Meals on the student fee ledger
With SmartMy Campus, students become food customers and their parents their menu contacts. Canteen purchases, meal plans and wallet top-ups can be charged to the student's fee ledger. Mess fees become fee dues with the usual receipts, reminders and late fees.
PLANSFrom GrowthWith SmartMy Campus
The problem it solves
- The canteen and the fee office keep two lists of the same students, and both are out of date.
- Parents pay the mess fee at the fee counter, and the mess hears about it a week later.
- A student who has not paid the mess fee for two months still eats every day.
- Canteen credit given to students is never collected because it is not on the fee statement.
How it works
- With SmartMy Campus, every student becomes a food customer (Day Scholar unless another type is set), and the father, mother and guardian become menu contacts.
- The student form gets a Food tab: customer type, diet, allergies, diet note, daily and weekly limits, blocked items and categories, and Menu Contacts.
- Add the payment mode Fee Ledger to the outlet for the student customer type. At the counter, a scanned student can pay a purchase, a plan or a wallet top-up with it.
- Each charge waits under Food Service > Selling > Refunds and Charges > Fee Ledger Charges as To Charge. On the 1st of the month, last month's charges of each student become one fee due on their fee ledger.
- For a mess fee, make a structure under Food Service > Configuration > Customers > Mess Fee Structures. Add fee plans, generate the schedules and submit it for approval.
- On a hostel's mess rule, choose Mess fee (fee module) and the fee plan. Each period becomes a Mess Fee due on the student's ledger and gives the meal plan for that period.
Everything it does
Charges to the fee ledger
- Counter purchases, meal plans and wallet top-ups paid by Fee Ledger
- Refused for someone who is not a student
- States: To Charge, Charged, Cancelled
- One due per student per run, under a Food fee head; a purchase reversed after billing comes back as credit
- The Entity needs the Fee Ledger Clearing account set on its Food Service tab
- With Scale, a customer's Food Credit Limit also counts charges not yet billed
- With Scale accounting, the day's food entry clears these charges through the fee clearing account
Mess fee structures
- Name, Code, Date From and Date To; Hostels, Room Types and Resident Categories it applies to
- Fee per Month and Due in (days): 10 to start with
- Proration for someone who joins late: By plan meals left (to start with), By days left, or Full period
- Unpaid Rule: Never block (to start with) or Block meals when overdue, with Block after (days overdue) 15
- Fee Plans: Monthly, Quarterly, Half-yearly, Yearly or Whole structure period, a Concession % and the Meal Plan it gives
- Generate Schedules: per period, Pay From, Due Date and Amount
- Submit sends it to the Mess fee structure approval chain; Back to Draft changes it and it is approved again; Close ends it
Mess fee dues
- Each schedule period becomes a Mess Fee due on the student's fee ledger, with the fee office's receipts and reminders
- The due gives the meal plan for its period; a subscription shows its Mess Fee
- Meals not taken (opt-outs, leave, leaving early) are waived on an unpaid due, or given back as credit when the period closes
- With Campus late fees: the structure's Late Fee Rule applies to its mess dues; empty means the institution's rule
Not built
- Warn at the counter as an unpaid rule is stored but not shown on the counter screen yet
- Changing plan in the middle of a period with the difference on the next schedule
- A mess fee folded into the hostel fee: use Included in the rent on the mess rule instead
Who uses it
Fee officeCollects mess fees and food dues with the other fees, with receipts, reminders and late fees.
Food administratorPrepares and approves mess fee structures and adds the Fee Ledger payment mode.
CashierCharges a scanned student's purchase or top-up to the fee ledger.
ParentSees the dues on the fee statement and the meals in the SmartMy Feast app.
Where you use it
- Web: Food Service > Selling > Refunds and Charges > Fee Ledger Charges; Configuration > Mess Fee Structures; the student's Food tab in SmartMy Campus
- Counter app: the Fee Ledger button for a scanned student
- The SmartMy Feast app: To pay shows unpaid food invoices; paying a mess fee due is done through the fee office or Campus
- Not for day scholars alone: the fee link installs with the hostel mess link, so SmartMy Hostel is needed as well as Campus fees
What you control
Settings
- Payment mode Fee Ledger: per outlet and customer type
- Fee Ledger Clearing account: on the Entity's Food Service tab
- Per structure: Fee per Month, Due in (days) 10, Proration, Unpaid Rule, Block after 15 days, Late Fee Rule
- Per hostel mess rule: Billing Mess fee (fee module) and the fee plan
Approvals
- Mess fee structure: food administrators to start with; levels can be added under Food Service > Configuration > General > Approval Chains
Notifications
- Fee dues, receipts and reminders are the fee office's own messages in SmartMy Campus
- Request Waits for Your Approval: to the approvers of a mess fee structure
Works with
SmartMy CampusNeeded for this page: students, parents and the fee ledger; Campus late fees for the late fee on mess dues.
SmartMy HostelNeeded too: the fee link installs with the hostel mess link, and mess fees are set per hostel, room type and category.
Questions
Can a day school charge canteen purchases to the fee ledger without a hostel?
Not today. The fee-ledger link installs with the hostel mess link, so it needs SmartMy Hostel as well as Campus fees. Without it, use the wallet or customers on account.When do canteen charges reach the fee ledger?
On the 1st of each month, as one due per student for the month before. Until then they are listed as To Charge.Can unpaid mess fees stop meals?
Yes, if the structure's Unpaid Rule is Block meals when overdue. Meals stop after Block after (days overdue), 15 to start with.Does a late fee apply to mess dues?
Yes, where the school uses Campus late fees. Set a Late Fee Rule on the structure, or leave it empty to use the institution's rule.Are parents added by hand?
No. The father, mother and guardian on the student record become menu contacts by themselves when the student is created or the parent fields change.Related features
WITH OTHER SMARTMY PRODUCTSHostel mess plans with check-in and leaveWith SmartMy Hostel, a resident's mess plan starts at check-in and ends at check-out, from rules per hostel, room type and resident category. Approved leave switches the meals off with the plan's credit, and residents who are away are left out of the kitchen's headcount.PORTAL AND APPSParents manage children's meals and limitsParents see each child's wallet, meals and bookings on the portal and in the SmartMy Feast app. They top up, book a meal, answer for the child, report allergies and set daily and weekly spending limits that the counter enforces.SELLINGAccount customers with a monthly invoiceLet a department, a company or a person eat on account up to a food credit limit and pay later. Purchases on account are invoiced once a month on one GST invoice, with a line per item sold.SELLINGMeal plans with opt-outs and creditSell a meal plan for a day, a week, a month, a term or a year, covering the sessions and weekdays you choose. A member who says "not eating" before the cut-off gets that meal back as wallet credit, a refund at the end or an extra day. Joining late is charged only for the meals left.ACCOUNTING AND REPORTSDaily accounting entry for food serviceOnce a day SmartMy Feast posts one journal entry per Entity for everything the food service did. It covers money taken by mode, wallet and plan advances, revenue as meals are served. Also subsidy and complimentary meals by cost centre, taxes, and, if you choose, food cost and wastage.PAYINGSpending limits, blocked items and allergy alertsSet a daily and a weekly spending limit for a customer, and block items or categories they must not buy. The counter shows a red alert for their allergies and diet. Parents set limits for their children on the portal or in the app.
See it with your own menu.
Tell us how many outlets you run and how people pay today. We will show you a day in your mess or canteen on SmartMy Feast.