Choosing a tool

Signup Zone gives you three ways to build a page: events, signups and overview pages. Pick by what you are asking people for.

Tool	Build one when you are asking	The thing people book
Events	When can you help?	A shift, with a start and end time
Signups	What can you bring, or which slot do you want?	A cell in a grid
Overview pages	Nothing. It links to your other pages	Nothing

An overview page collects no names of its own. Use it to put an event, a signup and a survey behind one link.

Events

An event is a date range, in one timezone, broken into shifts. Each shift has its own start and end time, a number of places, a location and notes. People register for a shift, and you get a roster you can filter, export and email.

Create one from Events.

Only an event can:

• Waitlist — keep taking names once a shift is full, and promote people automatically. Available on Basic and Professional.
• Require approval — hold registrations as Pending until you confirm them. Available on Professional.
• Send reminders — a week before, the day before, and the day of. The day-before reminder is available on Basic and Professional; the other two on Professional.
• Track attendance — mark each registration Attending, Completed, No-show or Cancelled after the day.
• Count quotas — a named list people claim from as they register, counted across the event or per shift. Available on Professional.
• Ask different questions per shift — attach a survey to one shift rather than the whole page.
• Stop double-booking — warn someone registering for two shifts that overlap.
• Restrict access — an invite code, your organisation only, or a password. Available on Basic and Professional.

Use an event for:

• A volunteer roster across a weekend festival
• Parent-teacher interview bookings
• A weekly driver roster for a food bank
• Conference stewards across three days
• Blood-drive or clinic appointment slots

Read Events for the full guides.

Signups

A signup is a page holding one or more sheets. A sheet is a grid: you name the rows and the columns, and each cell holds a set number of places. People write their name into a cell.

There are no times, no roster and no reminders. Hide the rows or the columns to turn the grid into a plain list.

Create one from Signups.

Only a signup can:

• Hold several sheets under one link — one signup, one custom URL, one survey, one set of files, as many sheets as you need.
• Take free text — someone adds a name with no contact details at all.
• Take guest signups — people join without creating an account, and can edit or remove an entry.
• Hide names — set a sheet to Anonymous and the public page shows how many places are taken, not who took them.
• Cap one person — set Max per person to stop somebody claiming half the sheet.
• Lock — stop new signups and changes when you are done.

Use a signup for:

• A potluck list: starters, mains and desserts down one side, how many of each across the top
• Bake-sale or raffle donations
• Classroom supply requests
• A snack roster for a sports season
• Equipment, stall or room booking grids

Overview pages

Available on Basic and Professional

An overview page is a single page you assemble out of blocks, and share as one link. It takes no signups of its own.

Add five kinds of block, in any order:

• An event
• A signup
• A survey
• A block of text
• A link to anything else

Create one from Overview pages. Overview pages take their own name, description, custom URL and co-organisers.

Use an overview page for:

• A school's term of volunteering: the fair roster, the bake-sale signup and the parent survey
• A charity campaign running several events at once
• A sports club's season: training roster, fixtures and the kit order
• A "get involved" page for stewards, speakers and sponsors

Share the event or signup directly when there is only one of them. An overview page around a single item adds a click and nothing else.

Rules of thumb

• You would otherwise circulate a spreadsheet: build a signup.
• You would otherwise build a rota and chase people to turn up: build an event.
• You would otherwise send an email with five links in it: build an overview page.