> ## 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.

# Feeding rates and cadences

> Pricing meals per class, and the prepayment discounts that reward paying weekly, monthly or by the term.

Feeding is priced separately from tuition — its own rates, its own invoices, its own arrears. A family can be fully paid up on tuition and behind on meals, and the two never get confused.

## The daily rate

Each class gets a daily meal price for the term. That is the only figure you have to set; everything else can follow from it.

## Cadences and their discounts

A family chooses how far ahead they pay. Paying further ahead earns a discount, expressed in basis points:

| Cadence | Default discount | Meaning         |
| ------- | ---------------- | --------------- |
| Daily   | none             | Pay as they eat |
| Weekly  | 400 bp           | 4% off          |
| Monthly | 500 bp           | 5% off          |
| Termly  | 770 bp           | 7.7% off        |

These are the defaults a new class starts with. Change them per class if your school prices differently — each of the three is set independently, and any of them can be zero.

<Tip>
  The discounts reward cash arriving early, which is usually worth more to a school than the few percent it costs. Schools that set all three to zero tend to find most families drift onto daily payment.
</Tip>

## Setting a package price directly

You can leave the weekly, monthly and termly prices to be worked out from the daily rate and its discount — that is the normal case.

Or you can set a package price explicitly, and it overrides the calculation. Use that when a prepaid package has its own negotiated price that is not simply the daily rate less a percentage.

## Rates are per class, per term

One rate row per class per term. A class with no feeding rate set cannot have its meals billed, so set rates for every class that eats before running feeding billing.

## What happens next

The rate sets the price. What a particular pupil is on — and whether they eat at all — is their [feeding plan](/docs/pupils/feeding-plans). What they are actually billed depends on the [meal register](/docs/during-the-term/meal-register) and the days you marked as meal days on the [term calendar](/docs/before-the-term/academic-year-and-terms).

## Who can edit it

The `edit_finances` permission.