click its Activate Policy button.