Skip to main content

Record your first meal service day

By the end of this you will have a full day of CACFP meal service recorded for one site, three meal periods, each correctly attributed to the staff member who took the count, and a clear picture of what PTRS does and does not do with them afterwards. It takes about fifteen minutes, plus whatever time the meals themselves take.

In this walkthrough you are Denise Okafor at the Claymont club, serving breakfast, lunch and PM snack, with Tom Bradley checking the results afterwards.

Before you begin: you will use the header, not the CACFP screens

This tutorial uses the header's + → Meal Count dialog throughout.

The three meal-entry forms on CACFP Meal Service, Meal Records and Point of Service Entry each fail on every save, for reasons set out in Record a meal count. Using them will cost you the day's counts.

What you need first​

  • A site in PTRS with at least one active staff member on it. The dialog's Recorded By field is a dropdown of active staff at the selected site, and it is required. If yours is empty, add the staff member first, Add a staff member.
  • Your paper point-of-service record for the day: the count taken at each serving line, at the time of service.
  • The menu for each meal period.

Step 1, Breakfast​

Serve breakfast and take your point-of-service count. Then, in PTRS:

  1. Press + in the header, then Meal Count.
  2. Location, your site.
  3. Date, today (it is already filled in).
  4. Meal Type, Breakfast.
  5. Recorded By, the person who took the count at the serving line. Not you, unless you took it.
  6. Ages 5–8, Ages 9–12, Ages 13–18, the counts. The running Total: N meals below must match your paper record.
  7. Items Served, the menu, comma-separated. For example: whole wheat toast, milk 1%, orange slices.
  8. Press Save.

Step 2, Lunch, and the age bands​

Repeat step 1 with Meal Type, Lunch.

Pause on the age bands this time, because they matter for what you keep on paper.

The dialog offers Ages 5–8, Ages 9–12 and Ages 13–18. The federal meal pattern rules are written for younger and narrower bands, 1 to 2, 3 to 5, 6 to 12 and 13 to 18. These are not the same bands, and PTRS does not translate between them.

The total is correct, PTRS adds up whatever numbers it is given. The split is a PTRS convention, and it will not line up with a federal age-band breakdown, or with a record entered on any of the other CACFP screens.

So: keep your paper point-of-service record. It is the document a state reviewer will ask for, and PTRS is not currently a substitute for it. See Why counts must be point-of-service.

Step 3, PM Snack​

Repeat once more with Meal Type, PM Snack.

Three periods is enough for this tutorial. A site serving all five would repeat for AM Snack and Supper; those five are the whole set PTRS accepts.

Step 4, Read the day back​

Go to Meal Records. The date navigator opens on today.

Why every record has a red cross​

Each recorded card shows a red cross rather than a green tick, and Validated reads 0 / 3.

This is not something you did. No meal record is ever marked valid by any path in PTRS, for any site. There is a real meal pattern check behind two of the screens that cannot save, and it runs, and its verdict is shown once and never stored.

So the cross means not validated, not non-compliant. Every record in every copy of PTRS has one.

The same fact is why the Needs Attention tab holds all three of your records, and every other record PTRS holds.

Step 5, Read the money back​

Go to CACFP Meal Service. Find the CACFP Monthly Claim panel.

Both of the last two are structural, and neither is a statement about your site.

Valid Rate is valid meals divided by total meals, and no meal is ever valid.

Est. Reimbursement adds up only valid meals, and multiplies by a rate table that nothing in PTRS can fill in, Reimbursement Rates reads "No rates configured" in every copy of PTRS. A missing rate is silently priced at zero. The whole calculation is on The reimbursement arithmetic.

What you now have, and what you do not​

You have, durably and with an audit trail behind it: three meal records for one site and one date, each with its meal period, its counts, its menu, and the staff member who took the count.

You do not have, and cannot get from PTRS today:

  • a validated meal, or any stored record of a meal pattern check
  • a per-child record of who ate, or any check against the Delaware daily limit
  • a reimbursement figure
  • a monthly claim, no claim can be created

Keep your paper point-of-service record and your production records. PTRS holds an accurate count of meals served. It does not hold, today, the documentation a CACFP review asks for.

Where to go next​

Checked against PTRS on 7 September 2026.