Mealtime Attendance helps your community track resident participation in each meal to support dining operations and compliance. Alongside attendance, it captures dining and nutrition details, supports optional dining charges billed straight from the tracker, and feeds reports your dining and care staff can use during service.
Enable Mealtime Attendance
This feature is controlled by an entitlement and must be enabled by the ALIS team.
Once enabled:
- The Attendance icon appears on the Dashboard for users with access.
- Staff must have the appropriate security role permissions to record and reset attendance.
For assistance with enabling Mealtime Attendance or updating permissions, contact your Account Manager or the ALIS Customer Success Team.
Customize your Mealtime Attendance Workflow
Mealtime Attendance is configured in Resident Settings. From here you can set your community's meal start and end times, define the attendance status options staff use when recording, and build the Meal Plan options you assign to residents. If your community bills for meal extras, you can also set up Dining billing items.
To get started, navigate to Settings > Resident.
Configure Meal Start and End Times
Attendance is recorded for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Each mealtime can be customized to align with your community's dining schedule.
- Locate the Mealtime Attendance section.
- Use the dropdown menus to set start and end times for each meal.
- Click Save.
Updated mealtimes are automatically reflected on the Attendance page.
Configure Attendance Statuses
Attendance is recorded using three built-in statuses: Present, Not Present, and On Leave. These are always available and cannot be edited.
Your community can also add custom statuses to track dining participation in more detail, for example Tray Service, To-Go, or Sick. Each custom status uses a single-character symbol that appears next to the resident on the Mealtime Attendance report and its exports.
- Locate the Mealtime Attendance Status section.
- Click +Add Status.
- Type the status Name. A single-character Symbol is suggested automatically from the name. You can change it, but each symbol must be unique for reporting.
- Click Save.
Configure Meal Plans
Meal Plans can be configured and assigned to residents to support dining visibility and reporting.
Step 1: Configure Meal Plan Options
- Locate the Meal Plan settings grid.
- Click +Add New.
- In the pane that opens to the right, type the Name.
- Click Save.
Use the Copy Selected or Copy All buttons to copy your settings configuration to other community environments.
Step 2: Assign Meal Plans to Resident Profiles
- Open the Resident Profile.
- Go to the Health Profile section.
- Select a Meal Plan from the available options.
- Scroll down to the end of the Health Profile section, and click Update to save.
After a Meal Plan is assigned to a resident, it displays alongside each resident’s name during attendance recording and in the Resident Diet Roster report.
Set Up Dining Billing Items
If your community bills residents for meal extras such as guest meals or room trays, you can set those items up so staff can charge them directly from the mealtime tracker. This setup happens in Billing Settings.
A billing item becomes available in the tracker only when all of the following are true:
- Billing is enabled for your community (entitlement).
- The staff member has the security role permission that allows them to manage resident billing.
- The billing item is active, on the Private (private-pay) tab, and tagged with the Dining Item Category.
To tag an item, go to Settings > Billing, open the item, and set its Item Category to Dining. For full steps, see How to Add and Manage Billing Items.
Recording Attendance
Staff record attendance from the Dashboard by clicking the Attendance icon. The page opens to today's date and the current meal, and staff mark each resident's attendance status (e.g., Present or Not Present).
Entries save automatically, so there is no separate save step. Residents already set to On Leave on their profile are recorded as On Leave for you.
During recording, staff with permissions can also:
- Add an Observation to capture dining or nutrition notes for a resident (commonly used when a resident is marked Not Present).
- Add a Dining incidental charge directly from the tracker.
- Correct a single entry by choosing a different status or clicking Clear, or clear all entries for the meal with Reset Attendance.
For step-by-step instructions, see How to Record Mealtime Attendance.
Audit Completion in Attendance
To ensure all residents are accounted for each meal, use the Mealtimes sidebar which provides a real-time summary of recording progress:
- Displays total recorded entries
- Shows how many remain outstanding
Resident Diet Roster Report
This report provides dining and care staff with a clear overview of residents’ dietary requirements. It can also help ensure residents receive meals that align with their dietary requirements and restrictions.
The report includes critical dining information documented in the Health Profile section of each resident profile, including:
- Food Allergies
- Diet
- Meal Plan
- Food Preferences
- Alcohol Use
Print PDF for Dining Staff
Many communities print this report daily and keep it in the kitchen or dining service area for quick reference.
Sort the report order by Resident or Room # and click Print to generate a PDF document that includes resident photos. This makes it easier for dining staff to quickly identify residents during meal preparation and service.
Mealtime Attendance Report
The Mealtime Attendance Report provides access to historical attendance data.
Access this report directly from the link found on the Attendance page:
Report Details
- Displays attendance by:
- Breakfast (B)
- Lunch (L)
- Dinner (D)
- Includes a key explaining each attendance status