This article is geared toward site managers who are running an entire Connect site. If you are a volunteer, check out this article on logging your volunteer hours.

Individual hours are those hours performed by a volunteer on their own—not as a response to a need posted on a Connect site. Individual hours are not required to be verified, but they do show up on the volunteer resume. This article covers the following topics:

About Individual Hours

Individual hours were added to the Connect platform for the benefit of volunteers who wish to track their hours that were worked outside of Connect site need responses.

A volunteer must submit their own individual hours; a site manager cannot do this for them. In addition, an agency manager cannot submit individual hours on behalf of a volunteer, since the hours are not associated with an agency's need on the Connect site.

Note: Individual hours are optional. If you do not wish to allow volunteers to submit individual hours, you can disable them in Site Settings. See the following section for more information.

Allowing Individual Hours

To allow individual hours on your site, go to Site Settings > Main Settings in your manager panel and scroll down to the Volunteers area. This is where you can access the two settings related to individual hours:

Allow Individual Hours — Individual hours are those hours performed by a volunteer on their own—not as a response to a need posted on your site. Individual hours are not required to be verified, but they do show up on the volunteer resume.

  • On — Volunteers can enter volunteer hours for a need not posted on your site.
  • Off — A need must be posted on your site, and the volunteer must have responded to it, in order to enter their hours.

When entering individual hours, the volunteer can specify where they volunteered, the name of the person who can verify those hours, and the email address of that person, in addition to the date and the hours they volunteered.

Require Contact Email for Individual Hours — If you allow individual hours (see above), you also have the option of requiring that the volunteer submit the contact email address of someone who can verify those hours.

  • On — Volunteers submitting individual hours will be required to provide an email address of someone who can verify the hours.
  • Off — Volunteers will have the option of providing an email address of someone who can verify the hours, but this will not be required.

Note: As the site manager, you are the only person who can approve individual hours in the system.

How a Volunteer Logs Individual Hours

To log individual hours, a volunteer would take these steps:

  1. Open the Track Hours area by clicking either the Volunteer Hours area of their Dashboard or selecting Track Hours from their profile dropdown.
  2. Click the Add Hours button.
  3. Under Hours Type select No for the question, "Are these hours in reference to a need you responded to on this site?"
  4. Complete the Individual Detailsfields.
    Field
    		Description
    Where did you volunteer?
    		Enter the location or organization where they volunteered. This information shows up on their hours table in the Track Hours area, and also on their volunteer resume.
    Who can verify these hours?
    		Enter the name of someone who can verify the individual hours.
    What email address can be used to confirm these hours?
    		Enter the email address of the person who can verify the individual hours.
  5. Complete the Hour Details and Description fields as applicable.
  6. Select a User Group from the dropdown, if applicable.
  7. Click Submit Hour Entry.

No notifications are triggered when individual hours are submitted.

Approving or Declining Individual Hours

Individual hours follow the same approval rules that regular need hours follow. For example, if all regular hours are set to be pending until approved, all individual hours will follow that rule. The only difference is that agency managers can approve (or decline) regular hours while only site managers can approve individual hours in the system.

Note: Specify your approval settings in the Settings > Main Settings area of your site manager panel. Click here to learn more.

To approve or decline hours:

  1. From your site manager panel, go to Volunteerism > Hours to open your hours-management area.
  2. Find the row of the hours you wish to approve.
  3. In the Status column, select Approve (or Decline).

Note: No email notifications are triggered when individual hours are submitted. You can find pending individual hours by sorting the list in your hours management area (Volunteerism  Hours).

Viewing Details of Individual Hours

You have several options for viewing details (such as the associated contact information) for individual hours:

  • Your Reports area includes the Details of Individual Hours report. This report includes the volunteer's name and email, the date the hours were added, the date of service, the number of hours, the location, the description, and the contact information of the person who can confirm the hours. If you export this report, you'll also be able to see the volunteer's answers to any custom hours questions that are on your site.
  • In the hours-management area of your site manager panel (Volunteerism > Hours), the table filter includes the option to add the Location, Description, Contact Name, and Contact Details information so you can see the specifics of the individual hours.