Tips for Food Program Receipts

One of the most challenging parts of CACFP Food program participation is maintaining accurate records for program expenses. We’ve compiled a list of best practices for managing CACFP food program receipts to ensure your CACFP claims are approved.

CACFP Receipt Tip #1:

Make sure receipts have all of the following elements:

  • Date
  • Store Name
  • Itemized/Description/Price of items purchased
  • The total amount and tax
  • Payment method
  • To ensure you have scanned everything on the receipt, scan the document from top left and right corners to the bottom right and left corners.

If any of these are missing, your claim may not be processed. Also, receipt text should be clear and legible. Always print food program receipts from a computer rather than a cell phone to ensure that pages print correctly. Additionally, do not cross out any item descriptions/prices or handwrite a new total. 

 

CACFP Receipt Tip #2:

Use an acceptable payment method for food program purchases.

Acceptable payment methods for the CACFP food program are:

  • Cash
  • Credit card/debit card
  • Check
  • Paypal

Unacceptable payment methods for the CACFP program are:

  • WIC/Snap

 

 

CACFP Receipt Tip #3:

Only purchase CACFP allowable items. 

Importantly, unacceptable items should not be included with purchases for the CACFP. Instead, they should be charged separately on receipts that will not be used for CACFP expenses.

A few examples of unacceptable items include:

  • Water/bottled water/sodas
  • Grain-based desserts (cake, cookies, vanilla wafers, etc)
  • All personal items
  • Bathroom cleaners/supplies (including toilet paper)
  • Most classroom and office supplies
  • Gas/fuel receipts
  • Repair bills
  • Holiday decorations/supplies

 

CACFP Receipt Tip #4:

Use digital recordkeeping.

We recommend Adobe Acrobat for your PDF editor, you should save them as a PDF then file them in a folder, separated by month then year.  This way you will be able to go back and retrieve any receipt, that you may have a need for.