Scheduler

Automatically generate optimized volunteer rosters for upcoming events.

The Scheduler is the core scheduling engine in Ministry Steward. It automatically generates optimized volunteer rosters based on availability, qualifications, and preferences.

Who Can Access This

Owners and Administrators only.

How It Works

The Scheduler takes into account:

Ministry qualifications — only assigns volunteers to ministries they're qualified for.
Unavailable dates — respects dates volunteers have marked as unavailable.
Event preferences — considers whether volunteers prefer, are available for, or want to avoid specific events.
Standing assignments — includes volunteers who have standing (recurring) assignments.
Event Groups — avoids assigning a volunteer to more than one linked event in the same group occurrence.
Family groups — avoids splitting family members across different services in the same Event Group occurrence.
Shared volunteer pairings — can assign one qualified volunteer to two approved ministries in the same event.
Active status — only schedules volunteers who are active and have auto-schedule enabled.

Event Groups are useful when related services should be treated as one scheduling obligation. For example, if multiple services belong to the same weekend group, the scheduler avoids assigning the same volunteer to more than one of those services for that shared occurrence. The same volunteer can still be scheduled for a linked event in a different occurrence when their availability and other rules allow it.

Family groups are also considered inside Event Groups. If one family member is scheduled for a service in a shared Event Group occurrence, the auto-scheduler will not assign another member of that family to a different service in the same occurrence. It is okay if only part of the family serves. Family members can still serve together in the same service, and administrators can make manual overrides when needed.

Generating a Schedule

Step 1: Select a Date Range

Choose the period you want to schedule using preset buttons or a custom date picker:

Next Week — the upcoming 7 days.
Next Two Weeks — the upcoming 14 days.
Next Month — the upcoming 30 days.
Custom — pick your own start and end dates.

The selected range includes every event occurrence whose date falls within that range in your organization's timezone, including events later in the evening on the end date.

Step 2: Select Events

Choose which events to include:

All Events — schedule all active events in the date range.
Specific Events — toggle individual events on or off.

Step 3: Optional Ministries

Toggle whether to include optional ministry requirements in the schedule. Optional requirements are positions marked as nice-to-have in the event setup.

On Premium plans, you can also turn on Assign positions. When enabled, the scheduler uses the position counts from each event requirement and tries to fill each position without duplicates. If no event-specific counts are set yet, it falls back to the ministry's position list and assigns one of each position up to the needed count. If you leave this off, assignments start with No position, but you can still choose positions manually in the preview.

When one or more selected events has a shared volunteer pairing, choose a Shared volunteer coverage mode:

Only when needed — assigns distinct volunteers first, then uses an approved pairing to prevent a slot from remaining open. This is the default.
Prefer shared volunteers — within the same availability and preference level, chooses an approved shared volunteer before a new person.

In either mode, the volunteer must be qualified and available for both ministries. The scheduler never gives one volunteer more than two roles in the same event, and it will not use a pairing to bypass a conflict with another event, date, or Event Group occurrence. Smart Coverage is calculated first, then shared coverage can fill any remaining need.

Step 4: Generate

Click Generate to create a preview roster. The system will calculate optimal assignments and present them for review.

Reviewing the Preview

After generating, you'll see a preview with:

Roster Summary

The Roster Summary panel stays visible while you review the schedule. On smaller screens, the panel scrolls inside the card so warnings, KPIs, and publish actions stay reachable. Its KPI groups are collapsible, with Coverage open by default. It shows:

Total Occurrences — how many event occurrences are in the schedule.
Filled Slots — how many positions have been assigned.
Unfilled Slots — how many positions still need volunteers.
Standing Assignments — how many slots are filled by standing (recurring) volunteers.
Pre-Assigned — how many slots were already assigned in the database.
Auto — how many assignments were created by the scheduler.
Manual — how many assignments were manually added or swapped in the preview.
Preference Fit — the percentage of filled assignments that match a volunteer's Preferred, Available, No Preference, or Unavailable event preference.
Avg / Available Volunteer — the average number of assignments per available auto-scheduled volunteer, adjusted for volunteers who are unavailable during part of the schedule.
Avg / Available Ministry Volunteer — the same availability-adjusted average broken down by ministry, using auto-scheduled volunteers qualified for each ministry.

If the preview has warnings, they appear in the Roster Summary panel. Expand a warning to read what needs review before publishing. Repeated affected volunteers or family groups are combined with a count, and family split warnings show the family group name when it is available. An approved two-role pairing shows a neutral Shared coverage badge and is not treated as a warning. Unapproved combinations and assignments with three or more ministries still appear as double-booked volunteer warnings.

Assignment View

Each event occurrence shows its ministry requirements and assigned volunteers. Within each day, events are listed by start time so the preview follows the same order as the calendar and events list. Assignments are color-coded by status:

Pre-Assigned — already existed in the database before this scheduling run.
Standing — recurring volunteer for this event.
Auto-Assigned — generated by the scheduling algorithm.
Manual — manually assigned by you during the preview.

If positions were included, each filled assignment shows a position dropdown. Use it to adjust generated or pre-assigned positions before publishing. Manual changes can use duplicate positions when that is what you need for the event. When you publish, the reviewed roster is saved exactly as shown, including any swapped volunteers, removed assignments, and position changes.

Making Adjustments

You can modify the preview before publishing:

Swap a Volunteer — click the swap icon to replace an assigned volunteer with another available person. The picker shows qualified volunteers. Someone already serving in an approved paired ministry stays visible with a Shared coverage badge. Other same-service combinations show an Already serving warning.
Remove a Volunteer — delete an assignment to create an unfilled slot.
Fill an Unfilled Slot — click on an open position to manually assign a volunteer. New manual fills start with No position. After the volunteer is added, use the position dropdown on that assignment if a specific position is needed.

The volunteer picker includes quick filters that stay active while you work on the scheduler page. Use Preference or Best fit to change the sort order, turn on No warnings when you only want clean options, and turn off Hide unavailable if you need to review volunteers who marked the event as unavailable.

If a volunteer is already scheduled for another service in the same Event Group occurrence, the picker shows a warning. You can still select the volunteer when you intentionally want to override the warning. Approved same-event pairings remain available when No warnings is turned on. Unapproved pairings show an Already serving warning and the assignment shows a roles badge after you add it.

If a manual change would split a family group across different services in the same Event Group occurrence, the preview shows a warning. You can still publish the roster when that override is intentional.

Volunteer names appear on the first line in the picker. Warnings and preference labels appear beneath the name so long names stay easier to read. When a warned volunteer is added to the roster, the warning icons stay visible beside their name. Hover over an icon to see whether the warning is for that volunteer, their family group, or another role in the same service before publishing. The Roster Summary panel also shows expandable warnings when the preview includes Event Group conflicts, family split warnings, or volunteers assigned to multiple ministries in one service.

Publishing

When you're satisfied with the preview:

Publish — finalizes the schedule. A confirmation dialog will appear. Once published, volunteers can see their assignments on the Calendar and My Events pages.

If you publish a date range that already has assignments, the reviewed preview replaces the existing published roster for those occurrences. Assignments that still appear in the preview stay in place, removed assignments are cleared, and new assignments are added.

Automatic Monthly Drafts

Owners and Administrators can ask Ministry Steward to prepare one private draft for the upcoming month. Open Settings > Scheduling, turn automation on, and choose when generation should run. The Schedule Timing summary shows when the draft is created, how long leaders have to review it, and when reminders begin. After reviewing the automation and reminder timing, select Save Changes at the bottom of the tab.

Assign Position Labels is marked as a Premium setting. On Base plans, the full setting appears unavailable and explains that Premium is required. On Premium plans, turn it on to use configured ministry positions when automatic drafts are generated.

Automatic drafts:

Run at local midnight 14, 21, 30, 45, or 60 days before the month begins.
Include every active event in the upcoming month.
Use the saved optional-ministry, position, and shared-coverage choices.
Stay private until an Owner or Administrator publishes them.
Never notify volunteers just because a draft was generated.

When an automatic draft is first ready, every current Owner and Administrator receives one email with its Coverage, Assignment Source, Preference Fit, Volunteer Load, and warning summary. The email links directly to the private review page. Active drafts also appear at the top of the Scheduler and in Attention Needed when the month is inside the reminder window.

Reviewing an Automatic Draft

Open the draft from the email, dashboard, or Scheduler > Active drafts. You can swap, remove, or add volunteers, adjust positions when available, and include or exclude optional ministries. Select Save changes before leaving if you are not ready to publish.

If another administrator saved the draft first, Ministry Steward asks you to reload instead of overwriting their work. If events, requirements, volunteers, availability, preferences, or published assignments changed after generation, the page shows a warning. Regenerate to use the latest information. You can still publish a valid saved draft after explicitly confirming the warning, but a draft containing an event that no longer exists cannot be published.

Select Regenerate to review options for that regeneration, including whether to assign optional ministries and position labels. These choices apply only to the regenerated draft and do not change the Schedule Automation settings. Confirm to replace the saved preview and any unsaved draft edits with a new scheduler result. Manual regeneration does not send another draft-ready email to Owners or Administrators. Select Discard when the draft is no longer needed. A recovered older draft must be regenerated before it can be published.

If Generation Fails

Owners and Administrators receive one action-needed email after the final retry. Open the link to see the safe error summary. Check that the upcoming month has active event occurrences and review the automation settings, then select Retry generation. Existing published schedules are never changed by a failed draft.

Automatic generation remains separate from unpublished-schedule reminders. If both are enabled, the draft must be scheduled earlier than the reminder so there is time to review it. Settings that would put the reminder on or before the draft-generation day are unavailable. Ministry Steward shows the resulting review window beneath both settings.

Upcoming Monthly Schedule Reminders

Owners and Administrators can receive a reminder when the next monthly schedule has not been published. The reminder appears in Attention Needed on the dashboard and is also sent once by email to each current Owner and Administrator. Ministry Leads and Volunteers do not receive it.

Manage this reminder under Settings > Scheduling. You can turn the dashboard and email reminder on or off together and choose to start reminding 7, 14, 21, 30, or 45 days before the month begins. New reminder settings default to 7 days. Select Save Changes once after reviewing both the automation and reminder timing.

The reminder skips months without any events. When more than one future month is within the reminder window, it starts with the earliest unpublished month. Publishing that month allows the next eligible month to appear.

To clear a monthly reminder, publish the complete calendar month with All Events selected. The publication must include every event occurrence shown for the selected range. A ready automatic draft changes the reminder into a direct review link, but only publication clears it. A partial-month range or a schedule filtered to specific events does not clear the reminder.

Once a complete month has been published, it stays marked as published. Adding or changing an event later does not bring the reminder back for that month.

Tips

Use automatic monthly drafts when you want a consistent review window before each month.
Encourage volunteers to set their availability before you generate schedules.
Use standing assignments for volunteers who serve every week to reduce manual work.
Review the Reports page after publishing to verify staffing levels.