Guide to Moving from Paper Forms to an Online Time Tracking System
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Administration Buy-In
How do you prove the time and cost savings?
Functional Pilot
What are the key ingredients in making a pilot succeed?
Technology Adoption
How do you train volunteers to actually track time?
Awesome Wins If Done Right
No more data entry
All hours will be entered by the volunteer.
Instant reports
Pull totals at any point to see who has reached their goals
Self-checking
Volunteers will know instantly how many hours they’ve done.
Follow These Steps to Make Sure You Do it Right
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Convince the administration
Implementing a volunteer time tracking web and mobile solution saves time. If you are a paid staff, the cost and time savings will just make sense. If you are a volunteer organizer, show how much time you save so you can do more impactful projects. If they are still on edge, run a small pilot. -
Run a quick pilot
Start up a Track it Forward hour log and get a key group of volunteers and staff that are pushing for this and have them log just 1 hour and show them how instant the reports are. -
Decide on how you will on-board volunteers
You can have them either self-register or you can import them and send an invitation. If you don’t know who your volunteers are, then you should have a webpage or email describing how they can self register. If you know all your volunteers in advance and know their emails, import them into Track it Forward and send them an invitation email which will ask them to set a password. -
Get all volunteer to log 1 submission
If you can get them to add 1 submission, then they will know exactly how to use the system. Have them add 15 minutes for training. You can always delete the hours in the training category later. If you have them log it just one time, you've set yourself up for success.