A sorting morning that needs eight people, a Saturday collection that needs four, and a donor who wants to know when they can bring three bags round. Picktime lets volunteers put their own name against a session and closes it when it is full, so nobody is running a spreadsheet of replies.
Blu TrustSign up online
Sorting morningSat 09:00 · 8 places3 left
Collection roundSat 13:00 · 4 placesFull
Donation drop-off20m · WarehouseBook
Next free9:00 AM11:20 AM1:00 PM
Sorting morning
8 of 8
It closes itself
Every visit
On the record
Against the name
Confirmation
Sent
Email, the moment they sign up
A rota starts with named people and puts them into slots. A volunteer session works the way round that a charity actually needs: it states how many it wants and waits for names. Four things a group email cannot do, and each one is a coordinator not counting replies on a Friday night. The appointments a charity keeps with the people it helps are a different job, and the page for a nonprofit booking its own clients in covers those.
One link, and somebody picks the session they can make. No account, no sign-in, and no coordinator retyping a name from a reply into a list that somebody else is also editing.
Say how many people a session takes and it closes itself when the last place goes, instead of eleven turning up for a job that needs eight. On the paid plans anybody after that goes on a waitlist and is offered the next drop-out.
A drop-off window somebody books rather than a van arriving at a locked door. On the paid plans you can ask what they are bringing while they book it, so the space is cleared before it lands on the floor.
On the paid plans a session that runs every fortnight goes into the calendar in one action with an end date, and the people who signed up are reminded before each one rather than only about the first.
Marking the session on the day is on the paid plans, and it is what puts the difference between the eight who signed up and the five who came in writing instead of in somebody’s memory. Somebody who has not appeared for three sessions running is a name worth a phone call rather than a name that quietly stops being on the list, and everything anybody has ever signed up for stays against their record either way, which is also the honest answer when a funder asks how many volunteer hours went into something.
Every confirmation carries a link to cancel, so a Saturday that stops working on Thursday evening is a place back on the page rather than a gap discovered at nine on the morning. On the paid plans the next person on the waitlist is offered it, which matters most for the sessions that are genuinely oversubscribed. A coordinator finds out on Thursday rather than counting heads in a car park.
Five past nine on a Saturday. The sorting morning was arranged in a group message on Wednesday, twenty-two replies came back over three days in no order at all, and the person who was counting them was at work for most of Friday. Eleven have turned up for a job that needs eight, and the collection round that needs four has two.
Picktime puts a number on each session, closes it when it is reached, and tells everybody in writing what they signed up for, so what is on the page on Friday night is what is in the room on Saturday.
Sorting, collections, a fundraising stall, a drop-in. Say how long each runs and how many people it takes, so the page can close it when the last place is gone.
On the paid plans you write your own questions: whether they can lift, whether they drive, who to contact in an emergency, what they are bringing to a drop-off. The answers arrive attached to the session.
On the website, in the newsletter, on a poster as a QR code, or pinned in the group everybody is already in. Nobody needs an account to put their name down.
A small charity’s telephone is answered by whoever is nearest it, which on most days is nobody. The Picktime AI receptionist answers on a number of its own, around the clock and on more than one call at a time, takes the caller’s name and number, guides them through what you run and when, and books a drop-off or a session straight into the calendar, or hands the call to a person when somebody is there. Every call is transcribed into your dashboard, so an offer of help made on a Sunday afternoon is written down rather than lost.
The free plan has no end date and no card behind it, which is the part that matters when the budget is a grant that runs to March.
Sessions land in the Google or Outlook calendar the office already keeps, and the paid plans sync both ways, so a trustees’ meeting put in there is never offered as a sorting morning. Put the booking link on your Facebook page so people can sign up from where they already follow you, and add a video link to a committee meeting when it is not in person.
Picktime opens in a browser on a phone as well as a laptop, and there are iOS and Android apps, which matters when the person coordinating a Saturday is standing in a warehouse rather than sitting at a desk.
Yes. Picktime has a free forever plan with no end date and no card: a page volunteers and donors book from, an online calendar, self-service cancelling, and email notifications. You pay when more coordinators need their own login.
Put the sessions on a calendar with a number of places on each and share one link. Volunteers put their own name down, the session closes when it is full, and the list is the same list everybody is looking at.
Yes. Say how many places a session has and it stops being offered once they are gone. On the paid plans anybody after that goes onto a waitlist and is offered the next drop-out.
They cancel from the link in their confirmation and the place goes back onto the page, where the next volunteer takes it. On the paid plans the next person on the waitlist is offered it first, on Thursday evening rather than at nine on Saturday morning.
Yes. Make the drop-off a short bookable window, and on the paid plans ask what they are bringing while they book it, so somebody has cleared the space before a van arrives.
Yes, on the paid plans. Mark the session on the day and every place is recorded as arrived or not, against the volunteer’s own record, so a pattern is visible rather than anecdotal.
Yes, on the paid plans. Set it to repeat with an end date and the whole run goes into the calendar in one action, with everybody who signed up reminded before each one.
Drop-ins Rooms, drop-ins and groups with a limit on them, all on one calendar.
See community centre scheduling
Study rooms Rooms, computers and events booked by the people who use them.
See library scheduling
Quiet appointments A private conversation booked without going through anybody else.
See spiritual services schedulingFree forever for a volunteer-run charity. No card, no trial clock, and the next session can be open for sign-ups today.
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