The Problem

Charity work often depends on a careful management of finite resources - a bed in a shelter, a cot in a respite room, a seat in a recovery group, or a space on a volunteer rota. Charity to charity, how their operations work will vary, however we have observed that the overarching challenge is the same: they need to know at a glance what capacity they have, who is using it, and what has changed.

In many CRM solutions this information is treated purely as a reporting problem. Staff will have to run a query, export a spreadsheet or even check multiple separate systems before they can answer the question of who is here right now and where they are. By the time this is found, the data may already be out of date. For frontline staff, service managers, and admin teams this creates friction in moments where full clarity is crucial.

The Solution

Slots is the Harker solution to this problem, making capacity visible, live and easy to manage. A Slot is a flexible space that can be filled, emptied, archived and restored. It might represent a bed in a shelter, a room in temporary accommodation, or a place in a weekly recovery group. Whatever their use may be, Slots give charities a simple way to model finite, refillable capacity.

With Slots, teams can see every available space, who is occupying each one and where the capacity remains. Slots that are filled link directly to the occupier's records, making navigation quick and easy.

Built Around The Way Charities Work

Slots have been designed to be flexible, because no two charities will manage capacity in the same way. A shelter may need Slots that accept service users, while a volunteer rota may need Slots that accept staff or volunteers. Harker empowers teams to configure Slots around what works for their people and places, rather than the other way around.

Each time a Slot is edited, it can automatically generate a Log/Logbook record of that edit, which further streamlines data entry for frontline workers. If a charity needs to capture a referral source, risk note or support requirement at point of check-in, this can be built into the record.

Charity services change over time, and Slots are built with this in mind. When a Slot is no longer active, it can simply be archived without losing its history. If it comes back into use, it can be restored with its previous occupancy records. The active view will stay clean and easy to glance at for the frontline team.

See Harker in Action Now

If you like the sound of our approach to building the next generation of software for homelessness charities, see for yourself how Harker is helping charities with greater data clarity and confidence by booking a demo today.