What Un-Archiving a Worker Does to Past Hours

Your fall volunteer crew has 40 names. Half of them only show up for the spring fundraiser. When they stop coming, you do not want their names cluttering the tablet, but you also do not want to lose the 60 hours they logged last March. Archiving handles both. Here is what it actually does to a worker and their hours, answered the way coordinators tend to ask it.

Does archiving a worker delete their past hours?

No. Archiving a worker removes them from the clock-in screen but keeps every hour they ever recorded. Their time entries stay in the system exactly as they were logged, with the same start and end times, the same tags, and the same worker group. Nothing about the past record changes.

The only thing archiving changes is the present: the name no longer appears on the shared-tablet kiosk, their QR code and personal link stop starting new sessions, and they drop off the list of people who can clock in. Think of it as taking someone off the active roster, not erasing them.

Will archived workers still show up in my CSV export and reports?

Yes. Archived workers appear in any report that covers a date range when they were active. If you pull a report for last March and a worker you archived in May logged hours in March, their rows are in that export. Archiving is a roster state, not a filter on history.

This matters for grant reporting. Your funder asks for total volunteer hours and a headcount for the grant period, not a snapshot of who happens to be active today. Because the CSV export keeps a stable column schema, an archived worker's rows carry the same fields as everyone else, and the distinct-worker count still includes them if they clocked in during the period you are reporting on. You can archive your whole spring crew the day after the event and still run a clean year-end total in December.

What happens on the clock-in screen after I archive someone?

Their name disappears from the kiosk the moment you archive them. A worker scanning the shared tablet or the posted QR code will not see an archived name in the list, and an archived personal link stops starting a new session. This is the whole point: a tidy clock-in screen that only shows the people actually working right now.

If someone is partway through a shift when you archive them, do not. Archive people who are clocked out. A better habit is to wait until the open entry is closed, either because they clocked out or because auto-close handled a forgotten clock-out at the start time plus the cutoff, so a stale session never inflates your hours.

How does a returning seasonal volunteer come back?

You un-archive them, and they reappear on the clock-in screen with their full history attached. Their name shows up on the kiosk again, their QR code and personal link work again, and any new hours they log stack on top of what they already had. You do not create a duplicate, and you do not start their total from zero.

This is why archiving beats deleting for anyone who might return. A volunteer who did 60 hours last spring, got archived over the summer, and comes back for this spring is the same person in the system. Their year-over-year total adds up correctly because it was never split across two records. Un-archiving is a two-second fix on the people list that makes up your roster, not a re-enrollment.

What if I already deleted someone instead of archiving them?

Deleting is the permanent version and it is not the same move. If you need the history, archive instead of delete. The safe rule: delete only a name you added by mistake that never logged a real shift. For anyone who worked, even once, even if you are sure they will never return, archive. Storage is not the constraint here, and a returning volunteer with their hours intact is worth more than a shorter list.

Do archived workers count against my pricing?

No. Kangaroo Clock never charges per person, so archiving someone does not save you money and keeping them does not cost you any. Pricing is flat: free for your first 500 recorded hours, then $10 a month or $100 a year for unlimited people. Archive or do not archive based on what makes your clock-in screen easier to read, not on a seat count, because there is no seat count.

That frees you to make the roster match reality. Archive the crew that only works the one event. Keep your year-round regulars active. Un-archive the seasonal folks a week before they return. The bill stays the same.

A quick workflow for seasonal crews

If you run the same event every year with a rotating group, this cycle keeps your roster clean without losing anything:

1. Before the event, un-archive returning volunteers so their names are on the kiosk again.
2. Add any genuinely new people as they arrive.
3. Run the event. Let people clock in and out as normal.
4. After the event, pull your report while everyone is still active, so the numbers are easy to check.
5. Archive the one-time and seasonal crew. Your clock-in screen shrinks back to year-round staff.

When next year rolls around, you repeat step one and the same people come back with their running totals intact. If you want to see how a name turns into a clock-in on a shared tablet before you set any of this up, try the live kiosk demo and run through a shift yourself.