Resources

What Is School Mode?

School mode is a special setting on your online order form designed for school lunch programs. Parents visit your order form, choose what they'd like for their child, and provide the school name, child's name, and room number. You then deliver the orders to the school — no delivery address needed, just the school details.

Each child must have their own order — so if a parent is ordering for two children, they place two separate orders. This keeps things clear for your kitchen and delivery team.

Enabling School Mode

To turn on school mode, go to Online → Order Forms, select the form you want to configure, and open its Settings. In the settings form you'll find two school-specific options:

1. Tick School mode — this switches the form to capture school name, child name(s), and room number(s) at checkout
2. Set the Default delivery time — all school orders use this single delivery time (customers cannot choose their own)

You can create a dedicated order form just for school orders, or enable school mode on an existing form. We recommend creating a separate form (e.g. "Ridgeway Primary Lunches") so you can tailor the items, description, and settings specifically for the school.

What Parents See

When a parent visits a school-mode order form, the checkout experience is streamlined:

• Contact details — the parent enters their first name, last name, email, and phone number as normal
• School name — the name of the school (e.g. "Ridgeway Primary School")
• Child name — the name of the child the order is for
• Room number — the child's classroom or room number
• General information — a free-text field for any notes (e.g. allergies, special instructions)

The delivery address, postcode, and delivery time fields are all hidden — the delivery time is fixed to the default you configured, and the school details replace the address.

Online Payments with Stripe

When you have Stripe connected, parents can pay for their child's order at checkout — no invoicing or chasing payments required. They simply enter their card details and pay when they place the order. For more on setting up payments, see our Online Order Form — Payment Methods help page.

How School Orders Appear in Puree

When a school order comes through, it appears in Orders Received just like any other online order. The school details are mapped to familiar fields so they display clearly without you needing to do anything different:

• School name appears where the company name would normally be
• Child name and room number appear in the delivery address field, formatted as "Child Name (Room 4)"
• General information is included in the order notes

You process school orders exactly the same way as regular orders — assign a customer and convert to a quote. For more on this, see our Online Order Form — Processing Orders help page.

Key Differences from Standard Orders

• No delivery address — replaced by school name, child name, and room number
• Fixed delivery time — all orders use the default delivery time you set; customers don't choose a time slot
• No postcode validation — since there's no delivery address, postcode checks are skipped
• No collection option — school orders are delivery only
• One child per order — each order is for a single child to keep things organised for delivery

Tips

• Create a separate order form per school to keep orders organised and allow different menus or pricing
• Set the default delivery time to match the school's lunch break
• Keep item names simple and child-friendly — parents will see exactly what you've entered
• Use the general information field note on the form to prompt parents for allergy details
• Use Tagging Quotes to tag school orders for easy filtering in reports