A repeating visit is a series: one booking that makes every visit in it, each a normal appointment on the calendar. You can change one visit or the rest of the series, and clean up a client's upcoming visits from their chart.
Book a repeating visit
- Click New appointment (or click an empty slot) and fill in the visit as usual. Recurring works on every tab: Appointment, Group, Event and Out of office.
- Turn on Recurring.
- Set Every: a number (1 to 99) and day, week or month.
- week: tick one or more weekday buttons (S M T W T F S). It starts on the day of the first visit.
- month: the same date each month, or the last day of a shorter month (a series that starts on the 31st falls on February 28 or 29).
- Set Ends:
- after a number of visits (1 to 365; it starts at 10)
- on date: the last day a visit can fall on
- never: books up to 366 visits at once
- Check the line at the bottom, for example "Repeats every 2 weeks on Monday, Thursday, 12 visits total".
- Click Book appointment. The message says how many were booked, for example "12 appointments booked".
Every visit gets the same client, service, provider, time, length, notes and price. Each one is its own appointment: it gets its own reminders and confirmation, and a video series gets its own link for each visit.
What the client is told
- Booking: with Let the client know ticked, the client gets one confirmation for the first visit with the line "This is the first of N recurring appointments."
- Moving the series: one message about the first visit, saying the rest of the series moves the same way.
- Deleting the series: one cancellation for all the deleted visits, for example "your 4 upcoming appointments ... have been cancelled."
Texts and emails follow the usual rules for Let the client know: a text when the client can get one (8am to 9pm their time), otherwise an email.
Change one visit or the rest of the series
These open a dialog called This appointment repeats:
- In the appointment editor, changing the date, time, length, provider, service or Fee, then Save changes
- Dragging the visit to a new time or provider column
- Resizing it on the calendar (a new length)
The dialog says how many later visits are still to come and what will change, for example "They move by the same number of days, to 2:00 PM." It also shows:
- First: the old and new time of this visit
- How many visits already seen, missed or cancelled stay as they are
- A warning when new times would overlap the provider's other appointments or blocked time, with the dates. The change still goes ahead if you continue.
- Keep them confirmed (when the visits move): tick it only when the client already agreed to the new time. Otherwise the visits go back to unconfirmed and reminders ask the client to confirm again.
- Also make $X the client's rate for this service (when you changed the price): new visits of this service, with this provider, are booked at that price too. It applies only with This and the next.
- Let the client know (after a drag). In the editor, the Let the client know box above Save changes decides.
Then choose:
- Just this appointment: only this visit changes.
- This and the next N (This and following when it is the last one): this visit and every later visit still to come. A new day or time moves each of them by the same number of days to the new time. A new length, provider or service goes on all of them, and a new service or provider re-prices the visits nobody priced by hand.
The message reads "Updated N appointments in the series". Moving from partway through splits the series: the moved visits become a series of their own, and the earlier ones keep theirs. Times the visits left are offered to your waitlist.
Cancelling a visit in the Cancel dialog only ever cancels that one visit.
Delete a series
Right-click a visit and choose Delete Appointment, or open it and choose Delete appointment from the ⋯ menu. For a visit in a series you see Delete recurring appointment:
- This and following deletes this visit and every later one in the series.
- Just this appointment deletes only this one.
Visits that already happened stay on the record, and so do visits with notes, charges or a cancellation or no-show fee. The message says what happened, for example "Deleted 6 appointments. Kept 1 that already happened or has notes or charges." Let the client know starts ticked for a series and sends one message for all of them. The freed times are offered to the waitlist.
A repeating Event or Out of office block works the same way: click it on the calendar and choose This and following or Just this event (or Just this block).
Change all of a client's upcoming visits
On the client's chart, the Appointments card has Manage upcoming when the client has more than one visit still to come. It opens Upcoming visits for the client, with how many there are and their date range.
- What to do: Change them or Delete them.
- Which visits: All upcoming visits, or only those of one type (for example "Session (12)"). It starts on a type that isn't one of your services, when there is one.
- For Change them:
- Service: a new service, or Keep as booked. Also make them N min, the service's length changes their length too.
- The provider field (named for your providers): a new provider, or Keep as booked. It shows who they're booked with now.
- Price per visit (once you pick a service or provider): shows the usual price for this client. Type another amount to price every visit at it, or click Use the usual price. Save as (name)'s rate for (service) (on by default) books their new visits of that service at it too.
- Read the preview, for example "8 visits from Nov 4, 2026 to Dec 23, 2026 will become Individual therapy at $120." It warns when visits would run into the provider's next appointment.
- Click Change N visits or Delete N visits.
Start times stay as booked. A price someone set by hand on a visit is kept unless you type a new one. Delete them keeps any visit with a charge, a note or a fee on it; the client isn't told, and the times aren't offered to the waitlist, so you can book them again. Group sessions and visits synced from athenahealth aren't included.
Turn imported weekly visits into a series
An import brings a standing weekly appointment in as separate visits, so This and following can't reach them. Manage upcoming shows These visits repeat but aren't a series when a client has at least three upcoming visits on the same weekday and time, with the same service and provider, every 1, 2, 3 or 4 weeks. A skipped week (a holiday) doesn't break the pattern.
- Make it a series (or Make N series) groups this client's visits. Nothing else about them changes.
- Do this for every client finds the same patterns for everyone at the location and asks you to confirm (Make N series). Only an owner or admin can do this.
Visits to sort out (Tasks)
The Tasks page shows a Visits to sort out card for each client whose upcoming visits have a type that isn't one of your services, for example "12 upcoming appointments have no service set ("Session")". This is what an import from SimplePractice often leaves behind. Google Calendar events linked to clients but left as General show here too; map their visit types in Set up imports (see Google Calendar imports). Click Sort out to open the client's chart with Manage upcoming open, then give the visits a service or delete them. The card isn't shown at athenahealth locations, and the count can take a few minutes to update.
When a series is about to end
Each morning, FrontDesk checks for series whose last visit is less than 14 days away and sends your team a notification: "Appointment series ending" with the client's name and when it ends (or "N client appointment series ending"). Each series is announced once, so book the next run before it runs out.
Good to know
- athenahealth: recurring appointments are created in FrontDesk only and aren't sent to athenahealth. Visits synced from athenahealth move in athenaOne.
- Group sessions can repeat too (the message reads "N group sessions booked"). See Group sessions.
- A series moved or deleted from partway never touches visits that already happened.