Volunteers and scheduling

Shelter

The schedule organises volunteer shifts (walks, feeding, cleaning, front desk…), counts their hours and warns you when a shift is short of people. Quick actions and QR codes let you record a walk or a meal in one gesture, on site.

Opening the schedule

Open the side menu and tap Planning, at the top of the menu or in the Organization section. It can also be reached from the Animals list, via the … menu in the action bar.

The page has four tabs: Day, Week, Typical week (administrators only) and Timesheet.

The volunteer schedule and the timesheet are included in the paid plans. Quick actions and QR codes remain available in all plans.

Signing up for a shift (volunteers)

In Day or Week, each shift shows its times, the number of people signed up compared with its capacity and any instructions.

  • Sign me up books your place; Cancel my sign-up cancels it.
  • When the shift is full, the button becomes Join the waiting list: if someone signed up drops out, the first person waiting takes their place automatically.
  • Leave the waiting list removes you from the waiting list.

At 6 pm the day before a shift, those signed up receive a reminder by notification and by email. The Homepage also shows your upcoming shifts and the shifts that need filling, with a Sign me up button.

Creating shifts (administrators)

A one-off shift

  1. In Day or Week, tap Add a shift in the action bar.
  2. Enter the date, the times, the Capacity, a Label (optional) and Instructions (optional).
  3. Tap Save.

The typical week

The Typical week tab groups together the shifts that come back every week. Add a weekly slot creates one (day, times, capacity, label); the app then generates the schedule 4 weeks ahead.

Each recurring shift has a type: Walking, Feeding, Cleaning, Front desk, Vet transport or Other. The Walking type is only offered if your shelter takes in dogs. The shift's buttons let you edit it, pause it or delete it.

Calling on members when people are short

Open Settings (side menu, Organization section), then under My shelter choose Volunteers and planning. Turn on Call members when a shift of the next day is understaffed, then tap Save.

The evening before, members then receive a notification inviting them to sign up for the incomplete shifts. The Manage the recurring slots button on this page opens the typical week.

Closing a shift and counting hours

Two hours after a shift ends, the app closes it automatically: each person signed up is credited with the length of the shift. An administrator can also tap Close to close it straight away.

On a closed shift, the No-show icon next to a volunteer removes their hours if they did not come.

The timesheet

  1. Open the Timesheet tab.
  2. Choose the period with From and To.
  3. See for each volunteer the total hours, the number of shifts and the breakdown by month.
  4. Export with PDF certificate or CSV.

These hours are useful, for example, to showcase volunteering in your activity report or to give a volunteer a certificate.

Quick actions

On an animal's profile, the Action button in the action bar offers, in one gesture:

  • Start of walk and End of walk (only if your shelter takes in dogs);
  • Meal given;
  • Care and Note, with a short text.

Each action is recorded in the shelter's log, visible on the Tracking page (see Animal statuses).

QR codes for animals and zones

An animal's sheet

On the animal's profile, … menu in the action bar, tap QR code. The Animal record window shows the main QR code:

  • scanned by a team member, it opens the profile with the quick actions;
  • scanned by a visitor, it opens the public page if the animal is visible on the website.

Choose the content of the printed sheet: Walk QR code (one scan for leaving, the next for returning), Meal QR code and, for a dog, Walk information (muzzle, harness, biter, compatibility, instructions). Then tap Print the record (PDF) to put it up on the kennel.

If a printed sheet is lost or circulates outside the shelter, Revoke and regenerate makes the old QR codes invalid.

Several animals at once

  • In the Animals list, … menu, QR codes sheet prints the QR codes of several animals.
  • On the Plan (side menu, Management section), tap a zone or a kennel: Save a meal records a meal for its animals, and Zone record prints a sheet with the Meal QR code for the whole zone.
Tip: an action QR code always asks for confirmation before recording: a scan by mistake writes nothing.

Frequently asked questions

Can a visitor record a walk by scanning a QR code?

No. Actions are reserved for the shelter team; at most, a visitor sees the animal's public page.

I cannot see the Typical week tab.

It is reserved for the shelter's administrators. See Members and permissions.