Birthdays & Occasions

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Occasion scan runs mondays · 8am and keeps the Coming Up dashboard fresh. Mondays — rolls the dates forward, reads your calendar for annual events you haven't named, redraws the countdown, and says so at least two weeks out.
• What is captured lands in the Occasions dataset, which lives at Data/Occasions in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Gift ideas dataset, which lives at Data/Gift Ideas in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Day plan dataset, which lives at Data/Day Plan in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Guest list dataset, which lives at Data/Guest List in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Group gifts dataset, which lives at Data/Group Gifts in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Thank-yous dataset, which lives at Data/Thank Yous in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Coming Up dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: next 30 days · what kind · spent, by person · on the register · spent so far · still to do · still to pay in · to thank · the year, month by month · the register · gift ideas bank · how this board works.

The wiring, in one breath: Occasion capture writes to Occasions · Occasion scan writes to Occasions · Occasion capture writes to Gift ideas · Gift shortlist writes to Gift ideas · Occasion planner writes to Day plan · Occasion planner writes to Guest list · Occasion planner writes to Thank-yous · Occasion planner writes to Gift ideas · Group gift writes to Group gifts · Group gift writes to Gift ideas · Day plan shown by Coming Up · Group gifts shown by Coming Up · Thank-yous shown by Coming Up · Occasions shown by Coming Up · Gift ideas shown by Coming Up · Coming Up kept fresh by Occasion scan · Occasion scan run by Clover · Clover holds Occasion capture · Clover holds Gift shortlist · Clover holds Occasion planner · Clover holds Group gift.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Put every date you can think of on the register the day you install — the name you'd use for it, whose it is, the day, and how much warning you want. The calendar, the count and the register fill from that first sitting; Next 30 days waits for the Monday scan, so run it from your Routines screen if you'd like the countdown drawn today.
• Drop a gift idea the moment it occurs to you — "Sam would love those running socks", "Maya said she wanted a plant for the new flat" — and Occasion capture files it in the bank against the person. That is what turns March into the reminder that arrives in September with something to hand.
• Read the Monday card, not the board, for what needs doing: it lands at least your lead time ahead with the date, the budget and every idea waiting for that person, and what you gave last time so it isn't repeated. Tell Clover how far ahead you like to be told and it becomes the default for every new date; if a card keeps arriving too late for the post, change that date's lead days by saying so. When a date you no longer keep comes round, say so and it is set aside, never deleted.
• Before you buy, ask Clover "what should I get Priya?" and Gift shortlist reads your own bank back — the ones inside the budget first, anything already bought and waiting, and what you gave last time so it isn't repeated. Say "bought the mug, $22" and the row moves on with the cost; Spent so far and Spent, by person only ever add up what you said you paid.
• Let the scan read your calendar rather than retyping it: an annual event there for someone on your People book goes on the register by itself; anyone not on the book is offered by name on the card, never added. Nothing is ever written back to the calendar unless you ask for a date to be put in.
• Putting a day on? Tell Clover the occasion and the jobs as they come to you — "book the table by Friday", "Ines is bringing the drinks" — and Occasion planner keeps them on the Day plan, with who is doing each and by when only if you said. Still to do on the board shows what is open, soonest first, and a tick there marks a job done, so you can work through it on the day without saying anything twice. Clover keeps your list; it does not tell you what a party needs.
• Say who is coming as the replies arrive — "Noor and her two are in, Lena is a maybe, I have not asked Omar yet" — and ask "who is coming?" whenever you like: you get the numbers added up with the working shown, the maybes and the ones still waiting by name, and who has not been asked. The asking is yours. Clover sends nothing to a guest; ask and it drafts the invitation or message for you to send, and it notes only what you tell it you have asked.
• Before you order something that has to be delivered, ask Clover for the last day to order it, and give the delivery time the seller states: "it takes eight working days and I need it by the 10th". Clover counts back from the day you need it, shows the count, and says what it cannot see, such as bank holidays and the seller's cut-off. It never looks up a shop or a delivery time of its own. The date goes on the gift idea, or on the job, and the Monday card repeats it beside the idea.
• Chipping in on a present? Say who is in and what each is putting in, or "split equally, sixty between four", and Group gift keeps a row per person and adds it up whenever you ask: what the shares come to, what has come in, who is still to pay, and whether it covers the price you gave. Tick people paid on Still to pay in. Clover holds no money and sends no message asking for it (ask and it drafts one for you to send), and only your own share ever counts as what you spent.
• After the day, tell Clover who gave you what — "Noor a scarf, Ben a bottle of wine, Ines cooked all day" — and To thank keeps the list, oldest first, for you to work through and tick as you write each one. Clover keeps the list; ask and it drafts the note, the card or the message for you to send.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, datasets and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• How much warning you want, per date or as a default — "give me a month for Sam", "two weeks is fine for everyone else".
• A budget per occasion, or none at all — a blank is never chased.
• When the Occasion scan runs, or pausing it and keeping the register by hand.
• Whether a date should ever go in your calendar — it is added only when you ask, and you can say never.
• Who and what never belongs on the register, as a standing preference the scan respects when it reads the calendar.
• The register and the bank are yours to edit: a date set aside brought back, an idea's estimate corrected, what something really cost.
• Who is doing each job and by when: blank means you, and a job with no day has none, because nothing is dated on your behalf. The Day plan, Guest list, Group gifts and Thank-yous records are yours to edit by hand too.
• Whether you want a guest list, a group present or a thank-you list kept at all. Say "never keep guest lists" once and it becomes a standing preference Clover respects.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Installing ends with "Meet Clover" and a short conversation, not a form. Clover starts from what 1Presence already knows: the birthdays and anniversaries you have mentioned before, and any birthday list or contacts export in your vault. It offers what it finds for you to confirm and asks only for the gaps. If Keep in Touch is installed, Clover also offers the people already on your People book — a tap-to-answer panel of names, the most recently in touch first — and asks which have a date you'd like kept, so nobody is asked for twice; with no book yet, it simply asks who comes to mind first. Then each occasion in turn: what it is, the day, how much warning you want (fourteen days unless you say), a budget if you like, and the year it began if you know it. Each goes on the register as you say it, and a person not yet on the book goes on it first. Someone whose day you do not know still goes on, with the day left blank, and Clover says where it might be found.
2. Nothing in that conversation asks for your calendar. Near the end Clover says once that the Monday scan reads your calendar for annual events you haven't named and asks for that access at its first run — and that you can run it straight away from the Routines screen if you want the countdown drawn today. The calendar, the count and the register are already drawn from what you said.
3. Stop whenever you like: the dates you can think of are a complete first sitting. Whatever is still missing, no dates yet or a person whose day you did not know, waits on the Kit page with a way back to Clover, and Clover offers it once the next time you talk. Tell it a part does not apply, or that you have finished setting up, and it stops asking. Until the first occasion is on the register the scan stands down and leaves one card inviting you back rather than running over an empty register.
4. After that the scan runs every Monday at eight: it moves any date that has passed forward a year, reads your calendar for annual events and adds the ones for people on your book, redraws Next 30 days, and leaves at most one card a week — the occasions now inside their lead time with the budget, the ideas in the bank and the last day to order any you gave a delivery time for, and at most three calendar dates you might want kept — or nothing, when nothing is coming. It reads your calendar and never writes to it.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

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