This feature is available on the Pro Plan.
What are scheduling conflicts?
Scheduling conflicts occur when a volunteer attempts to sign up for an opportunity that overlaps with the time of another shift or event they have already joined. Timecounts can automatically detect these conflicts and either prevent or allow overlapping signups based on your organization's preferences.
Why use scheduling conflicts rule?
Scheduling conflicts help prevent volunteers from accidentally double-booking themselves and make it easier to manage volunteer coverage.
Organizations commonly use scheduling conflicts to:
Prevent volunteers from signing up for multiple opportunities at the same time
Reduce scheduling confusion and last-minute cancellations
Improve volunteer attendance
Ensure volunteers are available for the opportunities they commit to
Configuring scheduling conflicts
Go to Settings > Rules and scroll to the Scheduling Conflicts section. By default, Timecounts prevents volunteers from signing up for overlapping opportunities.
To change this behavior, choose one of the following options:
Prevent scheduling conflicts (default)
Volunteers cannot sign up for opportunities that overlap with another opportunity they have already joined.
Allow scheduling conflicts
Volunteers can sign up for overlapping opportunities. Once you've made your selection, click Save to apply your changes.
Customizing the conflict message
When scheduling conflicts are prevented, volunteers will see a message if they attempt to sign up for an overlapping opportunity.
You can customize this message to match your organization's communication style and provide additional instructions when needed. For example, you may wish to direct volunteers to contact your team if they believe a conflict has been identified in error.
How does Timecounts detect scheduling conflicts?
Timecounts checks all shifts and events a volunteer has already signed up for across your organization.
When a volunteer attempts to join a new opportunity, Timecounts compares the start and end time of that opportunity against their existing schedule.
Scheduling conflicts are checked against opportunities where the volunteer is currently in a Requested, Confirmed, or Waitlist state.
If the new opportunity overlaps with any existing signup and scheduling conflicts are prevented, the volunteer will not be able to complete the signup and will see your custom conflict message.
Scheduling conflicts are not limited to a single event or schedule. Timecounts checks for conflicts across all volunteer opportunities in your organization.
When should scheduling conflicts be allowed?
Some organizations choose to allow overlapping signups.
This may be appropriate when:
You want people to request multiple shifts on the same day and review which one is best.
Volunteers are not expected to attend for the full duration of an opportunity
Schedules are flexible
Volunteers may participate in multiple roles during the same event
If overlapping signups are acceptable in your organization, select Allow scheduling conflicts.
Can admins override scheduling conflicts?
Yes. Scheduling conflicts only apply when volunteers sign themselves up for opportunities.
If an admin manually assigns a volunteer to a shift or event that overlaps with another signup, Timecounts will display a warning banner indicating that a scheduling conflict exists. Admins can still proceed with the assignment.
This gives your team flexibility to make exceptions when needed, such as:
A volunteer is helping with multiple activities during the same event
An approved scheduling exception has been made
The overlap does not create a practical conflict for the volunteer
A shift starts before another shift has officially ended
Before assigning a volunteer with a scheduling conflict, we recommend confirming they are available for both opportunities.