---
title: "Automatic reminders for volunteer shifts: email or WhatsApp"
description: "Your volunteers get a reminder before every shift, by email or WhatsApp. Defaults for the whole organisation, your own timing per event."
url: "https://helferplanung.app/en/features/automatic-reminders"
language: "en"
---

1. [Features](https://helferplanung.app/en/features)
2. Automatic reminders

# Automatic reminders for your volunteers.

Before every shift, a reminder goes out by email or WhatsApp. You decide once when.

[Start for free](https://app.helferplanung.app) [Request a demo](mailto:info@helferplanung.app?subject=Demo%20request%20Helferplanung)

## Hours, days, weeks or months before.

Every reminder counts back from the start of the shift. You choose the interval and unit, and as many reminders as you need.

- ### Shift moved

  Move a shift and its reminder moves with it. Nothing to update by hand.

- ### Late sign-up

  Anyone who signs up after the reminder time still gets it the same day. Once the day has passed, it is dropped.

- ### Cancelled

  Anyone who cancels or whom you remove gets no more reminders for that shift.

## Two shifts, one message.

Lena helps at the Entrance on Saturday and then at the Grill. Still, she gets nothing twice.

- ### One confirmation per sign-up

  If someone picks several shifts at once, one message confirms them all.

- ### One reminder per day

  If several shifts fall on the same day, one reminder goes out at the time of the first.

- ### On the volunteer’s channel

  Everyone chooses email or WhatsApp. If WhatsApp fails, email steps in.

[More on WhatsApp reminders](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/whatsapp-reminders)

## Around the reminder.

- ### Message on assignment

  When you assign someone by hand or publish the plan, you decide whether a message goes out.

  [More on the staffing overview](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/staffing-overview)

- ### Confirmed shifts only

  Pending sign-ups get no reminder. As soon as you approve them, they are included.

- ### Turn a default off per event

  If a default reminder does not suit an event, switch it off there. Your other events keep it.

- ### Comes along when copying

  When you copy an event, the copy takes over its reminders and the defaults you switched off.

  [More on event settings](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/event-settings)

- ### Plus the calendar subscription

  Volunteers who subscribe to their shifts in their own calendar also see every change there.

  [More on the calendar subscription](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/calendar-subscription)

- ### Your own messages

  For everything else, write in the mail centre to an event, an area, a shift or individual volunteers.

  [More on the mail centre](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/mail-centre)

## Part of one continuous workflow.

Helferplanung takes you through four phases, from the rota to check-in at the event.

1. 01

   ### Plan

   Areas, shifts, assignments

   [More on shift planning](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/shift-planning)

2. 02

   ### Sign up

   Link or QR, no account

   [More on volunteer sign-up](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/volunteer-sign-up)

3. 03

   ### Inform

   Email, WhatsApp, calendar

   You are here

   - [Mail centre](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/mail-centre)
   - [WhatsApp reminders](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/whatsapp-reminders)
   - [Calendar subscription](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/calendar-subscription)

4. 04

   ### Run

   Check-in and reporting

   [More on volunteer check-in](https://helferplanung.app/en/features/volunteer-check-in)

## Questions about automatic reminders

Your question is not listed? Write to us and we will get back to you in person.

[Ask a question](mailto:info@helferplanung.app?subject=Question%20about%20Helferplanung)

**Do I have to set up reminders first?**

No. Every new organisation starts with a default reminder one week before the shift. You can change it under "Reminders" in the organisation’s templates. If you delete all defaults, events without their own reminder get none.

**Does the app also remind volunteers I assign myself?**

Yes. Every confirmed shift counts, including ones assigned by hand or published from the plan. Whether an extra message goes out on assignment is your choice at that moment.

**Do reminders keep going if I take the event offline?**

Yes. Sign-ups stay in place, and confirmed volunteers keep getting reminders. Anyone who should no longer come, you remove in controlling.

**What do reminders cost?**

By email nothing extra, in every plan, including Free. By WhatsApp from the Small plan, where each message uses credits.

## Your next event, without spreadsheet chaos.

Set up in minutes. Your volunteers sign up via a link or QR code. For larger events, we are happy to walk you through everything in person.

[Start for free](https://app.helferplanung.app) [Request a demo](mailto:info@helferplanung.app?subject=Demo%20request%20Helferplanung)