Features & Technical Specification Memo

School Meals Management Software (SMMS)

A digital accountability and operations platform for transparent, cashless school feeding programs.

Transparent, cashless school feeding operations with audit-grade accountability.

SMMS is a digital accountability and operations platform for school meals programs. It connects child enrollment, parent payments, QR validation, supplier cost tracking, donor transparency, and AI insights inside one immutable ledger.

Value Chain

Child → Parent Payment → Meal Service (QR Scan) → Central Oversight → Supplier Cost Tracking → Donor Transparency → AI Insights

The SMMS Defines

Full feature set and data model logic.QR badge + scanning hardware workflow.AI components and model usage.Dashboards, user-facing pages, and reporting.Tech stack and system architecture.Development roadmap direction.

System Objectives

Replace cash collection with mobile money + wallet.
Validate every meal via QR scanning (no NFC).
Maintain immutable, audit-grade transaction records.
Track supplier invoices and payments (cost side).
Deliver operational + oversight dashboards.
Add AI forecasting, anomaly detection, summaries.

What You Actually Need

Printed QR badge per child (laminated or PVC).
One Android tablet or phone per school.
Scanning app (web/PWA or native) + WiFi/4G.
No NFC and no proprietary POS hardware.

Key Users and Capabilities

6 Core Groups

Children

Unique IDs, wallets, meal history, QR badge identity. No login.

Parents / Guardians

Mobile money top-ups, confirmations, low-balance alerts via WhatsApp/SMS.

School Supervisors

Secure login, check meals, daily totals. No balance edits.

Suppliers

Registry, invoices, payment status, cost per meal reporting.

Program Admin

Manage schools, pricing, subsidies, dashboards, exports, reconciliation.

Donors

Read-only impact dashboards: meals, children, funds, cost per meal.

Core System Architecture

Identity & Governance Layer

Beneficiary & Enrollment Management

Financial & Wallet Engine

Meal Operations Engine

Supplier & Cost Management

Dashboard & Reporting Layer

AI & Predictive Intelligence Layer

QR Identity Implementation

QR Payload Rules

Encode only: `student_id` or `SMMS-<student_id>`.
No balance, name, phone, or subsidy data inside QR.
Backend validates identity, wallet, status, school.

Example payload: `SMMS-839201`

QR Generation Options

Built in SMMS

Auto-generate payload, QR image, printable badge.

Node.js: qrcode · Python: qrcode · Laravel: Simple QrCode

Quick Pilot

Export CSV → bulk QR generator → print badges.

Paper + Lamination

Ultra low cost, best for MVP pilots.

PVC Card

Professional durability via print shop or PVC printer.

Official School ID

Integrate SMMS QR into official student card at scale.

Operational Flow — Meal Validation (QR Based)

API Request

POST /meal/validate
{ student_id: 839201, school_id: 12, meal_type: "lunch", operator_id: 45 }

JWT token required. Operator ID is the logged-in supervisor.

Validation Checks

Confirm student exists and is active.
Confirm student belongs to the selected school.
Confirm meal type is valid.
Prevent duplicate scans for the same day.
Check wallet balance and meal price.

1. Scan

Tablet camera reads QR badge and parses student ID.

2. Validate

Secure request with JWT + operator ID.

3. Protect

Double-scan check rejects duplicate meals.

4. Deduct

Atomic wallet debit + ledger + meal record.

Core Feature Specifications

Identity & Governance

RBAC, JWT auth, bcrypt, activity logs, session expiration, audit trails.

Beneficiary & Enrollment

Schools, classes, child registration, guardian linking, subsidies, CSV import, soft delete.

Financial & Wallet Engine

Append-only ledger, mobile money integration, webhook verification, idempotency.

Meal Operations

Validation logs, meal sessions, duplicate prevention, notifications.

Supplier & Cost Management

Supplier registry, invoices, payment status, cost per meal analysis.

Dashboard & Reporting

Admin, school, donor dashboards with exports and alerts.

Wallet + Mobile Money Integration

(Aggregator)

One aggregator connects Wave, Orange, MTN, Moov.
Single webhook format + faster onboarding.
SMMS owns the internal wallet ledger.

Candidates: CinetPay, PayDunya, Flutterwave

Payment Flow

Parent pays via link reference.
Aggregator confirms payment → webhook.
SMMS verifies + idempotency, credits wallet.
Parent receives WhatsApp/SMS confirmation.

Dashboards and Reporting

Program Admin Dashboard

Meals served today, Meals served per school, Monthly meal trends, Total revenue, Outstanding balances, Cost per meal, Revenue vs meal variance, Alerts insufficient balance spikes

School Dashboard

Meals served today, Meals per class, Students with insufficient balance, Total active children.

Financial Dashboard

Daily revenue, Monthly revenue, Subsidy exposure, Supplier cost totals, Reconciliation summary.

Donor Dashboard

Read-only aggregated view: Total meals served, Total children reached, Total funds received, Cost per meal, Subsidy percentage, Impact over time chart

AI & Predictive Intelligence

Meal Demand Forecast

Historical meal counts and Enrollment data

Anomaly Detection

Validation spikes, Payment-meal mismatch, and Abnormal wallet depletion

Subsidy Optimization

Schools with high subsidy need and Children at risk of insufficient balance

Executive Summaries

Meals served, Financial health and Risk alerts

Tech Stack

Backend: Node.js (Express + Prisma) or Laravel.
Database: PostgreSQL (ACID compliant).
Frontend: React dashboards.
Payments: Aggregator API (Wave priority).
Messaging: WhatsApp Cloud API + SMS fallback.
AI Layer: Python microservice + Prophet / Scikit-learn.

System Pages

Authentication: login, password reset.Admin: dashboard, schools, classes, children, wallet ledger.Operations: meal validation, daily totals, history.Suppliers: registry, invoices, payments.Reports: financial, audit logs, donor summary.