Set up a recurring booking

Booking work that repeats, instead of entering the same job every week.

Before you start

Recurring bookings are priced differently from one-off jobs — see Why the services change below. If nothing appears under Service after switching to Recurring, that customer has no recurring rates set up, and that is a rates question rather than a booking one.

Steps

1. Fill in the booking as normal — addresses, contacts, package, references.
2. In the Date + Time section, click the date and time (it reads Ready Now / Deliver ASAP until you change it). A Select Prebook Time dialog opens; switch it from Normal to Recurring.
3. Give it a Recurring Job Name. Optional, but it is how you find this arrangement again later, so it is worth doing.
4. Choose the Recurrance Days — one or more of Monday to Sunday. Required.
5. Choose the Recurrance Frequency. Required. The options are:
   • Weekly
   • Fortnightly
   • First of the Month
   • Second of the Month
   • Third of the Month
   • First Workday of the Month
   • Last Workday of the Month
6. For Weekly or Fortnightly, set the Initial Days Window — how many days ahead to generate bookings for, between 1 and 60.
7. Choose the Holiday Behaviour — what happens when a scheduled day lands on a public holiday:
   • Don’t book (the default)
   • Deliver Next Day
   • Book Anyway
8. Press CONFIRM to close the dialog, pick a service, then press Book Job.

It does not create a job for today

The form says this itself, in red: “Recurring bookings do not currently create a job for today. Please book a regular job for today as well if necessary.”

So if you set up a Monday schedule on a Monday, nothing is collected today. Book today’s job separately as a normal booking.

Why the services change {#why-the-services-change}

This is the part worth understanding, because it looks like services have gone missing.

Recurring work is priced under a schedule — a rate arrangement separate from the ordinary one-off speeds. When you switch the toggle:

• Recurring hides every service that is not part of a recurring schedule
• Normal hides the schedule services instead

And if a schedule already covers a particular service, the one-off version of that service is hidden too, so you are not offered the same thing twice at two prices.

The practical consequences:

• The price for repeating work is usually not the same as booking the same job seven times by hand. That is deliberate — repeat work is normally contracted at its own rate.
• If the Service section is empty on Recurring but fine on Normal, the customer has no schedule rates. Nothing is broken; the arrangement has not been set up.

Also worth knowing

On Hold cannot be used with a recurring booking. The form rejects it.

Frequencies that count within a month are the ones to double-check. First / Second / Third of the Month combined with a chosen day are the options most likely to generate on a date you did not expect. If a customer needs, say, the last Wednesday of a month, confirm what actually generates before promising it — and see the open questions on this page.

Good to know

Days and frequency are always required, the toggle always changes the service list, and a recurring booking never creates today’s job. Which recurring services exist for a customer, and what they cost, come from the schedule rates set up for that customer.

If something goes wrong

No services after switching to Recurring. That customer has no schedule rates. Ask whoever maintains your rates.

It will not let you book. Days and frequency are both required, and On Hold is not allowed on a recurring booking.

A job did not appear when expected. Check the frequency and days first. For monthly frequencies, confirm which date the combination actually resolves to — this is a known rough edge, and there are open cases where the generated day differed from the customer’s expectation.

The price is not what the customer expects. Recurring work is priced from its own schedule rate, not the one-off rate. Compare against the schedule, not against a normal booking.

Related

• Book a job
• Choose how a customer’s invoices are grouped