Working with Serving Periods and Cash Drawers

This article describes the POS terminal processes performed when cash drawers are attached to the POS terminal and a drawer count is required. If your district does not require a drawer count and/or have Serving Periods enabled, then this article may not apply to you.

After the serving method; i.e., General Serve or Continuous Serve, has been selected, the cashier is prompted to select the current Serving Period. Selecting the Serving Period opens a new cash drawer or re-opens an existing cash drawer for serving.

This article includes the following topics:


To allow Serving Period functionality, a food service administrator must have enabled the feature on the POS terminal and also set it up within the Campus application.



Serving Period selection window

Starting a New Serving Period/Cash Drawer

If this is the first login of the day, or if the drawer has NOT been previously opened, the Serving Period window will display.

The cashier should select the appropriate Serving Period (i.e., Breakfast or Lunch).

After the serving period has been selected, the patron Search screen will appear and normal processing may begin.

Reopening the Last Serving Period/Cash Drawer

If a cashier realizes he/she needs to log back into the last serving period and cash drawer but has already logged out or shut the terminal down, he/she can still log back into the last cash drawer and serving period.

Logging back into the same cash drawer/serving period is ONLY possible if no one else has logged in.

When the same cashier logs in twice, a message will ask whether the last serving period and cash drawer should be re-opened.

Option

Description

Yes

The cashier’s last serving period and cash drawer will re-open and the patron Search screen will appear. Normal processing may begin.

No

A new cash drawer will open, and the cashier will be prompted to select a Serving Period. If this option is selected, the cashier will not be able to re-open the previous drawer (a final drawer count will not be possible).

Infinite Campus does not recommend that a cashier open more than one cash drawer within the same serving period. For example, a cashier should not open two drawers during a breakfast serving period.

Switching Serving Periods

The cash drawer is changed when the Serving Period changes; e.g., from breakfast to lunch. Cashiers should always log off or shut down at the end of a serving period. The steps for switching serving periods/cash drawers depends on whether or not the cashier also changes.

If the cashier is...

Then the cashier should...

the same as the previous serving period

  1. Log back into the terminal.
  2. Select General Serve or Continuous Serve. The Serving Period options will appear.
  3. Select the new Serving Period (e.g., Lunch). The patron Search screen will appear.
    At this point, a new cash drawer has been opened for the new serving period. Processing may take place as normal.

new and did not process the previous serving period

  1. Log back into the terminal.
  2. Select General Serve or Continuous Serve. The Serving Period options will appear.
  3. Select the new Serving Period (e.g., Lunch).
    Result
    Since a drawer is already opened for a different cashier, a window with the following message displays:
    Another cashier has an open drawer. Would you like to open a new drawer?
  4. Select one of the following options:
    1. Yes. A new cash drawer will open and the patron Search screen will appear. Normal processing may begin. If this option is selected, the cashier will not be able to re-open the previous drawer (a final drawer count will not be possible).

      Infinite Campus does not recommended that a cashier open more than one cash drawer within the same serving period (e.g., Cashier Jane should not open two drawers during a breakfast serving period).

    2. No. The Campus POS Menu Control screen remains and the new cashier can log out.