Publish the shifts. Let volunteers claim them.
Coverage usually lives in a spreadsheet one person maintains and everyone else asks about. Volunteer Ledger turns it into a schedule your volunteers can see and fill: build a month from a repeating series, mark what still needs people, and let volunteers claim the open shifts in their own areas of service. Reminder emails go out on their own.
- Volunteers claim shifts in their own areas
- Reminders send themselves
- Included in every account
The schedule stops being one person’s job
Most volunteer schedules fail the same way: the file lives with the coordinator, so every question routes through that one person, and gaps stay invisible until the day they matter.
Build a month, not fifty-two entries
A shift can repeat on a series with an end date, so the standing Tuesday-morning slot is created once. Individual occurrences still edit and cancel on their own, which is what you need the week a holiday moves everything. The schedule is assembled in minutes rather than typed out.
Gaps that announce themselves
Shifts that still need people are flagged “Need volunteers” on the schedule itself. A coordinator opens the month view and sees the two Thursdays nobody has taken, rather than discovering it on the Thursday itself. That is the actual question a schedule exists to answer, and it should not require reading every row.
Volunteers fill their own shifts
Turn on self-signup and volunteers claim open shifts themselves, but only in the areas of service they are assigned to, so nobody is offered work they are not cleared for. It stays off until you switch it on, the volunteer needs a login and has to opt in, and coordinators keep assigning directly whenever they prefer. Both routes fill the same shift.
Reminders nobody has to send
Shift reminder emails go out automatically, however many days ahead you choose. A weekly slot reminds every week without anyone scheduling it. This is the piece that most reliably cuts no-shows, and it is the piece a shared spreadsheet cannot do at all.
Look at coverage the way the question is asked
Week
The detail of a single week: who is on which shift, and what is still open. This is the view a coordinator works in during the week itself.
Month
The shape of coverage across the whole month. Thin weeks and unclaimed shifts are visible at a glance, which is where planning actually happens.
List
Every shift in order, for working through them one at a time: assigning, editing, or checking what is coming without navigating a grid.
And the record stays separate
A scheduled shift is a plan. Hours served are logged separately, against the same areas of service, so a plan never quietly becomes a number in a cost-savings or level-of-activity report.
A week of shifts with coverage on every card, shown with sample agency data.
What changes once the schedule is shared
A file only the coordinator edits Before
- Every “am I on this week?” comes to one person
- Unfilled shifts surface the morning they matter
- Reminders happen when somebody remembers to send them
- A recurring slot is typed out week after week
- Volunteers cannot see where they could help
With Volunteer Ledger After
- Volunteers check the schedule themselves
- “Need volunteers” is visible weeks ahead
- Reminder emails send on a schedule you set once
- A repeating series builds the month in one step
- Open shifts get claimed without a group email
Build a month of shifts, switch on self-signup, and watch how much of the schedule fills itself on your own roster.
Start your free 45-day trialVolunteer scheduling, answered
Can volunteers sign themselves up for shifts?
Yes, if you switch it on. Self-signup is off by default, and when you enable it a volunteer only ever sees open shifts in the areas of service they are actually assigned to. A pet therapy volunteer is not offered a front-desk shift. The volunteer also has to have a login and have opted in, so nobody is enrolled into claiming shifts without knowing about it. Coordinators keep the ability to assign directly, and both routes fill the same shift.
Do we have to create every shift by hand?
No. A shift can repeat on a series with an end date, so a standing Tuesday-morning slot is built once rather than fifty-two times. Individual occurrences can then be edited or cancelled without disturbing the rest of the series, which is what you need when one week moves for a holiday. Shifts that still need people are flagged as “Need volunteers” so the gaps are visible without you going looking for them.
Do volunteers get reminded?
Shift reminder emails send automatically, and you choose how many days ahead they go out. The reminder is per shift, so a weekly slot reminds every week without anyone scheduling it. This is the part that most reliably reduces no-shows, and it is the part a spreadsheet cannot do at all.
How do we see coverage for the month?
Three views of the same schedule: a week view for the detail of a single week, a month view for the shape of coverage across the whole month, and a list view for working through shifts in order. The month view is where a coordinator spots the two Thursdays nobody has claimed, which is the question a schedule actually exists to answer.
Is scheduling included?
Yes. Shift scheduling and volunteer self-signup are included in every Volunteer Ledger account, along with unlimited staff accounts, Microsoft single sign-on and scheduled email reports. There is one plan: $49.99 a month or $499 a year, and launch pricing through December 31, 2026 is $34.99 a month or $349 a year with your rate locked for life. Every 45-day trial includes the whole product, so you can run a real month of scheduling before deciding.
Do scheduled shifts become logged hours automatically?
No, and that is deliberate. A scheduled shift is a plan; a logged hour is a record of what happened. Hospice programs report on hours actually served, and a system that silently converted a plan into a record would overstate the numbers that go into a cost-savings report or a Medicare level-of-activity calculation. Hours are entered separately, by a coordinator or by the volunteer, against the same areas of service.
Run a real month of shifts before you decide
Every 45-day trial includes the whole product, scheduling and self-signup included. Build your shifts, switch on self-signup, and see how much of the schedule fills itself. No credit card, no patient data.