Overview

Shalom Cloud supports maintaining people associated with a synagogue or temple. This documentation covers:

• One-time (or infrequent) configuration items that enable later filtering and communication
• Day-to-day maintenance of households and the individuals within them
• Notes, attributes (tags), and role assignments
• Querying/reporting and common output/communication actions (export, envelopes/labels, email, SMS)

Configuration (Set Up Once, Then Reuse)

Configuration items define the terminology and options your organization will use. These lists are not fixed; you can add new items as needed.

Billing Statuses

Billing statuses categorize households for operational and reporting purposes (e.g., active member, out-of-town, newsletter-only).

• Customize labels to match local terminology
• Add new statuses via the relevant New action in the configuration menu

Member Attributes (Tags)

Member attributes are flexible tags used to capture facts or participation about individuals.

Examples:

• Empty nester
• Willing to make wellness calls
• Participates in sisterhood/brotherhood/men’s club
• Interest-based groups (e.g., book club)

Key points:

• Unlimited attributes can be created
• A person can have none, one, or many attributes
• Attributes are commonly used as filters for queries and communications

Roles Within Family

Roles help distinguish each person’s relationship within a household.

Common uses:

• Distinguish adults vs. children for filtering (e.g., emailing adults only)
• Support alternate conventions (e.g., primary/secondary)

Key points:

• Role terminology is fully customizable
• Strongly recommended for accurate filtering and communications

Household (Family) Maintenance

Households (also referred to as families; the label can be customized) are the core container for individuals.

Finding a Household

When working with a long list:

• Type a few letters of the household name to jump/filter to matching households

Editing Household Details

Common household fields include:

• Household code (recommended pattern: last name + separator + differentiator, such as initials)
• Billing status (from configuration)
• Primary phone (landline or primary cell)
• Primary address
• Community (useful for location-based targeting, such as HOA or senior living community)
• Secondary household/address (if applicable)
• Formal name and Informal name/label (supporting formal vs. informal correspondence preferences)
• Emergency contact
• Resign date (for historical tracking and reporting)

Individual (Member) Maintenance

A household contains individuals (members).

Required vs. Recommended Fields

Minimum required fields:

• First name
• Last name

Highly recommended:

• Role within family
• Contact information (email, cell phone)

Common Individual Fields

Individuals can include the following data (as applicable):

• Name and last name
• Role within family
• Email
• Cell phone
• Birth date
• Business information (optional)
• Tribe designation (e.g., Cohen, Levy, Israel)
• Bar/Bat mitzvah date
• Religious school tracking (school and grade level)
• Deceased flag (declaration of status; related processes may exist outside this flow)

Attribute Summary and Adding New Individuals

Within a household view:

• A summary of attributes/tags associated with each person is available
• An area is provided to add a new person to the household

Notes (Household or Individual)

You can attach freeform notes to either:

• The household record, or
• An individual within the household

Note fields and behaviors:

• Topic (freeform, e.g., illness or surgery)
• Reminder date
• Applies to (household or a specific person)
• Assigned to (defaults to the logged-in user; can be reassigned)
• Interested parties (optional additional stakeholders)
• Private flag (hides the note body from other administrators)
• Complete flag (mark when resolved)

Assigning Member Attributes (Tags)

Attributes can be applied quickly in a bulk-like interface.

• Select a person (radio button)
• Click an attribute box to toggle membership
  • Enabled state is visually indicated (e.g., box turns green)
• Click again to remove the attribute

Queries and Reporting

Queries provide filtering, lists, exports, and communication actions.

Family (Household) Queries

Family queries focus on the household as the reporting unit.

Common filters include:

• Billing status
• Join date range (e.g., identify new members for an event)
• Anniversary dates
• Resign dates
• Zip codes
• Attributes (via individuals associated with households, depending on configuration and reporting rules)

Outputs and actions:

• Results list of matching households
• Export to Excel
• Drill-down link to open a household record (alternate entry point to maintenance)

Specialized functions available from family query results:

• Print envelopes for selected households (using checkboxes)
• Generate letters using a selected template (if templates are configured)
• Print mailing labels for selected households

Member (Individual) Queries

Member queries focus on individuals for targeted communication and reporting.

Common filters include:

• Last name, first name
• Email address
• Missing email address (identify who lacks email)
• Roles within family
• Billing status
• Community
• Member attributes (e.g., everyone in the book club)

Selecting output columns:

• Because individuals have many fields, you can choose which columns to include in results (e.g., first name, last name, email)

Outputs and actions:

• Results list of matching individuals
• Export to spreadsheet
• Send text messages (SMS) to members with cell phones
• Send emails to the resulting set
  • Compose in-app with basic formatting tools (bold/italic/underline, colors, bullet points)
  • Or choose an email template (if configured)

Operational Workflow Notes

Typical usage patterns include:

• Perform initial setup of billing statuses, roles, and attributes
• Maintain households and members through the maintenance screens
• Use notes for follow-ups and pastoral/admin workflows (with reminders and privacy controls)
• Use queries frequently for:
  • Segmenting lists (attributes, communities, roles)
  • Exporting to Excel
  • Communicating via email/SMS
  • Producing physical mail outputs (envelopes, labels, letters)

See the full video