Scheduler Terminology

Job Shift
The term "shift" is used 2 different ways:
  • A specific job and date. Ex: "She did one shift this week, Route 7 on Tuesday". Also called a "slot" on the schedule.
  • A recurring job on a specific day of the week. Ex: "He usually does the Thursday shift on Route 4."
One-time Assignment
One-time assignments (aka "pickups" or "substitutes") are used to fill specific "slots" that are empty on the schedule, often due to time off or cancellation of the volunteer that normally works the shift. One-time Assignments are highlighted in green on schedules.
Ongoing Assignment
A volunteer has committed to a job on a recurring basis. Ongoing assignments can be Weekly such as Route 2 on Tuesdays (highlighted in light blue on the schedules), or Monthly such as Route 3 on the 3rd Wednesday of each month (highlighted in purple). There's also a Custom ongoing assignment for an assignment every N weeks (shown in orange on the schedules), which can be useful for sharing responsibility for the shift among N people.
Cancel an Assignment
Canceling an assignment removes a volunteer from his/her previously assigned slot. The shift requirements don't change, so in many cases the slot is now "short-handed". This FAQ explains how cancellations are tracked in the system.
Cancel a Shift
The job shift for this specific date is not intended to be performed. Typical reasons for this include snow days or national holidays. Any existing assignments for the shift are canceled but the volunteers are not automatically notified.
Cancel a Day
All shifts for the specific date are canceled. Note that when canceling a day from the Daily or Weekly schedule, only Jobs currently shown according to the Job Group filter are canceled.
Closed Shift
A Closed shift means a coordinator signed off on the volunteer hours actually worked (and miles driven, when applicable). The volunteers don't get “credit” for their hours/miles until the shift is closed.
Short-Handed
Shifts that have fewer assigned workers than the minimum required workers for at least one position, as specified in the Job Settings, are "short handed" and are displayed in pink on the Weekly and Daily schedules.
Offer
A submission by a volunteer of the shift signup form from the the Help Wanted page.
Daily Shift Reminder
Notification automatically sent by email and/or SMS text to a volunteer on days when they have an upcoming shift.
Contact, Job, or Organization Reminder
These reminders (found in the Reminders tab on a Contact, Job, or Organization profile) are like setting an alarm to remind yourself about something related to that profile, for example: "remind me on Sept 3 at 9 AM to ask Mary when she'll be ready to go back on the schedule". You'll get an email 15 minutes before the reminder time, and upcoming reminders are listed on your home page Dashboard. Note: These reminders are unrelated to the scheduled Shift Reminder notifications.
Contact Relationship
Contact Relationships (found in the Relationships tab on the Contact profile) provide a way to link two contacts in the system. Add a contact's emergency contact, husband, friend, and any other connection.
Delete Contact
You may want to Delete a contact when the contact was created by mistake, or if the contact will no longer be associated with the organization (death, moved away permanently, ....). Deleting a contact automatically removes his/her future commitments. See also: "Deactivate Contact" below.
Deactivate Contact
You may want to Deactivate a contact (aka making a contact "inactive") to put a volunteer on an indefinite leave of absence (injury, chronic disease, personal life change,...). You are not ready to delete the contact yet because a return is still possible, or because you plan continued communication for reasons other than volunteer work. De-activating a person automatically removes his/her future commitments and makes them ineligible to be assigned any new volunteer jobs going forward. If the contact has a user account this will be locked. Inactive contacts can be found through the contact search, by setting the Status filter to "all" or "inactive".
Time off
Use time-off to put a volunteer on a leave of absence for a period of time. Any existing assignments during the time-off period are automatically canceled, and the volunteer becomes ineligible to be assigned any new volunteer jobs during that time period.