Meal Tracker Revenue

You may track revenue from meals served (food program revenue), separately from normal child care tuition. In some cases, these funds may be set aside and used for specific purposes.

GL Numbers for Food Revenues, etc.

You may wish to add new General Ledger account numbers to your Chart of Accounts, such as:

a. Generic revenue account(s) like “Food Program Reimbursements” or “Food Revenues” or separate, more specific revenue accounts for each category.

b. If you wish to track the remaining balance available, also create an asset account like “Meal Program Funds”. Be sure to assign the asset to both your list of Bank Accounts and Deposit Accounts, so you may deposit funds to it and write checks against it.

Choose Family Accounting or Make a Journal Entry

There are two basic methods for recording revenue from meal programs or other sources.

a. If you want the funds to be included on Deposit Reports, you’ll record the revenue in the Family Accounting module. You may track the amounts as a lump sum or family by family. See: Family Accounting – Below
b. If you have the Expenses & Ledger module, and don’t need the funds to show on a Deposit Report, you could make a journal entry instead. This is a quick way to enter the revenue as a lump sum. See: Make a Journal Entry (Example 1)

Family Accounting

1. At the Charge / Credit Descriptions screen:

   a. On the Other Charge tab set up Descriptions like “Food Revenue”, “Meals”, etc. and assign them to the GL Account(s) you previously created.
   

   b. Optional: If you want reports to track the money received separately from other payments by check or cash, go to the Payment tab and create a Description like “Food Program Payment”.
   

2. Choose whether to record the amount as a lump sum or family-by-family totals.
   a. Lump Sum Totals: To track totals for all families added together, enter a New Family called something like “Meal Program Revenue” (first name “Meal”, last name “Revenue”). Post a “Meals” charge and “Food Program Payment” (or Pmt by Check, Cash, etc.) for the full amount received on the Ledger Card.
   

   b. Family Totals: To track individual family contributions, post a “Meals” charge and “Food Program Payment” (or Pmt by Check, Cash, etc.) on the Ledger Card of each family.
   

3. On Deposit Reports choose to deposit the funds to a separate asset account (like “Meal Program Funds”) or your regular bank account, or split up the deposit any way you like.
   

Note 1: Use a separate asset account if you wish to track the remaining balance of these funds as they are used. Once deposited, record the money spent (to purchase food, etc.) when you make Payments to a Vendor by selecting this asset as the Checkbook from which to deduct the funds.
Optional: You may transfer money from your Meal Program Funds account to your Primary Checking Account (or vice-versa), either by posting a check (enter your center as a vendor) or making a journal entry to move the funds from one account to the other.
Note 2: Since Bank Statement Reconciliation is done separately for each asset, having a physically separate bank account is ideal. If you have a single bank account and just break out the assets on paper, reconciliation could be complex as you would never have a true, combined ending balance.