Massachusetts Department of Education

1. Massachusetts Department of Education School Lunch Claim Processing Training Guide August 17, 2004

2. Login (slide 1) • If you have forgotten your username or password, click the Forgot User Name / Password link. • The DOE Security Portal Help screen will display. • Click on theRetrieve User Name / Reset Password link. • The User Registrationscreen will display. • Complete and submit the form, and then follow the instructions provided to retrieve your username and reset your password.

3. Login (slide 2) • Enter your UserName and Password and click the LOGIN button. • Both the UserName and Password are case sensitive. • If either of the following error messages display, re-enter your username and password and click LOGIN again. • “The user name or password you entered was not correct.” • “You have exceeded the login time limit. Please try again.”

4. Login (slide 3) • Once you have successfully logged in, the Welcome screen will display. • Click the CONTINUE button to advance to the next screen.

5. List of Applications • A list of available DOE Applications will display. • Click the Nutrition School Lunch link to advance to the next screen.

6. School Lunch and Breakfast Link • An introductory screen will display, with nutrition-related links. • Click the School Lunch and Breakfast link to enter claims.

7. School Lunch and Breakfast Menu • The School Lunch and Breakfast main menu will display. • The menu contains three options: District Claims, Email and Logoff. • Clicking the Email option will display an email message window, for writing and forwarding an email message to DOE. • Clicking the Logoff option will exit you out of the application and return you to the DOE Security Portal login screen. • If you hover the pointer over the District Claims option, submenu options will be displayed: District Claims, Reimbursement, School Report, and School Selection.

8. Entering Claims • District claims are comprised of school-level claims that are added automatically to the district claim. • The basic steps for entering school and district claims are as follows: 1. Select a claim period and school. 2. Enter and save School Claims. 3. Run the School Report to verify school-level data. 4. Enter and save the District Claim. 5. Submit the District Claim to DOE. 6. View Claim Reimbursements.

9. Select a Claim Period and School (slide 1) • Click on the School Selection submenu option to display the School Search screen.

10. Select a Claim Period and School (slide 2) • Select the claim period: • All school data is managed within a claim period that is accessible via the Claim period drop-down, which lists completed claim periods as well as new claim periods to be entered. In the example, “New APR-2004” indicates that no school claims for April 2004 have been entered. • Select the claim period to be processed. • Press the SELECT button. The name for each school and claim status will display. • A school claim can have one of four statuses: • DONE – The school claim was entered and saved; no errors exist (although warnings may exist). The claim is ready for inclusion in the District Claim. • ERRORS – The school claim was entered, saved, and errors exist. • IN PROCESS – The school claim was entered and saved but is not done. • NOT ENTERED – The claim for this school has not yet been entered.

11. Select a Claim Period and School (slide 3) • To search for schools: • If desired, narrow the search by entering search criteria. • To select an individual school: • Enter the school name or partial name using the wildcard character (%) S% • Or, enter the school number or partial number %020 • Press SELECT. The screen will refresh with the search results, based on your new search criteria. • To select a claim by claim status: • Highlight the status in the list. • Press SELECT. The screen will refresh with the search results, based on your new search criteria. • To select a school claim, click on the school link.

12. Enter School Claims (slide 1) • In this example, a completed school claim for MAR-2004 is shown. • School data has been entered and saved. The claim has been verified and has no errors. • The Done checkbox has been checked – indicating that school entry for this claim is completed. • The top section of the school claim contains data that is display only. The other sections contain data that is entered by the user.

13. Enter School Claims (slide 2) • To navigate to the next school claim: • Click the NEXT button. The next School Claim record from the School Search results will display. This is the easiest way to navigate through the claims.OR • Click the SCHOOL SELECTION button to navigate back to the School Search screen and select a school.

14. Enter School Claims (slide 3) • The next School Claim is shown here. • All fields are defaulted to 0 because the claim has not yet been entered. • To enter a school claim: 1. Enter enrollment data. 2. Enter days open and meal counts. 3. Click SAVE. The total column will automatically calculate when you save. • CANCEL and VERIFY buttons: • The CANCEL button will discard any changes that have been made since the most recent save. A warning message will display asking the user to verify that their changes should be discarded. • VERIFY. You do not need to use the VERIFY button when entering a school (or district) claim. The SAVE and VERIFY buttons have the same functionality. VERIFY is useful when reviewing historical data, to view the warnings that existed on the claim.

15. Enter School Claims (slide 4) • To enter a school claim (continued): 4. If any data errors display, correct the errors and click SAVE until you are confident that the numbers are correct. 5. Click Done and click SAVE. The Done checkbox cannot be checked when errors exist (but can be checked when warnings exist).

16. Enter School Claims (slide 5) • The completed claim is shown here. • The status of the claim is DONE and the claim is read-only. • Continue entering all school claims for this claim period. NOTE: Once the claim has been saved with Done checked, the claim becomes read-only for school-level users. However, district-level users can uncheck Done and make edits to the claim.

17. Run the School Report(slide 1) • Prior to entering the District Claim, the School Report should be generated and reviewed. A sample School Report is shown below.

18. Run the School Report(slide 2) • Select School Report from the District Claims menu. Select the claim period from the Claim drop-down box and click SELECT. • The School Report lists the details of all school-level data (one row per school). The details are grouped into two sets: schools that are error free and schools that have errors or have no claim data entered. • In the example below, five schools have been entered for the March 2004 claim and are DONE. There are no ERRORS. • The CLOSE button is used to close the window and return to the previous screen.

19. Run the School Report(slide 3) • The School Report can be used to: • Review the status of all unsubmitted school-level claims for the month, to quickly identify which school claims still need action – those that have errors, are still in process, or have not yet been entered. Once changes have been made to the School Claims, the School Report should be generated and reviewed again. • Compare the values on the School Report to the values that are summarized on the District Claim.

20. Complete and Submit the District Claim (slide 1) • Select District Claims from the District Claims menu. • Select the claim period from the drop-down and click SELECT. • The District Claim includes all schools for the district. • The top section contains general information about the district that cannot be changed. • The meal count data has been automatically calculated from the school claims and cannot be changed here. Any changes must be made at the school level. • The District Claim status is SUBMITTED, which means that no additional changes can be made to the School Claims or the District Claim. Until the status is SUBMITTED, the District Claim can be edited and School Claims with a status other than DONE can be edited.

21. Complete and Submit the District Claim (slide 2) • To complete the District Claim: 1. Enter student charge and adult charge information in the School Lunch and Breakfast section. 2. Enter milk information if appropriate. 3. For the Severe Need section, you may either enter amounts in the text boxes or check the NOT CLAIMING checkbox. 4. Click SAVE. If any data errors display, correct the errors and click SAVE until you are confident that the numbers are correct. • Click SUBMIT to submit the claim. Claim status will change to SUBMITTED.

22. View Claim Reimbursements • Select Reimbursement on the District Claims menu. • Select Claim period. • The Reimbursement screen is read only and allows users to view reimbursement for district claims, regardless of the claim status. • The Meals Served column is carried forward from the District Claim, the rates are taken from a reimbursement rate table, and the amount is calculated. • Once a claim is submitted, these numbers will not change.

23. Data Validation & Verification • There are three basic types of messages that can display when a school or district claim is saved: data validation errors, verification errors, and verification warnings. • Data Validation – These are conditions that prevent the record from being written to the database. For example, a school claim where the default values of 0 have been deleted from one or more fields or a non-numeric has been entered for a meal count value. These errors must be corrected before the claim can be saved. • Data Verification (errors and warnings). • Errors prevent the claim from being completed or submitted. In the case of a school claim, the claim cannot be marked DONE. In the case of a district claim, the claim cannot be submitted. • Warnings do not prevent the claims from being completed or submitted. Warnings are potential or likely errors on the claim, even though the values reported could, in fact, be accurate. Because values that generate warning messages can potentially mask other more serious errors on a claim, warnings should be reviewed carefully before deciding whether to allow a claim to be submitted. • When warnings exist on a district or school claim, a message will display asking the user if they want to proceed with submitting the claim even though there are warnings.

24. District Claim Errors/Warnings • The Verification Errors and Warnings that may display on district claims are as follows:

25. School Claim Errors/Warnings (slide 1) • The Verification Errors and Warnings that may display on school claims are as follows:

26. School Claim Errors/Warnings (slide 2)

27. Frequently Asked Questions (slide 1) • I keep getting an error when I enter my login name and password. • Please check to be sure that you are spelling your login name and password correctly. Make sure that the cap locks on the keyboard is not set. If your password contains numerics, please be sure that the Num Lock key is set. • I was entering claims and all of a sudden I am back to the DOE Security Portal. • You probably have exceeded the time-out limit. The Nutrition system will automatically log you off if 20 minutes have elapsed since your last key stroke. Please remember any data that was entered and not SAVED in your last session will be lost. Please check your data to ensure that no data has been lost • I want to select a claim period that does not show in the Claim Period pull-down list. • Claims can only be entered for a period of 60 days after the close of the claim period. If you need to submit a Late Claim, you must submit a paper claim to the MA DOE. Claims cannot be entered for a future month. Please check to be sure you are selecting the correct claim period. • The school claim for a claim period does not reflect the correct meal counts. • The claims will reflect what was actually entered through the website. Once a claim is submitted, no changes can be made via the Internet. Any subsequent changes or revisions made (via paper submittal to DOE) to a claim will not be reflected on the web claim form.

28. Frequently Asked Questions (slide 2) • The Reimbursement View of the claim for a claim period does not reflect what I actually was paid. • The Reimbursement View of the claim will reflect what was actually entered through the website. Once a claim is submitted, no changes can be made via the Internet. Any subsequent changes or revisions made (via paper submittal to DOE) to a claim will not be reflected on the web Reimbursement View for the claim period.