Author: Michael Radigan

If you’re not convinced that you should be tracking Reviews/Site Visits into Minute Menu CX, consider these compelling reasons:

1. Minute Menu CX will cross-check the number of children recorded in attendance by the Monitor and the Center to make sure they match.  The program will either provide a “warning” or a “disallowance” on the OER if the menus do not match (subject to policy R.2).
2. Minute Menu CX will cross-check menus recorded by the Center and the menu observed by the Monitor to make sure they match.  The program will either provide a “warning” or a “disallowance” on the OER if the numbers do not match (subject to policy R.3).
3. Print the Sponsor Review Summary report to take on site-visits.  The report includes general information about the Center (phone #, address, meal times, etc.) and the review history for that center, including the date and meal reviewed, and disallowances made, which allows the Monitor to follow-up on any issues from past reviews.
4. Print the Review History + Status List to get a quick and easy overview of site visits that have been done throughout the year.
5. Export any review information into Excel using the Review List Export, the program will allow you to filter by Monitor, program type, reviewed meal, review date, etc. (This could be very useful during an audit.)

Minute Menu CX not only helps to provide claim accuracy, convenience, and planning tools, it also provides the convenience of allowing users to manage all CACFP information in one central program that can be accessed from any computer that has the program installed on it.  Get started managing and tracking reviews in Minute Menu CX today!

Planned menus for an entire day, week, or month can be deleted all at once.  Just make sure that you really want to delete them before doing so, because this action cannot be undone.

To delete only one meal, on one day, open the Record Menus screen, by going to Menus/Attendance>>Record Center Menus or by clicking the [Record Menus] shortcut button located at the top of the screen.  Select the date and meal to delete, and click the [Delete] button located at the lower, right side of the screen.

To delete an entire day’s worth of meals, open the Menu Calendar by going to Menus/Attendance>>Menu Calendar or by using a shortcut button (i.e. the plate icon on the Center Dashboard).  Select the day to delete, then right-click and choose the “delete” option.

Note for Sponsors:  To delete a Master Menu that has already been pushed to a Center, you’ll need to open the Menu Calendar for each center by selecting the center in the main “select center” drop down box, then go to Menus/Attendance>>Menu Calendar.  Select the meal or meals to delete, then right-click and select the “delete” option (see tip below for deleting multiple days at a time).  After the meals have been deleted in the Center accounts, you can update the Master Menu and resend it.  I would suggest clicking the [Print] button on that screen so that you can see the Monthly Menu Plan report and check the foods before sending it out.

To delete multiple days at a time, click the calendar day at the top of the date box (so that it’s highlighted in blue).  Then, hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard and select the last day to delete by clicking it at the top of the box (not the “BALPDE” box – click on or next to the calendar date).  The days you want to delete must be highlighted in blue – then right-click to delete.  This action CANNOT be undone, so make sure you want to delete before you do it.

Minute Menu CX menu planning features can help make the task of recording menus even faster and easier for Centers.  But different features are best suited for different types of agencies.

You can create “Sponsor Templates” available to all center locations, “Center Templates” available to only one Center, and use Sponsor Templates to create a Master Menu that can be “pushed” or “pulled” to/from Centers.

All planned/recorded menus can be copied and pasted up to one month at a time.  Instructions for copying & pasting menus can be found on the Menu Calendar and Master Menu Calendar screens.

Here are some suggestions for menu plans depending on your setup:

1.  If ALL center locations use the same exact menus EVERY day, I would suggest creating Sponsor Templates, then using those templates to create a Master Menu.  Master Menus can then be “pushed” to the Center.  Master Menus do not override menus that already exist – they will only fill in meals where foods have not already been recorded.
2.  If all center locations use the same menus, but not necessarily on the same day (i.e. each center serves a taco lunch/dinner but they serve it on different days of the week) then I would suggest creating Sponsor Templates, then training the Centers how to use them to plan/record their menus.  After menus are recorded/planned, those menus can be copied and pasted up to one month at a time from the Menu Calendar screen.
3. If each center location has completely different menus, I would suggest creating Center Templates.

NOTE:  For Centers that are not required to serve specific meals on specific days (#2 & #3 above), you might consider creating a Master Menu that would be optional for these Centers to use if they wanted.  To do that, create a Master Menu, then instruct centers to click the [Apply Master Menu to Month] button on the Menu Calendar screen if they would like to use it.  Having a Master Menu available that Centers can optionally use provides Centers with the freedom to use/not use the menu, and to use the Master Menu only for days when other meals have not yet been planned.  This could actually be a good selling point when recruiting new centers to your program!

Templates and Master Menus can be a great time-saver, a time-saver that I imagine most Centers would really appreciate!  And the advantages of utilizing Menu Planning tools in Minute Menu CX could really impress when it comes to outreach.

Minute Menu CX has been designed to be highly customizable in order to meet a variety of needs.  There are “policies” in the software that control how Minute Menu CX will behave in certain claiming situations.

Throughout the month, meal counts, attendance, and menus (and possibly more) are entered into the Minute Menu CX program.  At the end of the month, this data will need to be “processed” by the software (by going to Claims>>Process Claims).  When a claim is processed, the system applies “edit checks” to the submitted meal count, menu, and enrollment data and creates an error for any edit check that did not “pass.”  Each error is documented on a report called the Office Error Report (OER).  So for example, the system will check to make sure that an any individual child is not reimbursed for more than 2 Snacks + 1 Meal, or 2 Meals + 1 Snack.  If a child was claimed for additional meals (which is perfectly acceptable using the Minute Menu CX software), the extra meals will automatically disallowed, and the OER will contain a notification message, or claim error(s), noting each disallowance.

(Side Note:  Minute Menu CX will automatically select the meals with the highest reimbursement rate to include on the claim.  The meals with the lowest reimbursement rate would be the ones to be disallowed.)

Some “policies” cannot be changed within the software – such as policies mandated by the federal government (i.e. the 2+1 rule mentioned above) that apply to all agencies across the nation.  HOWEVER, local & state regulations (which vary from state to state) are controlled by the Manage Policies function located in the software.  Each policy usually has 3-4 options that will determine which errors will be generated on the OER, and the outcome of those errors.

You have access to this function in Minute Menu CX by going to Administration>>Manage Policies.  To use the function, click the [+] sign to expand a category.  Click the [+] sign again to see the explanation of a specific policy.  Sometimes the explanation runs off the page and the statement isn’t completely visible – double click on the words and the entire statement will come up in an easy-to-read dialogue box.  Click the dropdown box to change the policy value.  Some policies may allow users to enter a numeric value.  Don’t forget to click [Save] before leaving the screen.

PLEASE NOTE: Please be careful when changing policy settings!  Edit these settings with extreme caution. If you have any questions about the impact of a preference change, we suggest that you contact Minute Menu.  This task should involve a main decision maker in the company who is familiar with food program regulations and has the authority to make major company decisions regarding policy.

I would suggest that when making changes to policies, note exactly which policies were changed (and their previous setting) so that if an error was made, you can easily go back and correct it.

How can two foods be recorded for a single component?  For example, Pepperoni + Cheese was served, but there’s only one place to record a meat/meat alternate.

There are 2 ways to approach this:

1) Use the “comments” field on the Record Menus screen to note the extra foods (for example, select cheese in the main meat component field and type “pepperoni” into the comments field) .

2) Add a new food to your food list, for example add a food to your food list of called “Pepperoni + Cheese” or be more specific like “Pepperoni + Mozzarella.”  To add a food to your food list, go to Administration>>Manage Foods.  Then click the [Add New Food from Master List] button.  Look through the list to find the food combination.  Hint: the list sorts alphabetically, in this example, search in the “P” section for “Pepperoni + Cheese” and also search the “C” and “M” section to see if it’s listed with the cheese first.

If you find the food combination needed, click that row to add it to your Food List.   The food “settings” can be customized before the food is added.  For example, if the food should be measured in cups instead of ounces, or if the food should (or should not) be allowed for certain age groups, or allowed/disallowed at certain meals.  All changes to the food settings can be made on this screen.

Adjust the setting as needed, then click the [Suggest Unique Number] button.  Finally, click [Save].

If the food combination is not already in the Master List of foods, it is possible to create a completely new food.  To do this, click the [Add New Master Food] button.  Find a similar food on the list, that would at least be in the same category (Meat, Fruit or Vegetable, Milk, or Bread) but the closer to the food you are adding, the better.  Click the similar food, then the webpage will prompt you to give the new food a name.  All of the settings (disallow certain age groups, allowed meals, measurement type, etc.) will be copied from the other food.  Settings can also be adjusted after the food is created by clicking on the food from the List Foods screen.

If a child moves from one center to another center, there is a quick and easy way to move that child to the other center.

First, select the center the child currently belongs to and make sure the child is in “Active” status.  If the child has been withdrawn, reactivate it (by clicking the Reactivate button at the bottom left corner of the screen).  Only active children can be copied to another center.

Then go to Tools>>Copy Child.  Select the child from the dropdown box.  Next, the program will prompt users to select the center to move the child to.  The program will provide a message that the child was moved successfully.

This function is a huge time saver!

Happy copying 🙂