How to set up a recurring event: patterns, end dates and booking windows

The short answer

Set up a recurring event as a series: one page, with a session for each date. Choose the pattern (weekly, fortnightly, monthly), when it stops (after a number of sessions, on a date, or never), and how many weeks ahead people can book. Then change things in bulk rather than one date at a time.

Series or copies?

There are two ways to put a repeating event online.

Copies. Duplicate last week’s event and change the date. It works for a few dates. Past that, you have a pile of separate pages, a different link each week, and every change made by hand on each one.

A series. One setup makes every session, each with its own tickets and capacity, under one page that lists them all. A change to the time or price can reach every upcoming session at once.

Use copies for something that happens two or three times on irregular dates. Use a series for anything with a rhythm.

Choose the pattern

The common patterns, and what suits each:

A monthly pattern on the “first Friday” or “third Wednesday” is easier for people to remember than a date like the 15th, which lands on a different weekday each month.

Choose when it ends

• After a number of sessions. A ten-week term, an eight-round season.
• On a date. Up to the end of the school term, or the end of the year.
• Never. It runs until you stop it. Pair it with a booking window so the page doesn’t list dates years ahead.

Start with an end you can keep. Extending a series that is going well is easy; cancelling sessions people have booked is not.

Choose how far ahead to sell

The booking window decides how many upcoming sessions are on sale at once. A few common choices:

• Every session now for a short course or a season with a fixed end
• Four to six weeks for a weekly class: enough for people to plan, not so much that the page looks empty
• Three months for a monthly event, so the next few dates are always visible

With a rolling window, new sessions appear as old ones pass, without you doing anything.

Set up the tickets once

Before you save, set up the tickets every session should have: a casual ticket, perhaps a concession, the capacity, and any questions you need answered at checkout. Each session starts from that. If you want regulars to subscribe, that sits on the series rather than on each session. See How recurring ticket sales work.

Changing a series later

Things will change. Plan for these:

Change every upcoming session. A new start time, a new venue, a new price: change them together, and leave past sessions as they were. Anyone booked should hear about a new time or place.

Change one session. The instructor’s away one week, or a session needs a bigger room. Change just that date.

Skip a date. For a public holiday, remove that session before people book it. If it already has bookings, refund them and tell people why.

Move to a different weekday. Usually easiest as a new series, so the old dates and their bookings stay as they were.

Publish and share one link

Publish the series and share the series page, not a single session. That is the link for your bio, your website and the group chat. Each session also has its own page, which suits a post about one particular week.

On One Ticket

Choose New event, fill it in as usual, then choose Pick a date and set Repeats to Daily, Every weekday (Mon–Fri), Weekly, Fortnightly or Monthly (same week and day). For weekly, choose the days under On. Under Ends, choose After a number of times, On a date or Never, and set Sell how many weeks ahead (0 makes every session now). Check the list of dates, then publish. See Repeating events and series.

The series page lists every session with its status and orders. Edit all sessions changes the start time, place, ticket price, title and description, or cover of all upcoming sessions, or only the ones you pick. Past sessions are never changed. If the time or place changes, everyone booked is emailed the new details, their tickets stay the same, and buyers who paid online can ask for a full refund. See Edit a series.

A monthly series repeats on the same week and day; a fixed date of the month, like the 15th, isn’t one of the repeat options, so make those dates their own events with Duplicate. Series, subscriptions and everything else here are on the Free plan, which has no monthly cost. See pricing and the Subscriptions page.

Back to the complete guide to recurring events. Related: How to sell tickets for a weekly event and How to sell tickets for a monthly event.