Canteen

Manage canteen funds and sales

Canteen helps you run a snack shop or similar store at camp. Families can add money to a camper, parent/guardian or staff canteen account, and your team can record purchases against that balance or take cash or card at the register.

Balances, deposits, and purchases are all tracked in one place so you can answer balance questions, review sales, and reconcile activity later.

Turn on Canteen

Canteen is controlled in your site settings. Depending on your setup, you may need to choose your season or program before you can open the Modules tab.

Use Canteen in CampiumDB

After you turn on Canteen Module (Admin), a Canteen section appears in the left menu. This is the main staff area for running sales, managing items, checking account activity, and supporting families.

Typical roles vary by camp, but these are common patterns:

• Checkout or front desk staff ring up purchases on the main Canteen screen.

• Store or operations staff keep products, pricing, and inventory current.

• Finance or admin staff review deposits, purchases, and balances, and update settings when needed.

If a staff member does not see a canteen screen in the menu, an administrator may need to review their permissions.

Before you open for sales

Before a busy store period, it helps to review a few basics:

• Open Manage Canteen Products and confirm the items you plan to sell are active and priced correctly.

• If you use product images or descriptions, make sure they still match what is available.

• If Track inventory is turned on in Canteen settings, verify the available quantities look correct before staff begin selling.

Canteen main screen

Use the main Canteen screen as your point-of-sale view during the season.

• Use Search products to quickly find items in a long list.

• Add items to the cart to build an order.

• Review the Order summary before submitting the sale.

• Choose how the purchase is paid:

  • User account — Charges the selected camper, parent/guardian or staff canteen balance. Select the user first and confirm the account has enough money available.

  • Cash — Records a cash sale without using stored account balance. This appears only when your canteen settings allow cash.

  • Credit card — May appear if your payment setup supports it. Some setups include a link to take payment on your payment page.

• When charging a user account, staff can review the current Balance, Order Total, and remaining amount before confirming.

• Confirm the purchase to complete the sale. If inventory tracking is enabled, the saved sale also reduces quantity on hand.

Depending on permissions, staff may also see links for Manage Canteen Products, Purchases, and Canteen settings at the top of the page.

Add funds and review deposits

Use Deposits to review money added to canteen accounts and related activity.

• See deposits made from the portal or from admin tools such as Add funds.

• Check how much was added and who the deposit was for.

• Use the list alongside purchases when you reconcile canteen activity.

• Depending on your payment type and camp policy, refunds may also be available here.

Void and refund windows

Use Void only while the original payment is still inside its allowed processing window.

• Credit card payments — Void them the same day, before the batch settles. After that window closes, use Refund instead.

• ACH payments — Void them only during the ACH void window based on processing timelines.

• Eastern timezone — The system uses Eastern time to determine when a void window closes.

• Past the void window — If Void no longer appears, the payment has passed its allowed window and staff should use Refund instead.

When staff need to load funds in the office, use the admin Add funds flow:

• Search for the correct user.

• Choose the payment account, such as cash, card, or bank account, based on your setup.

• Enter the amount to add.

• Review the current balance and new balance, then save the deposit.

Purchases

Use Purchases to review what sold over a date range.

• See items that were bought and when they were purchased.

• Use available filters such as date range, product, or payment type when needed.

• Search for a specific purchase or review totals for the filtered results.

• If Enable fulfillment status on purchases is turned on, staff can also mark purchases as fulfilled or pending.

Account Balance

Use Account Balance when you need to check remaining funds.

• See how much money each camper, parent/guardian or staff member has left in their canteen account.

• Answer parent questions about available funds.

• Troubleshoot declined balance purchases.

• Withdraw Cash — A link appears next to any user with a positive balance. Click it to open the cash withdrawal flow and pay out some or all of the remaining funds directly. See Cash withdrawal for the full steps.

Balance Breakdown

Use Balance Breakdown when you need to explain exactly how a canteen balance was calculated.

• Open the modal from Account Balance or from the user's profile card Canteen button.

• Review the reconciliation view: deposits, net of fees, minus purchases equals the current balance.

• Use it to answer balance questions without manually adding transactions one by one.

Manage Canteen Products

Use Manage Canteen Products to control what appears on the main Canteen screen.

• Add new canteen items.

• Edit item names, descriptions, prices, status, or images.

• Mark products inactive when they should no longer be sold.

• If Track inventory is enabled, maintain quantity on hand for each item.

• If Enable cost basis and profit is enabled, enter product cost details so staff can review margin information.

Product categories

Categories group canteen items, for example Snacks, Drinks, or Merchandise, so staff can find products faster at the register and you can work with a shorter product list when needed.

Set up categories

On Manage Canteen Products, use the Product categories section at the top of the page:

• Add category — Click Add category, enter a name, and save.
• Rename — Click the pencil icon next to a category, change the name, and save.
• Change order — Drag categories using the handle on the left. That order is used for category headings and filter buttons on the main Canteen register screen.
• Remove a category — Click the trash icon. Products in that category move to Uncategorized. Only the category name is removed; products stay on your list.

Each category shows how many products are assigned to it.

Assign a category to a product

• When you add or edit a product, pick a Category, or Uncategorized if it should not be in a group.
• On the product table, use the Category dropdown on each row to change it without opening the full edit window. Your choice saves when you select a new category.

Filter the product list on the manage screen

Use Filter by category above the product table:

• All categories — Shows every product.
• Uncategorized — Shows only products not in any category.
• A specific category — Shows only products in that group.

This filter only changes what you see on Manage Canteen Products. It does not change prices, inventory, or what families see online.

Use categories at the register

On the main Canteen page, products appear under category headings in the order you set. Items without a category appear under Uncategorized when you have at least one such product.

Above Search products, use buttons such as All, category names, and Uncategorized to narrow the grid. All shows every active product. Uncategorized shows only products not in a category. Search works together with the category you pick.

Canteen settings

Use Canteen settings to control how the rest of the team works.

• Accept cash — Shows cash as a payment option at checkout and when staff add funds.

• Track inventory — Shows quantity on hand and reduces stored quantity when sales are saved.

• Enable cost basis and profit — Shows cost and profit-related fields for products.

• Enable fulfillment status on purchases — Adds fulfilled and pending controls on purchase records.

Save changes after updating settings.

Guardian canteen accounts

Turn on the guardian canteen account setting if parents or guardians need their own canteen balances.

• When enabled, guardians appear in user selectors for deposits, purchases, and balance lookups.

• Use this when parents attend camp events or buy items themselves.

• Leave it off if your camp only uses canteen accounts for campers and staff.

Use Canteen in the parent portal

After you turn on Canteen Module (Portal), families see Canteen in the parent portal navigation or from their Account area. This is where they can check balances, add money, and review history for their household.

Getting to the Canteen page

Families sign in to the same parent portal they use for registration and payments. If the portal canteen module is enabled, they can open Canteen from the navigation or from their account area.

If a family does not see Canteen anywhere, your camp may not use the online canteen page.

Balances

The Balances area shows current canteen balances for the active registration context.

• Families can see a separate balance for each relevant user.

• This helps them decide whether they need to add more funds before camp activities or store time.

Add funds to canteen account

Families can add money to a canteen account from the portal.

• Choose a saved payment method, such as a card or bank account, based on your camp's setup.

• Choose which user should receive the deposit.

• Enter the amount to add.

• If the amount is not accepted, review the rules shown on the page and adjust the amount before submitting.

• Submit the payment to add funds.

• After a successful payment, the page refreshes and the new balance appears.

Purchase history

The Purchase history area shows canteen purchases.

• Families can review the date of each purchase.

• They can see the amount, what was bought, and who the purchase was for.

• This is useful when they want to review store activity during a session.

Funding history

The Funding history area shows money added to canteen accounts.

• Families can review the date and amount of each deposit.

• They can see the payment method used and who the deposit was for.

• This is often the first place to check when someone asks whether money was successfully added.

What families cannot do in the portal

The parent portal is for reviewing balances and adding funds. Families do not use it to run in-person checkout, manage products, or change canteen settings.

Cash withdrawal

Cash withdrawal lets administrators pay out remaining canteen balances directly to a camper — for example, at the end of a session when a family wants leftover funds returned as cash instead of leaving them on account.

How it works

When to use cash withdrawal

• End of session — Pay out leftover balances when families prefer cash back instead of a balance carry-forward.
• Account closure — Return remaining funds when a camper leaves the program.
• Parent request — Process a balance payout any time a family asks for their funds in cash.

Quick tips

Use these shortcuts when staff or families have questions.

• Turn on both modules if families should load funds online and staff should sell from the Canteen screen at camp.

• Set up Manage Canteen Products first so the main Canteen grid shows the right items and prices.

• Prefer marking seasonal items inactive instead of deleting them if you still want older purchase history to make sense.

• Check Account Balance and Deposits when a parent asks where their money went or why a balance purchase was declined.

• Use Purchases when you need to confirm what was sold and when.

Troubleshooting