Over the past six months, ShalomCloud has delivered several key features designed to enhance user experience and streamline administrative processes. These updates focus on improving email communication flexibility, financial transaction visibility, and preventing payment errors. Some of these features may not have had an individual blog post; hence, we’ve gathered these topics here, in one article.
Community Field Now Available in Email Templates
Our most recently requested feature has arrived – the ability to include the “community” field in your email templates. (If you’re not aware of the “community” field, please review this blog post.) Previously, users could customize emails with various merge fields, but community designation wasn’t among them. Now, administrators can incorporate community information directly into their communications, allowing for more targeted and relevant messaging.
This enhancement is particularly valuable for organizations managing multiple communities (e.g. HOA associations, senior living facilities). Communications can now be automatically personalized based on community affiliation without manual intervention.
Enhanced Financial Transaction Visibility
We’ve improved the financial transaction posting page by adding a total-owed calculation underneath individual line items. This simple yet effective addition provides instant visibility into the overall financial picture while processing individual transactions.
Total owed beneath the line items
This feature addresses a common pain point where administrators had to manually calculate totals when reviewing accounts. Now, the system automatically displays the cumulative amount owed, saving time and reducing the potential for errors during financial processing.
Smarter Recurring Payment Protection
Our third recent enhancement focuses on preventing accidental overpayments when setting up recurring payments. The system now includes intelligent validation that compares the recurring payment amount against outstanding balances.
When an administrator attempts to create a recurring payment that would result in an overpayment, the system now displays a warning notification. This proactive approach helps organizations maintain financial accuracy and saves both administrators and members from dealing with refund processes.
Deceased Indicator for Yahrzeit Observers
We’ve added a new visual indicator within the Yahrzeit management system to clearly identify which observers are deceased. This thoughtful enhancement helps administrators avoid potentially sensitive mistakes when sending Yahrzeit notifications or planning memorial events.
The indicator appears directly in the so-called Combo Bimah List (and corresponding spreadsheet export), making it immediately clear which family members should not be contacted. This feature reflects our understanding of the delicate nature of Yahrzeit observances and our commitment to helping organizations manage these important traditions with appropriate sensitivity.
Here’s a full article on this topic.
Customized Acknowledgement Email Recipients
Acknowledgement emails can now be directed to specific household members based on their family role. This granular control allows organizations to ensure that financial acknowledgements, donation receipts, and other important communications reach the appropriate family member.
Administrators can now configure email preferences based on family roles such as primary contact, Adult1, or other custom designations. This enhancement respects family dynamics while ensuring important documents reach the right individual.
Customizable Secondary Address Terminology
Understanding that different organizations use different terminology, we’ve added the ability to customize the phrase used for secondary addresses. Whether your organization prefers “Seasonal Address,” “Alternative Location,” or another term entirely, you can now configure the system to reflect your preferred terminology.
This simple but impactful change helps maintain consistency in your communications and creates a more familiar experience for both administrators and members.
Mass Attribute Assignment from Family Query
Finally, we’ve streamlined the process of managing family attributes by enabling mass attribute assignment directly from the family query screen. This powerful feature allows administrators to select multiple families based on search criteria and apply attributes to all selected records simultaneously.
This enhancement dramatically reduces the time required for bulk updates and ensures consistent attribute assignment across your database. Whether you’re tagging families for event invitations, special communications, or reporting purposes, this feature makes the process significantly more efficient.
These updates reflect our ongoing commitment to making ShalomCloud more intuitive and efficient. We continue to prioritize enhancements that directly address user feedback and streamline critical administrative functions.