Overview

The Meal Plan dropdown option determines whether or not the selected Menu Item is available for purchase using the customer Meal Plan account, and the criteria for determining eligibility.

This option can be configured via:

Menu Items
- Menu Item
  - Advanced Tab.

Eligibility of Meal Plan purchases are dependent on numerous factors, including the selected Meal Plan setting, and additional settings configured in the Customer DB.

Meal Plan settings requiring additional configuration include:

Based on Taxes - Eligibility is determined by whether or not a menu item has all applicable taxes present, matching the criteria for a particular Customer Type. This is configured from Customer Types > Meal Plan in the Customer Database module.
Based on Qualified Item - Configuring eligible Qualified and Potential Menu Items and Quantities of a Qualified Item. This is configured from Customer Types > Acc. Rec & Points Acc. tab in the Customer Database module.

Figure 1.1: Selecting a Meal Plan option from Old Menu Setup

Figure 1.2: Selecting a Meal Plan option from New Menu Setup

1) Never Applicable

Items with this setting are never eligible for Meal Plan purchases.

2) Based on Taxes

Items with this setting are eligible for purchase using Meal Plans, based on taxes (TaxTypes) that have been applied to this item, and checking off specific taxes used by Meal Plans in the CustomerDB.

In short:

Customer Types will have Meal Plans. These Meal Plans must be configured to use a specific set of taxes.
Menu Items that can be purchased with a Meal Plan must also taxes matching those of the Meal Plan.

Figure 2: Workflow diagram of how Meal Plans and TaxTypes

Based on Taxes - Example

In the following Menu Item example, taxes for VA Charlottesville and VA Albemarie apply to this Deli menu item.

See Figure 3 for a visual example.

In the Basic tab, check the Menu Item's TaxTypes. TaxTypes are different taxes that apply in different situations based on the food item.
For example, HST, GST, Baked Goods Tax, or Liquor taxes may apply on Menu Items in different regions.

In order for this item to be eligible for Meal Plans, as stated above, the TaxTypes must match the Menu Item's taxes completely. TaxTypes can be configured using Customer Database > Customer Types > Meal Plan settings in the BackOffice.

For Items with Based on Taxes, Meal Plans are allowed if it satisfies the Customer Type's rule. Taxes must be identical to the Customer Type's selected taxes.

Figure 4: In CustomerDB > Customer Types > Meal Plan, VA Albelmarle and VA Charlottesville are checked off.

"Only items with selected menu item tags can be charged on account"
- Items should have matching tags. Unlike TaxTypes, only one tag needs to be present to match, and does not have to be exactly the same.
"Taxes are removed on Meal Plan items when charged on account"
- This option will remove taxes from Meal Plan items if the customer is paying for an eligible item with a Meal Plan.

Figure 3: Taxes for VA Charlottesville and VA Albemarle taxes selected.

Figure 5: Meal Plan configuration tab

3) Always Applicable

Items with this setting are always eligible for purchase with Meal Plans.

4) Always with Taxes

Items with this setting are always eligible for purchase with Meal Plans. In addition, taxes will still apply to these items and will need to be paid with the Meal Plan.

5) Based on Qualified Items

Items with this setting are eligible for purchase using Meal Plans, but only if the corresponding "Qualified Items" are included. For each Qualified Item, a user can purchase additional "Potential Items" at a specifically stated quantity. These Potential Items are usually items not normally available for purchase using Meal Plans.

One reason for limiting the number of Potential Items bought may be to restrict the number of non-Meal Plan Items that can be purchased. Qualified Items are configured in Customer Database > Global Options > Acc Rec. & Points Acc.

Setup:

When configuring the Customer Database, we can set the number of Potential Items that customer can purchase for each purchase of a Qualified Item.
It is possible to qualify up to multiples of another "Potential Item". In our example, chocolate bars will be the Potential Item.
In Figure 6, we have stated the number of Potential Items "4" (the default "Qualifying Item allows Potential Item amount"); this means when a student buys one "Sandwich", they can purchase 4 "Chocolate Bars".

Example Scenario:

At a school cafeteria, certain items (i.e. a Sandwich Menu Item) are eligible for purchase using a meal plan.
Conversely, other items (i.e. a Chocolate bar Menu Item) are not normally available for purchase using meal plans.
However, it is possible to configure these Chocolate bars to be eligible for purchase along with sandwich items. In this case, a Sandwich purchase will qualify other items, such as Chocolate bars.

In summary:

Our Qualifying Item is a Sandwich.
Our Potential Item is a Chocolate Bar.
With the value of Potential Items set to 4, for each purchase of a Qualifying Item (Sandwich) we allow a purchase of up to 4 Potential Items (Chocolate Bar) using a Meal Plan.
Any numbers of Potential Items over 4 (i.e. 4 Chocolate Bars) will need to be paid out of the customer's own pocket, using Cash, Debit or Credit.
Potential Items are allowed in multiples of 4 if there is more than one purchase of a Qualifying Item.
- i.e.
  - For 2 Sandwich items, a customer is eligible to purchase up to 8 Chocolate Bars - 4 per sandwich.
  - For 3 Sandwich items, a customer is eligible to purchase up to 12 Chocolate Bars.

For more details on linking menu items with tax related consequences, please see:

Figure 6: Global Options - Acc Rec. & Points Acc.

Related Articles

Page:

Menu setup - Menu structure function
Page:

Link Menu Item Options
Page:

Add Menu Items
Page:

Old Menu Setup (1715 and below)
Page:

Menu Config
Page:

Set Up Option Items
Page:

Menu Documentation
Page:

Meal Plan Option - Menu Setup - Advanced
Page:

Menu Setup - Units (Build 1766+)
Page:

Menu Set Filtering - Tare Weight Filter - InterfaceLink - Restrict to Combo and Option Groupings by Menu Set
Page:

Kiosk Menu Setup - Weigh Scale Items and Tare Weight Item Setup (1750)
Page:

Menu Setup - Combo/Option Configuration
Page:

Volanté Menu Setup Guide (PDF)

See Also

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