Schedule your teams
The easiest way to manage your volunteers and your scheduling is through teams. After setting up scheduling templates, you can schedule team members to a plan and send them notifications about their upcoming schedule.
Important
If you have scheduler permissions, you can only schedule, auto-schedule, email, or set up teams for which you are a team leader.
You can ask your administrator to add you as a leader for the teams that you want to schedule.
This article covers the most common way to schedule teams. Check out other scheduling methods if you want to schedule multiple teams at a time, set up automatic scheduling, schedule large groups, or enable signups.
Before scheduling a team to a plan, you must create the plan and the teams you want to schedule.
1. Add people to a template
Templates allow you to set up different scheduling options. You might have one template or multiple templates based on team rotations.
Check out the following articles to learn more about creating and importing scheduling templates:
2. Needed positions
Make sure there are needed positions in the plan. To do this, select Team actions in the Teams tab.
For new plans, choose Import Template from the dropdown to import the template you created that includes your needed positions.
For existing plans you've created without a template, choose Needed Positions from the dropdown to tell Services how many people you need to fill each position in the plan.
3. Schedule people
Schedule manually
Select the needed positions under a team in the Teams tab to open a list of team members you can schedule.
This list includes several pieces of information to help you choose the best people.
The number next to someone's name (e.g., +5w) shows their "last scheduled plan" (which may be in the future). You can adjust this parameter by selecting the 🗓️ calendar icon in the top right.
If a team member has a blockout or a conflict for this plan, a conflict badge appears next to their name. Hover over the badge to see more details.
Import a template
If you use templates with people in them (not just needed positions), select Team actions in the top right of the Teams tab and choose Import Template from the dropdown to import it.
You can select which team to import into which plan before making changes.
Guests
You can schedule guests to a plan by using the Guest tab. This allows you to filter or search your entire database to schedule someone not on the team.
4. Send notifications
Once you've scheduled your team members, send them a scheduling email so they can view the plan.
Select Send above a scheduled team to send their scheduling emails, or select the ✉️ email icon next to a specific team member's name.
Important
Scheduled viewers who are unconfirmed and have a prepared notification status (✉️ email icon next to their name) cannot see the plan until you send the scheduling email.
Other scheduling methods
Here are some other available scheduling methods:
The matrix shows many plans side by side. You can use the matrix to schedule weeks or months at a time.
Use auto-schedule if you have set up your needed positions, so Services can automatically complete your schedule, avoiding any conflicts or blockout dates.
Tip
Don't forget you can use this when someone declines by selecting it in the team settings!
For large groups, learn how to schedule an entire group that isn't part of a team. You can schedule the whole group for one position or each person for different positions.
Use signup sheets for teams within your plans to allow people to sign up for any needed positions.