If your school uses PowerLunch to track the distribution of Breakfast and Lunch for your students, there is a way to download the transaction list for further analysis in Excel that goes beyond the built-in PowerLunch reports. Doing this requires the extraction of raw data directly from a PowerSchool table.
WARNING: This is an advanced technique in PowerSchool and should only be done by a system administrator or someone who has been trained by one. This procedure requires access to the “Direct Database Export (DDE)” portion of PowerSchool.
Step 1: From the PowerSchool home screen, navigate to: Data and Reporting > Exports > Direct Database Export (DDE)
Step 2: Follow the directions below the screenshot to make the proper selections
1) Select table GLDetail(25). This is the table that houses the PowerLunch transactions.
2) Use filters to target the date range that you wish using the >= and <= modifiers. In the example above, we are looking for all transactions that occurred during February 2014.
3) Search only in records belonging to this specific school. Click it to isolate the records search to only your school.
4) Search all X records in this table. The number X will be different for every day that lunch is served.
Step 3: You will now notice that the record selection is shown next to “Current Records in Selection:”. Now click on Export Records.
Step 4: Populate the box with the following code. You can use a different code if you are familiar with how this was created. Press Submit.
Date
Time
Transtype
[1]lastfirst
[1]grade_level
Step 5: Analyze in a spreadsheet program such as Excel.
The fields exported should be self-explanatory with the exception of Transtype. You can use apply filters and sorting as you wish with the following:
Student Breakfast Transactions
MBSP – Full Pay Student Breakfast
MBSF – Free/Temporary/FDC Student Breakfast
MBSR – Reduced Student Breakfast
MBSE – Exempt Student Breakfast
MBS2 – Additional Student Breakfast
MBSG – Guest Student Breakfast
MBSC – Earned Student Breakfast
Student Lunch Transactions
MLSP – Full Pay Student Lunch
MLSF – Free/Temporary/FDC Student Lunch
MLSR – Reduced Student Lunch
MLSE – Exempt Student Lunch
MLS2 – Additional Student Lunch
MLSG – Guest Student Lunch
MLSC – Earned Student Lunch
Student Did Not Eat Transactions
MZSP – Full Pay Student Did Not Eat
MZSF – Free/Temporary/FDC Student Did Not Eat
MZSR – Reduced Student Did Not Eat
MZSE – Exempt Student Did Not Eat
Adult Breakfast Transactions
MBFP – Adult Breakfast
MBF2 – Additional Adult Breakfast
MBFG – Guest Adult Breakfast
MBFC – Earned Adult Breakfast
Note: PowerSchool does not support free or reduced meals for adult patrons.
Adult Lunch Transactions
MLFP – Adult Lunch
MLF2 – Additional Adult Lunch
MLFG – Guest Adult Lunch
MLFC – Earned Adult Lunch
Note: PowerSchool does not support free or reduced meals for adult patrons.
Other Transactions
A – A La Carte purchase without a meal
D – Deposit
O – Other – This special type of TransType occurs when a student’s lunch account is debited by manually creating a transaction on the Lunch Transactions student screen.