Volunteer shifts

Created on 05 Dec 2025

Shifts are individual time slots that volunteers are assigned to work during your event. While shifts are typically generated automatically from schedules, you can also create and edit them individually.

Understanding shifts

A shift represents a specific time period when volunteers are needed. Each shift has:

• Start and end time – When the shift runs
• Team and role – Who should work this shift
• Required volunteers – How many people are needed
• Status – Current state of the shift

Shift statuses

The system automatically updates shift status as volunteers are assigned and confirm their attendance.

Shift priorities

Priorities help you identify which shifts are most critical to fill:

Creating shifts manually

While most shifts are generated from schedules, you can create individual shifts:

1. Navigate to Volunteers → Shifts
2. Click Create shift
3. Fill in the shift details:
   • Start time and End time
   • Phase – Which event phase this belongs to
   • Team – Which team is responsible
   • Role – Specific role (optional)
   • Required people – How many volunteers needed
   • Priority – Mandatory, Desirable, or Normal
   • Location – Where to report
   • Notes – Additional information
4. Click Save

Editing shifts

Click the Edit button (pencil icon) on any shift to modify its details.

Conflict resolution

When editing shift times, you can enable Automatically resolve conflicts to adjust times based on adjacent shifts. This helps maintain consistent scheduling without gaps or overlaps.

Assigning volunteers to shifts

From the shifts list

1. Click the Assign button on a shift
2. Search for volunteers by name or filter by team preference
3. Select volunteers to assign
4. Choose whether to send notification emails
5. Click Assign

Assignment statuses

Notifying volunteers

Send notifications to volunteers about their shifts:

1. Click the Notify button on a shift
2. Choose notification type:
   • Confirmation request – Ask volunteers to confirm attendance
   • Assignment offer – Offer the shift to potential volunteers
   • Assignment summary – Send shift details to assigned volunteers
   • Status change – Notify about changes to the shift
3. Review recipients and message
4. Click Send

Filtering shifts

Use the filter options to find specific shifts:

• Teams – Filter by team
• Days – Filter by date
• Status – Filter by Open, Fulfilled, Confirmed, or Inactive

The search bar also lets you search by location, notes, or role name.

Shift columns explained

Relationship with schedules

Shifts are typically generated from shift schedules. When a schedule generates shifts:

• Each shift is linked to its parent schedule
• Editing the schedule and regenerating will replace existing shifts
• Editing individual shifts doesn't affect the schedule

To manage the templates that generate shifts, go to Volunteers → Shift schedules.

Tips

• Use schedules for bulk creation – Only create shifts manually for one-off needs
• Check assignment counts – The "Assigned/req." column shows at a glance which shifts need attention
• Filter by status – Focus on "Open" shifts to see what still needs filling
• Send confirmation requests – Don't assume assigned volunteers will attend; request confirmation
• Review before the event – Check all shifts are confirmed a few days before your event