You will need the Full Write Service Plans permission, or be a group admin for a team that can be scheduled on a service plan. Group admins can only perform the actions described in this article for their own teams, not others where they are not an admin. Users with the Full Write Service Plans permission can perform these actions on any team in the plan.
Volunteers are scheduled as part of a service plan. A service plan can also define an order of service, but that part is optional — you can use a plan strictly to schedule volunteers.
Scheduling happens on the Serving tab of a service plan. To learn how to create a plan first, see How do I add a service plan?
Open a plan from Service Planning from the left-hand navigation menu > Plans, then select the Serving tab. Teams appear in two columns — Your Teams (teams you administer) and Other Teams. Each team is shown as a card listing its positions and how many volunteers are still needed, and a spots remaining to fill counter at the top of the tab tracks the whole plan.
If the plan was created without a template, or the template didn't include serving setups, the Serving tab opens with no volunteers scheduled yet.
Choose which teams and positions to schedule
Which teams can be scheduled on a plan is controlled by the plan's service type. The service type determines which teams appear here — it doesn't set how many volunteers each position needs.
To make a position ready for scheduling, set how many volunteers it needs. Open the Needed positions action — available from a team's menu (the 3-dots menu on the team card) or from the Schedule Actions menu at the top right of the tab — to show every position and set a count for each. A position with a need greater than zero becomes ready to schedule; positions set to 0 needed stay out of the working view. Click Done when you've finished setting counts.
If a team you need isn't listed, it likely isn't part of the plan's service type. Adding a team to the plan also adds it to the service type, which means it becomes available on every other plan of the same type.
Below is an example of how a team looks once its needed positions are set:
Schedule volunteers to a position
Once a position shows a need, you can start filling it.
On the position you want to fill, click add person. The Add People window opens for that team and position.
On the Team Members tab, choose the volunteer you want. The list is ordered so that volunteers who haven't served in the position for the longest appear first, and it accounts for serving preferences and conflicts with other assignments.
To schedule someone who isn't on the team's roster, switch to the Guests tab and search for anyone in the system. They don't have to be a current volunteer on the team. You can optionally add them to the team roster so they appear under Team Members next time.
Choose the time(s) you're scheduling them for. Times are pre-selected based on the assigned teams set on each plan time — see How do I set the dates and times on a service plan? for more on assigned teams.
Click Save to add the selected volunteers to the plan.
You can select up to the number of volunteers needed for the position. On the Guests tab you can assign anyone in the system, even if they're not a current volunteer on that team:
Tip: You can drag and drop scheduled volunteers from one position to another. When you do, their assigned times are taken from the assigned-team settings on the plan times — note that this can result in no times being assigned.
Team Actions
Each team card has a menu (the 3-dots menu in its top-right corner) with actions that apply to that team:
Send email - email the whole team. This is for general communication only and does not include a link for volunteers to respond to serving assignments; their status stays unchanged. To send serving requests instead, see the Sending Serving Requests section below.
Add people - open the add person window to schedule volunteers for the team.
Needed positions - show every position on the team so you can set how many volunteers each one needs. Click Done when finished to hide positions that aren't needed.
Auto schedule - automatically fill the team's needed positions, drawing on the roster, serving preferences, and availability.
Reset statuses - reset all scheduled volunteers back to "Not Contacted," except those who previously declined. They will remain declined.
Clear assignments - remove all scheduled volunteers from the team, but keep the team and its needed positions.
Remove team - reset all positions back to 0 needed, which also removes all scheduled volunteers. If the team is part of the service type, it becomes hidden and can be added back by setting a need again; if it isn't part of the service type, it is removed from the plan entirely.
Schedule Actions
The Schedule Actions menu at the top right of the Serving tab contains actions that can apply across multiple teams on the plan. When an action can affect more than one team, you'll choose which teams it applies to.
Send email - email volunteers across the teams you select. A Send email button also sits next to Schedule Actions for quick access.
Add people - schedule volunteers without opening an individual team card first.
Download assignments - download a spreadsheet of volunteer assignments for the teams you select. You can also download a PDF attendance marking sheet.
View blockout dates - open a calendar showing the dates volunteers have indicated they cannot serve. Hover over a date range to see the reason, if one was given.
Needed positions - set how many volunteers each position needs across the plan.
Auto schedule - automatically fill open positions across the teams you select.
Reset statuses - reset volunteer statuses across selected teams (declined volunteers stay declined).
Clear assignments - remove scheduled volunteers from selected teams.
Remove teams - remove selected teams from the plan (service-type teams become hidden; others are removed entirely).
Sending Serving Requests
Emailing a team — from a team's menu or from Schedule Actions — can be used for general communication; it doesn't need to ask volunteers to confirm or decline. To send serving requests that volunteers can respond to, see How do I send serving requests?