The Voluntary Service System (VSS) "AS-IS" is a web-based application that tracks volunteers, their assignments, schedules, hours, and their affiliated organizations. It also tracks donations and provides information regarding volunteer data for a variety of purposes.

Implementing these enhancements will make a significant positive impact on field staff, and reduce administrative costs required to track and report on mandatory requirements for volunteers. This includes the elimination of manual processes and workarounds required for volunteer on-boarding, and the provision of an “ad hoc” reporting system to customize report templates and automate reporting for a variety of business reporting purposes. Continued use of the current limited, outdated system to manage this program is not cost effective given the value of these services to VA, and the additional monetary, material, and voluntary support this program provides to VA to further supplement the care of our nation's Veterans.

Over 80,000 volunteers contribute more than 11 million hours of service to Veterans annually. Currently, VSS does not support the ability to categorize this volume of volunteers. Due to increased demands for on-boarding security checks, health screenings, and training, VSS enhancements will reduce administrative overhead by automating tracking, and notifying VSS managers when mandatory requirements have been met.

Managing and accounting for the more than $86 million in annual donations is another enhancement scheduled for VSS. These improvements will help VSS timely acknowledge these donations, maintain accurate financial records, operate in accordance with local and national General Post Fund (GPF) procedures, and safeguard the public trust with their donations in a secure and transparent manner. Ad hoc reporting functionality also proposed for donations will eliminate the current manual methods to create acknowledgement letters sent to the many Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) donors.

The installation of new software for the Veterans Point of Service (VPS) kiosks is another enhancement planned at the sites. The software will improve workflow and interface to VSS so volunteers can login to the kiosks to enter time and update their profiles.

VSS enhancements also include new interfaces from VSS to external databases, in addition to the migration of two external databases into VSS. These database enhancements include:

• Volunteer requirements functionality track the status of background checks, TMS training for new volunteer applicants.

• Functionality to track General Post Fund (GPF) data to track and reconcile fiscal balances on donations.

• Notifications functionality in VSS will track and send notifications of volunteer training requirements.