Vol-Track 1.0 Documentation.

Welcome to Vol - Track's documentation. Here you will find the answers to your questions about Vol - Track. If you are unable to find the answer to your question, you can always contact our support or visit our web site for the latest information. These methods are detailed later in this documentation.

What is Vol-Track?

Vol - Track is a system for monitoring and tracking Volunteer activity. This system was originally created with Community Service and Volunteer Programs in mind. This system allows coordinators to oversee what volunteers are doing, what agencies are currently being helped by their group and make it easier to create reports for you, your volunteers, agencies and managers.

Vol - Track is equipped with some very nice features. As you may know, getting existing information into the system can be difficult or almost impossible. Vol-Track has the ability to import data from existing systems. Also Vol-Track has the ability to print information cards that can be given to your members to fill out when they are away from the office. That way the can keep track of their information and then it can be entered as soon as they return. Finally Vol-Track has built in reports to allow for quick access to information for volunteers, the agencies and the hours worked for. It can even be calculated over a date range.

With all these features Vol-Track is very easy to use and it will help give your organization a good method for tracking Volunteers and the Agencies they work for.

Installing

To begin the install, start by checking the system requirements and then choose the operating system you would like to install on.

System Requirements For Mac

• Any Mac OS compatible computer running system 7.1 or greater
• Hard disk drive and 4 MB memory(8 MB recommended for 680x0 Macintosh)
• 8 MB required for Power Macintosh
• 5 MB of disk space
• Any Macintosh printer

System Requirements For Windows

• Intel compatible 486/33 Computer with 8 MB RAM
• Hard disk drive
• Windows 95 or 98, or Windows NT 3.51 or newer
• 5 MB of disk space
• Any PC compatible printer

Installing Vol - Track

To install Vol - Track follow the steps bellow.

1. If you downloaded the installer, starting at step number 3.
2. If you received a Disk or CD, begin by inserting it into your computer and open it.
3. Uncompress the Vol-Track file.
1. On Windows you can right click on the zip file to uncompress it
2. On Mac double click the StuffIt file
4. Move the Uncompress folder (Vol-Track Folder) to any location on your computer.
5. Double Click Vol-Track to start using it.

Toolbar

Below is a list of the options available on the Vol-Track Toolbar. By pressing on a button you can perform any of the available operations built into Vol-Track. The first time you begin using Vol - Track the toolbar will have both icons and text going horizontally, starting at the top left of the screen. You may change this option at any time by choosing the settings button from the toolbar. See the section on Settings for information on how to customize the toolbar. Each option is explained in more detail further in this documentation.

• Add Volunteer - This function is used to add new volunteers to the system. This will display a blank volunteer form to enter their information.
• Find Volunteer - When you need to find a volunteer or make changes to one, this is the button you will use.
• Add Agency - To enter a new agency that has not yet been added to the system, use this button.
• Find Agency - When you need to find or edit an agency uses the find agency button.
• Print Report - When you need to generate or print a report, use this button. It will allow you to create reports for Volunteers and Agencies.
• Print Cards - Information cards is a nice feature for helping you gather information. By using this button you will be able to create proofs of this cards to make copies for distribution.
• Settings - This will allow you the ability to customize Vol - Track. This is also where data manipulation like exporting and importing are handled.
• Quit - This will exit Vol - Track.

Volunteers

Adding Volunteers

Vol-Track's main function is about handling volunteers. Pressing on the Add Volunteer button in the Toolbar is used to add volunteers. The window, which appears displays, a host of fields, which will all, be blank. The cursor will be blinking in the first field labeled Identification Number.

Begin by entering an identification number. This is a required field and must be unique between volunteers in the system. Without entering a valid identification number the following error message will appear.

"An identification number is required and it must be unique. Please validate the identification number."

Why is this number required? This is required because Vol - Track uses this number to track and handle each volunteer. With out this number it wouldn't be able to keep John Smith's records from Jane Smith's records. Remember that this is a very important number.

Once all the desired information has been entered, there are a few options.

• Cancel - The cancel button can be used to undo the creation of this new volunteer and not save any of the information.
• OK - This button will save all of the information, which was entered.
• Enter Detail Information - This option is used to add more detailed information about a volunteer. Once pressed, it saves the current record and displays fields to add information like, the volunteer's sex, major, race, religion and even ask some questions like why would you consider volunteering. Because of the complexity of this feature, it will be discussed in a later section.

Finding Volunteers

Finding a volunteer is necessary to allow the editing of volunteer records, adding hours and generating reports, It can even be used to look up information.

To begin, click on Find Volunteer in the Toolbar. A window will appear offering two choices. Enter information into one of the fields, depending on the information available to perform the search.

Enter the persons name or their identification number and press Find.

Note: If you put information in both of these fields then only volunteers matching both these will be found.

Another options is to use the Browse to list all of the volunteers currently in the system. This is helpful when you need to see multiple volunteers quickly.

Whether browsing or performing a search, a window will be displayed with the results. In the upper right corner a number of found records will be displayed with the current record number being viewed. The rest of the window is identical to the Add Volunteer window. However there is an addition few buttons labeled, Next, Previous and Delete.

• Next - This will move to the next volunteer in the series. If Next is pressed when viewing the last record in the set, an error dialog will appear.
• Previous - This will move to the previous volunteer in the series. If Previous is pressed when viewing the first record in the set, an error dialog will appear.
• Delete - This deletes the volunteer and all associated information for the current volunteer. This includes hours they have worked and the agencies they have worked for.

Warning: Once a volunteer has been deleted there is no way to undo. Please use delete carefully.

The last thing about the find feature is, after performing a find, if no volunteers are found matching the search criteria, a dialog will appear asking to modify the search criteria or canceling this search. If Modify is selected it will return to the find dialog, otherwise it will close the find dialog and return to the previous screen.

Detailed Information

On the Add and Find windows that appear is a method to add, view and edit detailed information about a volunteer. To access the detailed information click on the arrow image near the bottom.

Once this is pressed the lower half of the window will expand to display detailed information fields. These fields can then be used to enter the information for the given volunteer.

Note: Vol-Track doesn't do anything but store this information. It is not used internally by Vol-Track for any purpose.

Once the information has been added or modified, click the Save button to store all of the information.

Warning: Cancel will undo the last operation that you did as long as you have not yet exited the field. When you exit a field Vol - Track save the results. If this is a new volunteer that has not yet been added to the system then hitting cancel will not save the entire record.

One other area of this section that is import is the three pop-up fields labeled Major, Race, and Religion. This is important because sometimes a volunteer's race, religion, or major is not included in the pop-up. Vol - Track allows the ability to edit these pop-ups from the detail view screen. To edit these pop-ups, click on the underlined title of the pop-up to edit. See the section labeled Modifying Pop-ups for more detail information on modify and adding items to the pop-ups.

Note: By pressing on this, don't worry about the data for the volunteer. When the title is pressed the Volunteer screen will not disappear. A new window will appear on top of the Volunteer screen with a title of what you are editing.

Adding Hours

Tracking hours gives Vol-Track the capability to generate reports and provide other statistical information. To add hours, begin by finding or adding a specific volunteer. Once the volunteer(s) have been found, click on the Add Hours button in the bottom left corner when viewing the selected volunteer.

A new window will appear containing fields to add volunteer hours. Also on this window the volunteers name will appear in the upper right corner. Below that is a set of rows for adding hours.

Within each row, the following information can be added.

• Date Worked - The date that work actually occurred.
• Date Entered - The date the work was entered. This will auto populate when the information is first entered.
• Description of work - The description of what the work actually entailed.
• Agency - This is a pop-up of current Agencies in the system.
• Hours Worked - The total number of hours worked.
• Sign off Person - The person who signs off on there work.
• Semester - Used to know what semester or quarter the work took place in.

There are 5 rows displayed. A scroll bar is displayed on the right side of the area to allow more then 5 rows of data to be entered. When adding more data use the scroll bar on the right to move down to the next row or press tab to jump to the next field.

Note: Any changes made are saved as soon as the cursor leaves the field. In that case hitting Cancel will not revert that field.

Agencies

Adding Agencies

Adding agencies is another important part since they are used when adding hours for a specific volunteer. By handling agencies, Vol - Track keeps important information readily available about an agency like the address, and contact people.

To add an agency click on the Add Agency button in the Toolbar.

Note: Agencies may also be added from the Add Hours window by clicking on the Agency title. The hours information, which has been entered will not be lost since the Add Hours window remains open. Once you press OK the agency will appear in the pop-up.

Once the window appears, the cursor will be blinking in the Name field of the screen. Begin by entering a name.

Note: The name of an agency is very important because the system uses it to associate it to a volunteer and their hours. The name is also used on reports. So please make sure that you enter an appropriate name.

Once all the desired information has been entered, press OK to save the information. Otherwise press Cancel to close the window without saving anything.

Finding Agencies

This feature works like the find volunteer feature(Find Volunteer). This will find an agency to get information like contact person or address and telephone number. This can also be used to find agencies to modify and delete to help keep the information up-to-date.

To begin, click on Find Agency in the Toolbar. In the window that appears, enter the agency name and press Find.

Another options is to use the Browse to list all of the agencies currently in the system. This is helpful when you need to see multiple agencies quickly.

Whether browsing or performing a search, a window will be displayed with the results. In the upper right corner a number of found records will be displayed with the current record number being viewed. The rest of the window is identical to the Add Agencies window. However there is an addition few buttons labeled, Next, Previous and Delete.

• Next - This will move to the next volunteer in the series. If Next is pressed when viewing the last record in the set, an error dialog will appear.
• Previous - This will move to the previous volunteer in the series. If Previous is pressed when viewing the first record in the set, an error dialog will appear.
• Delete - This deletes the volunteer and all associated information for the current volunteer. This includes hours they have worked and the agencies they have worked for.

Warning: Once an agency has been deleted there is no way to undo. Please use delete carefully.

The last thing about the find feature is, after performing a find, if no volunteers are found matching the search criteria, a dialog will appear asking to modify the search criteria or canceling this search. If Modify is selected it will return to the find dialog, otherwise it will close the find dialog and return to the previous screen.

Reports

Customizing Reports

Reports are used to show statistics and information about the volunteers, the agencies they support and the overall success of the volunteer group. By customizing these reports you can obtain a more personalize report.

To customize a report ,click on the settings button in the toolbar. In the settings window, click on the report tab in the upper section of the screen. A screen appears with the following fields:

• Organization Name - This is the name of the volunteer organization to be displayed on the reports.
• Sincerely Tag - This is used to display at the bottom of reports that contain a sincerely clause.
• Template Include Field - This field cannot be edited from this dialog. A template is included with in the Vol-Track folder. It is recommended that a copy of this be worked on. After making a copy open it with some graphics editor(Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop, etc) and edit the file to create a custom header for reports. Once done save the file. Then open up the settings dialog again, click on the Import/Export table and select Import Picture. Choose the picture that was just saved. The image will now be inserted into the field.

Note: The Settings window shrinks the image to fit in the field. This doesn't affect the size on the report.

Warning: Do not adjust the size of the HeaderTemp.pict file. This is the exact size that the report requires. If the size is modified the image will be resized and distorted on the reports.

Note: We are always looking for new report styles. If you have any ideas please email them to support@developerskingdom.com. If yours is selected we will send you a free upgrade of Vol-Track.

Generating/Printing Reports

Reports are a very valuable tool, to see how an organization is doing and find out how time is being spent. These can be used for many different things like reporting to managers, or agencies, or how the volunteers are being used through the programs offered by a volunteer organization. It can also be used to give volunteer's who need recommendations and a record of how they contributed, and much more.

To create a report press on the Print Report button in the Toolbar. In the window that appears choose what the report should be generated on, Agencies or Volunteers. After pressing the desired button, a find dialog appears.

If Volunteers was selected, then in the find dialog that appears a pop-up will appear with a list of all the volunteers' identification numbers and the names.

If Agencies was selected, then in the find dialog that appears a pop-up will appear with a list of all the agencies names.

In either instance, start typing the name of the desired volunteer or agency. Vol-Track will jump to that area of these items. Once the volunteer or agency has been chosen, a few options exists.

To view everything about this volunteer or agency, press search and a report will be displayed. However to perform a search for a specific date range enter the information into the lower text fields. To enter a date range enter the two dates separated by three periods - '...'. The date range should look like this 1/1/2004..2/1/2004 with no spaces. Press find to perform the search. If nothing is found, either the person or agency was not found or they didn't have anything for that date range, a message will be displayed asking to modify the search or cancel.

Now that a volunteer or agency has been found the report is displayed. A second window will appear in the upper right corner of the screen. The window contains a set of buttons as described below.

• Choose Style - This opens a new window that describes each layout available. Select a new report style and press OK. The existing report will be updated.
• Close Report - This will close the report without doing anything and return you to the Toolbar. This also closes this little button window.
• Print Report - This will print the current report to the selected printer and then close the report and return to the Toolbar.

Note: We are always looking for new report styles. If you have any ideas please email them to support@developerskingdom.com. If yours is selected we will send you a free upgrade to Vol-Track.

Changing Styles

To increase the flexibility of Vol - Track, different report styles have been included.

To change to a different report styles, a report must be displayed. Click on Choose Style from the little button window in the upper right corner. A new window will appear which shows information about the style and a small image of the layout. There is a previous and Next button to cycle through the different report styles.

When viewing a style, if Apply is pressed then the window will close and the new style will be displayed in the existing report window. If Cancel is pressed then the window will return to the report, without making any modifications.

Note: This database of report layouts can not be customized in any way. It is just a utility to view the reports, and change the layout. As more reports get added to the system this database will be updated. We are always looking for new report styles. If you have any ideas please email them to support@developerskingdom.com. If yours is selected we will send you a free upgrade to Vol-Track.

Information Cards

Volunteer Hours

This card is used to allow Volunteers to track their hours while they are way from the office. They may use these cards to fill out the required information. Then at a later time these cards can be used to enter the information into Vol-Track. The cards are designed to correspond with the fields in Vol-Track to make this easier to perform data entry.

The card contain the following information:

• Agency - The name of the agency the volunteer was at.
• Date - The date they worked at this location.
• Hours spent at the Agency - The amount of time spent at this agency.
• Sign off Person - A sign off person. Could be either an agency representative or the volunteer coordinator.

Volunteer Information Card

This card can be used the first time a volunteer signs up to work within a group. This card collects the information about a volunteer so it can be easily entered into Vol-Track.

This card contains the following information:

• Name - The volunteer's full name.
• Address - The address for this volunteer.
• Phone Number - Their phone number.
• Email Address - Their email address.

Volunteer Detail Information Card

This card is almost exactly like the Volunteer Information Card. The only difference is that it has more detailed questions added to it. It can be used to gain more detailed information to be placed into Vol-Track.

This card contains the following information:

• Name - The volunteer's full name.
• Address - The address for this volunteer.
• Phone Number - Their phone number.
• Email Address - Their email address.
• Race - Their race.
• Religion - Their religion.
• GPA - For schools this is their current Grade Point Average.

Agency Information Card

This card has all the necessary fields that Vol - Track handles. By giving this card to agencies, they can supply Vol-Track the proper information for tracking an Agency.

This card contains the following information:

• Name - The agency name.
• Address - The address for this agency.
• Contact Person - The primary contact person for this agency.
• Phone Number - The contact person's phone number.
• Email Address - The contact parson's email address.

Print Information Card

The information cards provide an easy way to obtain the information for Vol-Track to manage. These cards are built into Vol-Track and can be printed at any time. There are four styles of information cards. They are:

• Volunteer Hours
• Volunteer Information
• Volunteer Detailed Information
• Agency Information

To print any of these cards click on the print card button in the Toolbar. In the window that appears select the desired card to print. Once you press a button, the printer should begin to print the desired card.

If Volunteer Detail Information Card or the Volunteer Hours Card was selected, a message will appear on the screen explaining part two for printing these cards. These cards contain information on both sides so the printer will need the paper to be inserted again to print on the other side (make sure that the paper is put back in the correct direction and the correct side is up). Once the paper is placed back in, press OK and side two will begin to print.

Note: If OK is pressed without inserting the paper back in, Vol-Track will just print side to on a separate piece of paper.

Settings

Toolbar

Vol - Track offers a customizable Toolbar, which can be customized in the settings section. To access the settings click on Settings in the Toolbar.

To begin, click on the Toolbar Tab in the settings dialog. The toolbar options will be displayed. There are six different settings for the toolbar. They are:

• Horizontal
• Icons Only
• Text Only
• Both Icons and Text
• Vertical
• Icons Only
• Text Only
• Both Icons and Text

In this window two sets of radio buttons will be displayed. By using the combination of these buttons you can get the desired toolbar listed above. Begin by choosing a direction for the toolbar to go. Then select the preferred style of button. Press OK and the window will close and the new toolbar will be displayed. Pressing Cancel will close the window without saving the changes.

Importing Data

Importing information can be a very valuable feature especially when the information needed is already in electronic format. By importing information it saves time from retyping information.

To import information, begin by choosing Settings from the toolbar. In the window that appears choose the tab labeled 'Import/Export'. There are 6 buttons available to choose from. The lower three allow you to perform the import (the top three are for exporting and are discussed in the Exporting Data section). Choose the type of information to be importing and press on the appropriate button. In the dialog that appears, choose which file to import and the type of file it is. The following is a list file types handled by Vol - Track:

• FileMaker Pro
• Tab - Delimited Text
• Comma - Separated Text
• Excel
• Apple (Claris) Works
• DBF
• WKS
• SYLK
• DIF
• Basic
• Merge

After selecting the file type, select open and another dialog will appear. This dialog displays a mapping system to map the fields in the import file to the fields in Vol-Track.

Note: To make this easier, it is recommended that a header be added to the import files data. For example have a header for first name, last name, etc.

After matching up the fields, there is an option to either replace all the data in the system or add to it. By overwriting the current data the system will delete everything in the system and add the new data in. This may be useful in restoring a database, or starting over. Otherwise adding is a better option. Finally press OK. In the next dialog that appears make sure 'Perform auto-enter options while importing' is checked off and then press OK. Your data should then be imported and a message saying 'Import completed successfully' will be returned.

Exporting Data

Exporting data gives the ability to backup information or transfer it to another system. Vol - Track has this ability to export any of the desired data.

Begin by select Settings from the toolbar. In the window, which appears choose the tab labeled, 'Import/Export'. There are 6 buttons available to choose from. The upper three allow you to perform the export (the lower three are for importing and are discussed in the Importing Data section). Begin by choosing what data to export and then press the desired button. The next option is where to save the exported data file to. Make this selection and then select the file type to save it as. The available format types are:

• FileMaker Pro
• Tab - Delimited Text
• Comma - Separated Text
• Excel
• Apple (Claris) Works
• DBF
• WKS
• SYLK
• DIF
• Basic
• Merge

Then select save and the file will be generated with the desired information in the desired format.

Modifying Pop-ups

There are 3 pop-up lists available. All three of these lists appear on the Volunteer Detail view. When the detail view is expanded for a volunteer the pop-ups are:

• Major
• Race
• Religion

All of the pop-up list are easy to modify and there are 2 methods to get to the modification screen. The first method to modify the pop-up list is by choosing the Settings button from the toolbar. In the settings window select the Pop-ups tab and choose the pop-up list to modify. The second method of modifying a pop-up list is when viewing a volunteer in the Detail View. Click on the title of the item that needs to be modified and the modify screen will appear.

Once on the modify pop-up screen, there will be an editable text field to modify any of the items in the list. Directly under that is a pop-up menu that shows what the list will look like in the Detail Volunteer section.

Note: This list will not do anything or change the current item you are viewing. It is there just as an example of the popup. Also, if a new item is added it will not appear in this popup until the Settings window is reopened.

There are many other buttons on the left side of the modification screen. Below is a list of them and their function.

• Add - This will simply add a new blank entry. The new entry can then be modified to set the desired name.
• Delete - This will delete the current item being viewed. Be careful when deleting since there is no way to undo this action.
• Next - Moves to the next item in the list.
• Previous - Moves to the previous item in the list.
• Export - This feature exports every item in the list to a tab-delimited file that can be named and saved wherever desired.
• Import - Importing can be used to read in a tab-delimited file to populate this menu.
• Done - Once all the changes have been made, pressing this will save the information and return to the previous screen.

Support Information

Vol - Track support can be obtain through two methods. They are:

Web Based Support

Visit our website to view the latest documentation, and post messages in our forum. The web address is

http://www.developerskingdom.com/

Vol-Track Forum Area

This is the number one location to post your questions about Vol-Track. We like having all questions posted in our Vol-Track forum becuase it allows other users to benefit from them. We constantly monitor this forum so if you post here we will get back to you as soon as we can.

http://www.developerskingdom.com/forum/

Email Support

To obtain support for things not found on the site or to give feedback or any other information feel free to contact our support staff. When contacting use please be sure to include the following information.

• Your name
• Your phone number (so we can call you if it is to hard to fix through email)
• Your email address
• The operating system you are using
• And as much detail as possible

You can email for support at:
support@developerskingdom.com