A volunteer hours tracking spreadsheet in Google Sheets, with approvals

Use a form that writes each submission as a new row. Google Forms does this through its linked response sheet. In Zunoform, you open the form's Integrations tab, authorize Google Sheets, and Zunoform creates a spreadsheet named after the form with a tab called Responses. The integration is on the free plan. It sends new completed responses from the moment you enable it; earlier responses are not backfilled, but you can export them as CSV from the dashboard.

Each Zunoform row starts with Timestamp and Response ID, then one column per question in form order, then Location and User Agent (left blank if the form runs in anonymous mode). Multi-part answers such as a contact block are split into separate columns. If you later add or rename questions, the header row is rewritten to match, but rows already in the sheet do not move, so older rows can sit under different headings. Finish the question list before you go live, and if you must change it, note the date.

Because it is probably text. Many form integrations write values as plain text so that nothing is reinterpreted on the way in; Zunoform writes every cell with the Sheets API's RAW input option, which Google documents as storing values exactly as sent without parsing them. “1.5” arrives as the text 1.5, and SUM ignores text. QUERY is stricter still: Google's help says that in a column with mixed types, the majority type wins and the minority values are treated as null, so a few text cells in a numeric column silently drop out of a total.

The fix is to convert once, in a review tab, with VALUE for numbers and DATEVALUE for dates, and to point every total at the converted columns. Check your spreadsheet locale under File, Settings too. In locales that use a comma as the decimal separator, VALUE may not read 1.5 correctly; wrap it as VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(cell, ".", ",")) there.

Give every new row a status of Pending, then have a named coordinator change it. Approved means the hours happened as described. Rejected means they did not count, with a short reason in a notes column. Replaced means a later correction supersedes this entry; put the correction's status to Approved and its Replaces column to the old Response ID.

Set the status column up as a dropdown (Insert, Dropdown) so nobody types “approved ” with a trailing space that SUMIFS will not match. Protect the Responses tab (Data, Protect sheets and ranges) so only the integration and one owner can edit it; that way the original submissions stay as evidence. Mark rows where column G is TRUE as Rejected with the note “repeat delivery”.

In the illustration above, summing every row gives 9 hours. The approved total is 2.5, with 3 hours pending. Use SUMIFS so the status is part of every total. On a Summary tab, list volunteers in column A with =SORT(UNIQUE(FILTER(Review!B2:B, Review!H2:H="Approved"))), type month labels such as 2026-09 across row 1, and put this in B2, then fill right and down:

=SUMIFS(Review!$F:$F, Review!$B:$B, $A2, Review!$E:$E, B$1, Review!$H:$H, "Approved")

If you would rather have one formula build the whole grid, QUERY can pivot it: =QUERY(Review!A1:J, "select B, sum(F) where H = 'Approved' group by B pivot E", 1). That returns one row per volunteer and one column per month. Swap B for C in the select and group by clauses to get hours by program instead, which is the view most funders ask for.

Independent Sector and the University of Maryland's Do Good Institute put the national value of a volunteer hour at $36.14, released on 21 April 2026 from 2025 data, a 3.9% rise on the previous year. The figure is average hourly earnings for production and non-supervisory workers on private non-farm payrolls, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, plus a 15.3% uplift for benefits. State values are published alongside it and range widely, so use your state's figure when reporting locally.

Put the rate in its own cell, for example Settings!B1, and multiply approved hours only: =SUMIFS(Review!F:F, Review!H:H, "Approved", Review!E:E, "2026-09") * Settings!B1. As an illustration, 412.5 approved hours in a month is worth 412.5 × $36.14 = $14,907.75. Update the cell each April when the new rate comes out, and state which year's rate a report uses.

Use this number for board reports, grant applications and thank-you messages, not your financial statements. Independent Sector's methodology notes that under FASB rules, volunteer services can only be recognized in the accounts in narrow cases, such as when a volunteer provides a specialized skill the organization would otherwise have paid for. Ask your accountant before booking any of it.

Decimal hours are simpler for volunteers and for formulas. Ask for one entry per activity and date, with a hint that 1 hour 30 minutes is 1.5, not 1.30. The Volunteer Hours Submission template validates the number to more than 0 and no more than 24.

If a program needs start and end times, for example for supervision ratios, collect both and compute hours in the review tab: (end − start) × 24 converts a Sheets time difference to decimal hours. Shifts that cross midnight need MOD(end − start, 1) × 24. Either way, split work that spans two dates into two entries so monthly totals land in the right month.

Zunoform gives you the intake side for free: a validated hours form, a correction branch, and Google Sheets delivery on the free plan, which includes 500 responses a month. That is 500 hours entries a month before you need Pro. Google Forms is a reasonable alternative with no response cap, and its response sheet also writes numbers you should check before summing.

Neither is a volunteer management system. They do not check people in at a site, reconcile against a rota, or give volunteers a login to see their own totals. If your program needs those, a dedicated volunteer hours app is worth paying for. If a form plus a spreadsheet with an approval column is enough, this setup costs nothing.