Merit Hour Set Up¶

If an organization has determined it wants to use merit hours, a Volgistics System Operator must turn the feature on and define the rules that will apply to merit hours. Note that merit hours are tracked in addition to regular hours.

Merit Hour Setup Page¶

To get to the merit hours setup page, choose Setup from the menu, click on Service Tracking, and click on Merit Hours.

Turn on the merit hours feature by checking the Use merit hours box on this page.

Up to four rules and/or additional travel time rules can be applied to service entries. Please note that if more than one rule applies to a service entry, the system will determine which rule gives the highest total and only use that rule to calculate merit hours. The exception to this is travel time merit hours, which will apply in addition to other merit hour rules.

Click on the Rule 1 link to define the first rule. This opens the Merit hour rule setup page.

Before entering any information on the merit hour rule setup page, note that setting more than one condition for a rule will require that all of the conditions are met before the merit hours will be applied. For example, if Arrive after 5:00 pm and Serve on a Sunday are both checked, merit hours will only be given for volunteers who arrive after 5:00 pm on Sundays.

Merit Hour Rule page¶

The following options allow System Operators to define when merit hours should be applied and how volunteer hours should be adjusted.

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Enter a name for this Merit hours rule that will help you remember which hours this rule will apply to. This name will appear on the Setup page next to the rule number. For example, if this rule will cause Merit hours to be given to volunteers who serve between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., you might name this rule Overnight Shift.

Apply merit hours if volunteers...¶

Use the settings below to specify the conditions volunteers must meet to have merit hours apply to their service.

Have this Type¶

Check this box to apply merit hours to only volunteers of a certain Type. Select the Type of volunteers merit hours should apply to from the dropdown list.

If their Kind is¶

If you only want the merit hour rule to be applied to individual or group volunteer records, check this box and select which records you want the rule to apply to. Leaving the box un-checked will make the rule apply to both individual and group records.

Arrive...¶

If merit hours should apply to volunteers who begin serving before or after a certain time, check this box.

Choose Before if merit hours should apply to volunteers arriving for service before a specified time. For example, if volunteers who work an early shift that starts before 6:00 am will be getting time-and-a-half, choose Arrive... and Before and enter 6:00 am.

Choose After if merit hours should apply to volunteers arriving for service after a specified time. For example, if volunteers who begin their service after 9:00 pm should receive additional hours, select Arrive... and After and enter 9:00 pm.

Depart...¶

If merit hours should apply to volunteers who stop serving before or after a certain time, check this box.

Choose Before if merit hours should apply to volunteers departing from service before a certain time. For example, if merit hours should apply to volunteers who finish their shift before 8:00 am, select Depart... and Before and enter 8:00 am.

Choose After if merit hours should apply to volunteers departing from service after a specified time. For example, if merit hours should apply to volunteers who finish their shift after 7:00 pm, choose Depart... and After and enter 7:00 pm.

Serve more than...¶

If volunteers must work at least a minimum number of hours during a given shift in order for merit hours to apply, choose this box. If, for example, a volunteer must serve at least 7.5 hours before merit hours will apply, check the box and enter 7 in the hours field and 30 in the minutes field.

Serve on or between...¶

If merit hours should apply when a volunteer works within a certain range of dates, choose this option. If, for example, merit hours should apply to volunteers who serve during an organization's summer season that runs from June 15, 2024 through August 31, 2024, a System Operator would check this box and enter 6-15-2024 in the first field and 8-31-2024 in the second field. The date fields in this option are inclusive.

Serve on a holiday¶

To apply merit hours on dates specified as a holiday in Volgistics, check this option. Dates must be designated as holidays by a System Operator before a merit hour rule including this option will apply to service on any particular date(s).

Serve on a...¶

Check this option if merit hours should apply when volunteers serve on one or more days of the week. For example, check the Serve on a... option and mark the boxes next to Saturday and Sunday if merit hours should apply for service completed on the weekend.

Are in this Set¶

If merit hours should apply to a group of volunteers designated by a Set, choose this option and select the appropriate Set from the dropdown list.

Serve in these Assignments...¶

If merit hours should be applied when volunteers serve in certain Assignments, choose this option. Mark the boxes next to the names of all Assignments the merit hour rule should apply to.

Adjust their hours by...¶

Use the settings below to tell the system how you want the volunteer's hours adjusted for the merit hour.

Adding...¶

If a specific number of hours and/or minutes should be added to each service record that meets the characteristics defined above, choose this option. Then enter the appropriate amount of time to be added to each entry in the hours and/or minutes fields.

Subtracting...¶

If a specific number of hours and/or minutes should be deducted from each service record that meets the requirements defined above, choose this option. Enter the appropriate amount of time to be deducted from each entry in the hours and/or minutes fields.

Note that if the volunteer's service hours entry is smaller than the number of hours being subtracted, the volunteer will receive the regular hours, but the service hour portion will be zero. For example, if the rule is to subtract 30 minutes, and the volunteer's serves 15 minutes, the volunteer will receive 15 minutes for the regular hours and 0 for their merit hours.

Multiplying...¶

To multiply the actual number of hours served by a specific number when the entry meets the requirements above, choose this option. Enter the number to multiply their hours by in the blank field. For example, select this option and enter 1.5 to multiply hours by 1.5, effectively giving the volunteer time-and-a-half for their service that meets the set characteristics.

If multiplying...¶

If a system operator chooses to multiply hours by a certain number, they must choose whether the entire hour entry or only a portion will be adjusted.

Choose The entire hour entry option to multiply the whole hour figure by the designated multiplier.
Choose The portion served between... option to only multiply the part of an entry that occurs within a specific time period by the multiplier. For example, if the volunteer meets the rule requirements for a rule to multiply hours by 1.5, you can choose to multiply the hours served from 6:00 am and 9:00 am by 1.5, but not the entire service entry.

When "switching assignments"...¶

If your organization uses the VicTouch time clocks for volunteers to sign-in and sign-out, you can choose to have the rule apply to all or part of their service entries.

Choose Only to their final service record for that visit if you only want the merit hours to apply to the final service entry created for a volunteer through VicTouch on the date of their visit.
Choose To each of their service records for that visit if you want the merit hours to apply to each service entry created for a volunteer through VicTouch on the date of their visit.

Clear This Rule¶

If you no longer need a merit hour rule, click the Clear this rule button. Please note that if you clear the merit hour rule, it will not change any existing service entries made that originally applied the rule. However, if you open an entry to edit the service, the merit hour total will be adjusted so that the deleted rule no longer applies when the Save button is clicked.

After defining one rule, up to three additional merit hour rules can be defined by returning to the Merit Hours Setup page. Use as many merit hour rules as are necessary to apply adjusted hours to the appropriate volunteers. You can also click the travel time link to setup special merit hours to be applied based on how long a volunteer will be traveling to get to your location.

To use merit hours without having them appear as a column on the Service tab, take the following steps:

Choose Setup from the menu.
Click on Field options.
Click on Service tab.
Under Service box, click on Merit hours.
Un-check the box next to Include as a grid column.
Click the Save button.