Signup Schedule

Introduction

This manual should prove to be as easy to use as the program itself and we have included many tips and tricks to help you get the most out of Signup Schedule. If you need further assistance, just click the Live Support icon... we'd love to hear from you.

Signup Schedule was designed to be used with very minimal system requirements... Volunteers just need Internet access with a browser or mobile device. The Administrator must use a javascript-enabled browser.

User Preferences

These are the settings that affect the default behavior of your Signup Schedule. You can tailor the program to better suit your specific needs.

Name(Organization Name): Enter your name, group name, or organization. This appears in the browser title.
Theme: There are several themes available allowing you to change the color.
Event List Title: The title that volunteers see atop the chronological list of your events.
Details Field: This is a field specific to the shift. The vague word Details is used by default, but can be changed to something more specific if all your events share a common theme.
Unassigned: The program shows a count of unassigned shifts for each event. This count can be shown as the number of shifts available, needed, or open according to your preference.
Password: You can choose to require an access or sign up password. This is simply a shared password that you would distribute to your group.
Show Volunteer: This setting allows you to change what, if any, volunteer information is shown publicly. By default, the program will show the full name of the volunteer; however, if you would like your volunteers to remain anonymous, you can choose Abbreviated, which displays first name and last initial or Other which will display a word of your choosing for those signed up.
Required Fields: You can choose what information is required for volunteers to sign up. Additionally, there is an optional field to collect specific information from your volunteers.
Send Confirmation Email: By default, the program will email the volunteer upon successful sign up. You can choose to send no emails, an email to the coordinator only, the volunteer only, or both the coordinator and the volunteer
Public Sharing Links: Include AddThis service on your Signup Schedule to allow your volunteers easy access for bookmarking and sharing your events.
Ad Free: Shows your ad free time period. Click the Remove Ads link to remove ads or increase your ad free time period.

Events

Once you log in with your administrator password, you are presented with the scheduled events. Each event has a date and title along with coordinator name, email and phone. Next to each event are the links for actions you can use to manipulate an event.

Open: This will bring you to the scheduling for that particular event.
Edit: This allows you to modify date, title, or coordinator information.
Delete: This will delete an event and all underlying data. Be careful; this cannot be undone.

If this is your first event or to add subsequent events, simply click the Add an Event link at the bottom of the list. When the date has passed the event is highlighted. Past events do not appear on your public page but are stored until you delete them. We do; however, recommend deleting past events for best performance. You can always export the shift information to store it locally.

Add an Event

Select a date* and title for your event and enter coordinator information. While coordinator information is not required, it is advised. Excluding the coordinator email would eliminate the ability to send coordinator email confirmation for the particular event.

*HINT - If your event is not based on date, you can disable/enable the date by clicking the word date.

If enabled, your event will be removed from the volunteer view when the event date has past. The event will; however, remain in the administrator event list.

If disabled, your event will never expire.

Edit an Event

Edit information previously entered for an event.

HINT - For reoccurring events, you can Open the Event then Clear volunteer information on the subsequent screen. Once the volunteer information has been removed, you can Edit the Event to change the date.

Shifts

Once you Open an Event, you are presented with all the shifts scheduled. In addition to the shift information, is the volunteer* information for that shift. You can manipulate the shift or volunteer information using the action links.

*NOTE - Volunteer information appears in the highlighted columns.

Duplicate: This will duplicate the shift including any inputted volunteer information.
Clear: This will clear the highlighted volunteer information from the selected shift.
Edit: This allows you to edit shift or volunteer information and allows you to manually sign up volunteers
Delete: This will delete the shift and related volunteer information.

If nothing is scheduled, you can use the Add Shift or Load Template links at the bottom to populate shifts according to your volunteer requirements. When shift information is populated, you will see additional links to export or print. Once volunteer information is populated, the template links are replaced with a Mass Mail link which allows you to easily email all volunteers.

Add a Shift

Select Start and End Time* for the shift and enter the Details. The highlighted volunteer information can be entered as well, but is usually left blank for entry by your volunteer.

*NOTE - End time is not used if it is equal to the start time.

Edit a Shift

Edit information previously entered for a shift including highlighted volunteer information.

Templates

Once you have added your Shifts, you can Save as Template. This allows you to reuse the shift structure for reoccurring events. Simply click the Save as Template link at the bottom of the page, enter a Name for the template on the subsequent window and click the Save button.

NOTE: The Save as Template link is only available if there is no volunteer information entered.

If there are no shifts for an event, like when you open an event for the first time, there is an option to Load a Template. Clicking this link will open a window with the available templates. From here you can load, rename, or delete previously saved templates.

Load: Copies the previously saved template to the current event.
Rename: Change the name of the previously saved template.
Delete: Delete the previously saved template.

NOTE: You can only Load a Template if there are no shifts. If you loaded the wrong template you can either delete all the shifts or delete the event and recreate.

Promotion

You can use the icons to share to your various social media outlets or simply send an email to direct your group to your Signup Schedule.

If you have your own website, you can use this utility to make link, button, or embed code. Just choose the Type, enter Text, and click the Generate Code button. Copy the code to the source code of your web page or blog.

Help