Dinner Monies Database User Guide
Section 7 – Roll Forward
Weekly Banking
Prior to rolling forward the Dinner Monies Database into the next week any payments received should be registered within the banking summary screen.
From the Main Menu, click the ‘Weekly Banking’ button.
The Banking Summary
A summary of the banking held within the Dinner Monies Database for the current week is provided at the bottom of this screen, broken down according to the type of banking performed:
Bfwd: If the amount banked does not equal the payments registered a balance will be carried forward into the following week as the Brought Forward (Bfwd) amount.
Cash: This is the total amount of payments registered for the Banking Type shown that have not had a cheque number assigned (see Sections 2, 3 & 4).
Cheques: This is the total amount of payments registered for the Banking Type shown where a cheque number has been assigned (see Sections 2, 3 & 4).
Income: This is the total income received for the Banking Type shown regardless (Cash + Cheques).
Banked: This is the total amount of each banking entry that has been entered into this screen for the Banking Type shown (see below).
Cfwd: This figure is calculated as Bfwd + Income – Banked. Any amount within this field will be carried forward into the following week as the Bfwd amount.
Please Note: This screen can be printed at any time by clicking the ‘Print’ button within the ‘Options’ toolbar.
Registering Banking
Banking entries are registered within the banking screen by entering the following details in the blank line at the bottom of the banking list:
Paying-In Slip Number: Enter the unique paying-in slip number used to bank the payment.
Date: Enter the date that the payment was banked.
Amount Banked: Enter the total payment to be banked for the current Type and Account (see below).
Type: Each banking entry made within the Dinner Monies Database must be assigned to the specific meal / milk type that it relates to. This ensures that any unbanked income is correctly assigned (see Banking Summary above).
The Banking Type selected also informs the Star Accounts Summary within the Weekly Summary (see Section 5).
Please Note: Whilst snacks are not registered within the Dinner Monies Database any banking made for snacks can be registered within the banking screen. However, this banking is not included in any carry forward calculations.
Account: Select the Account that you wish to transfer the income received to from the drop down list. Select ‘Bank’ if you intend to physically pay the income into your schools’ bank account, or ‘Petty Cash’ if you wish to use the cash received to top up your petty cash account.
Please Note: If you wish to use part of any physical cash received to top-up the petty cash account and pay part into the bank then 2 lines of income should be entered – one for each Account. Any cheques received must be assigned to the ‘Bank’ account.
Notes: Enter any notes relevant to the banking if required.
Any carry forward income should be banked within the following week.
Clearing Bfwd Amounts
If the incorrect banking is selected and not corrected prior to the roll forward being completed, it is likely that there will two amounts that net to £0.00 within the Bfwd column of the banking summary. For example, -£5.00 in “Adult Meals – Non-VATable” and £5.00 in “Adult Meals – VATable” as the wrong adult meal type was selected when the banking entered.
If this is the case the two amounts can be cleared from the Dinner Monies Database by double clicking the Bfwd amount:
Telephone the Finance Support team at County Hall to obtain the required password.
Please Note: If amounts are being cleared for Adult Meals you must ensure that any transactions entered into Star Accounts were correctly assigned to the correct VAT rate.
If the total brought forward does not net to £0.00 the above process can still be used to reset the Bfwd figure, however, the reason for any discrepancy must be thoroughly investigated and a note made to state the reason for clearing the amount.
Roll Forward
From the Main Menu click the ‘Roll Forward’ button.
If you have ‘Locked’ Pupil or Adult records (see Sections 2, 3 and 4) and have not registered any payments for the week that you are attempting to roll forward the following confirmation message will appear:
If no payments have been registered during the current week you must ensure that you are not attempting to roll forward a week that is a school holiday (half terms etc). If you roll forward a holiday week with locked records additional charges will be applied to any ‘Locked’ records for meals that were not taken.
If the current week is a school holiday simply amend the ‘Week Commencing’ within the ‘School Details’ screen (see Section 1) to the Monday of the next non-holiday week.
Click ‘Yes’ to continue with the roll forward, or ‘No’ to cancel.
The following message will appear if there are carry forward amounts present within the Weekly Banking screen:
Click ’Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel. Care should be taken to ensure that any carry forward amounts are legitimate (for example, payments received after the banking has been performed) before clicking ‘Yes’ to this message.
If there are no carry forward amounts within the Weekly Banking Screen the following message will appear:
Click ’Yes’ to continue, or ‘No’ to cancel.
Once ‘Yes’ is clicked to either of the above messages the ‘Weekly Summary’ and ‘Kitchen Summary’ (see Section 5) will be printed. These are the only mandatory reports that are required when rolling forward. If any other reports have been set to print at roll forward (see Section 1) these will also be printed at this point.
Click ‘Yes’ if the reports have printed correctly, or ‘No’ to cancel the roll forward. Any reports that have not printed correctly cannot be reprinted once ‘Yes’ is clicked.
If ‘No’ is selected the following message will appear:
Click ‘OK’, and then click the ‘Roll Forward’ again to restart the process.
If ‘Yes’ is clicked the roll forward process will continue as below:
- All data entered into the current week will be archived to the relevant archive screens.
- Any figures shown within the ‘Meal Cfwd’ / ‘Milk Cfwd’ fields will be transferred to the ‘Meal Bfwd’ / ‘Milk Bfwd’ field.
- For “unlocked” pupils / adults (see Sections 2, 3 and 4) all meals registered for the current week will be removed. Any “locked” pupils / adults will carry their registered meals into the next week. See below for additional guidance for “locked” pupils / adults.
- All payments registered will be set to £0.00.
- The week commencing date will be set to 7 days forward from the current week commencing date (see Section 1).
Click ‘OK’.
As stated, if the week that the database has been rolled forward to relates to a school holiday the ‘Week Commencing’ date should be amended within the ‘School Details’ screen, rather than rolling forward the database into week required. If there are pupils / adults with “locked” records then rolling forward the holiday weeks will cause charges to be added to their records for days that they are not present in school.
Locked Records Guidance
If there any pupils / adults that have been “locked” (see Sections 2, 3 and 4) please ensure that the following considerations are taken into account.
Bank Holidays: If the week that has been rolled forward into contains a bank holiday any meals registered for that day must be removed, as it may affect the carry forward figure if the pupil / adult is liable for the cost of the meal.
All meals, or milk / snacks, registered for any day can be cleared by double clicking the label at the top of the relevant screen for the day in question:
Click ‘Yes’ to remove the meals / milk registered, or ‘No’ to cancel.
Shortened Weeks: If the week that has been rolled forward into is not a full 5 school day week holiday any meals registered for days that the school is closed must be removed, as it may affect the carry forward figure if the pupil / adult is liable for the cost of the meal.
All meals, or milk / snacks, registered for any day can be cleared by double clicking the label at the top of the relevant screen for the day in question:
Click ‘Yes’ to remove the meals / milk registered, or ‘No’ to cancel.
Absences: Meals must only be registered on days that a pupil / adult is present at the school to receive that meal / milk. If a meal has been carried forward from the previous week on a day that the pupil / adult is not present, e.g. through sickness, it must be removed from the relevant screen to ensure that any carry forward is accurate.
Remove the meal / milk registered from the relevant day for the required pupil / adult in the relevant screen. When the Dinner Monies Database is rolled forward again, this meal may need to be re-entered.
Year End
This process should be completed at the end of each Academic year or prior to the start of the new academic year (i.e. July/August/September).
The year end process has been included within the Dinner Monies Database to ensure that only the current academic year requirements are provided on reports printed from the Dinner Monies Database.
Step 1 – Clear Outstanding Debits
All attempts should be made to recover any debit (negative) balances for pupils / adults (especially any that are leaving the school at the end of the current academic year). All payments receivedmust be registered / banked during the last week of the Summer Term.
Any debit balances that have agreed to be written off / not pursued should have an adjustment entered (in the blue ‘Adj’ column) to bring the ‘Meal Cfwd’ / ‘Milk Cfwd’ to £0.00, with a note added detailing the reason for the adjustment. This process must be completed according to your individual Schools Finance Policy.
Debit balances for pupils / adults remaining at the school for the next academic year can be carried forward.
Step 2 – Refund Outstanding Credits
Any credit (positive) balances that exceed your schools refund policy (as stated in your Schools Finance Policy) should be offered a refund, which must be in the form a cheque from the schools bank account. Please refer to Sections 2, 3 and 4 for further details regarding how the refund should be dealt with in the Dinner Monies Database and Star Accounts.
Credit balances below the schools refund policy for pupils / adults remaining at the school for the next academic year can be carried forward.
Step 3 – Roll Forward
The Dinner Monies Database should be at the start of a new week before the year end process is carried out i.e. all payments must have been registered and banked and all adjustments accounted for.
If all adjustments and banking have been made during the last week of the Summer Term that meals are required for (i.e. pupils are present) then this should be rolled forward into the first week of the Summer Holidays.
Step 4 – Run Year End
From the ‘School Details’ screen, click the ‘Run Year End’ button.
The Dinner Monies Database year end cannot be completed if payments have been registered within the current week, or banking has been entered in the current week. If either of these issues are found an error message will appear:
Click ‘OK’. If either of these messages appears it is likely that you need to perform a further ‘Roll Forward’ within the Dinner Monies Database to ensure that payments/adjustments have been taken into account within the Carry Forward figures for all adults / pupils.
The year end procedures can only be performed once per calendar year. If a year end backup can be found for the current calendar year the following message will appear:
Click ‘OK’. If a year end has been performed in error please contact Accounting Software Support for assistance.
The above message will appear once there are no issues with the data held within the Dinner Monies Database. Click ‘Yes’ to perform the year end, or ‘No’ to cancel.
If ‘Yes’ is clicked the following functions will be performed:
- A backup of the Dinner Monies Database will be made.
- The Pupil Meals, Pupil Milk and Adult Meals archive tables will be archived, and the current year archive data cleared.
- The Archive folder will be renamed to ‘Archive_20XX’ (where xx is the current academic year), and a new Archive folder will be created.
Click ‘OK’. You must wait for the above message before continuing to use the Dinner Monies Database.
Step 5 – Record Updates
Once the year end process is complete the Dinner Monies Database the records held within the Dinner Monies Database should be updated ready for the new academic year.
Please Note: Any changes required to Pupil Records should be made within the ‘Current Week’ of ‘Pupil Meals’. Any changes made within this screen will be replicated within the ‘Pupil Milk‘, if required, by clicking the ‘Update Pupils’ button (see Section 3).
- Update Class Details. Adding and deleting classes as required. If a Class that is not being deleted moves out of the banding for UiFSM eligibility the ‘Universal FSM’ flag should be removed from the Classes screen (see Section 1).
- Update Meal / Milk prices. Adding and deleting rates as required (see Section 1).
- Delete any pupils / adults that left the school at the end of the academic year. Please Note: Only pupils / adults without a ‘Cfwd’ figure can be deleted.
- Amend the ‘Class’ for any pupils that have changed class.
- If all pupils from one class are moving to a new class it may prove easier to filter the screen to the old Class and change all the pupils listed.
- If all pupils are moving up one class then the class that has left the school should be deleted and the pupils’ records updated in reverse class order (i.e. the oldest pupils are moved up a year first).
- Add any new pupils joining the school for the new academic year. The ‘SIMS Import’ can be used again for this process, however, all adjustments to classes etc must be made before the SIMS Import is started. The SIMS Import will add any unmatched pupils from the Star_Pupil_Data.txt report exported from SIMS which could result in duplicate records.
Step 6 – Week Commencing
Change the date of the ‘Week Commencing’ within the School Details screen to the Monday of the first week of the new academic year (e.g. for 2018-19 enter 03/09/2019).
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