Newton Overview

Owned by Robin Rodrigue
Last updated: Sept 07, 2022 by Nora Kinal
6 min read



MCS Newton User Guide

MCS Newton User Guide

This guide is intended for users with different degrees of knowledge and experience with Newton - Point of Sale system. It provides detailed instruction, guidance, and explanation of the system and the tasks necessary to complete your job in the most efficient manner possible. As staff roles may vary from District to District, Daily Operations has been broken down to reflect job requirements.

MCS Navigation

Tabs

Tabs are located at the top of the ribbon menu for quick navigation between major operations within the system. The Point-of-Sale tab appears only if a cafeteria is attached. This allows you to toggle between tabs to perform other actions.
Note: If you do not see all of the tabs as shown in the image below, it means your system role does not have permission to access or perform tasks in these tabs.

Ribbon Menu

The ribbon menu consists of icons to allow quick access to tasks and daily operations. Ribbons are typically broken down into groups of actions that are performed in a sequence.

You'll find a search field at the top of the ribbon menus. Click Search to enable the search field, then type a topic to display Newton navigation options.

Help

You will find help buttons on every page of Newton. Clicking on the help button will open your computer’s default web browser and take you to the associated product documentation page.

MCS Newton Reports Dashboard

When you open MCS Newton, you’ll see our Report Dashboards. You can check out this Reports Dashboard knowledge article to learn more.

User Guide Navigation

As you read through this guide, you should see the majority of instructions broken down into steps. Many words have been noted in bold to assist in locating the appropriate action in a step. Images contain highlights, arrows, and notations to assist in proper understanding and navigation while performing tasks.

All expansions are visible when exporting a page or space to MS Word or PDF formats. For details on exporting documentation, refer to Printing & Exporting in Confluence in the Tips section of the Knowledge Base.

Expandable Details

Some sections of the documentation are expandable to provide added detail while saving space. Click on the arrow or link next to the arrow to expand/collapse details.

This is an example of Expandable Details.

Table of Contents

The Table of Contents provides links to sections on the page to allow for quick navigation and access to information.  Additionally, Return to Top functionality redirects you to the Table of Contents at the top of the page.
As we continue to make improvements to our documentation, you may see either of the following types of Tables of Contents.

 

Additional links are provided in the documentation. The links are to additional pages within the Newton space, other reference material in the Knowledge Base, external websites, and email contacts. Links have blue text.

Navigation of the Newton space can be accomplished through links, the sidebar, or the breadcrumb trail. You may also use the Recent or Spaces drop-down menus at the top of the page to find what you’re looking for.

Search

There are various ways to search within Confluence. 

  • Global Site Search - You may use the top search panel to conduct a search across the entire Confluence instance. This will generate a broad list of all available keywords throughout all spaces. e.g. Menus would return suggestions where "menus" appears in the entire instance with suggestions in the Newton, Edison, and the General Knowledge Center spaces.

  • Specific Space Search - You may use the space search, located at the top of every manual page to enter keywords and return suggestions specific to the space/manual in which you are conducting the search. e.g. Serving Line will return suggestions where "serving line" appears in the Newton manual.

Opening Newton

  1. From your desktop, locate and double-click on the Newton icon.

     

  2. Enter your username and password. Then, click Ok or press the Enter key.

     

Newton Icon

The Newton Icon is a menu of a few key functionalities in the program.

Select/Deselect Cafeteria

Select Cafeteria

Note: If you are Central Office Staff and running reports from your Central Office computer, do not attach a school's database to your machine. Attaching a school to your computer will result in breaking the school's attachment. Instead, Central Office staff should Select Cafeteria.

  1. Click on the Newton icon in the upper-left corner of the program. Then choose Select Cafeteria.

  2. Use the drop-down menu to select a cafeteria. Then, click Ok.

     

Deselect Cafeteria

Once you have finished running reports for a cafeteria, you can deselect the cafeteria without logging out of the system.

  1. Click on the Newton icon in the upper left-hand corner of the program. Then, choose Deselect Cafeteria.

My Profile

The My Profile option allows you to change your password and customize your user settings.

Change Password

  1. From the Newton icon, select the My Profile option. Then, click Change Password.

  2. Establish your new password. Then, click Ok.

    Note: Your password must contain at least one (1) letter and one (1) digit or punctuation and must be at least six (6) characters. e.g. Newton1

     

User Settings

  1. From the Newton icon, select the My Profile option. Then, click User Settings.

  2. Establish user settings. Then, click Ok.

Default Cafeteria Filter - Select the default filter to display when running reports.
        Cafeteria - Use the drop-down menu to select a specific cafeteria.
        By Category - Use the drop-down menu to select a specific category.
        Cluster - Use the drop-down menu to select a specific cluster.
        Entire district - Select the entire District.
Notify me when pending Permission Override Requests exist - A notification box will appear when a user has requested an override request.
Reset News and Announcements - If you have chosen not to display News and Announcements upon startup, select this option to return to the default setting.
Warn me when closing Newton if tabs are open - A notification box will appear when you close the program to make sure you don't forget to save anything.

 

A notification box will appear when a user has requested an override request to perform functions of which they are not regularly allowed permission. For more details about Override Requests, refer to Release Override Requests.

  1. When a pending override request exists, you receive a notification at the bottom of the screen. Click on the notification to access the Review Pending Permission Override Requests tab.
    Note: You may also select the Central Office tab. Then, click Release Override Request.

  2. Select the pending request and choose Approve Request or Deny Request.

  3. Enter approval or denied comments. Then, click Ok.

Reset Local Settings

  1. From the Newton icon, select the My Profile option. Then, click Reset Local Settings.

  2. Confirm you would like to rest all saved form positions and layouts to defaults by clicking OK.

Online User Guide

The Online User Guide links directly to the home page for Newton online documentation. Follow the directions above to learn how to navigate and utilize the online guide.

From the Newton icon, click Online User Guide. Then, you may read, search, print, or export necessary documents.

Closing Newton

Option 1

  1. Click on the Newton icon located in the upper-left corner of the window.

  2. Click Close Newton.

Option 2

Close Newton by clicking the X button in the upper-right corner of the window.