1. Meal Counting and Claiming
CRE Training 2011

2. Purpose of Meal Counting and Claiming
To have an accurate claim and adequate documentation on file to support the claim.
Meal counting and claiming is the process that occurs at the POS at each site every day of operation for all meals and snacks that are served to enrolled students or eligible participants.

3. Components of a Successful Counting and Claiming System
Eligibility Documentation
Collection Procedures
Point of Service (POS) Meal Counts
Reports
Claim for Reimbursement
Internal Controls
Reference: USDA Meal Counting and Claiming Manual FNS – 270 August 1991
Each of these items –
Eligibility (applications, DC lists, migrant/homeless listings),
Collection (student IDs, student PINs, money),
POS counts (meal counts of free, reduced, paid),
Reports (daily and monthly meal counts),
Claims (money to sponsors for meals served), and
Internal controls (edit checks, daily/monthly)
is required for sponsors and contributes to a successful counting and claiming system.

4. Eligibility Documentation
Rosters at sites must contain correct eligibility determinations
Sponsors must create a procedure that will ensure:
Eligibility documentation is approved correctly
Student names and eligibility statuses are accurately transferred to school point of service locations

5. Collection Procedures
Meal counting system involves:
collecting student cash
entering PIN numbers
scanning barcodes
recording student names on a roster
Overt identification must be prevented.
Students receiving free and reduced price meal benefits must not be treated differently, identifiable by other students, or separated from students who do not receive meal benefits.

6. Point of Service Meal Counts
Acceptable POS meal count accurately records:
1reimbursable meal per enrolled student
Counted by category (free, reduced price, paid)
Daily
Does not overtly identify students’ eligibility categories
Meals are counted at the point in meal service where it can be accurately determined that a reimbursable free, reduced-price, or paid has been served to an eligible student.

7. Reports Requirements include: Manual or computerized
Guarantee correct counts by category (free, reduced price, paid)
Reports on file must be:
Easily read
Have edit checks
Consolidated for an accurate claim
A report must contain the number of reimbursable meals served daily, by category to eligible students are recorded and reported by school food service staff to the central food service office.

8. Claim for Reimbursement
Consolidated and submitted in CNPweb:
Required documentation for monthly claim:
Student Average Daily Attendance (ADA) report listing highest daily enrollment
Daily Meal Counts, with daily and monthly edit check
Claim consolidation form
School meal count reports are submitted to the central food service office. The meal counts from all schools are consolidated to create a monthly claim for reimbursement, and submitted in CNPweb.
Make sure the claim in CNPweb is in “Approved” status and the reimbursement check is received and deposited to the school food service account.

9. Claim Submission in CNPweb
Check box 14 – I Certify this claim is correct. This claim is ready for payment.
Certifying the claim is stating that this claim is true and correct and has acceptable documentation to substantiate the claim.
Your CNPweb login username is equivalent to a signed document. Never share your username and password!

10. Counting and Claiming Data
School Level Daily POS Meal Counts
School District Consolidation and Claim for Reimbursement
State Agency (ODE Reports)
Federal Level (USDA Food & Nutrition Service)
The flow of data from the school cafeteria point of service to the federal level.

11. Internal Controls Requirements:
Edit Check Report (manual or electronic) to monitor system with an attendance factor.
Attendance Factor, 2 Options:
1. Average Attendance ÷ Current Enrollment = Attendance Factor
Example: 452 ÷ 478 = 94.6%
2. National attendance factor rate for : 93.8%
Attendance Factor must be entered in POS computer system at beginning of school year.
Internal controls are required to ensure that an accurate claims for reimbursement are made and to protect sponsors from under or over claiming reimbursement.
Unreasonable meal counts:
Meal counts exceed the number of eligible students in attendance

12. Edit Check Requirement
If edit check exceeded, justification is required to claim meals.
Edit check formulas:
Number of Paid X Attendance Factor (.938) = XX.X%
Number of Free X Attendance Factor (.938) = XX.X%
Number of Reduced X Attendance Factor (.938) = XX.X%
An edit check compares the daily number of meals in free, reduced-price, and paid categories against the expected number of students to attend school on any single day.
“HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT” FOR SPONSORS - Set POS computers to either: local school attendance factor or national rate at 93.8%

13. Internal Controls Site monitoring: Sponsor monitoring:
Menus served are reimbursable
Accurate POS meal count daily
Review daily meal count with edit check
Sponsor monitoring:
Monthly meal counts & edit checks submitted 1st of month
Review meal counts for irregularities & review daily edit checks
Check that claim status is “Approved” & reimbursement check is deposited in a timely manner
Monitoring is required to determine if meal counts are accurate or unreasonable.

14. On Site Reviews
Required by February 1st if the sponsor has more than 1 site
POS in every school must be observed
Correct problems and revisit within 45 days

15. CRE Success
Accurate meal counting and claiming is key to operating a successful program