What it fixes Why I built it What it costs How we start Ask for a pilot seat

A note to volunteer coordinators

The clipboard by the door is not a record. This is.

I'm Chelle McAfee. I build systems for nonprofits at Riteway Development in Kansas City. You know the routine:

  • a sign-in sheet that gets lost
  • hours nobody can find at month end
  • the state's form filled out by hand
  • a CRM that never sees any of it

HoursKept ends that. Your volunteers scan a QR sign with their own phone, in and out, and every hour lands in the record of your choice: your own CRM. No CRM yet? We have that handled too.

See what's insideAsk for a pilot seat

Front door

An illustration with example entries, not a real volunteer. The QR code opens this page.

Inside

  1. 01What it fixesSeven problems, and what HoursKept does about each
  2. 02Why I built itThe gap, and the two rules behind it
  3. 03What it costsThree tiers, prices in the open
  4. 04How we start60 days at no charge

01 · What it fixes

Seven problems your team knows by heart, and what HoursKept does about each one.

  1. 1Checking people in

    The problem

    A clipboard by the door. Some names are hard to read, some people forget to sign, and the sheet goes into a folder nobody opens again.

    What HoursKept does

    Puts a QR sign at each site. The volunteer points their phone camera at it and they're checked in. The first scan signs them up with a name, an email and a six-digit code. There's nothing to install.

  2. 2Getting check-in data into the CRM you already run

    The problem

    Somebody types the sheet into your donor management system by hand. Or nobody does, and it never learns who showed up.

    What HoursKept does

    Puts every hour in the record of your choice: the donor management system you already run, or ours if you have none. We also go into your system and set up your volunteer emails and workflows so they trigger. That setup is an extra fee, quoted per system.

  3. 3Pulling it all in one bulk and filling the state's standardized forms

    The problem

    At month end you dig through sheets, add up hours, and fill out the state's form by hand, one volunteer at a time.

    What HoursKept does

    Pulls one monthly record for each volunteer, across every site and shift, in one go. The state's own form comes out filled with your organization, the dates and the hours. The volunteer adds their own personal details by hand, then the volunteer signs and your organization signs.

  4. 4QR scan check-outs

    The problem

    People sign in and forget to sign out, so the hours turn into a guess.

    What HoursKept does

    The same sign scans them out, and the volunteer gets an email with the time in, the time out and the total. Your staff see the whole day on one screen: who is booked, who scanned in, and a daily check that each person was there.

  5. 5Scan-in with the volunteer's own phone, or another way in

    The problem

    Not everyone wants another app, and not everyone carries a smartphone.

    What HoursKept does

    Most volunteers use their own phone, with a code sent by email or text. Everyone else uses the door tablet: they type a name, an email and a four-digit code, and show an ID.

  6. 6Filling shifts, and letting volunteers sign themselves up

    The problem

    The coordinator fills shifts by text message and memory, and a volunteer never knows what is open.

    What HoursKept does

    Your organization posts its program and its shifts. Volunteers log in, see the open shifts on their phone and sign up themselves. A booking confirms by email, a reminder goes out before the shift, and the scan at the door credits the booked shift. The public schedule shows the shift, the site and the seats left, never a person. You can require an orientation before a first shift.

  7. 7Writing to your volunteers

    The problem

    A thank-you, a schedule change or a call for Saturday hands goes out from someone's personal inbox, to a list somebody keeps in a spreadsheet.

    What HoursKept does

    Pull a list from your volunteer directory: everyone, a tag, the people with hours this month, or the people who have gone quiet. Write the email in your own words or paste your own HTML, and send it from HoursKept with your organization as the sender. Each volunteer's consent is respected, every message carries an unsubscribe, and the send is recorded beside their hours.

The HoursKept phone screen: Sign in and out with your phone. Point your phone camera at the QR sign at your site. Buttons: See my hours, and I already signed up: get a code.
What a volunteer sees. A real screen from the HoursKept phone app. Scan when you arrive, scan again when you leave.

02 · Why I built it

A volunteer's time deserves a record they can carry.

I build systems for nonprofits, and I kept hitting the same gap. Small programs run on volunteers. Those volunteers give real time. Then somebody asks for proof of it, a caseworker, a court, a funder, and the record is a sign-in sheet, a memory, or a box a staff member checked in the CRM.

In the CRMs I work in, attendance is a status someone sets. The hours are the scheduled length of the shift, or a number typed in by hand. Nobody can sign that and feel good about it. So the volunteer loses track of time they gave, and the organization spends the end of every month rebuilding it.

The software I looked at is built for you to run yourself. Small programs don't have a person for that. So we run it for you, and it keeps an honest record from the first scan. It never asks anyone about their benefits.

Two rules shaped all of it. Your organization verifies and signs; we only record. And you keep the CRM you already run.

Built in Kansas City by Riteway Development.

You keep the donor management system you already run. We work on top of it and fix the pain points, including setting up your volunteer email communications and workflows inside it so they trigger. That setup is an extra fee, quoted per system. And we collate all of it into one dashboard, which most systems cannot and do not do.

Chelle McAfee, Riteway Development

If you have no CRM

Then this is it.

The dashboard is your volunteer directory: profiles, notes, groups and hours, the emails you send to your own volunteers, and import and export as a spreadsheet file.

If you run one

One dashboard over all of it.

The scans, your team's daily check that each person was there, the monthly records and what goes to your CRM, in one place.

Who does what

The volunteer
Scans in and out. Writes their own personal details on the state form and signs it.
Your organization
Confirms each person was there, verifies, and signs each monthly record. Your data is yours. No other organization sees your volunteers or their hours.
Riteway
Sets it up, onboards your volunteer lead, runs the system and records the scans. Each scan is chained to the one before it, so a changed entry shows. We keep no benefit numbers.

03 · What it costs

Three tiers, and the prices are right here.

Every tier includes 150 active volunteers, meaning anyone who scanned at least once that month. Volunteers never pay.

Track

$99 a month

Setup $500, waived for pilot organizations

  • QR scan in and out on the volunteer's own phone, and the scan-out email
  • A public shift schedule with volunteer sign-up, the booking email, the day screen and the roster for your staff
  • The monthly record and the state form, filled for ink signature
  • Spanish, and scanning that works offline

Verify

$249 a month

Setup $750

  • Everything in Track
  • Audit-ready reports: 990 counts, funder reports, in-kind value with the citation
  • Capacity caps, no-shows, reminders, after-shift statements, credential expiry
  • Emails to your volunteers: a list from your directory, your own words or your own HTML, your organization as the sender

Connect

$449 a month

Setup $1,500

  • Everything in Verify
  • Connectors to the donor management system you run
  • Corporate volunteer grants, group bookings, text messages, scheduled export
More volunteers
$49 a month for each further 150 active volunteers.
Pay for the year
Pay ten months, get twelve.
Setup inside your CRM
Your volunteer emails and workflows, built in the CRM you run: an extra fee, quoted per CRM.

04 · How we start

Start with 60 days at no charge.

The first seats go to Missouri nonprofits with paid staff and scheduled shifts. Five first, then five more every two weeks, so each one is onboarded properly. I run the onboarding myself.

  1. Days 1 to 14Your organization is onboarded: a questionnaire and an assessment first, then a weekly check-in once everything is in.
  2. Days 7 to 17Your volunteers are onboarded.
  3. Days 15 to 60It runs at your sites.
  4. Day 45The numbers on the table (volunteers enrolled, hours scanned, records issued, missed scan-outs) and the price.
  5. Day 60Convert, extend once for a named reason, or export your data and leave. The export is yours from day one.

What your organization commits to

A signer and a lead

One of each, by name.

Two sites

The QR sign posted at both.

Five business days

To sign each monthly record after month end.

Twenty minutes

A check-in with us each week.

Free in the pilot: scan in and out, the public schedule, the monthly record and the state form. CRM connectors are never part of the free pilot. The pilot agreement goes through legal review first, and no one signs before that review is done.

Questions I get

What you hand over is a record of scanned time, verified and signed by your organization. The agency, court or funder that asks for it decides what it accepts. Tell us the first time one turns a record down, and we'll work it with you.

It's yours. No other organization sees it. The volunteer writes their own personal details on the state form by hand, we keep no benefit numbers, and you can export everything whenever you want.

No. If you have one, we work on top of it. If you don't, the HoursKept dashboard is your volunteer directory, and you never need another tool to run volunteers.

At day 45 we look at your numbers and the price together. At day 60 you convert, extend once for a named reason, or export your data and leave. The agreement states the billing.