Creating A Spreadsheet To Calculate Meals Served

[Abigail]

I started to setup a spreadsheet in excel to calculate meals served for daycare kids all year. I have not recorded this, but I do have my attendance sheets and I served Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, and afternoon Snack each day so I want to create something in excel to calculate this for me. Does anyone have some format that works well?

I started doing the tabs per month so sheet one is January 2012. Then on column A is Names of children in my care. Then across the rows were B, S, L, S repeated for each meal type for the entire month and above those 4 lettered columns is a date that is merged over the four. My only issue is that when I'm done entering the number 1 for every child who was here for each of those based off attendance is that I'll have totals for each during that day, BUT I would have to manually add up how many for each meal or snack was total for the month so I'm thinking their is a better way to have it automatically calculate this for me. Please share how you would do it in excel. I'm putting all my things into excel for bills and everything so I want to use excel.

[heyhun77]

Arn't you doing online claming now? If so, when I ended the month I would print the claim out and then just add up the number of meals served of each kind and I have a spreadsheet I entered the whole year on to keep track of the total meals served for the year as well as the food program income. That way at the end of the year I had a total for the number of meals served (both reimbursed and not) so I knew what my standard food deduction would be as well as the total food program income.

[BumbleBee]

There is a way to automatically calculate in excel Here's how to do it:

Enter your data as you've already done

1. Click in an empty cell (at the bottom of the column for breakfast for example)

2. Type. =SUM(

3. Highlight the cells you want to add up (for example, in the breakfast column click the first cell w/a number in it & drag your cursor down to the last cell w/a number in it).

4. Type. )

5. Press enter. It should now be totaled.

[Angelsj]

Excel is even easier than that. If you look up above the page you will find a symbol that looks like this Σ. This is the SUM symbol. Click it and excel will automatically highlight the most likely row or column. If you don't like it you can change it using the click and drag method described above.
Excel will add up any group of numbers this way.

If you want to do the same calculation, but on a lot of rows or columns (say you are adding B3 thru B30 and you want to also add C3 through C30 and D3 through D30, you can click on the answer box for the first one (B3 through B30) and grab the little square in the corner. Drag it all across the row and it will place the same formula in each answer box for the appropriate column. Pretty handy

You can also do the multiplication calculations this way when you are ready to multiply by the allowed amounts. Type = in the box you want your answer in, click on the first number you want, type * (multiply) and click the second number. Hit enter, and it is done.

[BumbleBee]

Excel is even easier than that. If you look up above the page you will find a symbol that looks like this Σ. This is the SUM symbol. Click it and excel will automatically highlight the most likely row or column. If you don't like it you can change it using the click and drag method described above.
Excel will add up any group of numbers this way.

If you want to do the same calculation, but on a lot of rows or columns (say you are adding B3 thru B30 and you want to also add C3 through C30 and D3 through D30, you can click on the answer box for the first one (B3 through B30) and grab the little square in the corner. Drag it all across the row and it will place the same formula in each answer box for the appropriate column. Pretty handy

You can also do the multiplication calculations this way when you are ready to multiply by the allowed amounts. Type = in the box you want your answer in, click on the first number you want, type * (multiply) and click the second number. Hit enter, and it is done.

Woah...I learn something new everyday! Can't wait until nap time so I can try this method out!!! Thanks!

[Unregistered]

Willing to share spreadsheet?

Hi! I have been searching for spreadsheets to track meals for daycare and have not been successful. I was wondering if you would be willing to share your spreadsheet.

Thanks so much,
Susie

[Blackcat31]

Hi! I have been searching for spreadsheets to track meals for daycare and have not been successful. I was wondering if you would be willing to share your spreadsheet.

Thanks so much,
Susie

I'm sorry but this thread is over 3 yrs old so I dont think the OP will reply. However, I do know there is a gal on TpT that has great menu and tracking forms....maybe they are what you are looking for. You do have to pay to download them but usually TpT is really inexpensive and worth it!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Menu-Templates-and-Grocery-Lists-2740568