Glossary

Some of these are Hebrew terms, some are ordinary words KehillaHQ uses in a specific way. Where a word means something particular here, that meaning is given.

​

Jewish terms

Adar is a month in the Hebrew calendar. In a leap year it becomes two months, Adar I and Adar II, which matters for yahrzeits. See Leap years and Adar. Hebrew calendar is the lunisolar calendar used for Jewish observance. Its dates do not line up with the secular calendar, and the difference is why a Hebrew-date anniversary lands on a different secular date each year. Kehilla means community or congregation. Yahrzeit is the anniversary of a death, observed each year. Literally “year time” in Yiddish. Yizkor is the memorial service held on certain festivals.

​

Terms in KehillaHQ

Commitment is what a household has agreed to give for a dues year. Distinct from a contribution, which is money that actually arrived. See Commitments. Contribution is any recorded payment: dues, a fund donation, cash in an envelope. The whole list is your ledger. Dues year is your congregation’s financial year. It is named for the year it ends in, so September 2025 to August 2026 is the 2026 dues year. See How dues years work. Fund is a category a donation is recorded against, such as Building or Kiddush. See Funds. Household is the main unit of your directory: a family or a single person. Dues and payments attach here. See How households and members fit together. Inherited tag is a tag a member shows because their household has it, rather than because it was applied to them. See Tags. Lead time is how many days before an observance a yahrzeit reminder is sent. The default is seven. Member is a person in your congregation, belonging to one household. Not the same as a user. Observance is when your community marks a yahrzeit publicly: the day itself, the Shabbat before, or the Shabbat after. See When observance falls. Primary contact is the member of a household you would contact first. Has to be someone in that household. Remembrance calendar is whether a yahrzeit follows the Hebrew or secular calendar. See Hebrew and secular dates. Role has two unrelated meanings, which is worth watching for:

• A user’s role is their permission level: Admin, Clergy, Staff, and so on. See Roles and permissions.
• A member’s role in the household is a family role: Adult, Child, or Dependent adult. It affects Fair Share dues brackets.

Sustaining Pledge is what dues are called under the voluntary model, where households pledge what they can rather than owing a set amount. See Choosing a dues model. Tag is your own label for grouping households or members, such as Board or Choir. To file is the inbox holding payments that have arrived but not yet been categorised. See The To file inbox. User is someone who signs in to administer KehillaHQ. Not the same as a member. Many people are one and not the other.

​

Statuses

Member status is one of Active, Inactive, Deceased, or Archived. See Member status. Household status is Active or Inactive, and is worked out from the members rather than set by you. A household where everyone is deceased is shown as a memorial household. Dues status is Paid, Partial, Unpaid, or Overdue, and is worked out from the commitment, the payments, and the due date. Under the voluntary model, Unpaid appears as Open and nothing is ever Overdue.