An easy-to-follow checklist for setting up standard Arbor meals - the fast path through the process, with links out to the full step-by-step guides for anyone who needs more detail on a given step.
This guide is designed to help you set up Standard Meals, rather than Rotating Meal Menus. For Meal Menus, please see our dedicated guide: Rotating Meal Menus - Checklist
Permissions
- Student Profile: Meals: Administer All Students - This permission covers creating/setting up/deleting meals, and creating/changing provisions
- Finance: Administer - Lets you set prices for paid meals
If you don’t have these permissions, ask your admin team to grant them using these instructions.
Standard meals setup checklist
1. Add the meal
You only need to do this once per meal, not once per choice. In other words, if you offer one meal a day (i.e. Lunch), add one meal, not a meal for each lunch option.
- Go to School > Meals (1) > [left-hand side] Setup (2) and click Create Meal (3).
Give it a clear, recognisable name (e.g. "Lunch").
Full steps: Setting Up Meals - Step 1 - Adding a Meal
2. Add provisions
A provision is a choice on your meal register.
✅ A provision is:
- One selectable option within a single meal (e.g. "School Lunch", "Packed Lunch", "Absent")
- The thing you attach a price to
- Something you can have several of, all sitting under the same meal
🔶 A provision is not:
- A separate meal; you should not create a new meal for every choice you want to offer
- A specific day's menu item (e.g. don't create a provision called "Fish Friday", use a generic name like "Hot Meal 1" and let staff pick the dish on the day)
Add provisions from the Provisions option for the meal you just added (e.g. Lunch) on the School > Meals > [left-hand side] Setup page.
Once you have added the meal, click Provisions and Add Provisions for each choice students or staff can select (e.g. "School Lunch", "Packed Lunch", "Absent") and specify the Meal type the provision falls under (e.g. absent or hot meal).
Repeat this until you have a provision to cover all generic meal register options.
Top Tips:
- Use generic names, not specific dishes. (e.g. Blue Meal, Option 1 or School Lunch, not Baked Potato)
- After you add an option provided by the school, you have the option to add prices. To add another provision from there, click the grey Back button.
Full steps: Setting Up Meals - Step 2 - Adding Provisions
3. Add prices (skip if you do not charge for meals)
-
Go to School > Meals > [left-hand side] Setup > Prices
For each provision you charge for, click Prices to add price categories for different types of students.
Add prices in this order: FSM students → UFSM (select Year R, 1 and 2) → other year groups → "All Other Students/Staff" last, to avoid setup issues.
Full steps: Setting Up Meals - Step 3 - Adding Prices
4. Schedule meal sittings
Meal sittings are when the meal takes place. Each sitting has its own register.
- Go to School > Meals > [left-hand side] Setup > Meal Sittings Scheduled
Click Add Sitting and give it a name
Then schedule the sessions (days, start/end times) with the Schedule Meal Sessions button under the sitting.
Without scheduled sessions, you won't have meal registers.
Complete the details and click Schedule.
Full steps: Setting Up Meals - Step 4 - Scheduling Meal Sittings
5. Manage attendees
Attendees are the students who appear on the meal register for a meal sitting.
- Go to School > Meals > [left-hand side] Setup > Attendees
Add students to a meal sitting by class (Automatic Group Attendees) or individually (Students Without Regular Meal Patterns).
Check Students Without Regular Meal Patterns to catch anyone missed.
Full steps: Setting Up Meals - Step 5 - Managing Attendees
6. (Optional) Set regular meal choices
Regular meal choices allow you to automatically fill meal options for present students once the meal register is opened.
- Go to School > Meals > [left-hand side] Setup > Regular Meal Choices
On the Students Without Meal Choice tab, pre-assign a default provision to students to speed up daily registers with the Bulk Action.
You can bulk add pre-filled choices, but you will have to do so separately for each type of pre-filled choice (e.g. Packed Lunch or School Lunch).
Full steps: Setting Up Meals - Optional - Regular Meal Choices
What this guide does not cover
This checklist covers standard meal setup only. It does not cover:
- Rotating Meal Menus (rolling, parent-booked menus — a Perform package feature that builds on top of standard setup). See Rotating Meal Menus - Checklist
- Seasonal meals (e.g. Christmas lunch, one-off events). See Checklist for Setting up Seasonal Meals using Standard Meals or Checklist for Setting up Seasonal Meals using Rotating Meal Menus
- Staff meals. See Setting up and managing staff meals
FAQs / Further reading:
- Full walkthrough for every step above: Setting Up Meals - Introduction
- Common setup questions: Setting Up Meals - Frequently Asked Questions and Further Reading
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