Scheduling Teams

Scheduling tells your teams who is serving which service, and in which job. You set up the jobs once, put the team on a service, and then fill each date. Scheduling is part of the Full plan. On other plans the scheduling sections show as locked.

Set up the team

Add positions

Open the team from People, then Teams. Under Positions, click Add and name each job the team does, such as Lead vocal, Keys or Sound.

Give people their position

In the People list on the same page, pick each person's position from the menu beside their name. Auto-schedule only places people who have a position, so anyone left on No position is skipped.

Record dates people are away

Under Blockout dates, click Add and pick the person and the days they can't serve. Auto-schedule never places someone on a day they blocked out.

Put the team on a service

Start from the team or the service

On the team's page, click Add to a service or event and pick the service. Or, from Events, open the service, choose Teams in its menu, click Assign Team and pick the team.

Choose how many of each position you need

Check the positions this service needs and set a count for each, for example two lead vocals and one on sound.

Every week, or specific dates

For a recurring service, choose Every occurrence to put the team on every week, or Specific date to pick one of the upcoming dates. You can add a team to more specific dates later by assigning it again.

Fill a date

On the Teams tab, pick a date from the list. Each position shows how many people it needs and how many spots are still open.

Auto-schedule

Click Auto-schedule to fill the open spots for that date, or Fill all dates to do the next twelve at once. It picks the people who served least recently, skips anyone who blocked out that day or is already serving at the same time, and never removes anyone who is already on the schedule.

Pick someone yourself

Under any position with an open spot, use Add someone to put a specific person in it. People who hold that position are listed first.

Record answers

Mark each person confirmed or declined with the buttons beside their name. A decline leaves a role to fill if nobody else already covers it. Your team's When someone declines setting decides how replacements are chosen.

Tip

One team can serve two services on the same morning. Auto-schedule only keeps someone off a service when the times overlap.

Note

Cancelled weeks of a recurring service are left out of the date list and are never scheduled.

Publish the schedule

Everything you schedule starts as a draft, marked Draft beside the person's name. Volunteers can't see a draft, and nobody is told about it, so you can move people around as much as you like. Dates with unpublished changes are marked draft in the date list.

Review

Click Review and publish for the date, Publish beside one team, or Publish all dates. The preview lists who will be asked to confirm, who needs no message because you already marked them, and who can't be reached at all.

Publish

Click Publish and notify. Everyone who hasn't answered is told right away, and their dates appear on their schedule. Anything you add to a published date later is a draft again until you publish it.

Set a response cutoff

Open a team's schedule for a date and set its Response cutoff before the service starts. The cutoff applies only to that team and date, using your church's timezone. You can change or remove it later. When it arrives, leaders are notified of published assignments that still have no answer. Pending assignments stay on the schedule; they are not automatically released for someone else to claim.

When someone declines

Open Edit team and choose When someone declines. Leader reassigns notifies leaders so they can choose a replacement. Available members can claim immediately notifies teammates who can serve and links them to the open role; the first claim puts that person on the schedule. Members can offer; leader approves sends the same opportunity, but a leader chooses which offer to accept. People who are away or have an overlapping commitment are left out. Teammates are not told who declined or why.

What volunteers are told

Beside each person, three icons show how they'll hear: the app, email, and text. A dimmed icon means that way won't reach them, and a person nothing reaches is flagged with the reason, such as no email address, an email that bounced, or texts not turned on. Tell those people yourself, or ask them to turn on notifications.

Every schedule message goes out by email, with I'll be there and I can't make it buttons beside every date, so volunteers who don't use the app can answer without signing in. People who confirmed texts get a text too, if your church has texting. Anyone who turned off email from your church still gets the app notification.

Publishing sends “You're scheduled” at once to everyone on the date who hasn't answered. Someone you already marked confirmed or declined isn't sent anything.
Anyone who still hasn't answered a week out is asked once more.
The day before, people who said yes get a reminder, people who never answered are asked if they can still serve. Leaders hear who never answered at the chosen response cutoff, or the day before when no cutoff is set.
Taking someone off a date tells them, if they had already been told about it.
When someone adds dates they're away in the app and they're already scheduled on one of those days, the app asks whether they can still make it.

Team leaders

Anyone whose role on a team is Leader or Co-leader can run that team themselves, even without admin access to the rest of the church. When they open Admin they land on their team and see nothing else. From there they can add and remove people, set roles and positions, record blockout dates, and fill the team's schedule from Serving next. Deleting the team stays with your admins.