Understanding positions.
A position is a role or task volunteers can sign up for in events or schedules. It represents the work to be done and is required to create shifts or spots you can manually assign or publish for volunteer signups. Each position has its own set of responsibilities, requirements, and sometimes qualifications. You can customize positions to fit your organization's needs, ensuring all jobs are covered and volunteers know exactly what they're signing up for.
Creating a new position.
You can create positions in two ways:
Directly within a shift schedule or event by clicking Manage Positions.
By adding to the Positions list in Settings.
We’ll walk you through both options and highlight what you need to know before starting.
While adding positions directly within a schedule is often more intuitive, understanding how positions—especially template positions—work in Settings is critical. We’ll start by covering Settings, as changes here can impact future scheduling opportunities.
Managing position templates in settings.
In Settings under Positions, you'll see your master list of positions. If you're new to Timecounts, this list will be empty. If you've already created shifts, the positions you've used will appear here, making them available for future opportunities.
Adding a new position from settings.
To add a new position, go to Settings and select Positions. Click Add New in the top right corner, and a popup will open where you can fill in the position name, a short description (which volunteers will see on the signup page), and any relevant skills. After completing shifts, these skills will show up in the Track tab to validate for the volunteer. Keep in mind that position names need to be unique—so if you need something similar, just create a slight variation.
Update an existing position.
Click on the position you wish to edit, and it will open a panel to the right. Make the changes and press Save.
When you update a position in Settings, the name will automatically update everywhere it's used, but descriptions and skills won't change in positions already added to events or schedules to preserve any custom details. For example, a "Cleaner" role may have different responsibilities for a gala than a toy donation event, so that you can modify the description from the Manage Positions section of your schedule. New positions added to events or schedules will pull from your updated list in Settings.
Deleting a position from settings.
To delete a position, go to Settings, click on the position you want to remove, and then click the red Delete button. If the position isn’t in use, it will be deleted immediately, but you may need to refresh the page to see the change.
If the position is attached to a schedule or future event without active shifts, Timecounts will ask for confirmation before deleting. Note that deleted positions cannot be undone.
If the position is linked to future scheduled shifts, Timecounts will prevent you from deleting it and show an error message to help avoid mistakes. To continue to delete the position, you'll first need to clear any future shifts using it.
Managing positions in a schedule or event.
When creating a Schedule, click the blue Manage Positions button, then select Add Position to create a new role.
If creating an Event with Shifts, you can add Positions during setup and continue adding more by selecting Manage Positions from the shifts view.
Manage Positions opens a popup where you can edit existing positions or click Add Position in the top right to create a new one. Use the drag icon to reorder positions as you'd like them to appear in your shifts view.
To Add Position, start typing in the Position Name field. If the position exists, it will appear in the dropdown, saved in the Position Template List in Settings. If not, you'll see an option to Create new "PositionName"—select it or press Enter to add the new position.
When you see the position you want, select it. The description and skills will auto-fill, but you can edit them. Any changes will only apply to the current schedule and won't affect the main Position Template List.
Next, update details like the location, description, and any relevant skills for the position. All information—except the location, which is unique to each schedule—will be saved to the Position Template List in Settings, making it easy to reuse in the future.
