Swap and Trade Requests

Sometimes a volunteer cannot serve on the date they are scheduled for, but instead of dropping the slot entirely they would rather swap with another team member who is serving on a different week. TimelyChurch has a peer-to-peer swap request flow built into the member portal that lets volunteers handle this themselves -- without needing an admin to step in.

When to Use a Swap vs. a Substitute Request

A swap is a true two-way trade: both volunteers stay on the schedule, they just exchange dates. A sub request is one-way -- you get covered, the other person picks up an extra shift.

How a Swap Works

A swap request links your assignment with another volunteer's assignment on a different date. When the other person accepts, the system swaps the two volunteers on their assignments, so:

• You are now scheduled on the date they originally had.
• They are now scheduled on the date you originally had.
• Both assignments revert to Pending status so each volunteer can reconfirm their new commitment.

The two assignments do not have to be in the same position or even on the same team -- just two real upcoming assignments owned by two different volunteers within the same church.

Requesting a Swap

1. Log in to the Member Portal.
2. Open My Serving.
3. Find the assignment you cannot make and click Request Swap.
4. Pick the volunteer (and their assignment) you want to trade with. The system shows upcoming assignments for other team members in the same church.
5. Optionally add a short message explaining why you need to swap (max 500 characters).
6. Click Send Request.

The target volunteer is notified. Until they respond, your original assignment remains active -- you have not dropped it. If they decline or never respond, you are still on the schedule for your original date.

Responding to a Swap Request

If another volunteer asks to swap with you:

1. You receive a notification with the request details (their assignment date, your assignment date, and any message they included).
2. From the Member Portal, click Accept or Decline.

Accept

When you accept:

• The two assignments' volunteers are swapped immediately.
• Both assignments are reset to Pending so you each get a fresh confirmation prompt for your new date.
• The swap request is marked accepted and timestamped.
• The original requester is notified that the swap went through.

Decline

When you decline:

• The swap request is marked declined and timestamped.
• Both assignments stay exactly as they were before -- nothing changes on the schedule.
• The original requester is notified so they can try a different teammate or fall back to a sub request.

You can only respond to swap requests where you are the target -- the system blocks attempts to accept or decline requests addressed to someone else.

Swap Request Statuses

Each swap request lives in one of four states:

What Admins See

The swap is entirely peer-to-peer, but admins are not in the dark:

• After an accepted swap, both updated assignments appear on the event's Serving tab with the new volunteer's name.
• Both assignments show Pending status, so you can see at a glance which assignments still need re-confirmation after the swap.
• The assignment's notification and response timestamps are reset because the new volunteer needs a fresh confirmation flow.

Admins who want to override or cancel a swap can do so by removing or reassigning the volunteers directly from the event's Serving tab the same way they would for any other assignment.

Tip: Encourage your team to use the swap flow rather than declining outright. Swaps preserve coverage automatically (no scrambling for a sub the day before), and they keep your team's serving frequency stats balanced over the month.

Tip: If a swap is accepted close to the event date, double-check that both volunteers actually re-confirm their new pending assignments. The system resets the status to Pending precisely so you can see who has and hasn't acknowledged the change.