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Duties and your hours

Some service has no set time: cleaning the church in October, laundering the altar linens one week, keeping the garden. Your parish schedules these as duties. You serve for a week or a month and do the work whenever suits you. When you are finished, you mark it done and say how long it took.

Serve also keeps a running total of your hours. This covers duties, the Masses and events you were checked in at, and, in some ministries, time you log yourself. Parishes use it for Confirmation service hours, school requirements and thanking their volunteers.

Marking a duty done​

A duty shows on My schedule as its week or month ("Week of Sun, Oct 4" or "October 2026") with Any time instead of a time.

  1. When the work is done, tap Mark done on the duty.
  2. Tap each day you worked. Days that have not happened yet are not shown.
  3. Enter the hours in total, in quarter hours: 1.5 is an hour and a half. You can enter up to 12 hours for each day you worked.
  4. Add a note if you like. Only your ministry leaders see it.
  5. Tap Mark done.

The duty shows Done, and the hours are added to My hours.

You can mark a duty done from its first day until a week after it ends. If you change your mind in that time, tap Not done yet: the duty opens again and its hours are taken off. After that week, ask a ministry leader to record or change it.

A few days before a duty ends, if it is not marked done yet, you get one email reminding you.

If you are a parent or guardian, you can mark a duty done for a child in your care from Family.

Your hours​

Open My hours in Serve. At the top is the total for this year, then what it is made of:

  • Checked in at a service: Masses and events where you were checked in and the leader confirmed attendance. The hours are the length of the service.
  • Duty marked done: the hours you entered when you marked a duty done.
  • Logged by you: time you logged yourself (see below).
  • Entered by the parish: hours a ministry leader recorded for you.

Below is every entry, newest first. If you care for a child who serves, choose them under Hours for to see theirs.

Logging hours yourself​

Some ministries let members log time they served outside a schedule, such as an extra afternoon in the garden. If a ministry you belong to allows it, My hours shows Log hours.

  1. Tap Log hours.
  2. Choose the ministry and, if it asks, the role.
  3. Choose the day. It can be today or up to 90 days ago.
  4. Enter the hours, in quarter hours, up to 12.
  5. Add what you did if you like, then tap Record hours.

The hours count straight away. If you made a mistake, tap the bin icon on the entry to remove it. You can do this for up to 90 days. For anything older, ask a ministry leader.

Troubleshooting​

I do not see Mark done​

Mark done appears from a duty's first day. More than a week after the duty ended, it is gone; ask a ministry leader to record it for you.

I do not see Log hours​

Your ministry has not turned on logged hours, or you are not an active member of a ministry that has. Ask your ministry leader.

My hours look wrong​

Hours at a service count only once your leader confirms attendance. If a total is still wrong after that, ask your ministry leader; they can correct logged hours and attendance.