Now Available — Printed Letters for Individuals

Reaching members isn’t always a one-channel game. Email is fast, text messages are immediate, and attachments make it easy to share documents. But sometimes the most effective message is the one that lands in a mailbox.

That’s why this update matters. You can now generate hard copy printed letters directly from an existing email template. And include personalized fields, such as first name.

The idea: reuse what already works

If you already maintain email templates (even simple ones filled with placeholder text), you’ve done the hard part: you’ve written and approved messaging that matches your organization’s tone.

Those templates often include personalization tokens—such as a first name substitution—so each message feels relevant to the recipient. When you run a member query, the system can merge that personalization for each selected individual.

What’s new: printed letters from email templates

Until now, your options were essentially digital:

  • Send an instant email you write on the spot
  • Send a text message
  • Choose an existing email template (optionally with an attachment) and email it to your list

Now you can take that same email template and choose to create printed letters for the members you’ve selected. The result is a set of letters generated from the template, ready to be produced as hard copy.

Why printed letters still win in key situations

Email is efficient, but hard copy has advantages when you need higher visibility or a more formal touch. Printed letters can be especially useful for:

  • Board communications that require a more official presentation
  • Fundraising outreach where a mailed letter may get more attention than another inbox message
  • Committee or leadership groups where you want the communication to stand out
  • Targeted audiences based on role or member attributes, rather than blasting everyone

In short: you’re no longer limited to emailing when your goal is to reach specific individuals with a tangible, high-impact message.

How it fits into your workflow

A common workflow looks like this:

  1. Start with an existing email template (even a basic one).
  2. Use a member query to select recipients.
  3. Apply personalization (such as first-name substitution).
  4. Choose the option to create printed letters for the selected recipients.

That’s it—same messaging assets, expanded delivery method.

The takeaway

This isn’t a brand-new concept so much as a smart expansion of what you already do: build templates once, personalize them through queries, and deliver them to the right people.

The difference is you can now deliver that message as printed letters, not just email—making targeted member outreach more flexible, more intentional, and often more effective.

See the full video here: Video

Now available — per transaction override for QB account to debit

For those who regularly post transactions to QuickBooks Online using ShalomCloud, a new feature might significantly streamline your workflow. Until now, the financial category mapping determined where the debit and the credit would post, for each payment to that category. With this change users now have the flexibility to redirect these debits to a different account.

Understanding the Default Posting Method

In ShalomCloud, each financial category is mapped to a corresponding pair of accounts in QuickBooks. For instance, when a payment posts to the Camp Scholarships Fund, it would debit Undeposited Funds and credit Scholarships. This method has been the standard practice, ensuring consistency across transactions.

Introducing Flexible Debit Posting

The latest update allows users to choose a different account to debit for a specific payment. Suppose you prefer the debit to go to a Money Market Account instead of Undeposited Funds. Now, you are able to make this entry directly during the posting process.

How It Works

  1. Select a family/household.
  2. Choose the category and fill out most of the screen as usual.
  3. Just above the save button, you’ll see a new field, “GL to Debit.”
  4. If you leave that field alone, the journal entry will post to the category default.
  5. Instead of using the default debit account, you may select something different.

This enhancement, while modest in scope, offers more control over your financial postings. It’s particularly beneficial for users seeking to customize their accounting processes without additional manual entries QuickBooks.

To see a short (4m 29s) video of this feature in action, access this link.

Unveiling a New Twist on an Old Concept

Unveiling a New Twist on an Old Concept: The Art of Discarding in Shalom Cloud

In the ever-evolving world of digital solutions, even the most traditional concepts can receive a modern twist. Today, we delve into an intriguing update in Shalom Cloud that transforms the way we think about managing household or family units within the system. The concept in question? Discarding.

Traditionally, actions like “destroy” meant a permanent removal, erasing all traces from existence. However, Shalom Cloud introduces us to “discard,” a soft delete that removes visibility but keeps the data intact. This subtle distinction has sparked a debate among users: is it better to discard, or simply change a family’s status to “resigned” or “inactive”? While this choice remains personal and varies across synagogues, the demand for a discard option has been acknowledged.

However, challenges have emerged. Imagine discarding a family unit, only to realize later that you need to retrieve it. Previously, this meant reaching out to support. In an empowering move towards self-service, Shalom Cloud now allows users to resurrect previously discarded families on their own.

Here’s how you can do it: navigate to Queries > Families. Since the original status of a discarded family may be unknown, it’s recommended to check all statuses. A new checkbox for “only discarded” families is now available. Upon searching, the discarded families appear. To restore them, simply check the actions column and hit the new purple “undiscard checked” button. Just like that, they return to your records, ready for management once more.

A noteworthy enhancement accompanies this update. Discarding a family with an outstanding balance can lead to complications, as there was previously no method to address the balance. The system now prevents discarding families with balances, prompting users to adjust financial transactions first. This additional safeguard ensures a seamless experience and prevents potential pitfalls.

In practice, suppose a family named Boyle has moved away, leaving behind a $950 balance. By adjusting this balance to zero, you can then proceed to discard them confidently. This update offers a complete round-trip process: query families, view all statuses, select only discarded, and restore or re-discard as needed.

While the frequency of needing this capability may be low, having it available is invaluable. Embrace this modern twist on an age-old concept and navigate your Shalom Cloud management tasks with newfound ease and efficiency.

See a video of this feature

Or, to see a step by step procedure, open the ShalomCloud User Manual, under the heading “Families — Discard and Undiscard.

Financial Queries — now by household attribute

Exploring the Enhanced Capabilities of Querying Financial Transactions

Navigating financial transactions can sometimes feel like an overwhelming task, but with recent enhancements, this process is becoming more intuitive and user-friendly. Let’s explore how you can leverage these capabilities to streamline your financial queries and get the most out of your transaction data.

One of the standout features in the latest update is the ability to filter transactions with precision. If you haven’t experimented with this screen, you’re in for a treat. Let’s dive into some practical examples to illustrate these capabilities.

Imagine you want to identify everyone who owes $100 or more. Simply enter “100” into the balance field, hit search, and you’ll have a list at your fingertips. This straightforward query can save you time and effort, allowing you to focus on strategic financial decisions.

Another powerful feature is querying payments received since a specific date. By setting the transaction date from a particular point and leaving the ‘to’ field blank, the system will generate results up to the current moment. For instance, if you want to see all payments made since October 1st, this function will display all relevant transactions, providing you with real-time insights.

If you’re specifically interested in dues, you can refine your search further. Adjust the transaction date to start from July 1st and use the category filter to focus on “dues.” Whether pointing and clicking through categories or utilizing the wildcard option by typing “dues,” this feature ensures you access all dues paid since your specified date.

The most notable enhancement, however, is the introduction of household attributes. This slight yet impactful change allows you to filter financial transactions based on family attributes, such as “senior couple” or “senior single.” By selecting these attributes, you can isolate dues paid by households fitting these criteria, providing a deeper level of analysis and understanding.

In conclusion, while these updates may seem modest, they offer a powerful toolkit for filtering and analyzing financial transactions. By incorporating these methods into your workflow, you can enhance your financial oversight and make more informed decisions. Dive in, experiment, and see how these features can transform your approach to financial management.

See these features in action: short video of 2 minutes, 38 seconds.

New Simplified Aged A/R Report

In the ever-evolving landscape of financial management, staying ahead with efficient reporting tools is crucial. Today, we delve into a new option on aged financial reporting. If you’re involved in managing finances, this change is designed with you in mind.

For those unfamiliar, accounts receivable aged reports are essential for understanding who owes what, and how long those amounts have been outstanding. Traditionally, these reports could be generated by family or by category, allowing for an in-depth exploration into specific areas such as tuition fees or donations.

Introducing the New Simplified Aged A/R Report by Family

Until now, aged reports by family included both a summary and a detailed view. These options provided insights into each category for which a family owed funds. However, the latest update introduces a streamlined approach: a one-line-per-household report. This compact version offers a quicker, more efficient way to grasp the financial landscape without getting lost in the minutiae.

Understanding the Reports

  1. Summary Report: The summary report breaks down financial obligations by family, displaying each category’s owed amounts. It’s a straightforward way to identify outstanding debts at a glance.
  2. Detail Report: While more time-consuming, this report provides a comprehensive view, detailing each transaction, including pledges and payments. It’s invaluable for those needing a deep dive into financial interactions.
  3. New Simplified Aged A/R Report: The latest addition is the one-line-per-household report. This format eschews detailed breakdowns in favor of a simpler overview, highlighting ages and grand totals for each family. It’s perfect for quickly assessing who owes what over various time frames.

The Importance of the ‘As Of’ Date

A pivotal aspect of these reports is the ‘as of’ date, which allows you to tailor your view to specific time frames—be it future projections or retrospective analyses. Adjusting this date ensures you capture the most relevant financial data, whether you’re looking at past transactions or future projections.

New Simplified Aged A/R Report

Enhancing Financial Oversight

This update not only simplifies financial tracking but also enhances your ability to manage and strategize around outstanding debts. By providing a concise, clear view of financial obligations, it empowers you to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently.

We hope this new feature proves invaluable to your financial operations, offering a streamlined path to understanding and managing accounts receivable. Whether you’re a seasoned finance professional or new to the field, this update is designed to make your task easier and more efficient.

See the full video: Aged Accounts Receivable

Explore the New Annual Installment Billing Feature

Discover the New Annual Installment Billing Feature

With this announcement, we introduce the capability of annual installment billing. While many are familiar with the monthly and quarterly billing cycles, the new annual option offers a strategic advantage for long-term financial planning, especially for significant contributions such as a building fund, or a capital campaign.

What is Installment Billing?

In general, it’s more straightforward to bill once for an entire amount, and then to draw down the amount owed as payments are made. However, some congregations prefer to charge the membership incrementally. Depending on an organization’s policies, installment billing can occur monthly, quarterly, or now, annually.

The New Annual Billing Capability

Previously, many organizations relied on monthly or quarterly billing cycles. The introduction of annual billing offers a fresh perspective for managing long-term financial commitments. For example, if your organization is running a building fund campaign, you can now set a total amount to be billed. By selecting the annual installment billing option, the total amount is divided into yearly installments, facilitating easier tracking and management.

How It Works

Let’s consider an example involving the Goldsmith family, a part of your organization’s financial contributors. Suppose they commit to a total contribution of $5,000 over five years for a campaign like the mikvah campaign. With the annual billing feature, you input the total amount, select the installment billing option, and set the first and last bill date—say, from September 2025 to September 2029. The system automatically divides the total into yearly amounts, aligning each installment with the appropriate fiscal year.

Benefits of Annual Installment Billing

  • Long-Term Planning: Organizations can plan more effectively for future projects with clear, predictable cash flows.
  • Simplified Management: With annual billing, there’s less frequent need to manage and adjust billing cycles, saving time and reducing errors.
  • Enhanced Reporting: Financial reports can now reflect long-term commitments more accurately, assisting in strategic decision-making.

By leveraging the new annual installment billing feature, organizations can enhance their financial management capabilities, ensuring they remain agile and efficient in today’s ever-evolving financial landscape. Embrace this new capability to optimize your organization’s financial strategies and achieve your long-term goals with confidence.

To see this feature in action, please view this video.

New Features in Yahrzeit Query System

Discover the New Enhancements to Yahrzeit Queries

In the realm of yahrzeit management, efficiency and accuracy are key. Today, we’re excited to reveal enhancements to yahrzeit queries that promise just that. Traditionally, many of you have utilized the yahrzeit query to search by the name of the deceased or an observer, and more often for a specific date range. But now, we’ve introduced a significant upgrade that will enhance how you can access and utilize this data.

The cornerstone of this update is the “Yahrzeit Simple List,” which now includes additional features that broaden its functionality. Two major changes have been implemented:

  1. Enhanced Data with Tags and Plaque Locations: We’ve enriched the “Yahrzeit Simple List” by incorporating tags or attributes and plaque locations. Now, when you select a date, such as the 23rd of September, and submit your list, it opens in Excel, as before. You’ll notice that the yahrzeit name may appear multiple times, namely once for each observer. But with each entry, you’ll find valuable insights such as plaque locations. Additionally, if you’re utilizing tags to categorize yahrzeits—be it a veteran, buried out of town, and the like—you’ll see a clear indication of which tag applies to each yahrzeit.
  2. Streamlined Data Presentation: Going back to the “Yahrzeit Simple List,” there’s a new checkbox option that generates a different spreadsheet format. This version presents each yahrzeit on a single line, excluding observers, for a cleaner view. While the core data remains unchanged, this streamlined presentation focuses purely on plaque locations and tags, eliminating the repetitive observer entries.

These enhancements are designed to make your data handling more intuitive and efficient. Whether you’re managing yahrzeits for historical research, commemoration, or personal records, these updates will significantly enhance your workflow. Embrace these changes, explore the new capabilities, and experience a more powerful way to manage yahrzeit site data.

See the full video

Streamline Your Accounting with Shalom Cloud’s New QuickBooks Integration Feature

Are you using our automated interface to QuickBooks Online? Or perhaps you’re considering it? If so, we have some news that could simplify your accounting processes. Introducing our latest feature: the ability to auto-generate Document Numbers directly from Shalom Cloud.

Let’s delve into what this feature entails and how it can benefit you.

Understanding the Document Number Field

In QuickBooks Online, the Document Number field may serve for tracking and referencing transactions. If you’re already satisfied with how this field is populated, you may not need to change a thing. However, if you seek a more streamlined approach, our new feature can help.

How to Activate Auto-Generate Doc Number

Getting started with this feature is simple. Navigate to the Home screen in Shalom Cloud, select Declare Synagogue Options, and scroll to the bottom. Here, you’ll find the new option labeled “Auto-Generate Doc Number.” Initially, this setting is set to ‘no.’ By switching it to ‘yes’ and hitting the submit button, you activate the auto-generation feature.

What Happens Next?

Once activated, any new financial transactions processed in Shalom Cloud will automatically generate a Document Number in your QuickBooks Online journal entries. This number corresponds directly to a transaction in Shalom Cloud, making it easier than ever to trace journal entries back to their origin.

Demonstrating the Feature

Let’s walk through a practical example. Suppose you have a fictitious family, Littell01, in our sandbox environment, with outstanding dues of $245. When you pay this amount using a check, and refresh your journal entry report, you’ll notice a new entry with a unique number. This number ends with 593, which matches the transaction ID in Shalom Cloud.

Video demonstration

Tracking Transactions Made Easy

By enabling this feature, you can effortlessly track journal entries in QuickBooks back to their originating transactions in Shalom Cloud. This integration saves time and reduces the likelihood of errors, providing a seamless accounting experience.

A Word of Caution for Manual Entries

If you also generate manual journal entries, it’s advisable to differentiate them from those auto-generated by Shalom Cloud. Consider using a unique identifier, such as “JE-” followed by a number, to ensure clarity and prevent duplicate entries.

Conclusion

Our new feature for auto-generating Document Numbers from Shalom Cloud to QuickBooks Online represents a significant step toward enhancing your financial management capabilities. Activate this feature today to experience a more efficient and accurate accounting process. Whether you’re a current user or considering our interface, this enhancement is designed with your convenience in mind.

See the full video:

Now Available — Processing Fees on the ShalomCloud Shopping Cart

Similar to processing fees on the contribution portal, you may now offer that same capability on the ShalomCloud shopping cart.

Processing Fees Setup for Shalom Cloud Shopping Cart

Overview

This procedure outlines the steps to configure processing fees for credit card and ACH transactions in the Shalom Cloud shopping cart.

Key Steps

1. Access Processing Fees Configuration 0:25

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  • Navigate to the configuration section of the Shalom Cloud shopping cart.
  • Select ‘Processing Fees’ to access the fee settings.

2. Set Transaction Fees 0:44

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  • Specify the percentage for card transactions (e.g., 3%).
  • Specify the percentage for ACH transactions (e.g., 1%).
  • Note: Most congregations set ACH fees to 0% to encourage usage.

3. Configure Fee Options 1:07

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  • Decide if the fee will be mandatory (set to true or false).
  • Customize the verbiage for the fee prompt (e.g., ‘Please consider including…’).

4. Define User Response Options 1:19

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  • Set the phrases for user responses (e.g., ‘Yes, I’d be happy to’ or ‘Sorry, no, cannot cooperate’).

5. Select Financial Category 1:39

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  • Choose the financial category where the fee amount will be posted.

6. Test the Shopping Cart 1:51

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  • Access the shopping cart and select items (e.g., Shabbat Dinner Adult and Child).
  • Proceed to checkout and observe the fee calculations based on the selected payment method.

7. Calculate Fees Based on Selection 2:29

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  • For card transactions, calculate 3% of the total amount.
  • For ACH transactions, calculate 1% of the total amount.

8. Update Fee Settings to Mandatory (if needed) 4:25

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  • Edit the processing fee record to make the fee mandatory.
  • Change the fee prompt to a declarative statement (e.g., ‘Please be aware that we charge a 3% processing fee for card transactions’).

9. Verify Changes in Shopping Cart 5:21

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  • Test the shopping cart again to ensure the mandatory fee is displayed correctly without user options.

10. Confirm Consistency Across Platforms 6:32

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  • Please be aware that the processing fee settings apply to both the shopping cart and to the contribution portals.

Cautionary Notes

  • Ensure that the processing fee percentages are compliant with any applicable regulations.
  • Double-check the verbiage for clarity and user-friendliness.

Tips for Efficiency

  • Regularly review and update the processing fee settings to reflect any changes in policy or user feedback.
  • Train team members on how to navigate the configuration settings to minimize errors.

Link to Video

Pre-announcement — Processing Fees for the Shopping Cart

This article serves as a pre-announcement regarding the upcoming implementation of processing fees on the ShalomCloud shopping cart, which has not been available until now. As an administrator, you can make fees mandatory, and set the rates for card and for ACH, respectively.

The shopping cart will feature a new radio button for selecting payment methods, and it will automatically calculate the total including fees. If you have any questions or objections about this feature, please reach out to us, at support@shalomcloud.com, as we want to ensure everyone is aware of this change prior to its official roll-out.

Here’s an explanatory video on this forthcoming feature.