Recurring appointments are one decision, not twelve the same slot every week, set once
A standing appointment or a class that runs every Tuesday is one decision, generated forward daily, weekly or monthly. Each occurrence behaves like a normal booking, with its own confirmation and its own reminder, and can be changed on its own. Recurring bookings are on the paid plans.
Recurring appointments come in three patterns, and each occurrence still stands alone
Daily, weekly or monthly
The three patterns cover almost everything anybody actually runs: a course of treatments over consecutive days, a class every Tuesday, a review on the first of the month.
Every occurrence is a real booking
Each one gets its own confirmation and its own reminder, and sits in the calendar on its own. It is a series of bookings rather than one booking drawn twelve times.
You can change one without changing them all
The week somebody cannot make, or the Thursday that falls on a bank holiday, moves on its own. The rest of the series is untouched.
- 1Moved to Fri 11
- 2Five stay
A standing slot means something different depending on why it stands
Three trades that all book the same hour every week, and want three unrelated things from it. Recurring bookings are on the paid plans.
Six sessions, then a review Courses of treatment
A plan is a sequence with an end, not an open-ended habit. Putting the whole course in at the first appointment is also what makes it likely to be finished, because the appointment that gets skipped is always the one that was never booked.
See chiropractic scheduling
Thursday at five, all term Lessons and tutoring
There is exactly one hour in the week that works and both households know which it is. Setting it once for the term stops the same hour being renegotiated every Sunday evening, and it holds the slot against everybody else who also wants five o’clock.
See tutoring scheduling
One decision, twelve sessions Class timetables
Here the series is the timetable. Setting up the Tuesday six o’clock once generates a term of sessions, each with its own places, its own register and its own list of who is coming, rather than twelve identical set-up jobs in August.
See pilates schedulingRecurring bookings are on the paid plans
On Pro
- Recurring bookings, set once and generated forward
- Email and SMS reminders
- Attendance
- Class packs
- Customizable emails
On Starter
- Recurring bookings, set once and generated forward
- Email and SMS reminders
- Attendance
- Two-way calendar sync
- Specific booking links
On Free
- No recurring bookings
- Unlimited appointments
- Email notifications
- One-way calendar sync
- Clients book, move and cancel themselves
One booking at a time
Nothing stops you booking the same slot twelve times on the free plan. It works; it is just twelve pieces of work.
The series
Setting it once and having it generate forward, with each occurrence still standing alone, is on the paid plans.
Twelve identical decisions about the same Tuesday
Somebody wants the four o’clock every Tuesday until Christmas. Between the two of you that is a single decision, made in about thirty seconds, and both of you consider the matter closed.
Entering it is twelve separate bookings. They get typed in one sitting if you are organised, or in batches of three if you are not, and the half-term week is wrong in a way nobody discovers until half term.
The typing is not really the problem. The problem is the fortnight between agreeing and finishing, during which somebody else books the four o’clock in November. They were entitled to: the slot genuinely was free, and the booking page was right to offer it.
A standing appointment is a claim on a time, and a claim that lives in twelve rows you have not typed yet is not a claim. Set as a series, all twelve exist from the moment it was agreed, each behaving like an ordinary booking with its own confirmation and its own place in the calendar.
Recurring bookings are on the paid plans.
Sep 3Agrees every Tuesday at 16:00
Typed in by hand3/12
- Sep 3Types them one by one
- Oct 29Half term booked by mistake
- Nov 12Someone else took 16:00
Slot lostTue 12 Nov
Set as a seriesAll 12
- Sep 3Sets it once
- Sep 3All 12 in the calendar
- Nov 12Nobody else can take it
Still bookedTue 12 Nov
What people say about Picktime
Great free scheduling tool. The ability to book directly from Google Maps and to start charging for appointments! It is crazy how many free features Picktime gives you. I also like how I can manage multiple accounts for my staff.
Picktime is an excellent organization platform. I use in my day to day. Picktime helps to solve my problems and manage my commitments. The smartest way to schedule appointments, meetings, classes, interviews and reservations. I love it.
This program is very essential for us, because it helps us to schedule the appointments we have with colleagues from other companies, clients and new staff of the organization. Every time we schedule an appointment there is never a clash of schedules.
Questions people ask about recurring bookings
What patterns can I use?
Daily, weekly and monthly: that is the whole of the recurring appointments meaning here, a pattern set once rather than an appointment entered every week. Between them they cover a course of treatments, a term of classes and a standing monthly review.
Does each occurrence get its own reminder?
Yes. Each one is a real booking, so it gets the same confirmation and reminder as anything else. Reminders themselves are on the paid plans.
Can I move just one week?
Yes, and that is the usual case. Moving or cancelling one occurrence does not touch the rest of the series.
Can clients book a recurring appointment themselves?
Recurring series are set on your side. What a client books from the page is a single appointment or a place in a session.
Does it work for classes as well as appointments?
Yes, and for a class it is usually the main way a term gets set up: one decision instead of one a week.
How do you schedule a recurring meeting?
Set the pattern once and the series is created for you. A single occurrence can be moved or cancelled without touching the rest of them. Recurring appointments are on the paid plans.
Can you give me an example of a recurring event?
Three recurring appointments examples from real diaries. A course of six physiotherapy sessions at the same time every week is the plainest one. A Tuesday evening class that runs the length of a term is the same shape, and so is a standing monthly review with one client. In all three the pattern is one decision on your side and a set of ordinary bookings on the calendar, each with its own confirmation.
What are different types of appointments?
Three, on the calendar Picktime keeps: a one-to-one appointment, a class or group session with a number of places on it, and a booking held against a room or a piece of equipment. Any of the three can run as a repeating series instead of being entered week by week, which is what turns the calendar into a recurring appointments calendar. What decides which one you want is whether the thing being booked is a person’s time or a capacity.
How do I schedule recurring appointments in Outlook?
Outlook has a repeat setting on the meeting itself, so the series is created in your own calendar and the invitations go out from there. What it will not do is let somebody outside your organisation take one of those slots, because a calendar is not a booking page. Picktime holds the series on the booking side and syncs it both ways with Outlook on the paid plans, so the same time is blocked in the calendar you already work in.
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Set next term up in one go
Free forever to start, no card required. Recurring bookings are on the paid plans.