Manifold can remind your team when a customer has a birthday or anniversary, send them a congratulations text, and offer them a special they can use on their next invoice.

It works from the Birthday and Anniversary dates on the customer record, so the more customers you have dates for, the more it does. Add them on the customer form (Customers, open the customer, Edit).

The dashboard card

The "Birthdays & Anniversaries" card on the Dashboard lists every customer whose birthday or anniversary is today, using your store's own date. Anniversaries show how many years it has been.

  • Click Send next to a name to text that customer. The message opens first so you can change the wording, then click Send.
  • Click Send All at the top of the card to text everyone at once. A window shows the message for each occasion ({first_name} fills in for each customer), how many texts will go out, and how many are skipped. Nothing is sent until you click Confirm & send.
  • A customer who has not opted in to texts (or has no phone number) is still listed, with the Send button greyed out and the reason beside it.
  • Once a customer has been texted, their row reads "Sent" with the time and who sent it, and they cannot be texted again that day, even from another computer.
  • On a day with nobody, the card says "No birthdays or anniversaries today."

Texts go out on your shop's texting line and land in the customer's conversation in the Inbox like any other text.

The card needs the Communications module and texting set up. It shows for anyone with the "Send birthday & anniversary texts" permission, which is on by default for owners, managers, and salespeople and off for installers and installation managers. You can change it per employee.

Settings

Owners and store managers set this up under Settings > Birthdays & Anniversaries.

Text Messages: the wording for the Birthday text and the Anniversary text. You can use {first_name}, {last_name}, {store_name}, and {special}. {special} becomes the special's description, and is left out when no special is on. "Reset to default" puts the original wording back.

Special: tick "Offer a special for birthdays and anniversaries" to give customers something around their day. One special covers both occasions.

  • Type: Percent off the invoice, Dollars off the invoice, or Wording only (staff honor it by hand, for example a free add-on).
  • Lasts (days): counted from the birthday or anniversary itself, including that day. A 30-day special from September 16 runs through October 15.
  • Description: what the customer reads in the text and what staff see on the invoice. You can use {special_ends} (the last day, like "October 15") and {special_amount} (like "15%" or "$25.00").
  • How many invoices can use it: "One invoice, then it is used up" or "Every invoice until it ends".

Using the special on an invoice

Every customer whose birthday or anniversary falls inside the special's window is flagged, whether or not they were texted. The flag shows as a pink pill at the top of the customer page, and as a banner under the customer on an invoice or estimate. Both say when the special ends, whether the customer was texted, and (for a one-invoice special) which invoice already used it.

On the invoice, click Apply on the banner. It adds a discount line such as "Birthday special (9/16/2026): 15% off". Anyone who can create invoices can apply it; the apply-discounts permission is not needed, because the shop already approved the special in Settings. Percent and dollar specials come off the whole invoice before tax, like any other discount. A Wording only special adds a $0.00 line so the invoice records that it was honored.

Applied it by mistake? Click Unapply on the banner (or Remove on the line) and save. The special is available again. It also comes back if the invoice is voided or an estimate carrying it is marked lost. A special applied to an estimate moves to the invoice when the estimate is converted.

A special cannot be taken off a posted invoice, because posted invoices are locked. Refund it instead.