This article applies to all Connect Site Managers, though it includes links for volunteers and Agency Managers who wish to submit volunteer hours.

Volunteer hours can be submitted in several different ways. Aside from manually logging their hours, they hours can be logged on their behalf by an agency manager or site manager. If a volunteer checks in to a need, their hours are logged automatically. Volunteer hours can also be logged by team leaders and SLM leaders (for sites that use SLM.

This article covers:

• the standard information that is requested when a volunteer logs hours
• details on how a Site Manager can customize the hour submission form
• instructions for accessing volunteer hour data
• links to information about other hours settings

Standard Information Requested

Whatever method is used, volunteers are asked for the following information by default:

• Hour Type - The person selects whether the hours are associated with a previous need response they've made, or if they are "individual hours." If your site does not allow individual hours, volunteers will not have this option.
• Need - If the hours are related to a need response, they must identify the need.
• Individual Details - If the hours are not related to a need response, the volunteer can complete optional fields regarding location and information about the person who can verify the hours.
• Hour Details - The date and number of hours worked are required. Number of miles traveled is optional. If a volunteer belongs to a user group, they can also select the user group(s) which with the hours should be associated. You can make this field required as needed.
• Description - Additional details can be entered; this field is optional.
• Plus-one Hours - If your site allows plus-one hours, volunteers will be able to indicate any plus-one hours here.

These are the standard fields provided on the hour entry form. To customize elements of the form, see below.

Customizing the Hours Form

From the Settings > Hours area of your site settings, you can customize the following elements of the hour submission form:

• Making the User Groups field required
• Adding custom questions
• Adding hours categories

Requiring a User Group Selection

If a volunteer belongs to a user group, they have the option of selecting one or more user group when logging hours.

If you make this a required field, an "n/a" option will be included among the options, as shown above.

To make the User Groups field required, go to Settings > Hours in your site manager panel and toggle the User Group setting to ON, and the click Save.

Custom Questions

A site manager can add questions to the hour-entry form. To add a question:

1. From your site manager panel, go to Settings > Hours and scroll to the first blank question form.
   
2. Select Active to have the question appear on the hours submission form.
3. Type the question into the Question field.
   
4. To make the question required, toggle the Required box to ON. If a question is required, volunteers will not be able to submit their hours if they have not answered the question.
5. From the Field Type field, select the question type. For details on the various types available, see Collecting Data with Custom Questions.
6. Complete any additional fields that appear, based on the question type you selected. In this example, the site manager has selected a Dropdown type and has entered four answer options, one per line: Yes, No, Unsure, and Rather not say.
   
7. Click Save Questions to save your question(s).

Volunteers will now see your custom question whenever they go to log hours. Custom questions will appear whenever they check out of a need, as well.

Accessing Hours Data

Most of the data from the hours submission form can be viewed in one of the following two reports:

• Volunteer Hours Logged - This report shows details of all hours logged in connection with needs posted on your site.
• Details of Individual Hours - This report shows details of all other hours logged (i.e., hours not in connection to a need posted on your site).

You can access these reports by going to the Site Manager Panel and clicking the Reports button. These two reports are listed under the Users heading.

Note: Answers to custom questions does not show up in the reports listed above. To see the answers to your custom questions, you must export the report to a spreadsheet. The custom questions and answers are shown in the final columns of the report.

Other Hours Settings

The Main Settings area of your site manager panel includes these additional settings related to hours:

• Hours Approval - Determine whether hours will be approved automatically when a volunteer submits them, or if they will need to be manually approved.
• Individual Hours - Determine whether your site will allow volunteers to submit individual hours.
• Anonymous and Plus-One Hours - Determine whether your site will allow posting of anonymous and plus-one hours.

For more information on these settings, see Managing Site Settings.