Meals FAQ

Why is a student missing from the meal register?

If a student is missing from the meal register, they will also be missing from the class register covering their statutory roll call mark (Registration forms, first lesson etc). You can see why the student may be missing from the class register in this Help Centre article: Student missing from the register

If you would like to add a student who is not in a class register, Go to School > Meals > Daily Summary and click the Add Students button. 

What time are dinner money payments taken out of a student's balance, and when are they invoiced in Arbor?

Invoices for meals are generated as soon as the meal has ended. This is to allow for students to go home sick or turn up late to school before lunch and be charged correctly.

For example, if lunch is scheduled from 12:20 - 13:30, then the invoices for that day will be issued on or around 13:31. If your school prints meal registers after AM register is taken but before lunch, then those account balances will be out of date after lunch has ended.

Why have students been charged the wrong amount for Meals?

Meal prices are determined by the prices set in the meal provisions. If a student has been charged incorrectly, you can check what category they fall under by going to School > Meals > Setup > Prices and selecting Meal Provision. Check the students linked to each price.

Any student group listed in the ‘Applies To’ section, will set the price for the students in that category.

Please Note:
> Universal Free School Meals - Applies to students in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 students. Add a price category at £0.00 for this and include these year groups.

> Free School Meal Students - This will include any students who are currently listed as recipients of Free School Meals. This will be a Tag listed as FSM on their profile and can be set under the Background Section on the Student Profile. In the 'Applies To' section, list this as Free School Meals Students.

Can I automatically send emails to parents for meal account debt?

No, it is not possible to automatically send out an email, SMS, or in-app message to guardians to let them know account balances and remind them to top up if the account is in arrears.

However, you can send out a reminder using our default template, or you can build your own and pull in custom fields. For guidance on how to do this, see our Help Centre article here.

How do I delete meal attendance or meal choices for a single student?

The only way to delete meal choices completely is from the student's profile. You would not be able to do this in bulk. To do this, follow these steps:

Go to the Meals section in the student's profile on the left side of the page.

Click on the Historic Attendance tab

Tick the boxes next to the meals you want to delete, click Bulk Action, and then select Bulk Delete.

Can we order meals for visitors or guests?

It is only possible to order meals for staff or students who have profiles on your Arbor site, including guest profiles. It is not possible to add meals for parent and guardian visitors. 

Can we log and charge for meals during holidays or staff training?

No, when there is any holiday or inset day logged, Arbor will not create a Meal for that day, and so student and staff accounts cannot be charged automatically, and you cannot log meals or provisions for those days. However, you can add an invoice to student or staff accounts to charge them if they had a meal on these days. 

How can I change the meal choice for students for one day?

To change the meal choice for a select number of students for one day, follow these steps":

1. Go to School > Meals > Meal Sitting > Daily Summary.
2. Click the green View Register button and use the tick boxes to highlight all of the meals you want to update.
3. Click Bulk Action and then select the choice you want to change the meals to.

If you have Meal Menus enabled, you will see an extra column for Provision label which will show the actual meal taken. When using Bulk actions, you can select the actual meal for the day.

Can I print off a list of meals or a meal register to hand to the kitchen every day?

Yes, this can be done by following these steps:

Go to School > Meals > Daily Summary.

Click the green Meal Sheet button to download a list for the sitting you require.

This will download the meal list for the day as a PDF. 

Can we change the VAT rate of a meal price?

Yes, it is possible to change the VAT rate of meal prices, but only if no meals have been recorded with that price in the current academic year. If meals have been recorded, you will not be able to follow the below instructions and will instead need to stop using the price and create a new one.

To change the VAT for a price that has not yet been used, follow these steps:

1. Go to School > Meals > Setup and click into the Prices section.
2. Click the meal provision that you need to change the VAT for.
3. Click on the existing price, and click Delete Price Category.
4. Click +Add to add the same price but with the new VAT rate. 

Why is an off-rolled student still appearing on the meals register?

A student will still appear on meal registers if they still have Meal Patterns or Meal Choices on their profile. To check for Meal Patterns, follow these steps:

1. Go to the student's profile and then the Meals section on the left side of the page.
2. Click on their Meal Pattern and then click the red Remove Meal Pattern button.

If the student is still appearing on the meals register, you will then need to check their meal choices. See the How do I delete meal attendance or meal choices for a single student? section of this article.

Why does my meal provision say 'Price missing for some students'?

This occurs when the meal price does not cover the entire academic year. This may be caused by:

Your Arbor site does not have Payments. If this is the case, see our guidance on setting up Meals without using Payments here.

You started using Arbor Meals mid-year.

You started your prices on the first day that the students returned for the new academic year, not the first day of your academic year. You can check your academic year dates in School > School Structure > Academic Years.

If for example your academic year started on 01/09 but the earliest price for a meal was set for 03/09, Arbor will flag that prices were missing for 01/09 and 02/09.