Repeating appointments

A series belongs to one client. Visit 1 is the booking you start from. Every later visit is a normal booking: it has its own backing slot in the calendar, reminders, payment, loyalty stamp, webhooks and invoicing automation, and you can move or cancel it like any other.

Later visits copy these from visit 1: the offering and option, the team member, the time of day, the location, any extras, the client's answers to your custom questions and their booking notes. Your internal notes are not copied. A coupon only applies to visit 1.

For an offering at the client's address, every visit goes to visit 1's street address and suburb with the same team member, also when service areas are switched on. Changing your service areas later does not move or cancel visits of a series that is already running. To send someone else, change the team member on the series.

The price of each visit is worked out when the visit is created, from the offering's price and any sale at that moment, less the series discount. A later price change only affects visits created after it. If you booked visit 1 at a custom price, later visits keep that price and the series discount is not applied on top.

Series visits show a small repeat icon in the calendar, in the bookings list and on the booking page, with a label such as Repeating appointment, visit 3.

A series works for a single one-to-one offering that clients book by picking a time. These cannot repeat:

• group sessions, programs and class schedules;
• add-on offerings;
• a booking with more than one service, a package booking, or a booking paid with a package.

Extras are fine: they are copied to every visit and the times Booklink checks fit the longer appointment.

Every field starts from the offering's settings (see "Letting clients choose" below), so a business that always gives regulars 10% off only sets it once. Team members who only manage their own calendar can start and manage series only for themselves.

To turn a booking you already have into a series, open the booking and click Repeat. The booking becomes visit 1 and keeps the price it was booked at, even if it is already paid or invoiced. Because of that, a discount here starts from the next visit at the earliest.

The dialog asks how often, how it ends, the discount and how later visits are paid. It starts on Pays at the appointment unless visit 1 was paid online, so a regular who pays cash never gets a payment link by accident.

Repeat is not shown for a cancelled or past booking, a booking with more than one service, a group seat, a booking paid with a package, or a booking that already belongs to a series.

Open the offering, go to Pricing & options and find the Repeating appointments card. It is shown for offerings that can repeat. These settings are used when you repeat a booking and when clients choose how often:

• Clients can book repeating appointments: adds How often? to this offering on your booking page. It is off by default.
• Repeats clients can choose: shown once the switch above is on. Tick the ones you offer. The list is Every week, Every 2 weeks, Every 3 weeks, Every 4 weeks, Every month on the same date, and Every month on the same weekday (like the second Tuesday). You can also add your own repeat under Custom, such as every 6 weeks or every 10 days, and clients see those too. Clients only pick from what you tick or add.
• Clients can stop their own series: shown once the first switch is on. Lets a client stop the series from the link in their confirmation email. Off by default.
• Most visits in a client's series: shown once the first switch is on. A limit on the visits a client's series can have. Leave it at 0 for no limit.
• Discount for repeating clients: the default discount, the same choices as above.
• Visits paid online: when the payment link goes out, when payment is due, and what happens to an unpaid visit. See below. This only shows for offerings that require payment; on any other offering later visits are paid at the appointment.

Staff can start a series on any offering that can repeat, even one that does not let clients start their own.

On the last step of booking, after they have picked a time, the client sees How often? with Just once selected and one choice for each repeat you offered, worded with the weekday and time they picked. Choosing one shows a plain summary before they book, for example "Every 2 weeks on Tuesday at 10:00, starting 4 Nov. 10% off from your second visit. You'll get a payment link 7 days before each visit."

The times are the ones in your business's time zone. A client viewing another clock sees a note saying so.

Clients do not choose an end. Their series has no end date, or stops at your Most visits limit when you set one, and they can stop it from the manage page if you allow that. A client can hold one repeating appointment they started themselves per offering at a time, including a paused one. Series you start for them are not limited. If they try to start a second, Booklink tells them to use the link in their confirmation email to manage the first.

How often? is only offered for a single offering booked on its own, on a Pro account.

A series starts as Starts once visit 1 is confirmed. Nothing else is booked until visit 1 is confirmed: paid, approved by you, or created as confirmed. If visit 1 expires unpaid, is declined or is cancelled while still pending, the series ends with it, and nothing else was ever held.

Once visit 1 is confirmed the series becomes Active, the next visits are booked and the client gets one series email. Later visits are created confirmed even on an offering that normally needs your approval: approving visit 1 approves the series.

Booklink books each series up to 8 weeks ahead, and always keeps at least the next 2 visits booked, so an every-3-months series still has visits on the calendar. The first few visits are booked straight away when the series starts. A daily job books the rest, so a very frequent series, such as every day, is filled out within a day.

Visits booked by the daily job do not send a confirmation email each, so the client is not flooded. Each visit still sends its normal reminders, plus the payment request when payment is owed.

Before booking a visit, Booklink runs the same checks as a manual booking without override: the team member's working hours, blockouts, buffers, other bookings and sessions, rooms and a connected Google Calendar. If a date does not work, that visit is skipped. Nothing is double booked and nothing is moved automatically.

A skipped visit shows under Skipped visits on the series card, with the reason, for example "The team member already had a booking then". It also appears in the Needs Attention strip on the Calendar page and in the mobile app's attention list, and you are emailed. Click Place to book it at that time after you have cleared the clash. If the time is still blocked, Booklink says why, and where an override can clear the reason you can click Book it anyway. A placed visit becomes a normal visit of the series.

Skipped dates still count towards the next 2 visits Booklink keeps booked, so a time that can never work does not pile up skips.

A series also ends, and you are told, if its team member is removed or stops taking bookings, or if the offering is switched off or can no longer repeat.

Visit 1 is paid exactly like any other booking: a deposit or the full price online, or at the appointment, as the offering says. There is no card on file and nothing is charged automatically.

For later visits in Pay online before each visit mode, each visit is created confirmed with payment outstanding: the deposit for a deposit offering, otherwise the visit price. Then:

• The payment request goes out Send the payment link (days before) the visit, 7 days by default. It is an email with a Pay online button that opens the client's manage page. If your WhatsApp notifications and WhatsApp reminders are on, the client also gets it on WhatsApp, which uses a WhatsApp credit. Each visit gets one request. If a visit is booked inside that window, the request goes out when it is booked.
• Payment is due Payment due (hours before) the visit, 48 hours by default. This must come after the request, so it has to be fewer hours than the days multiplied by 24.
• If a visit is still unpaid at that point, you choose. Keep it and flag it as overdue is the default: the visit stays booked, shows an Overdue badge, and you are emailed. Cancel the visit cancels it, frees the slot and tells you and the client.

Cancelling only ever applies to a visit whose payment request actually went out in time. If a visit never got a request, for example the client has no email and cannot be reached on WhatsApp, it is kept and flagged instead, so a regular never loses a slot they were not asked to pay for. A visit booked after its payment cutoff has already passed still gets its request, and is never flagged or cancelled for a cutoff that passed before it existed.

Nothing is sent, flagged or cancelled when no payment gateway is connected, when a visit is paid at the appointment, or when a visit cannot be paid online. Record in-person payments as usual; see Recording payments on a booking.

If an active invoicing automation rule creates or sends a Rebill invoice when a booking is created, confirmed or completed, and it covers the offering (or all services), it runs for each visit as it does for any booking. Those visits are billed through Rebill, so Booklink does not send its own payment request and does not flag or cancel them for being unpaid. The series discount appears as a discount on the invoice line.

Paying a Rebill invoice does not mark the Booklink booking as paid.

Open any visit of the series. The Repeating appointment card shows what it Repeats on, the Team member, when it Ends, the Discount, how Payment is handled, the Upcoming visits and any Skipped visits. Use it to:

• Change from a date: change from a date onwards. If you change how often, the time, the team member or the discount, visits from that date that are unpaid and were never moved are cancelled quietly and booked again to match. Visits that were moved or paid are kept, and Booklink lists them so you can decide what to do with each. The client gets one email with the new pattern and next dates, and the dates that no longer happen. Changing how visits are paid switches the visits still to come over in place, without cancelling them. Changing only the payment timings (days before, hours before, keep or cancel) changes the series for its visits without rebooking anything.
• Pause: no new visits are booked while it is paused. Visits already booked stay as they are.
• Resume: new visits are booked again from the next date.
• Stop: choose Stop from a date. The visits still to come from that date are cancelled (the date is today or later), earlier visits stay, the series ends, and the client gets one email. If a cancelled visit was already paid, deal with the payment as you would for any cancelled booking.

You can also move or cancel a single visit like any booking. Cancelling a visit skips that date, and Booklink does not book it again. A visit you moved stays where you put it when the series changes later. See Cancelling a booking.

The Booklink mobile app can start, change, pause, resume and stop repeating appointments too.

When the series starts the client gets their normal confirmation for visit 1, and a second email that names the pattern and lists the next few dates. After that, visits booked by the daily job do not send a confirmation. If you stop or change the series, they get one email, not one per visit. Moving or cancelling a single visit sends the usual booking emails.

The client's manage page shows the repeating appointment: how often, the discount, and their upcoming visits, each with its own link. Each visit can be moved or cancelled under the offering's normal rules, such as its cancellation deadline. See Customer self-service.

When you allow it, the page also shows Stop my series. The client picks the first visit they no longer want. From there on, the visits they could cancel themselves are cancelled and you are told. Visits that are already paid for, or are too close to cancel online, stay booked and are listed for the client, who is asked to contact you about them. The series still ends, and from then on the page says This repeating appointment has ended. above any visits that stay booked.

Series need Pro, for you and your clients. If your plan ends, existing series stop booking new visits and keep their status. Visits already booked stay as they are, and the series carries on when you upgrade again.