Welcome to HuddleCard — the easiest way to celebrate the people you care about most. This guide covers everything you need to know, whether you're an account admin setting things up or a team member signing a card.
To set up HuddleCard for your team, head to the registration page and fill in a few details:
After registering, you'll receive a verification email. Click the link to confirm your account, and you're official.
During signup, you'll pick one of two plans:
| Free | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| People | Up to 5 | Unlimited |
| Birthday cards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Occasion cards | ✓ | ✓ |
| Photos, GIFs, and video | ✓ | ✓ |
| Slack integration | ✓ | ✓ |
| Price | $0 forever | $2.50/active user/month |
| Free trial | — | 30 days, no credit card required |
You can always upgrade later if you start on Free, or downgrade if your team is small enough.
Once you're logged in to the admin dashboard, here's the quickest path to your first card:
That's it. HuddleCard handles the reminders, the collecting, and the delivery. You just add the people.
People are the heart of HuddleCard. Each person represents a team member who can sign cards for others and receive cards on their own birthday or special occasions.
From the admin dashboard, go to People and click Add Person. You'll need:
If you have a lot of people to add, you can upload a CSV or Excel file (.csv, .xls, or .xlsx).
Your file should have these columns in order:
| Column | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| First name | Yes | |
| Last name | Yes | |
| Yes | Must be unique within your company | |
| Is manager | Yes | Y or N |
| Birthday | No | Use your company's date format (e.g., 15/03 or 03/15). Year is optional. |
| Title | No | Job title |
You can download a template from the import page to get the format right.
Tips:
If your team is on Slack, you can sync your workspace members directly into HuddleCard. See the Slack Integration section for details.
Click on any person to edit their details. You can update their name, email, birthday, title, group, profile picture, and tags.
To remove people, select them and use the bulk delete option. Removing a person does not delete their past card messages — those are kept for the recipients.
People can be assigned a Manager or Default role. This is primarily used to establish team relationships.
Groups help you organize your team. For smaller companies, one group will do. Everyone knows everyone. For larger companies, grouping people by departments, offices, or project teams might make sense. Every person belongs to one group. When you first create your account, a default group is set up automatically.
From the admin dashboard, go to Groups to see all your groups and how many people are in each.
Select one or more people from the People page and use the Move action to transfer them to a different group.
HuddleCard automates the entire birthday card process:
No chasing people. No forgetting birthdays. No awkward "sorry this is late" cards.
Here's what happens each week:
All notifications are sent around 8am and based on your company's time zone.
When it's time to sign someone's card, you'll receive a link — either by email or through Slack. Click the link and you'll see a simple form:
Hit send, and you'll see a little confetti celebration. Your message is saved.
If you change your mind, you can come back to the same link and edit your message before the card is delivered.
On your birthday, you'll get an email or Slack message (if connected) with a link to view your card. Click View Your Card to see the full card in your browser, where you can also like and comment on individual messages.
A card includes:
When signing a card, you can mark your message as private. Private messages are only visible to the recipient — they won't appear when the card is shared or viewed by others.
The link that a recipient uses to view their card contains a special code that automatically unlocks private messages. This keeps sensitive or personal notes between you and them.
When signing any card, you can attach media to make your message extra special:
If you are signing from your desktop machine and don't have a camera attached, you can also scan a QR code to record from your phone. All attachments appear alongside your message on the final card.
After a card has been delivered, the fun doesn't stop. From the team portal, everyone can:
The message author gets notified when someone likes or comments on their message.
The scheduler is what makes birthday cards automatic. When enabled, HuddleCard checks for upcoming birthdays each week and:
All timing is based on your company's time zone.
From the admin dashboard, you can turn the scheduler on or off. When the scheduler is off, no birthday reminders or cards will be sent automatically. Occasion cards are not affected — they run on their own schedule.
Birthday cards are automatic — HuddleCard sends them based on the dates you've entered. But sometimes you need a card for something else: a promotion, a farewell, a new baby, a work anniversary. That's what occasion cards are for.
Occasion cards are created by an admin for a specific person and a specific occasion. You choose when the team should start signing and when the card should be delivered.
HuddleCard comes with a library of beautifully designed card types:
| Card Type | Best For |
|---|---|
| Birthday | Extra birthday celebrations beyond the automated ones |
| Congratulations | Achievements, milestones, good news |
| Promotion | Career advancement |
| Work Anniversary | Celebrating years of service |
| Welcome | New team members |
| Farewell | People moving on |
| Retirement | Career celebrations |
| Baby | New arrivals |
| Marriage | Weddings and engagements |
| Get Well | Recovery wishes |
| Sympathy | Difficult times |
| Encouragement | Support and motivation |
| Thank You | Gratitude |
| Custom | Anything else — use your own image and message |
Each card type has its own header image and default greeting, but you can customize everything.
From the admin dashboard, go to Occasion Cards and create a new card:
Once saved, HuddleCard takes care of the rest — notifying the team, collecting messages, and delivering the card on schedule.
Don't see the perfect image for your occasion? You have options:
Images are automatically cropped to fit the card header.
Signing an occasion card works exactly like signing a birthday card. Team members receive a link, write their message, optionally add media, and submit. The same 255-character limit and attachment options apply.
When the delivery time arrives, HuddleCard sends a notification to the recipient by email and Slack (if connected). Like birthday cards, the recipient can view the full card online, and the team can like and comment on messages.
Tags are flexible labels you can attach to people. Unlike groups — where each person belongs to exactly one — a person can have as many tags as you like.
This makes tags great for cross-cutting situations: tag people by team, discipline, or location, and the same person can show up in all of them. They're also handy when only a few people are in on something — tag just them and send a card without looping in the whole team.
Tags only apply to occasion cards, where you choose which tagged people are invited to sign.
You can assign tags when editing individual people or in bulk from the People page. Create new tags from the Tags section of the admin dashboard.
The team portal is where your team members go to see their cards, sign new ones, and manage their profile. It's separate from the admin dashboard — no password required.
Team members log in with just their email — no password needed. Here's how:
If you're connected to Slack, you can also log in instantly from the HuddleCard app home in Slack — just click the Team Dashboard button.
If your email is associated with more than one company, you'll be asked to choose which one to log into.
The dashboard is your home page in the team portal. Here you'll see:
If you're worried you've missed an email or a Slack message, don't stress, we've got you covered. The home tab shows any open cards that can be signed.
The Birthdays page lists everyone in your team with their birthday, photo, and title. You can see at a glance whose birthday is coming up and whether you've already signed their card.
The Your Cards page shows every card you've received. Click any card to view it in full, with all messages, likes, and comments.
The Messages page shows comments and likes on your messages. It's a quick way to see who's responded to what you wrote, with unread indicators so nothing gets missed.
The My Contributions page gives you quick access to see all the cards you've signed.
From the team portal, go to Profile Settings to manage your personal information:
You can upload a profile picture that appears on your messages, your profile, and throughout the app. After uploading, you can crop and adjust the image to get it just right.
To remove your picture, there's a delete option on the settings page. If you're connected via Slack, your Slack profile picture may be used automatically.
You can control two key notification settings:
Every email from HuddleCard includes a link to manage these preferences at the bottom.
If your team uses Slack, connecting it to HuddleCard makes everything smoother. To set it up:
That's it — your Slack workspace is now connected.
Once Slack is connected:
From the Integrations page, you can see the sync status, how many users were created, updated, or skipped, and when the last sync ran.
Your team can access HuddleCard directly from Slack:
Admins also see a separate Admin Dashboard button (requires their admin login).
When Slack is connected, team members with a Slack account receive notifications there instead of (or in addition to) email:
| Notification | When | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Upcoming birthdays | Weekly | Slack DM |
| Birthday card delivery | On the birthday | Both Slack and email |
| Occasion card to sign | When card is created | Slack DM |
| Occasion card delivery | At delivery time | Both Slack and email |
Critical notifications (card delivery) are sent through both Slack and email to make sure nothing is missed.
You can disconnect Slack at any time from the Integrations page. This removes the connection but keeps all the people that were synced — no data is lost.
From Company Profile, you can manage:
The Account page lets you manage who has admin access:
Pending invitations can be cancelled before they're accepted.
On the Account page, you can update your admin email address, contact name, and password. Your email is your login — make sure it's one you check regularly.
From Company Profile, admins can enable or disable several features:
HuddleCard offers two plans:
Free — perfect for small teams of up to 5 people. All features included, no time limit, no credit card.
Pro — $2.50 per active user per month. Unlimited people, same great features. Starts with a 30-day free trial — no credit card required.
You're only charged for people who actually participate. An active user is someone who either signed a card or received a card during the billing month. If someone is on your team but no cards involved them that month, they don't count.
When you choose the Pro plan, you get a full 30-day trial with no credit card required. During the trial, everything works exactly as it would on a paid subscription. You'll see your trial end date on the billing page.
From Settings → Billing, you can:
If you have a promotion code, you can apply it from the billing page. Enter your code and click Apply — the discount will be reflected on your next invoice.
If your team has 5 or fewer people, you can downgrade from Pro to Free at any time from the billing page. Your subscription will be canceled and you'll continue with full access on the Free plan.
If you have more than 5 people, you'll need to remove some before downgrading.
The admin dashboard includes activity logs so you can see exactly what's happening with your cards.
View the history of all birthday cards:
Click on any card to see its full details.
Same as birthday logs, but for occasion cards. You can see:
HuddleCard sends several types of emails, all beautifully designed and mobile-friendly:
| Who Receives It | When | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | New team members | When they're added to HuddleCard |
| Upcoming birthdays | Team members | Weekly, for birthdays next week |
| Birthday card | The birthday person | On their birthday |
| Occasion card to sign | Team members | When an occasion card is ready for signing |
| Occasion card | The recipient | At the scheduled delivery time |
| Comment alert | Message authors | When someone comments on their message |
| Like alert | Message authors | When someone likes their message |
Every email includes a link at the bottom to manage your notification preferences. You can opt out of signing reminders or birthday card delivery independently.
If you're connected via Slack, some notifications may come through Slack instead of email. Card delivery emails are always sent regardless — they're too important to miss.
Can I edit my message after signing a card?
Yes — just click the same signing link and you'll see your existing message, ready to edit. You can even sign a card that's already been delivered.
What happens if someone doesn't sign a card?
Nothing bad! The card is delivered with whatever messages have been collected. There's no minimum — even one heartfelt message makes someone's day. If no one signs a birthday card, it's still delivered with a thoughtful message. If no one signs an occasion card, nothing is delivered.
Can the birthday person see who signed their card before it's delivered? No. The card is kept secret until delivery. Only the admin can see the progress in the activity logs.
Can someone signing a card see contributions from other members of the team?
No. The final card is for the eyes of the birthday person only. It's up to them whether or not to share their card. Only admins can see the progress in the activity logs.
What if someone doesn't have a birthday on file? They can still sign other people's cards and receive occasion cards. They just won't get an automatic birthday card until their birthday is added. Team members can add their own birthday from their profile settings.
Can I send a card to the whole team at once? Occasion cards are sent to one recipient at a time, but you can create multiple cards quickly. Birthday cards are always individual.
What counts as an "active user" for billing? Anyone who signed a card or received a card in a given billing month. People who are on your team but didn't participate in any cards that month are not counted.
Can I use HuddleCard without Slack? Absolutely. Slack is optional. Without it, everything works through email and the web portal.
Is my data secure?
Yes. We do our best to store your card messages securely. We also store as little data about your team as possible. We don't even collect their birth year. Access to cards is controlled through unique, hashed links. Private messages require an unlock code. Payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe — HuddleCard never sees your credit card details.
How do I export my people list? From the admin dashboard, go to People, select a group, and use the export option to download a CSV file.
What if I have more questions?
Reach out to our support team — we're real humans who actually enjoy helping.