How do Opportunities work on Vome?
Setting up an event? Read How to Create an Event on Vome. It walks through the choices that only matter for one-time events.
Overview
An opportunity is a unit of work people do for your organization: a role, a position, a task, an assignment or an event. It is the backbone of Vome. Shifts, hours, chat rooms and most of your reports hang off an opportunity, so a few minutes on how it fits together saves a restructure later.
This article is for administrators. For the field by field setup, read How do I add a new opportunity?
1. How do categories, opportunities and shifts fit together?
Think of them as three layers.
- Category. A folder that groups related opportunities, for example a program, a department, a site or a run of events. People see a category's title, description and cover photo on your organization page.
- Opportunity. The work itself, for example Delivery driver or Front desk reception.
- Shift. A date and a time when the work happens, with its own number of spots. How shifts are created and managed is in How do Shifts work on Vome?
For example, the Meals program category holds a Delivery driver opportunity, and that opportunity holds a shift every Tuesday from 12:00 to 14:00 with 3 spots.
Spots belong to the shift, not the opportunity. An opportunity has no capacity of its own. Each shift sets how many people it needs, so two shifts in the same opportunity can need different numbers of people.
2. Is this ongoing work or an event?
Decide this first, because it changes what a shift means.
- Ongoing work, such as a weekly program or a standing role. Create one opportunity per role. Each shift is simply a date and a time, and a shift series covers the repeating pattern so people can commit to every Tuesday in one step. See why a series beats a date range in How do Shifts work on Vome?
- An event, such as a gala or a cleanup day. Either give the event its own opportunity and use shift titles to name the jobs (Registration desk, Setup crew), or keep one "Events" opportunity where each shift is a whole event.
The Commitment field on the Details step tells people which kind it is: One-Time when there is no set commitment, or Recurring for an ongoing commitment over a period you describe. It sets expectations on the opportunity page. It does not create or limit shifts.
The full comparison, with the trade-offs, is in The three shapes an opportunity can take.
3. What does creating an opportunity involve?
Three steps. You can publish once the required details are in and come back for the rest.
- Details. Title, description, category, commitment, location (on-site or remote), assigned admins (a coordinator plus optional watchers) and optional opportunity tags.
- Customize. The settings that decide how people interact with the opportunity: Schedule, Recruitment, Visibility, Communications and Automations, plus display settings. You can also create the first shifts from here.
- Page Layout. What appears on the opportunity's own page, and in what order.
Every setting can be changed later from the opportunity's dashboard.
4. What do the Customize sections control?
- Schedule. Five groups of settings: User reservation settings, Scheduling controls, Shift series settings, Attendance tracking settings and Hour claim settings. They cover things like Instant Book, reservation cutoffs, how far ahead people can see shifts, check-in methods and hour claims. Each opportunity has its own settings, and nothing is inherited from your other opportunities.
- Recruitment. Workflows that decide what happens when somebody who is not assigned yet wants to join, for example applying to the opportunity directly or being routed to one of your forms. See How should I organize recruitment on Vome?
- Visibility. Who can discover the opportunity before they are assigned: Public, Semi-private (only people who meet conditions you set) or Private (only people you share the direct link with).
- Communications. An opportunity chat room for everyone assigned, and a chat room per shift for its attendees.
- Automations. Auto-assign from forms and Auto-assign from sequences assign the opportunity when somebody submits a linked form or finishes a linked sequence.
5. What should I check on the Customize step before I publish?
You can publish with the defaults, but the settings below decide how people book, cancel, claim hours and find the opportunity. Their defaults are the ones that most often surprise admins, so check each one against how you actually run this opportunity.
Schedule
- Instant Book is off. Every reservation arrives as a request the coordinator has to approve. Turn it on if people should be confirmed the moment they book, which suits most open events.
- Custom cancellation policy: users can cancel any time before the shift starts. If late drop-outs hurt, set a cancellation window (for example 48 hours before the shift) or stop cancellations once someone is reserved.
- Cancellation reason prompt is required. Users must give a reason to cancel. Make it optional, or stop asking, if that is more friction than you want.
- Limit user access to view or reserve shifts is off. Everyone assigned to the opportunity sees and can reserve every upcoming shift. Turn it on when only admins should place people on shifts.
- Declined shift requests cannot be requested again. Once you decline someone's request for a shift, they cannot ask for that shift again. Change it if your declines are usually about timing rather than fit.
- Shift series reservation policy is off. Users reserve each shift one at a time and cannot join a whole series until you allow it. See question 4 of How do Shifts work on Vome?
- Custom hour claims policy: users can claim hours for any past reservation, and also for time with no reservation at all. Every claim then waits for an admin to approve it. Limit claims to reserved shifts, or turn claims off, if hours should only come from the schedule.
Recruitment
- No recruitment workflow is set up until you add one. Decide what a newcomer who finds the opportunity should do next, for example apply directly or fill in one of your forms. If you only ever assign this opportunity yourself, you can skip it.
Visibility
- Visibility is Public. Anyone visiting your organization page, and anyone with the link, can see the opportunity. For an internal role, choose Semi-private or Private instead.
Automations
- Nothing assigns the opportunity automatically. Auto-approve from a form's Shift calendar, Auto-assign from forms and Auto-assign from sequences all start off, so every person waits for an admin. Turn on the one that matches how people reach you.
Communications
- Check the chat rooms. This section shows whether the opportunity has an opportunity chat room and shift chat rooms. People are added to them automatically, so make sure it matches what you want before you publish.
6. Who can see and reserve the shifts?
People assigned to the opportunity. Being assigned (approved) is what unlocks its schedule.
- Assigned users see the opportunity's published shifts and reserve the ones they want, within the limits you set in the Schedule settings.
- An admin can add somebody straight to a shift. That assigns them the opportunity at the same time, so you do not need to assign it first.
- A single shift can be narrowed further with an advanced reservation restriction, so only people carrying a given profile tag can see and reserve it. It works best with a shift title naming the task, as explained in How do Shifts work on Vome?
One exception. A form with a Shift calendar section lets anyone reserve the shifts of the opportunities you select, whatever their assignment status. That is how a single form can recruit and schedule at the same time. See How do I build one form that recruits and schedules at the same time?
7. Why do opportunities matter beyond the schedule?
- Hours. Every hour recorded in Vome belongs to an opportunity, which is what makes hour reports by role or by program possible.
- Communication. Filter your database by opportunity to reach exactly the people doing a job, and use its chat rooms to talk to them.
- Onboarding. Sequences handle screening and onboarding for the people who join, and can assign the opportunity automatically once somebody finishes. See How do Sequences work on Vome?
8. Do I have to build every opportunity by hand?
No.
- Duplicate. On the Details step of a new opportunity, choose Duplicate an existing opportunity. The copy carries every detail and setting except the published shifts.
- Import. In the Opportunities module, open the arrow beside New opportunity and choose Import opportunities to create up to 500 at once from a spreadsheet. See How do I import opportunities from a spreadsheet? Shifts have their own importer too.
Summary
- A category is a folder, an opportunity is the work, and a shift is a date and time with its own spots.
- Decide whether the opportunity is ongoing work or an event before you build shifts, because it changes what a shift means.
- Creating an opportunity has three steps: Details, Customize and Page Layout. Everything can be changed later.
- Before publishing, check the defaults that surprise admins most: Instant Book off, cancellations allowed any time, series reservations off, Public visibility, open hour claims, no recruitment workflow and no automatic assignment.
- Only people assigned to the opportunity see and reserve its shifts, except through a form with a Shift calendar.
- Duplicate a similar opportunity or import a spreadsheet instead of building each one from scratch.