Recording mealtime attendance lets your community track which residents took part in each meal, capture dining and nutrition notes, and keep participation records for compliance.
Before you begin
Mealtime Attendance must be enabled for your community, and you need the security role permission to record attendance. If you do not see the Attendance icon on the Dashboard, contact your administrator.
Meal start and end times, custom attendance statuses, and Meal Plans are configured in Resident Settings. Dining charges are set up in Billing Settings. If these are not set up yet, see the Mealtime Attendance Reference Guide.
Open the Attendance page
On the Dashboard, click the Attendance icon.
By default, the page shows today's date and selects the current meal based on your community's configured mealtimes.
To record a different meal or day:
- Click Change (top left) to select a different date.
- Use the Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner sidebar to switch meals.
Start Recording
Click Start Recording to open the resident attendance table.
To record attendance for each resident:
- Select Present or Not Present using the available options.
- Entries save automatically.
Automatic On Leave handling
- Residents marked as On Leave are automatically recorded as such
- The Destination displays when available
If a resident should be On Leave but is not shown:
- You can manually mark them as On Leave in the table.
- The resident must still be updated on their profile to ensure consistency across ALIS. See How to Set a Resident "On Leave" for more information.
Add a dining charge (optional)
If your community bills for meal extras such as guest meals or room trays, and has set up Dining billing items, you can charge them here without opening the resident's Billing tab.
The +Billing Item button appears on a resident row only when Dining items are configured and you have the security role permissions to do so. If you do not see it, dining charges may not be set up for your community.
- On the resident's row, click +Billing Item.
- In the panel that opens, enter a quantity for each item you want to charge. Items left at 0 create nothing.
- Click Save Charges.
Each item you charge posts one entry to the resident's Incidental Charges, dated to the meal and billed to the primary payer, the same result as adding a charge from the Billing tab or Dashboard.
Record an observation (optional)
Each resident row includes a +Observation button to document relevant dining or nutrition details. This is commonly recommended when a resident is marked Not Present.
- Click +Observation.
- Review the pre-filled resident details, then enter your notes.
- Click Create Observation.
Observations can be reviewed in the Resident Profile, the Observation Center, and the Daily Stand-Up Report (depending on your security role access level). See Observations Reference Guide for more information.
Correct or reset entries
To fix a single resident's entry:
- Select a different option to update it.
- Click Clear to remove that resident's entry.
To clear every entry for the meal:
- Click Reset Attendance at the bottom of the page, then confirm Reset.
Note: Reset Attendance removes all records for that meal and date and requires a specific security role permission.
Confirm all residents are recorded
Use the Mealtimes sidebar for a real-time summary of your progress. It shows the total number of recorded entries and how many residents are still outstanding, so you can confirm the meal is fully accounted for before you finish.