Time Tracker
The Time Tracker tool allows you to easily record the time your volunteers and staff serve at your pantry.
The time is entered in two possible ways. One way is to enter the time in a decimal format and the other way is to enter in the time like a digital clock displays it. For the two methods we will use this example of entering in two hours and forty five minutes.
- Decimal Method: I want to enter in two hours and forth five minutes I would enter in 2.75, You must use a period when using the decimal method. This records two hours and three quarters of an hour or two hours and forty five minutes.
- You can also enter in time as if looking at a digital clock. To enter time in this way you would enter in the hours followed by the minutes seperated by a colon ':'. This would look like 2:45, and record two hours and forty five minutes.
Let's Start
To enter the time of someone in your organization, click on the ‘Time Tracker’ tab.
To begin make sure the date is set to the correct day. When you access this page, it will automatically default to today's date. You can find the date in the blue section, directly below the ‘Time Tracker’ tab. To change the date, click on the ‘Change Date’ button and a calendar tool will pop up for your convenience. If you change the date, this page will show the date you selected. This way you know what day you are recording time for.
Since FoodBank Manager allows for pre and post entering of time records, having the correct date set is important for your reports.
Time Tracker lets you record time by date or by outreach. To apply time to an outreach or distribution, click on the ‘Track By Date (No Outreach)’ drop down menu and choose the outreach you are looking for. Otherwise leave it on 'Track by Date' to enter time for the day.
What the two options date & outreach mean.
- Date: Date lets you enter in time against the day you are entering in time for. This does not record the time to a specific outreach or distribution. To use this leave the option set to 'Track by Date' in the drop down window.
- Outreach: Outreach allows you to enter in time for a specific outreach or distribution. To use this you will see the outreachs available in the drop down window.
Finding the Volunteer
Click in the ‘Search’ bar to look for your team member.
Note: For this article, we are searching by first name, role, home phone and email. You can customize the “search by” options to better suit how your pantry is accustomed to searching. (see Help > Settings > List Configs)
A “less is better” approach to searching for a team member will yield more accurate results than by typing in the full name.
Start by typing in two or three letters of the first name, press the {TAB} key and then two or three letters of the role and press the {TAB} key again. It’s possible that you may see the team member you are looking for already, but if not, type in the home phone and press the {TAB} key again. If you still do not find who you are looking for continue to the email field, but remember…just a few characters, not the entire email. Please notice that as you ‘Tab’ through, the column changes to gold. This lets you know what column you are working in. Try it on your system, press tab a few times and {SHIFT} + {TAB} to move backwards.
Once you find the team member you are looking for, click on their name.
Note: If the team member is new to your pantry, click on the ‘Create New Team Member’ tab. Fill out the information and ‘Save’. (see Help > Manage > Team) Once saved, it will default you back to the ‘Create Time Entry’ page for you to record the time.
Recording the Time Worked
Record the ‘Hours Worked’ and any other information you are collecting for time management. In this example we are recording ‘Mileage’ and ‘Duties Performed’ as well.
Time Tracker has two methods of saving the information. The green button, ‘Save Entry & Close’, let’s you save a single time entry for the team member. An example might be that Don worked 3.5 hours as a Food Runner.
The white button, ‘Save & Create New Entry’, let’s you record multiple entries for the same team member before saving. An example might be that Don worked 3.5 hours as a Food Runner and 2 hours as a Mobile Truck Driver. By using the white button you can keep the entries separate.
Once you save the time entry, the system will automatically default you back to the Search field again.
Please notice the team members will start populating at the bottom of the page. Scroll down if you do not see them.
By clicking on the green plus sign next to the tam member’s name you can get a visual review of what was recorded in the time entry.
To edit or delete the entry use the fields on the right.
To customize the ‘Time Tracker’ page, go to Settings > Custom Fields > Time Entry Fields.
To learn more about customization using custom fields, CLICK HERE.