Guide
Count the meal when it is served.
Sponsors disallow meal counts that were rebuilt from memory on Friday. The point of service is the point.
What the count is
A point-of-service count records which children were offered a creditable meal at the time it was served. It is not a headcount copied from morning attendance, and it is not a guess that 'everyone ate.' Children leave after lunch. Infants are on a different pattern from the preschool room. A child who was present at 8 and gone at 11 did not eat lunch.
Allergies and substitutions change the plate. They do not erase the child from the count if a creditable meal was served, and they do not let you count a meal you did not serve. Your sponsor's crediting rules decide what counts. Honeyfold is not your sponsor.
Why Friday reconstruction fails
A reconstructed count looks even. Real meals are not even. Reviewers know this. If every lunch count matches the morning roster for a month, the month looks invented, because some children always leave.
The practical habit is dull: the teacher marks the meal while the children are eating, in the room, with the roster of who is there. A kitchen total with no names is how a claim gets reduced to the meals you can prove.
Honeyfold holds a point-of-service count and flags allergens on the child file. It does not file your claim and it does not promise a menu is creditable. See CACFP in the product and keep your sponsor's memo above any software screen.