Tracking setup, execution, and teardown shifts separately

The most common post-event question is some variant of "how many volunteer hours went into this?" The follow-up is always "and how did that break down, was setup actually as bad as it felt?" If you tracked hours as one undifferentiated pile, you can't answer the second question.

The phase tagging pattern

Before the event, create three tags: setup, execution, teardown. When volunteers scan the QR poster or open their personal link to clock in, they pick the phase. At the volunteer table, post a quick reminder: "When you tap to clock in, pick which phase you're working."

For a multi-day event, the phase tags often correspond to days (setup = day 1, execution = day 2, teardown = day 3). For a single-day event, they're hours of the day. Either way, the tag is the slicer.

Post-event report

Open Reports, pick the event's date range, filter by tag. You get total hours per phase plus the distinct-volunteer count per phase. Most events find that setup is 30-40% of total hours but only 15-20% of volunteer headcount, fewer people, longer shifts. Useful for next year's planning.

The CSV export gives you the per-entry detail for the post-event recap presentation to your board or sponsors.

If your event runs multiple roles per phase

Combine tags with worker groups. Worker groups (set on each volunteer) scope the kiosk picker, so the registration volunteers see a short list of just registration people, the parking crew sees parking. Tags slice the entries. Use both, and your post-event report can answer "how many hours of parking-crew work happened during execution?"

Back to the event-organizers hub or grab a printable QR sign-in poster for the volunteer table.