National CACFP Week

March 20, 2013 2 Comments

This week is National CACFP Week.  No one will dispute that our nation’s children need nutritious food to grow to their healthy, full potential.  This article from Time magazine highlights how difficult this can be in a childcare setting.  All across the country these small businesses are challenged with balancing the need for nutritious food and the need to keep their child care businesses operating in the black.  The CACFP can help them bridge the funding gap, but as this article illustrates, the complexity of the program can be difficult for child care providers to navigate without advocates and mentors to help them along the way.  Our software is one of the ways that participants can help manage the complexities of the CACFP.  But even with good tools in place it is still important for us to advocate for measures that make program participation easier and make the program itself more accessible to those who need it most.

Filed under Center Sponsor, Homes Sponsor, Minute Menu, Minute Menu CX, Minute Menu HX, Minute Menu Kids, Provider Tagged with

Minute Menu LLC Creates Utility for Procare Software to Integrate Food Program Management Functionality with Child Center Management Software

August 30, 2012 2 Comments

Minute Menu LLC, the premier developer of child care center food program management software products, is proud to announce a partnership with Procare Software, a leader in the child care center software industry. Procare Software users now have access to the features of Minute Menu CX to help manage and streamline the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) claims and reimbursement process.

Minute Menu LLC has developed a utility that allows Procare Software to add Minute Menu CX functionality to its child center management software. This utility is designed to help child care centers reconcile child and guardian identification numbers from Minute Menu CX to Procare, and to transfer new child enrollment information from Procare to Minute Menu CX. Read more of this post

Filed under Center Sponsor, Minute Menu, Minute Menu CX Tagged with , , , ,

Announcing the hx2go mobile app

June 11, 2012 4 Comments

This fall we’ll launch hx2go, our new app that lets you use your iPad, Andriod tablet, or laptop to record your visit info, sign the documentation, and automatically update your Minute Menu HX database with the visit details.

Convenient – hx2go is pre-populated with provider and child data, your food list, and your review questions.  When you’re done, review data is automatically imported into Minute Menu HX.
Familiar – A look, feel, and flow that you and your staff are used to, in a more convenient mobile form.
Efficient – No air card or printer required… just a tablet or laptop.
Available in Offiline Mode* – No wireless connection necessary.  hx2go can synchronize your review data when you get back to the office or when you connect anywhere WiFi is available.
Paperless – Perform your entire visit without printing anything! Providers and sponsors sign directly on your tablet screen, and automatically receive signed, electronic copies of the review record as soon as the review is recorded.
More Secure – GPS location and timestamp recorded automatically at the time of the review
Flexible – Sponsors can add their own review questions and fields. Customize to your specific process and needs.

The hx2go launch will include updates to Minute Menu HX to accommodate this new flexibility and enhanced review functionality.

We’re already at work developing this unprecedented mobile app, and we’ll be selecting a small group of beta testers later this summer.  If you are interested in participating in beta testing this product, please email hx-support@minutemenu.com. We’ll be looking for users with either iPad or Android tablets to participate.

We hope that you are as excited as we are about this new product! We’ll keep you posted as the hx2go mobile app becomes available later this year!

*Functionality may be limited in offline mode (i.e. review records will be available only after device reconnects and uploads review data).

Filed under Homes Sponsor, Minute Menu, Minute Menu HX

Important Information Regarding your Minute Menu HX Database

February 20, 2012 Leave a comment

Minute Menu HX is now compatible with SQL 2008.  SQL is the Microsoft database product that Minute Menu HX uses to handle the data you input into Minute Menu HX, and SQL 2008 is the most current version of that software.

Our records indicate that your agency may currently be using full SQL 2000 for your database.  As part of upgrading Minute Menu HX to SQL 2008 compatibility, we will have to stop supporting SQL 2000 as of June 15, 2012.  SQL 2000 and 2008 have some conflicting technical features that make supporting both versions impossible for us in the long term.  We will be dropping support for SQL 2000 in the release following the June 15 deadline.
Read more of this post

Filed under Homes Sponsor, Minute Menu HX Tagged with ,

Electronic Payments for Child Care Available with Minute Menu Kids Pro

February 20, 2012 Leave a comment

By Tom Copeland, Former Director of the Redleaf National Institute, http://www.tomcopelandblog.com/, May 2007

 
It’s the day parents are supposed to pay their family child care provider and some providers worry: Will the parent forget their checkbook? Will the parent tell me she’s run short of cash and ask me to accept payment later? Will the check bounce?

Getting paid on time is one of the child care industry’s biggest headaches. No one likes to wait until the next day, next week or their customer’s next paycheck to be paid for services they provided last week. Yet having to approach your customers for timely payment is often more awkward than the wait. Read more of this post

Filed under Minute Menu Kids, Provider Tagged with , , , ,

Sponsoring Centers: 101

February 10, 2012 1 Comment

In recent years, as the number of family child care providers participating in the CACFP has steadily declined, Sponsoring organizations have come under intense financial strains.  Caseloads and administrative dollars have dropped while regulatory requirements have increased.  Meanwhile, the number of centers interested in and eligible to participate in the CACFP has steadily increased.  So many Sponsors have begun to look at the possibility of sponsoring unaffiliated centers (that is, centers that are not legally owned by the Sponsor itself) to offer a new funding stream. Read more of this post

Filed under Center Sponsor, Minute Menu CX Tagged with , , ,

Introducing ChildCareInfo.com

March 25, 2011 Leave a comment

ChildCareInfo.com is our way to give back to you!  You have given us such great success and we wanted to say thank you.  We released a survey to providers to find out what might help them and we released one to you to see how we could help you.  Therefore, ChildCareInfo.com was born.  We have been developing this free community and resource site since August and will be officially launched in April.  Our mission with this site is to bridge the gap of communication in the child care profession by enabling child care professionals, organizations and parents to interact with one another, building a cohesive knowledge base through information sharing and ultimately making that information easily accessible to the child care community as a whole.  These are some of the ways we are going to achieve our mission:

1) a “craigslist” for child care (Child Care Classifieds)

2) a “Network” which is like a Facebook focused only on child care.  This will be live next week!!!!

3) a “Child Care Directory” which includes providers, associations AND all of your information so it is easy for child care providers to find your information.  Send us your websites and contact information so you can be the first listed!  This will go live in April!

4) information about CACFP in an effort to educate all people that touch child care about CACFP and its importance in the quality of child care

5) a place for Sponsors to communicate with each other and share all of the new and wonderful things are you doing.  We want to feature you and the great work you are doing for excellence in child care.  (You  have to be registered as a sponsor to view this page)

6) provide free web resources and professional skill information focused on you and your needs as well as child care providers

7) make it easier for you and your providers to find relevant state and federal information and web pages

Those are the highlights but there is so much more!  We are excited to share this resource and provide an opportunity for CACFP to be featured in the child care community among the other organizations that are trying to reach the same goals, excellence in child care!  This site is dynamic and is meant to be built with the community that is using it.  Please share with us your thoughts, ideas and perspectives.  We want to create a resource that you want to use, it is for you after all!

Don’t forget to send us your websites and contact information so we can place you in the directory!

Filed under Center Sponsor, Homes Sponsor, Minute Menu, Provider Tagged with , , ,

Minute Menu Assists with CNIPS State Upload System in CA

March 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Over the past two years, Minute Menu has collaborated closely with the California Department of Education to greatly reduce the headache associated with the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System (CNIPS) rollout for both sponsors of family child care providers and child care center organizations.  Much of our work was behind the scenes with the state, to help ensure that sponsors would not have to manually enter information into the new CNIPS database.  We are grateful to the state for giving us the opportunity to assist them on ways to streamline the process.  And the state has also provided us with a way to ensure Minute Menu customers can automatically upload claim and provider/center data each month… saving time for our customers each & every month.  We have also worked closely with reviewers and auditors in the state to help them answer questions about specific reports and software best practices, and have provided training to the state agency as well.  Many thanks and much kudos to the state agency, and the sponsors and center organizations who’ve worked closely with us and the state throughout this process.  This kind of collaborative process goes a long way toward helping everyone achieve the mission of feeding kids with lower administrative costs.  For those in other states who would like our assistance with similar information systems projects in those states, or would like similar training for state agencies, please let us know.

Filed under Center Sponsor, Homes Sponsor, Minute Menu, Minute Menu CX, Minute Menu HX Tagged with , ,

Battery Backups: Inexpensive UPS Unit Can Save You Hundreds of $!

August 20, 2010 Leave a comment

Few of us expect a power outage, but all of us should be prepared for one.  A UPS unit—“uninterruptible power supply”—is an inexpensive piece of insurance that your computer shouldn’t be without!  When the power goes out, these units provide battery power that can give you the extra few minutes of computer up-time to safely close your programs and turn the computer off until the power comes back on.

If your computer loses power and your software programs aren’t properly shut down, you already know you’re going to lose any unsaved work.  However, if you use programs like Minute Menu HX that access databases and store data—there is also a huge probability that data already saved into your database will be lost or corrupted if the computer loses power while the database is in use.  We have had several calls from customers who have lost data—and valuable work-time during claim—because the power went out and their computer wasn’t hooked up to a UPS battery backup!

The same thing can happen with a power surge, which can not only cause your computer to shut down unexpectedly, but may also cause expensive damage to your computer or any other electronic device—even ruining them entirely.  UPS units can also protect from these power surges much better than a power strip can, adding an additional layer of security for your hardware and software investments.

UPS units can be found at almost any office supply store, most electronics stores, and even at big box stores like Wal Mart and Target.  If you don’t already have all of your computers on battery backups—including your database computer/server, doing so as soon as possible will protect your hardware and your data!  If you need help selecting the right UPS for your office, please email tech support at hx-support@minutemenu.com. We’d much rather spend the time helping you prevent data and hardware loss than helping you recover from it!

Filed under Center Sponsor, Homes Sponsor, Minute Menu, Provider

Meet Lori Johnson: Professional Online Claims Booster!

August 20, 2010 Leave a comment

Early this year, Lori Johnson joined us as our new Junior Implementation Specialist. She’s part of a team that works to make sure that both new and existing clients get the most out of their Minute Menu HX software.  Since January Lori’s been working hard with sponsors just starting on Minute Menu HX to get them going and to get their providers claiming online as fast and as problem-free as possible.  She’s been doing a fantastic job, and we wouldn’t expect anything less.  Before Minute Menu Systems, Lori worked for a CACFP sponsor in Indiana that has a phenomenal 96% of their providers claiming online!  Lori was a big part of achieving that feat and loves sharing her experience with other sponsors and strategizing with them over how they can increase their online claiming percentages, too.

Recently Lori has also started working with sponsors who already use Minute Menu HX to help them create plans to move even more providers online.  We’ve helped sponsors achieve 10-20% increases in just a few months, even if your agency already has online claimers.  If your agency is interested in working with her, she’d love to hear from you, too!  Give Lori a call at 972-671-5211 or email her at lori@minutemenu.com.

Filed under Homes Sponsor, Minute Menu, Minute Menu HX, Minute Menu Kids, Provider

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