Overview |
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With the current state of the Global Pandemic, serving meals looks very different for our Districts. Food Service Professionals and Educators will have to find alternative ways to serve meals, and preferably in a contact-free, safe manner. This guide will highlight the different options MCS Newton offers to help your District decide the safest and most effective way to serve your Students. |
Getting Started
Your MCS Software needs to have all the data necessary to serve for this school year. this includes having up-to-date student information, meal prices,
Student Information
Student Import
“Customers”, or Students, should be added to Newton through a Customer Import. The system will import a file from your Student Information system (SIS) that contains all of the students and their most up-to-date information, including names, grades, schools, addresses, guardian info, and contact information, to name a few. Student Imports are typically done at the beginning of the school year, and then they may automatically happen on a recurring basis throughout the rest of the year.
Perform a Customer Import
Update Student Pictures
Pictures are useful to have in Newton because they allow for cashiers to confirm the student’s identity. You can individually add a student’s picture, or you can mass-update all student pictures through the use of a photo import.
Information for individually adding a student photo can be found here.
Individually Add a Student Picture
Perform a Photo Import
Free and Reduced Information
You want to make sure that the Free and Reduced eligibilities for all of your students are correct. This allows for less confusion when serving and proper reimbursement for your district.
Free and Reduced information is handled through MCS Franklin.
Direct Certification Import
It’s import to complete a Direct Certification (DC) Import at the beginning of the year and periodically throughout the year.
State DC Import Instructions
District DC Import Instructions
Import Free and Reduced Applications
If you have an Online Free & Reduced software, you may run an import to upload those applications into MCS Franklin.
Application Import
Send Eligibility Letters
Once a student has been qualified as Free or Reduced, you can send out Eligibility Letters to notify their family of this update.
Mail Eligibility Letters
Email Eligibility Letters
Meal Prices
It’s important to make sure that your meal prices are up-to-date so that your district can collect proper payment.
Set or Update Meal Prices
You can enter meal prices and select the associated qualified state programs through the Price Categories function in Newton.
Update Price Categories
Hardware and Software Setup
Heartland School Solutions offers a variety of options to help keep your serving lines hands-free.
Hardware Options
To configure a new device, visit the Device section in the Override Settings of your Serving Line Setup.
Software Configuration
We also offer detailed setup and usage instructions for each device.
Hardware Setup and Usage Instructions
Service in the Classroom
We understand that your School may be serving students in the classrooms. MCS Newton offers printable rosters and lists of students to help you track meals.
Printable Lists
Cafeteria-Level Student List
You can print a list of students who are connected to a specific cafeteria, called “POS Customers”. The list can be customized to include IDs, balances, eligibility statuses, grades, and homerooms.
Master POS Customer List
District-Level Customer List
You can print a general list of students in your School or entire District. The list can be customized to include IDs, balances, Schools, eligibility statuses, grades, and homerooms.
Master Customer List
Printable Rosters
You can print a list of students that includes a sheet to track meals by the days of the week.
Student Roster
Printable Barcodes
You can print pages of student barcodes for quick and easy scanning.
Barcode Labels
Portable Terminals
You can put your serving line software on a tablet for easy, portable use. See our Hardware Options to purchase tablets for your District.
Finding Students
Fast Sale
AutoSale
Prompt for Auto Sale
Completing a Transaction
Prepayments/Refunds