Help Center / SDO Staff
📊 SDO Staff Guides
Step-by-step how-to articles for SDO staff workflows — review operational dashboards, process hour approvals, monitor agency status, analyze trends, and export reporting data.
Operational Monitoring
Requires SDO staff access linked to an SDO tenant
Review SDO Dashboard
Get a current operational snapshot of your SDO scope — pending approval counts, approved hour totals, student metrics, and trend indicators.
Prerequisites
- Signed in as SDO staff linked to an SDO tenant
Steps
1
Open the Staff Dashboard from your SDO portal.
2
Review the four summary cards: Pending Approval, Approved Today, Your SDO, and Approvals in the Last 7 Days.
3
Check the Recent Approvals table for student, event, hours, date, and agency validation status.
4
Use the Review Queue or Reports buttons to jump directly to those action areas — see "Approve or Deny Volunteer Hours" below.
Common Issues
Metrics appear stale
Refresh the page — the dashboard does not auto-refresh.
Pending count shows zero unexpectedly
The count reflects only your SDO scope. Confirm you are signed into the correct SDO tenant.
Hours Approval
Requires pending submissions in the SDO approvals queue
Approve or Deny Volunteer Hours
Process SDO-level approval decisions for volunteer hour submissions — individually or in bulk for high-volume queues. Entries reach this queue only after agency validation.
Prerequisites
- Pending submissions available in the SDO approvals queue
Steps
1
Open the Review Queue from your staff dashboard.
2
Review each submission's student, event, agency, hours, entry method, and agency validation status. Entries waiting more than 7 days are highlighted.
3
Approve to confirm the hours, Deny to close the entry without offering a resubmission, or Reject with a required reason so the student can correct and resubmit.
4
For high-volume queues, open Bulk Actions, select entries with the checkboxes (or Select All), then use Bulk Approve or Bulk Deny.
5
Confirm the action in the dialog that appears before it is applied.
6
Refresh to confirm the pending count has dropped, or check the approval history for a full audit trail.
Common Issues
Approve/Deny buttons unresponsive
Refresh the page and retry the action.
Entry not in queue
It may not yet have passed agency validation. Confirm the agency has validated the entry first.
Approve, Deny, or Bulk actions return an error
If this happens, use Reject with a reason as the reliable path instead, and report the affected entry to support.
No Lock button visible
Locking a record is reserved for SDO SuperAdmin accounts — this is expected for SDO staff.
Agency Monitoring
Requires access to agency verification views
Monitor Agency Verification State
Track the verification posture of agencies within your SDO scope and escalate any required changes to authorized approvers.
Prerequisites
- Access to agency verification views in your SDO tenant
Steps
1
Open Agency Verification Management from the SDO dashboard.
2
Review the summary cards: Total Agencies, Verified, Unverified, Verification Rate, This Week, and Domain Locked.
3
Filter the list by All Agencies, Unverified, Verified, or Domain Locked, or search by agency name or domain.
4
Review each agency's info, contact, domain, activity, and status details. Unverified rows are highlighted.
5
Click Verify or Unverify on an agency row and confirm the action in the dialog.
6
Use the Export option to download the agency list as CSV or PDF.
Common Issues
Agency missing from list
Clear all filters and search terms — the agency may belong to a different SDO scope or may not yet be active.
Verify or unverify action fails
Note the agency name and error message, then contact support.
Performance Analytics
Requires access to SDO leaderboard screens
Use Leaderboards and Trend Views
Analyze volunteer performance trends across students and agencies using configurable time periods and sort metrics.
Prerequisites
- Access to SDO leaderboard screens
Steps
1
Open the leaderboard page from the SDO dashboard.
2
Select a time period: This Week, This Month (default), This Quarter, This Year, or All Time.
3
Choose a ranking focus: Approved Hours (default), Total Entries, Agencies Worked With, or Approval Rate.
4
Review the summary cards, top-3 performer highlight, full student ranking table, and top agencies panel.
5
Click Refresh to reload the latest data without losing your filter selections.
Common Issues
Unexpected rankings
Confirm the selected ranking focus — for example, Agencies Worked With ranks by breadth of participation, not hours.
No activity for the selected period
Try a broader period such as This Year or All Time. Pending-only hours do not appear.
Reporting Export
Requires authorized export permissions
Export SDO Reporting Data
Generate CSV exports, view student summaries, and access specialized reports for your SDO — for reporting, compliance, or governance distribution needs.
Prerequisites
- Authorized export permissions for your SDO tenant
- Volunteer hours data exists for your SDO
Steps
1
Open Reports & Exports from the SDO dashboard.
2
Optionally filter by start date, end date, or school year, then apply the filters.
3
Review the summary cards: Participants, Approved Hours, Pending Hours, and Events.
4
Download the Student/Volunteer Hours CSV for all students, or open an individual student's row for a full detail report.
5
Download the District Report CSV for a per-agency rollup used in compliance reporting.
6
Access specialized reports as needed: Event Report for attendance and roster, Graduation Completion for per-student status, or the Agency Breakdown panel for top agencies.
Common Issues
No output rows
Expand or clear the date filters and rerun the export. A narrow window may return no data.
Student list appears truncated at 50 rows
Download the CSV for the full list.
Totals mismatch or empty export
Confirm hours are approved for the selected period — pending hours may not appear in some reports.
Document Export
Requires staff or admin access to the Export Center
Use the Bulk Export Center
Generate bulk CSV exports, per-student PDF reports, and CommonApp-style summaries for college applications. This is distinct from Export Reports, which focuses on summary and rollup CSV data.
Prerequisites
- Staff or admin access to the Export Center
- Students with logged volunteer hours exist in your tenant
Steps
1
Open the Export Center from the SDO dashboard.
2
Review the statistics dashboard: Total Students, Total Hours, Exports in the Last 7 Days, and Students with Data.
3
Click Bulk CSV Export to download all students' hours in one file.
4
For an individual student, use the CSV, PDF, or CommonApp buttons in the Student Export Management table.
5
Use CommonApp to generate a summary of hours, organizations, and service period for manual entry into a college application, along with a downloadable PDF.
6
Click Export Statistics to review export activity by type over the last 30 days, 7 days, and 24 hours, or check the Recent Export Activity table.
Common Issues
Export fails or returns an error
Retry the export, and contact support if it persists.
CommonApp button does nothing or shows an error
Confirm the student has approved hours — the export requires existing hour data.
Student shows "No data to export"
The student has no logged hours yet.
Preview Export isn't available
This feature is coming soon and is not yet active.
Access Operations
Restricted to SDO SuperAdmin accounts
Manage SDO Access Request Queue
Reviewing and deciding SDO access requests is handled by your SDO SuperAdmin — this workflow is not available to SDO staff accounts. Use this guide to understand the boundary and know where to route requests.
Prerequisites
- Not applicable — access request review is limited to SDO SuperAdmin accounts
Steps
1
Confirm whether your account is SDO staff or SDO SuperAdmin — only SDO SuperAdmin can review and decide access requests.
2
If you are SDO staff and need a request processed, gather the requester's name, email, and request details.
3
Escalate the request to your SDO SuperAdmin for review and a final decision.
4
Ask your SDO SuperAdmin to confirm once the request has been approved or denied.
Common Issues
"You do not have permission" message
Expected for SDO staff accounts — only SDO SuperAdmin can review access requests.
Request seems stuck with no response
Follow up directly with your SDO SuperAdmin, since SDO staff cannot action requests themselves.