Synagogue Annual Billing: The Manual Steps in the Dues Cycle, and Which Ones a Call Can Fix

What does annual billing involve at a synagogue?

Running the statements takes one click. Getting every household billed correctly, and getting the households that don't respond to act before the High Holidays, takes weeks. ShulCloud's own "10 Commandments of Annual Billing" guide is a good picture of how much of the dues cycle is still done by hand: reconciling billing types after marriages, marking members "resigned," setting lapsed accounts to "Unspecified," and building worksheets of membership levels.

It matters more than it looks. Dues cover somewhere between "45 percent all the way to 85 percent" of synagogue costs (Etz Hayim). Annual billing is not an admin task; it is most of the budget.

What are the steps in the annual dues cycle?

Congregations vary, but a typical cycle runs like this:

1. Set the dues model and amounts for the year, usually a board decision.
2. Update household records: marriages, divorces, deaths, moves and children aging into their own membership.
3. Mark status changes: who resigned, who lapsed, who is "Unspecified."
4. Build the worksheets of who is billed at which membership level.
5. Run the statements. ShulCloud's batch billing lets admins "issue multiple invoices or charges simultaneously" (ShulCloud help centre).
6. Send the renewal and High Holiday seat forms. Anshe Emet posted its 2026-27 renewal form in May.
7. Send payment reminders by email.
8. Follow up with the households that haven't responded.
9. Handle hardship and reduced-dues requests privately.
10. Release High Holiday seats to members who are current, against a deadline.

Which steps are still done by hand?

Billing systems automate the statement and the reminder email. Almost everything around them is still manual:

• Household reconciliation: merging two members into one household after a marriage, or splitting one after a divorce.
• Status marking: flagging accounts "resigned," or setting a lapsed account to "Unspecified" because nobody knows whether the family is still part of the community.
• Membership-level worksheets: tracking who pays at which level under which model.
• Record hygiene: who is still a member, who has moved, who has died. The office usually learns this from a bounced envelope or a phone call it happened to receive.
• Following up on silence: the households that got the statement and did nothing. This is the step that takes the most hours and gets done least.

How does your dues model change the billing conversation?

There is no single dues conversation, because there is no single dues model. Each one needs a different call:

• Fixed dues: a published amount per household, with an abatement process for families who can't pay it.
• Fair share: a percentage of income, and even the guidance disagrees: the URJ suggests "1.5-2.0%" while eJewishPhilanthropy suggests "between 1% and 1.5%."
• Voluntary commitment: each household chooses what to give. The call asks what they plan to commit, not what they owe.
• Sustaining amount: the synagogue publishes what a household really costs. Temple Beth Ahm in New Jersey set $2,910 for 2025-26; Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown recommends $3,300.
• Community commitment: dues and religious school tuition bundled into one pledge.

A voluntary-commitment call is a completely different conversation from "your dues of $2,910 are due." The script has to match the model, or members hear a bill where the board meant an invitation.

Which steps can a phone call fix?

The call cannot set your dues model, but it can take on the steps that eat the most office time:

• Following up on silence: every household that ignored the statement gets a call, a voicemail in your director's own voice, and a text with your own payment link.
• Confirming "Unspecified" and lapsed records: the call simply asks whether the family is still part of the community, and your office gets the answer.
• Finding moves, deaths and wrong numbers: they surface on the call and land on the morning list, so records get fixed before the next statement run.
• Surfacing hardship early: a member who can't manage dues says so on the call, weeks before the seat deadline, and your director gets the name.
• Getting forms back: the renewal form and the seat reservation form, with the link texted after the call.
• Hearing commitments: for voluntary-commitment households, the call records what each household plans to give.

We connect to your ShulCloud, ShulSuite or Rakefet member list during setup, so the calls start from the same records your statements came from.

What should the morning list show your office?

The point of the calls is a list your staff can act on in minutes, sorted by what each household needs next:

• Paid or renewing online: nothing to do but check it against the ledger.
• Promised to pay by a date: a gentle reminder text on that date, not another call.
• Wants a payment plan: goes to whoever sets up plans in your office.
• Asked about reduced dues: goes privately to your executive director by name.
• Resigning or moving away: goes to the membership chair, with the reason if the member gave one.
• A death or an illness in the family: goes straight to your rabbi.
• Wrong number or remove me: fixed or removed the same day.

Which steps should stay with your office and clergy?

• Setting the dues model and amounts: a board decision, not a calling decision.
• Editing the member record: the call gives your office the facts; your staff decide how to record them.
• Reduced-dues and hardship decisions: these belong to your executive director or rabbi, by name.
• A death in the family: the call flags it immediately so a person from the synagogue reaches out.
• Anything legal: the Reform responsa committee holds that congregations should "engage in legal action only as the absolutely last resort, when all other available remedies have been tried and have failed."

When should each step happen for the 5788 cycle?

Dates are Diaspora dates from Hebcal. The High Holidays fall about three weeks later in 2027 than in 2026, because 5787 is a Hebrew leap year.

• March to April 2027: set the dues model, add a consent line to the renewal form, and register your texting number.
• May to June 2027: renewal and seat reservation forms go out.
• July to mid-August 2027: statements and reminder emails.
• Mid-August to 1 October 2027: calls to every household that hasn't responded. This is the most valuable calling window of the year.
• 1 October 2027, afternoon: last calls. Rosh Hashana 5788 begins at sundown that evening, and no member should get a call after candle-lighting.
• After Sukkot: reconcile who paid, who arranged a plan, and who needs a personal call from clergy.

What does a dues follow-up call sound like?

• Who is calling, first: your synagogue's name, in your members' own word for it: shul, temple or synagogue.
• Why, in one sentence: renewing membership and reserving seats for the holidays.
• An easy next step: "Can I text you the link to renew?" or "Would a payment plan help?"
• Belonging, not a balance: "When stewardship is strong, pledge reminders feel like participation in progress. However, when stewardship is neglected, pledge reminders feel transactional" (Campaign Counsel). The call talks about the year ahead, not an amount overdue.
• No collections words: never "past due," "final notice" or "account."

What happens when a member says they can't pay?

The ask stops, and a person takes over. This is how the Reform movement's own rabbinic ruling frames the whole process. CCAR Responsa 5764.1 describes making High Holiday admission and similar benefits "contingent upon payment of financial obligations or the making of acceptable arrangements to do so" as "less difficult, divisive, and contentious than the initiation of legal action" (CCAR Responsa).

• "Acceptable arrangements" is the hardship path: a reduced amount or a payment plan satisfies the obligation.
• The call routes it by name: dues policies already say "please call Executive Director ... or Rabbi ... to discuss alternative arrangements" (Ansche Chesed).
• Dues asks stop for good for that member, while event invitations continue.
• A caveat: CCAR is the Reform rabbinate. Conservative and Orthodox congregations should confirm the approach with their own rabbi.

Billing emails vs. volunteer calls vs. a calling service

Most synagogues already use the first two. Here is what each one covers in the weeks after the statement goes out.

How much is one recovered household worth?

• Dues per adult: "$1,420 dues each" at Har Zion Temple; "Individual Adult - $2,140 / 2 Adults - $3,650" at Anshe Emet.
• Sustaining amounts: $2,910 at Temple Beth Ahm and a recommended $3,300 at Temple Beth Abraham.
• The cost side: member calling runs on the $60/month plan with 220 minutes included, then $0.20 a minute. Most congregations add minutes for the High Holiday month only.
• Measure by result: renewals made, plans arranged, hardship found and records fixed, not calls placed.

What should you add to the renewal form this year?

A summary of public regulatory material, not legal advice. Talk to TCPA counsel before your first campaign.

• A consent line beside the phone number: AI and prerecorded voice are both regulated under the TCPA (FCC 24-17), and most member numbers are mobiles, which need consent.
• The right number: ask for a mobile and a home number separately, and which one to call.
• A texting opt-in: carriers have blocked unregistered business texting since 1 December 2024, and your registration reviewer will want to see how members agreed.
• A plain opt-out promise: anyone who asks not to be called is removed the same day.

For what is permitted when members fall behind, see Synagogue Dues Collection: What's Actually Permitted, and What Isn't. For the follow-up after the renewal email, see Synagogue Membership Renewal Reminders: How to Follow Up When the Email Is Ignored.