# Signals

> Watches you set on what people write and which gifts arrive, so a quiet pattern across twenty results becomes a line on Monday's Overview.

For: Pastor, Admin, Owner
Canonical: https://giftwell.app/docs/signals

![Signals: the watches this church keeps, each with its window, threshold and current count.](/docs-img/signals.png)

## What a watch is

A watch is a question you want asked of every new result, over a window of time, with a line it has to cross before it counts as a signal.

- **Words or tags.** Results whose free-text answers mention any of these words, or that your team tagged with these tags. *grief, loss, widow* over 60 days, threshold 5.
- **A gift.** Results with this gift in the lead band. *Teaching* over 90 days, threshold 8.
- **A step.** When the count crosses the line, what to do, in your words: start a group, ask the pastor to preach on it, call these people.

Signals that crossed their line show on the Overview and in the digest, with the count and the step.

## Calendar and events

A watch can be tied to a **calendar**: a season or a date range, so *hospitality* counts only around Easter. If you give GiftWell an **events feed** (an iCal, RSS or WordPress feed from your church's site), signals can be read alongside what your church was doing that month, and the Overview shows the events beside the week's results.

## What a signal is not

It never names a person on the Overview or in the digest; the count links to the Signals page, where pastors and up can see who. Words are matched against what people wrote on the assessment only, never against the private *something I have walked through* answer.

## Who sees what

Pastors, admins and the owner create watches and see the people behind a count. Leaders and viewers see the signal lines on the Overview, with counts only.