Yes, we know that tracking volunteer hours is a core part of why you use VOMO. Accurately recording volunteer time is critical to measuring the impact of your supporters, the health of your programs, and can be vital when applying for grant funding. This month, we’ve rolled out a series of new features all aimed at making time tracking more efficient.
It Was My Understanding That There Would be No Math
Some people like doing math—which is great! And some people either don’t enjoy it or just don’t have the time. If you are in the latter group, we are here to help!
Now, Admins can choose to have volunteer hours calculated automatically based on check-in/check-out time. Whoo hoo! When creating or editing an Opportunity, you’ll see these settings in Advanced Options.
But wait…if we want to save time, why not make it easier to create new Opportunities? Who wants to be fiddling with Advanced Options when you’ve got volunteers to recruit?
Well, we’ve got you covered!
In the Advanced Options section of your Org Settings, you’ll see the ability to configure defaults for hours verification and hours calculations, which will carry over to any new Opportunities created.
You may also notice another new setting nestled right in the middle of that screenshot…
No App For You!
Allowing your volunteers access to the VOMO mobile app makes it convenient for them to find new Opportunities, sign up for serving dates, and even check in and out. But we also know that there are times when a little more oversight may be warranted.
Now, you’ll have more control over the check-in/check-out process, with the ability to limit check-in to only the Kiosk for specific Opportunities, or, as a default for all of your Opportunities.
Limiting volunteer check-ins to only the kiosk means you can more easily verify serving hours, and save time to relax with a nice cup of mulligatawny soup.
Mobile Check-out, on the Go
Now, assuming you do want to allow volunteers the ability to check in and check out via the mobile app, there is one common issue: volunteers don’t always remember to check out right away!
That can be difficult, especially when you are relying on accurate logging to tally volunteer hours.
So, why not offer a little grace?
That’s right, now, you can offer an extended window for volunteers to check out—just like you’ve already been able to allow early check-in.
As with the other new settings, you can look for the this in the Advanced Options when editing an Opportunity. This does not exist as a global default setting, so you’ll want to make sure to set the right time window for each Opportunity.
Clockwatching
So now, your volunteers can check in multiple ways, and have their hours calculated based on their check-in and check-out times. Amazing! But, what if someone takes a break during a long “shift?” You probably don’t want that time included in your serving hours (or maybe you do—who are we to judge?).
If only volunteers could clock out for a break…
Well, now they can!
When using the desktop kiosk, volunteers can choose to clock out OR check out completely.
Once they are clocked out, that will be reflected in their status.
And then it’s just as easy to clock back in.
Keep in mind, this is only available on the desktop kiosk, not mobile. Check out the new check-out and clock-in today!
…And the Rest
This update also includes a number of other fixes, tweaks, minor modifications, and assorted nudges. Here’s a roundup of other items released over the last month:
- Our team squashed a bug that caused some volunteers to show up in Virtuous imports multiple times for folks using the Virtuous integration. Anyone who did not have VOMO connected to Virtuous did not see this issue (but I’m sure you are grateful to know it’s been fixed all the same).
- Some users reported an issue with hours not being verified correctly. As you can probably tell, the whole theme of this release is about verifying accurate serving hours, so we’ve made sure this is working correctly now.
- You know the old saying “measure twice, cut once?” Well, some users reported notification emails and text messages following more of a “register once, notify several times” motto. While we are all about making sure communications are seen, we thought it best to make sure messages are only sent once.
- Some data was not syncing correctly from VOMO to Virtuous. Our team made sure that the integration now understands that no data should be left behind.
And that's the list! Phew! As always, if you have any questions about these or other features, feel free to contact our support team.