Frequently Asked Questions

MySchoolSignup is a volunteer management platform built specifically for Catholic schools. It handles event signups, volunteer hour tracking, safety compliance, family grouping, and billing for unfulfilled hours, all in one system. It replaces the spreadsheets, email chains, and paper sign-up sheets that most schools still rely on.

You can start on your own or with us, whichever you prefer. Create your account and you can set your hours requirements and look around straight away, with no payment involved. When you're ready, send us your family roster and we'll import it and create accounts for all of your parent volunteers, then give you a ready-to-send email announcing the new accounts to your families. If you'd rather we did the whole thing with you from the start, get in touch and we will. Either way, most schools are fully operational within a week.

Usually it's a volunteer coordinator, someone in the advancement or development office, or a principal. You can have multiple admins, and you can also designate staff members who can create signups but don't need full admin access. Teachers can be given staff access to set up their own classroom or field trip volunteers.

$1,800 per school, per year, and that is the whole price. That is our introductory rate, down from a regular price of $2,400, and schools that join while it is available keep it at renewal. Every feature is included, there are no tiers to compare, and the cost does not change with the number of families you have: a school with 80 families and a school with 500 pay the same. Setup, roster import, and support are part of the subscription. Dioceses and school networks rolling out across several schools get volume pricing. See the pricing page for the full breakdown.

Yes, and we would encourage it. Create your account with your school name and email, set your hour requirements, and add a set of sample families and signups so you can click through the board and the reports with something in them. Nothing is charged until you decide to complete your signup. When you are ready, send us your family roster and we will import it for you.

Parents log in and browse the signup board, which shows all available opportunities. They claim a slot with a single click. They can also view their upcoming commitments and release a slot if plans change. It's designed to be simple enough that parents can sign up from their phone in under a minute.

Anything your school needs: class activities, lunch duty, field trips, fundraisers, parish events, and more. Each signup can have as many individual slots as you need, each with its own title, time, and hour value. You can also create recurring signups for events that repeat on a regular schedule.

School admins can create signups and manage all aspects of the volunteer program. You can also designate staff members (teachers, room parents, committee chairs) who can create and manage their own signups without needing full admin access. For example, a teacher can set up their own field trip or classroom volunteer signup, while the main volunteer coordinator keeps oversight of everything.

Yes. Each signup has three visibility options: public (anyone can view and sign up, no login required), login required (only registered volunteers can see and claim slots), or hidden (login required and unlisted from the signup board, only accessible via a direct link you share). This gives you full control over who sees what.

Each slot on a signup can carry an hour value. When a volunteer claims a slot and the event date passes, those hours are automatically credited to the volunteer and their family. You set the annual (or per-semester) requirement for your school, and MySchoolSignup tracks every family's progress against that goal. Parents can see their own totals at any time, and admins get a full volunteer report.

Yes. You can choose annual tracking or semester-based tracking. If you go with semesters, you set a start date for the second semester and the system automatically buckets each family's hours into Semester 1 and Semester 2. Billing is also period-aware, so you can invoice per semester if needed.

When you create a signup, you can flag it as requiring compliance (e.g., background checks or safe environment training). Only volunteers who have been marked as compliant by an admin can claim slots on that signup. Non-compliant volunteers see a clear message explaining what they need to do. This keeps your school in line with diocesan requirements without any manual gatekeeping.

Yes, this is a built-in feature. Many Catholic schools require a set number of volunteer hours per family each year and charge a fee for any shortfall. MySchoolSignup's billing module lets you set a dollar rate per unfulfilled hour. The Billing Report shows each family's shortfall and amount owed, and you can generate and email invoices individually or in bulk with one click.

From the Billing Report, you select a billing period (annual or per-semester). The report shows every family's required hours, completed hours, shortfall, and amount owed. You can send invoices one at a time or use the bulk send feature to invoice all families with a balance due. Invoices are emailed to all parents in the family with a clear breakdown of hours and payment instructions. You can also send reminders for outstanding invoices.

Yes. We offer optional online payment collection. Parents receive a "Pay Now" link in their invoice email and can pay by credit card. Payments go directly to your school's own account, and MySchoolSignup adds no fee of its own: only Stripe's standard card processing applies. If you prefer, you can use invoice-only mode and collect payments however you'd like, with no fees at all. The system tracks payment status either way.

The Billing Report shows each invoice's status: draft, sent, or paid. Online payments are marked as paid automatically. For manual payments (check, cash, etc.), admins can mark invoices as paid with one click. You can also undo a payment status if you need to make corrections.

During onboarding, we create accounts for all of your parents so they're ready to go on day one. Your school sends an announcement email (we provide the template) letting parents know they can log in and start volunteering. If a new parent joins mid-year or was missed during setup, they can request an account through your school's page on MySchoolSignup, and the request goes to a school admin for approval.

Parents can browse all available signups, view and manage the slots they've claimed, see their personal and family hours totals, and check their compliance status. They also receive email notifications when they claim or release a slot and when their family reaches its hours milestone. Everything is designed so parents can stay informed without having to contact the school office.

Each parent gets their own account. School admins group volunteers into families, so hours from both parents (and any other family member who volunteers) are combined toward the family's total requirement. Both parents can see the shared family progress from their own accounts.

MySchoolSignup sends branded, automatic email notifications to keep everyone in the loop. Parents receive confirmations when they claim or release a slot, reminders before upcoming events, and a notification when their family reaches its hours milestone. Signup creators get alerts when volunteers sign up or cancel, and daily summary emails of activity on their signups. Admins are notified when new volunteers request accounts. All emails are professionally branded and designed to reduce the back-and-forth emails and phone calls that schools deal with today.

Yes. Every user can manage their notification preferences from their profile page. They can turn off specific notification types if they prefer fewer emails, while still keeping the ones that matter most to them.