Birthdays, Anniversaries and Yahrtzeits

The Dashboard includes three widgets that help you keep track of upcoming life-cycle events for the people in your database: Upcoming Birthdays, Upcoming Anniversaries, and Upcoming Yahrtzeits. Each widget shows a short list directly on the Dashboard, and a View All link opens a full page where you can filter, send emails one at a time or in bulk, and export the list to a spreadsheet.

All three widgets work the same way and share the same controls. Once you learn one, you know them all. The main difference is what is being tracked and which calendar (Hebrew or English) is used by default.

The Three Widgets

Upcoming Yahrtzeits

Lists deceased members whose yahrtzeit is coming up within the time window you choose, along with the people who should be notified.

Each row represents a deceased member. Click the row to expand it and see the list of notification recipients (typically family members or others who asked to be notified).
The envelope icon next to each recipient sends them the yahrtzeit notification email.
You can expand or collapse all rows at once with the toolbar buttons.
By default the widget looks ahead 30 days using the Hebrew calendar.

What You Can Do From the Widget

Sending an Email to One Person

Click the small envelope icon on any row.
A window opens with the email already filled in using the letter set up in Settings. You can review or edit the message, then send it.
If you have already sent this person an email for this year's event, the icon turns green and its tooltip changes to "Already sent (click to resend)". Hovering over a blue icon shows "Send birthday email" (or the equivalent for anniversaries / yahrtzeits).
Clicking a green icon will ask you to confirm before resending.
If a person has no email address on file, no envelope icon will appear for that row.

Adjusting How Far Ahead You Look

Each widget has a setting (gear icon in the corner) where you can change:

Days Ahead — how many days into the future to look (1 to 365). 30 days is the default.
Calculation Calendar — whether the widget looks at upcoming Hebrew or English dates.
Display Calendar — whether the dates shown in the list are formatted as Hebrew or English.

Your settings are remembered the next time you log in.

Opening the Full List

The widget shows the first few results so it doesn't take over your Dashboard. To see everyone, click View All at the bottom of the widget. This opens a full-page version with more controls and the ability to send emails in bulk.

The Full List Page (View All)

Clicking View All on any of the three widgets opens a dedicated page with a full, paginated list and a richer set of tools at the top.

Filtering the List

Days — type a number to look further ahead or narrow your view.
Hebrew / English toggle — switch the calendar used to find and display upcoming dates.
Sorting — click any column header (Name, Date, Next Occurrence) to sort. Click again to reverse the order.
Pagination — choose 25, 50, or 100 rows per page using the controls in the top right.

Sending Emails in Bulk

From the full list page you can send the same letter to many people at once. There are two ways to do this:

Send All

Click the Send All button.
A preview window opens listing every person in the current view who has an email address and has not yet been sent the letter.
Review the recipients, edit the letter if needed, and send. The system queues the messages and shows you progress.
People who were already sent an email for this year's event are skipped automatically. You can choose to include them if you want to resend.

Select Mode (Pick Who to Send To)

Click the Select button. A checkbox appears on every row that has an email address.
Check the boxes next to the people you want to email. The button at the top changes to Send Selected (N) as you go.
Click Send Selected to send only to the people you picked.
Click Cancel to leave Select Mode without sending.

Yahrtzeit Bulk Send Limit

Because yahrtzeit notifications usually need to be timely, the Send All button on the Yahrtzeits page is only available when the Days filter is set to 30 or fewer. If you set a longer range, the button is disabled and a small note explains the limit. Select mode still works at any range, so you can pick exactly who to email.

Exporting to CSV

The Export CSV button in the top-right downloads the current list (with all current filters applied) as a spreadsheet file. Use this for printing, mail-merge, or sharing the list outside the system.

How the System Tracks "Already Sent"

Why some rows look different

If you have already sent someone a birthday, anniversary, or yahrtzeit email for this year's event, the envelope icon for their row appears in green instead of blue.
Hovering the icon also tells you the status: blue icons read "Send (event) email", green icons read "Already sent (click to resend)".
Clicking a green icon prompts you to confirm before resending, so you don't accidentally double-send.
"Already sent" is tracked per person, per event, per year. Next year the icon resets back to blue and the system treats them as not-yet-sent.
Bulk Send All automatically skips people whose icon is green, unless you explicitly choose to include them.

The Letter Templates

Each of the three event types uses its own letter, set up in Settings. The letter controls the subject line, the body of the email, and any merge fields like the recipient's name or the event date.

Editing Before Sending

When you click an envelope icon, the email opens in an editor before it's sent.
You can change the subject, edit the body, or adjust the recipient.
Edits made in the editor only affect that one email. To change the letter for everyone going forward, update it in Settings.

Tips & Best Practices

Pick the Right Calendar

For birthdays and yahrtzeits, the Hebrew calendar is usually the right choice so the email goes out on the actual Hebrew anniversary.
For wedding anniversaries, most users keep the English calendar.
You can always toggle between the two on the full list page without changing your saved widget settings.

Build a Weekly Routine

Set the widget to look 7 or 14 days ahead and check it once a week.
Use Send All to handle the whole batch in one click, or Select mode if you want to review each one individually.
Export to CSV at the start of each month if you also want to send physical cards.

If a Person is Missing

Birthdays only appear for members who have a date of birth on file.
Anniversaries only appear for families with a wedding date entered.
Yahrtzeits appear for members marked as deceased. The people who get notified are pulled from the deceased member's Relationships list — only relationships with the Notify checkbox checked are included.
If someone is missing, open their contact record and add or correct the relevant info.

Automatic Sending

Hands-Off Option

If you don't need to review or edit each email individually, the system can send these notifications for you automatically on a daily schedule. This is configured in Settings.

Once enabled, the system checks each day for upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, and yahrtzeits and sends the corresponding letter on its own — no clicks required.
You can still open the widget or View All page at any time to see who has been sent and to send additional emails manually.
Automatic sends are tracked the same way as manual sends, so the envelope icon turns green and the bulk Send All won't double up.

Outbox vs. Send Immediately

Whether emails go out the moment you click Send or are queued for review depends on a setting in your CMS:

Outbox mode — emails are placed in the Outbox so you (or another user) can review and release them in a batch. Useful when you want a final check before anything actually leaves the system.
Send immediately — emails are delivered the moment you confirm, with no Outbox stop in between.

This setting affects single sends, bulk Send All, Send Selected, and the automatic daily sender. It can be changed in Settings.

Quick Reference

You want to...	Do this
Send a birthday email to one person	Click the blue envelope icon on their row.
Resend an email I already sent	Click the green envelope icon and confirm.
See more than the few rows on the widget	Click View All at the bottom of the widget.
Send emails to everyone in the list at once	On the full list page, click Send All.
Send emails to only some people	Click Select, check the boxes you want, then click Send Selected.
Look further ahead than 30 days	Type a larger number into the Days field on the widget or the full list page.
Switch between Hebrew and English dates	Click the Hebrew / English toggle in the toolbar.
Print or share the list	Click Export CSV in the top-right of the full list page.
See who gets notified for a yahrtzeit	Click the row to expand it and view all notification recipients.

Article ID: 3816, Created: April 28 at 2:26 PM, Modified: April 28 at 2:26 PM