> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://educontroldoc.pixelspectivetech.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The meal register

> Recording who actually ate, and why it matters to both the kitchen and the bill.

The meal register is the kitchen's record: for each pupil, on each meal day, whether a meal was served.

It is separate from the [attendance register](/docs/during-the-term/attendance). A pupil can be in school and not eat — they brought food, or the family has not paid for meals — so attendance cannot stand in for it.

## Recording a day

For each pupil on a feeding plan, mark whether they were served. Notes can be attached where a day needs explaining. The register records who took it.

Only days marked as **meal days** on the [term calendar](/docs/before-the-term/academic-year-and-terms) can carry a meal register. A day the kitchen was closed is not a day anyone can be recorded as having eaten.

## Why it matters

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="The kitchen" icon="cooking-pot">
    Yesterday's register is the best estimate of today's numbers. It is what stops the kitchen cooking for a hundred when seventy will eat.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The bill" icon="receipt-text">
    Meals served are what reconcile against what a family prepaid. See [Feeding invoices](/docs/billing/feeding-invoices).
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Pupils with sponsored meals

A pupil whose meals are sponsored — a feeding plan with a zero price override — still appears on the register and should still be marked as served. They eat; the school simply does not bill them.

<Warning>
  Do not set a sponsored pupil's plan to **None** to stop them being billed. None takes them off the register entirely and the kitchen will cook one portion short. Use a zero price override instead — see [Feeding plans](/docs/pupils/feeding-plans).
</Warning>

## Reconciling prepaid meals

A family who prepaid for a term and whose child ate fewer meals — through absence or withdrawal — is put right with a credit note of kind **FeedingReconciliation** against the feeding invoice. The register is the evidence for the figure. See [Corrections](/docs/payments/corrections).

## Who can do this

The `edit_attendance` permission.