What are status reasons?
Status reasons help administrators document why a volunteer's status was changed. Using consistent reasons makes it easier to understand volunteer history, identify patterns, and maintain accurate records across your organization.
To manage your status reasons, navigate to Settings → Reasons.
Timecounts maintains separate reason lists for different status changes:
Inactive Reasons are used when moving volunteers to Inactive status.
Ban Reasons are used when banning volunteers.
Rejected Reasons are used when rejecting applicants during onboarding.
Each list can be customized independently to match your organization's policies and procedures.
Timecounts includes a default set of reasons for each status based on common volunteer management practices. We recommend reviewing these lists and customizing them to match your organization's needs. In many cases, a shorter list of well-defined reasons will provide more consistent reporting and make it easier for administrators to select the most appropriate reason.
Creating a reason
To create a new reason, open the appropriate tab and click New Reason in the top-right corner. Enter a name for the reason and click Create. The new reason will immediately become available when changing a volunteer's status.
Editing or deleting a reason
To edit an existing reason, click the edit icon beside the reason name, make your changes, and save. The updated reason will be reflected anywhere that reason has previously been used.
To remove a reason, click the delete icon beside the reason name.
The number shown in brackets beside each reason indicates how many volunteers or applicants are currently assigned that reason.
Reasons that are currently in use cannot be deleted. If a reason is in use and needs to be updated, edit the reason instead.
Best practices
Keep your reason lists short and focused. Most organizations find that five to ten reasons per category is sufficient.
Choose reasons that reflect your organization's policies and reporting needs.
If your organization has multiple programs or departments, choose reasons that can be applied consistently across the organization.
Avoid creating multiple reasons with the same meaning, as this can make reporting and analysis more difficult.