Overview
Recurring appointments allow you to schedule regular service visits for your customers without manually creating each appointment. This is perfect for maintenance contracts, seasonal services, or any customer who needs regular visits.
By setting up recurring appointments, you'll save time, reduce scheduling errors, and ensure your customers receive consistent service on their preferred schedule.
Creating Recurring Appointments
Step 1: Start a New Appointment
Navigate to your calendar and click "New Appointment" or select an existing appointment you want to make recurring. Fill in the basic appointment details: customer, service type, technician, and date/time.
Step 2: Enable Recurrence
In the appointment form, locate the "Repeat" or "Recurring" checkbox and enable it. This will reveal additional options for configuring the recurrence pattern.
Step 3: Configure Recurrence Pattern
Select how often the appointment should repeat:
- Daily: Every day or every X days
- Weekly: Specific days of the week
- Monthly: Same date each month or relative day (e.g., first Monday)
- Yearly: Annual services
Step 4: Set End Date
Choose when the recurring series should end:
- Never: Continues indefinitely until manually stopped
- After X occurrences: Stops after a specific number of appointments
- On specific date: Ends on a particular date
Step 5: Review and Save
Review the preview of upcoming appointments and click "Save" to create the entire series.
Recurrence Patterns
Weekly Patterns
Perfect for lawn care, pool maintenance, or cleaning services. You can select multiple days per week (e.g., every Monday and Thursday).
Monthly Patterns
Great for HVAC maintenance, pest control, or equipment inspections. Choose either:
- Day of month: Same date each month (e.g., 15th of every month)
- Relative day: Relative position (e.g., first Tuesday, last Friday)
Custom Intervals
For services every 6 weeks, every 3 months, etc., use the custom interval option to specify the exact frequency.
Managing Recurring Series
Editing a Single Appointment
Click on any appointment in the series and choose "Edit this occurrence only" to modify just that one appointment without affecting the rest of the series.
Editing the Entire Series
Select "Edit all future occurrences" to update the recurrence pattern, time, technician, or other details for all upcoming appointments in the series.
Stopping a Series
To end a recurring series, edit any appointment in the series and select "End series after this date" or delete all future occurrences.
Skipping Appointments
If a customer needs to skip one visit (e.g., vacation), simply delete or reschedule that single occurrence. The series will continue as scheduled after that.
Best Practices
- Confirm with Customer: Before setting up a recurring series, confirm the preferred schedule with your customer to avoid unnecessary changes.
- Set Reminders: Enable appointment reminders for recurring appointments to reduce no-shows.
- Review Regularly: Periodically review your recurring appointments to ensure they're still needed and properly scheduled.
- Buffer Time: Consider adding buffer time between recurring appointments to account for travel or unexpected delays.
- Document Notes: Add notes to recurring appointments about any special requirements or customer preferences.
- Use Templates: Create appointment templates for common recurring services to speed up the setup process.