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Early requests

Early requests let parishioners reserve a Mass intention for a date that is further out than your normal scheduling window — typically more than a year ahead. Sacramentum holds these requests in a queue, then promotes them to the regular intention workflow as their date moves into the standard window. This is useful for anniversary Masses and long-planned commemorations where families want to lock in the date well in advance.

The early requests page​

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Masses & Intentions → Early Requests. The page shows a table of every early request the parish has received, with filters for stage, payment status, and a search box for finding a specific requester or intention.

Each row displays the requested date, the location, the current stage, the requester's name and contact information, the intention text, the offering amount and currency, the payment status, and an actions menu. A badge in the sidebar shows how many requests are currently Ready so you can see at a glance when there is work to do.

Three buttons appear above the table:

  • Stage filter — narrow the list to Early, Ready, or Waitlisted requests.
  • Payment filter — narrow the list by payment status (paid, pending, refunded).
  • Add Early Request — opens a form to create one yourself, for walk-ins or phone calls.
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Early requests are a separate queue. They do not appear on the public Mass calendar or in your regular intention list until they are allocated. Once allocated, they become normal Mass intentions and follow the standard scheduling and bulletin workflow.

Enabling early requests​

Early requests are off by default. To turn them on:

  1. Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Settings.
  2. Open the Mass intentions section and find Early Mass Intention Requests.
  3. Toggle Enable early requests on.
  4. Set Maximum days ahead — the furthest date a parishioner may request. The standard window is 365 days; values above that open the early window. Many parishes use 730 (two years).
  5. Choose an Allocation policy: First-come, Lottery, or Manual selection. This controls how the queue is sorted when more than one request competes for the same date.
  6. Optionally toggle Require payment for public early requests off if you want the public form to accept reservations without an upfront offering.
  7. Click Save.

When the feature is on, parishioners can submit early requests through your public site, and the Early Requests tab appears in your admin sidebar with a badge for ready items.

Understanding the three stages​

Every early request moves through three stages:

  • Early — the request was submitted when its date was still beyond the standard window. It sits in the queue and waits.
  • Ready — the requested date has now moved into the standard scheduling window and the request is eligible to become a regular Mass intention.
  • Waitlisted — the request is held in reserve. Use this when a date already has more requests than slots, or when you want to defer a particular request without rejecting it.

A request begins in Early, automatically advances to Ready when its date enters the standard window, and only becomes a real Mass intention once you allocate it.

Reviewing an early request​

  1. Click the row for the request you want to review. The actions menu (three dots) opens.
  2. Select Edit to change the requested date, location, intention text, offering amount, or any contact field. Use this to correct typos or to record a clarification a parishioner shared by phone.
  3. Select View invoice if the request was paid online — the invoice opens in a side panel showing the offering, currency, and any receipt that has been issued.
  4. If the date is still far off and you simply want to acknowledge the request, no further action is needed. Sacramentum will move it to Ready automatically when the time comes.
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Use the search box to look up a request by requester name or by the deceased name in the intention text. This is the fastest way to confirm you have not already received the same intention from a relative.

Allocating a ready request​

When a request reaches the Ready stage, you decide whether to schedule it as a Mass intention.

  1. Filter the table by stage Ready.
  2. Select one or more rows using the checkboxes on the left. The table only allows selecting rows that are eligible for the action you have chosen.
  3. Click Allocate in the row actions menu — or, with multiple rows selected, use the bulk Allocate button at the top of the table.
  4. Sacramentum looks up available slots on the requested date and either creates a real Mass intention assigned to the next open slot or, if no slot exists, leaves the request in the queue with a notice.

If your parish uses the First-come policy, allocating one request may bump another to the waitlist — the queue order is shown in the Position column so you can see who comes next.

Waitlisting a request​

If a date is over-subscribed or you want to hold a request aside without rejecting it, click the row's actions menu and choose Waitlist. The request moves to the Waitlisted stage and is excluded from automatic allocation until you move it back. Bulk waitlist is available from the toolbar when multiple Ready rows are selected.

Rejecting a request​

Use Reject when a request cannot be honored — for example, when the requested date conflicts with a parish closure, when the intention text is inappropriate, or when the parishioner has asked to cancel.

  1. Open the actions menu and choose Reject.
  2. Enter a short reason. The reason is recorded on the request and is included in the rejection email sent to the requester.
  3. Click Reject to confirm.

If the request had a paid offering, the dialog also walks you through refunding the payment.

Recording payment​

If the public form was set to skip payment, or if the requester is paying in person, use the actions menu to open Checkout. Sacramentum groups all unpaid requests from the same requester so you can collect a single combined offering, generate one invoice, and issue one receipt — even if the family submitted several intentions across different dates.

What's next​