This guide explains how to update meal prices within Meal Manager for both new menus and existing meal plans. Whether you have a brand new menu or just need to update the prices of an existing meal plan, this guide will equip you with all the necessary steps to update the price of your meals to ensure that parents are charged the correct amount.
If you have a brand new menu with a price increase, please follow the instructions below:
Please note, before you proceed with the instructions below, you will need to ensure that parents can't book meals beyond the date your current meal pricing ends. If parents have already booked meals beyond this point, you will need to cancel and refund their orders and ask them to rebook once your new meal plan has been published. This will ensure parents pay the correct meal price moving forward. For more information on how to cancel/refund meal bookings, please refer to this guide.
Amending your FSM/UIFSM Allowance
First, you will need to set the new price that is to be covered by a free school meal and universal infant free school meal.
1) Login to ReachMoreParents.
2) Click on your name in the top right hand corner.
3) Click your school name to access the administration menu.
4) Under the 'Meal Management' menu, select 'FSM/UIFSM Options.'
5) Select the 'Set FSM & UIFSM Rates' tab.
6) Click the pencil icon next to the 'FSM' option.
7) Enter the new price for a school meal that will apply to FSM students.
8) Choose the date when you would like the price increase to take effect by clicking in the 'Date Beginning' box and selecting the date from the calendar.
9) Click 'submit.'
10) Repeat steps 6-9 for the UIFSM option.
Creating your Menu Items
Next, you will need to create the new menu items for your updated meal plan. This ensures that the new prices are correctly associated with each menu item.
1) From the 'Meal Management' menu, select 'Menu Items.'
2) Click 'Create' to add a new menu item, then set the price according to the new menu plan. (For detailed guidance on how to create new menu items, please refer to the 'Creating Menu Items' section in this guide). Repeat for all new menu items you wish to add to your meal plan.
*If any of your menu items are carried forward from your old menu, there is no need to create new menu items. Please refer to step 4 and 5 below.
3) Finally, you will need to create a new meal plan which includes your new menu items set at the new price. To do this, please see the ‘Creating the Meal Plan’ section within this guide.
4) If any of your existing menu items are carried over into the new meal plan, you’ll need to update their prices to reflect the new rate:
a. Add the existing menu items into your new meal plan as outlined in the ‘Creating the Meal Plan’ section within this guide.
b. Once you have added your existing menu item to the correct day of the week within the ‘Menu Creation’ step of the Meal Plan wizard, click on the menu item. This will allow you to amend the price and set the item to reflect the price increase on your new menu.
c. Update the price to match the new rate, repeating this step for each menu item that has been carried over into your new meal plan.
5) Please note that once the new price has been applied, we would recommend updating any menu items to reflect the price increase:
a. Select 'Menu Items' from the 'Meal Management' menu.
b. Locate the menu item you wish to amend and click 'edit.'
c. In the 'VAT Exc.' box, type the new cost of the menu item.
d. Click 'Submit.'
e. Repeat steps 5a-d for all existing menu items where the price has increased.
If you need to increase the meal price for an existing menu, please follow the instructions below:
If you need to increase the prices of meals in an existing meal plan, follow these steps to ensure that the new price applies from the date of the price increase and that no bookings are made at the old rate.
Prevent Bookings Beyond the Price Increase Date
Before you can update your meal prices, you will need to ensure that parents can no longer book meals at the old price beyond the date the price increase takes effect. If parents have already made bookings after this date, you’ll need to cancel and refund their orders before you can proceed with the update.
1) Click on your name in the top right hand corner.
2) Click your school name to access the administration menu.
3) Under the 'Meal Management' menu, select 'Meal Plans.'
4) Locate the meal plan you would like to edit and click 'Actions' followed by 'Edit.'
5) Click the ‘Next’ button twice to skip ahead to the ‘Assign Dates’ section of the Meal Plan wizard.
6) If you have assigned weekly menus to any dates where your price increase is set to change, you will need to remove them. You can do this by clicking on the menu that has been applied to each affected week in the calendar and clicking ‘Remove.’ Repeat this step for all weeks that have been affected by the price increase.
*Please note: If you can’t edit the meal plan because parents have already booked meals, you’ll need to cancel and refund those bookings first. To find out how to cancel/refund bookings, please see our guide here. Once these meal bookings have been cancelled, you can remove any weeks affected by your price increase from your meal plan by following steps 1 - 6 directly above.
Create a New Meal Plan with Updated Prices
Once you’ve stopped new bookings on your existing meal plan, you can now create a new plan that includes the updated prices.
1) Under the 'Meal Management' menu, select 'Meal Plans.'
2) Locate the meal plan you would like to edit and click 'Actions.'
3) Click 'Duplicate.'
4) Click 'Confirm.'
5) Rename the meal plan in the ‘Meal Plan Name’ field.
6) In the ‘Menu Creation’ section, click the arrow icon to expand each menu.
7) To change the price of the items within this menu, select the day of the week, followed by the menu course (eg, ‘Lunch’).
8) Select each menu item beneath the drop-down menu and type in the new price. Repeat for each day of the week in the menu.
9) Repeat steps 6 - 8 for any subsequent menus listed in this part of the setup.
If you need any further help on how to complete the subsequent steps in your meal plan set up, please refer to the ‘Creating the Meal Plan’ section within this guide.