MMK and Printing Out Meal Reports

[melilley]

For those of you who use MMK, do you print out the menu report for every month? My food sponsor said that I should print out the menu report (you can find them by clicking utilities) just in case I get audited. I was just wondering if I actually have to do this or is there a way they can look online if I happened to get audited. She just told me to do this a couple of months ago and I started printing them, but it's going to be at least 40 papers and I don't want to do and waste ink and paper if it's not necessary. I always print the meal count reports at the end of each month though.

[Maria2013]

I used to print every month then once I was out of ink so I contacted my representative and she said I don't have to print it, so I stopped wasting my ink

[butterfly]

The only requirement here is to have the menus posted for parents and then I have to retain those for 6 months to prove that I served what I claimed. I don't have to print meal counts. I do keep separate records though on paper. I just record my meal counts on my in/out time sheet only because I don't have, or don't take the time to log into MM for every meal. I enter it all every week or 2.

[Maria2013]

The only requirement here is to have the menus posted for parents and then I have to retain those for 6 months to prove that I served what I claimed. I don't have to print meal counts. I do keep separate records though on paper. I just record my meal counts on my in/out time sheet only because I don't have, or don't take the time to log into MM for every meal. I enter it all every week or 2.

funny how the funding comes from the same place yet different states (I'm assuming it's a state regulation) have different rules

[Leigh]

I don't have to keep menus or meal counts-MMK is all I need in my state. I never print reports, post menus, or keep menus (and I LOVE that I don't have to!).

[melilley]

funny how the funding comes from the same place yet different states (I'm assuming it's a state regulation) have different rules

I was just going to say that! I think my rep said to do it in case I have to prove that I did serve the meals, but you think they could just look online if they needed to, but then again, the government probably wouldn't take their time to do that...

[butterfly]

I was just going to say that! I think my rep said to do it in case I have to prove that I did serve the meals, but you think they could just look online if they needed to, but then again, the government probably wouldn't take their time to do that...

I'm not trying to argue with you, but I don't understand your rep's reasoning of using it to prove you served the meals. You are printing it from MM, so it's the exact same thing that you claimed. I don't see the proof.... hypothetically you could enter several children not even present and claim them. This wouldn't prove they were or were not there.

[snbauser]

Nope. Never printed them. We have to have menu's posted for parents to see and if we change what we are serving we have to change it on the written menu prior to serving to the kids. We also have to have attendance sheets with arrival and departure times filled in daily. And we actually have to keep 3 years worth of menu's and attendance sheets.

[melilley]

I'm not trying to argue with you, but I don't understand your rep's reasoning of using it to prove you served the meals. You are printing it from MM, so it's the exact same thing that you claimed. I don't see the proof.... hypothetically you could enter several children not even present and claim them. This wouldn't prove they were or were not there.

I don't get it either! It makes no sense to me. I don't get what printing the menus would prove. I get the point of printing off the meal counts for the month, to have it on paper to prove it if I were to get audited (you have to click something that says something along the lines of you being truthful when you submit the claim so they probably figure the claims are legit) but not the menus. Who knows?

[melilley]

Oh and it's not the week by week menus that she said I needed, it is the "official" meal report for each month, which is all of the meals for the month that is found by going to utilites, then clicking on home visits, then monthly menus. That's what she said to print at the end of each month.

[Maria2013]

I think my rep said to do it in case I have to prove that I did serve the meals l

unless they're present at meal time, no one can prove a thing even if they ask the kids they rarely get the correct answer out of them

I was never told I have to provide parents with a menu

[Maria2013]

Oh and it's not the week by week menus that she said I needed, it is the "official" meal report for each month, which is all of the meals for the month that is found by going to utilites, then clicking on home visits, then monthly menus. That's what she said to print at the end of each month.

I'll ask my rep since you and I are from the same state
Thank you

[melilley]

unless they're present at meal time, no one can prove a thing even if they ask the kids they rarely get the correct answer out of them

I was never told I have to provide parents with a menu

I know, I just don't get it!

[melilley]

I'll ask my rep since you and I are from the same state
Thank you

Thanks! It'll be interesting what your sponsor says!

[nanglgrl]

Wow, I'm glad we aren't required to print anything out. We can also just put our meals in at the end of the day instead of pre-planning. It makes it so I have so much less food waste. If we don't put our meals in daily we have to write them down on a certain piece of paper and can enter them later so if we have a visit the reps know why nothing has been entered. If we don't have it entered by the end of the day and don't have it documented on a piece of paper and they come for a visit they can refuse to pay us for the month I think. I like it so much better than having to decide a month ahead of time what we want to eat the next month. My menus are based on whats on sale, what's in season, what the current kids that are in attendance that day will eat and what's left over etc.