Schedule Grid — Visual Volunteer Scheduling

The Schedule Grid ("Who's serving when") is a single screen that shows every volunteer down the side and the upcoming Sundays across the top, so you can see — and fill — your whole serving rota at a glance. Instead of opening each event one at a time, you click any cell to invite, confirm, remind, reassign, or block a person on that date, right in place.

It's the visual companion to the per-event Serving tab covered in Event Volunteer Scheduling. Use the Serving tab to set up a single event in detail; use the Schedule Grid to plan weeks ahead across everyone at once.

Opening the Schedule Grid

1. In the admin sidebar, under Planning, click Schedule Grid (just below Events).
2. You can also open it from the Events page — the Schedule Grid tab, also reachable from the ⋮ More → Schedule Grid menu.

Reading the Grid

Each row is a team member; each column is an upcoming Sunday. A small badge in a cell shows that person's status for that week:

The header shows a live count of people and open slots, and recalculates instantly as you make changes.

Controls

• Week pager (‹ / ›) moves the visible window backward/forward; Today jumps back to this week.
• Window length — show 4 / 8 / 12 weeks at a time.
• Team filter — narrow the grid to one serving team.

Click a Cell to Schedule

Click any cell to open a small popover anchored to it. What it offers depends on that cell's current status.

An open (·) cell

• The service already needs this person's role → Invite to serve. If there are several open positions that day, you'll pick which one. The slot becomes Pending and the volunteer is notified to confirm.
• The service has no open slot for this person yet → Add to this service. This is the flexible path: it creates a serving slot for that person in their own team role (for example, James on the Nursery team is added as "Nursery Worker") on the existing service, then invites them — no need to set up positions first.
  • If that Sunday has more than one service, you'll choose which service to add them to.
  • If that Sunday has no service scheduled at all, the popover tells you so ("No service scheduled for this date") rather than leaving you stuck — plan a service first, then come back.
• Mark unavailable is always available as a secondary action to block the date for that person -- this blocks their whole day, across every service scheduled that date, not just the service you clicked from.

A Pending (?) cell

• Send reminder — nudge the volunteer to respond.
• Cancel invite — withdraw the invitation.

A Confirmed (✓) cell

• Message the volunteer, or Unassign them (this sends them an "off the schedule" notice).

A Declined (✕) cell

• Re-invite the same person, or Clear slot.

An Unavailable (–) cell

• Make available to lift the block.

Tip: "Add to this service" only appears on a date that actually has a planned service. The recurring event is what makes a Sunday schedulable; a serving template just pre-fills the positions so you can pick instead of add. Either way, you can always schedule your team.

Two Services on the Same Day

If your church runs more than one service a day -- a 10:00 AM and a 5:00 PM, for example -- the grid treats them as exactly what they are: two separate services, not a conflict. Scheduling the same volunteer at both is completely normal and never triggers a warning.

A warning only appears when someone is genuinely double-booked -- scheduled for two things whose times actually overlap, like a 10:00-11:30 service and a 10:30 meeting. When that happens, assigning them shows "Schedule anyway?" with the conflicting event and time named, so you can make the call: confirm anyway, or pick someone else. The warning itself is a heads-up, not a lock -- you're always in control of the final decision.

Note: Marking someone unavailable blocks their whole day, not one service. If your church has a 10:00 AM and a 5:00 PM service and you mark someone unavailable from either cell, both are blocked -- there's no way to say "free for the morning service but not the evening one."

Header Actions

• Remind N — send a reminder to everyone with a pending response in the visible window.
• Auto-fill N open — let TimelyChurch fill the open slots in view from available, qualified volunteers (they land as Pending for confirmation). See Auto-Scheduling.
• Export PDF — a printable serving sheet for the current window and team. See Event PDF Export.

What the Volunteer Sees

Inviting or adding someone sends them a notification (in-app, email, and Telegram if connected). They confirm or decline from their own device, and the result streams back to flip the cell to Confirmed or Declined — you don't have to chase a reply. Unassigning a confirmed volunteer sends them a courtesy "you're off the schedule" notice.

Who Can Use It

• Church admins see and manage the whole grid.
• Team leaders manage their own team's people, and can only add to services their team serves (or church-wide services). They won't be offered events hosted by other teams.

Related Articles

• Event Volunteer Scheduling — the per-event Serving tab, serving needs, auto-scheduling, reminders.
• Managing Event Series — recurring services and series-wide volunteer workflows.
• Event PDF Export — printable schedules.
• Volunteer Scheduling (Member Portal) — how volunteers confirm, decline, and set availability.