Rotating Meal Menus - Checklist

This article provides a checklist for setting up Rotating Meal Menus in Arbor. Follow this step-by-step guide to ensure your menus are ready for parents and students, with provisions, availability, and rotation properly configured.

Permissions

• Meals: Administer All Students – Required to set up meal menus and add provisions.

• Finance: Administer – Required to set prices for meal provisions and manage payments for meals. 

If you don’t have these permissions, ask your admin team to grant them using these instructions. 
 

Prerequisists 

Check that you have the Meal Menus feature

Rotating Meal Menus are included in Arbor’s Perform package. Other packages do not include this feature by default.

To upgrade or check your package, contact the Partnership Team via customersales@arbor-education.com.

Payments

If you plan to use payments for meals, decide if you want to charge all students.

If you don't want to charge students, please follow our guidance here: Set up meals without using payments or having Payments

If you do want to charge students, please make sure:

1. You have set up card payments in Arbor. To enable card payments for Meals, you must first set up Card Payments in Arbor.
2. There is a Customer Account type for meals in School > Payments > Setup > Customer Account Types, and it's visible on the Parent Portal if you want guardians to be able to top up the account.
3. Starting balances have been set to transfer any existing funds from your previous meal management system: Creating Initial Account Balances.

Make sure a Meal, Sittings and Participants are set up

Whether or not you plan to charge for meals, please make sure you have completed steps one, four and five of setting up your meals in Arbor before you add your menu. 

You can find all our Meals setup guides here: Setting up Meals - Step by step

• Setting Up Meals - Step 1 - Adding a Meal
• Setting Up Meals - Step 4 - Scheduling Meal Sittings
• Setting Up Meals - Step 5 - Managing Attendees

Checklist

Use this itemised list to double-check that you have completed your Rotating Meal Menu setup correctly.
 

1. Set Up Meal Provisions and Prices

Before building your menu, you need to define the generic meal options you can add and their costs so the system knows what is available to be offered.

1. Go to School > Meals > Setup > Provisions.

2. Add all meal provisions you will use in the menu (e.g., Hot Meal Option 1, Vegetarian Option, Jacket Potato).

3. Set prices if applicable.

Tip: The labels you add in step 3. Add Provisions and Labels to the Menu below allow you to use the same provision with different names depending on the day (e.g., Hot Meal Option 1 = Pizza on Monday, Pasta on Friday).

Refer to the following articles: Step 2 - Adding Provisions & Step 3 -Adding Prices for full guidance on these steps.
 

2. Add a New Meal Menu

This step creates the framework for the meal service you offer each day of the week, allowing you to name your offering and decide how often the choices should cycle.

1. Go to School > Meals > Setup > Meal Menus. 

2. Click Add Meal Menu in the top-right corner.

3. Enter a Menu Name (parents will see this on the Portal/App).

4. Set Rotate Every to your desired rotation length (1–4 weeks).

5. Click Save Changes.

Refer to this article for full guidance on these steps.
 

3. Add Provisions and Labels to the Menu

Here you map your generic meal categories to parent-friendly names, ensuring that while Arbor tracks 'Option 1', parents see 'Homemade Margherita Pizza' depending on the day and week.

1. Click View Meal Menu for the new menu.

2. Use the table to add Provision (the generic meal) and Label (parent-friendly name).

3. Fill out each day of the week for all weeks in the rotation.

4. Click Save Changes.

Rules to follow: 

• Each provision must have a label

• The same provision cannot be used twice on the same day

• Copy/paste is allowed within the table for efficiency.

Refer to this article for full guidance on these steps.
 

4. Adjust Previous Menu (if applicable)

To prevent overlapping schedules and booking errors, you must ensure your old menu 'retires' the day before your new one begins

1. For a replacement or updated menu, adjust the Menu Available To date of the previous menu to end the day before the new menu starts.

2. Click Save Changes. 
    

5. Set Menu Availability

This step defines when parents can start booking and whether they need a positive balance to secure a meal

1. Click Edit Availability on the menu. 

2. Set Menu Available From – the first day parents can select meals (determines Week A of the rotation).

3. Set Menu Available To – the last day the menu is active.

4. Choose Allow meal choices if balance is insufficient?

   • Yes – parents can select meals regardless of balance.

   • No – choices cannot be confirmed until the balance covers the meal.

5. Set Meal Choice Cut-Off Time (e.g., 2 days before the meal).

Refer to this article for full guidance on these steps.
 

6. Publish Menu

A published menu makes it visible for families to interact with on the Parent Portal and App.

1. Once provisions, labels, and availability are set, your menu is live for parents to view and select meals via the Parent Portal or App.
    

7. Manage Menus After Publishing

Understanding how to handle an active menu ensures you can make necessary adjustments for seasonal changes or corrections without disrupting current bookings

• Future menus – can be edited fully, including provisions and labels.

• Active or past menus – can only edit availability; to edit provisions:

  • Change Menu Available From to a future date.

  • Edit the menu.

  • Restore the original dates.

• Meal choices for students can be viewed via Meal Registers or Custom Reports. 

Refer to this article for full guidance on these steps.
 

8. FAQs and Troubleshooting

For FAQs and troubleshooting (e.g., editing choices, menu errors, deleting menus, or special/seasonal menus), click on this article: Rotating Meal Menus – Frequently Asked Questions