This article covers how to set up a recurring series of sessions for your clients. You can set up one-on-one recurring series or recurring group sessions as part of a fixed-date program. This feature is available on the Professional plan and up.
In this article:
- Before You Begin
- Setting Up a Recurring Series
- Handling Conflicts
- Recurring Zoom Meetings
- Updating a Recurring Series
- Adding a Recurring Series to a Fixed-Date Program
- Linking a Recurring Series to a Package
- Canceling a Recurring Series
Before You Begin
A few things about recurring sessions work a little differently once other features get involved.
- Automations tied to a service or program, like sending a form or creating a task after a session, trigger separately for each session in the series based on that session's own scheduled time. They don't treat the series as one unit, so a "send form after session" automation sends once per occurrence, not once for the whole series.
-
Group services: Recurring group sessions inside a Fixed-Date Program require Group Session Availability to be set up on the service first. Group sessions run over Zoom, since Practice Better's native telehealth supports one-on-one sessions only. Learn more in Setting Up Group Services with Practice Better →
- Packages: If a recurring series is linked to a client's package, canceling the series returns those sessions to the package balance, as long as the package is set up to account for that service type. Learn more in Linking and Managing Sessions in a Client's Package →
Setting Up a Recurring Series
- Begin creating a new one-on-one session from My Schedule > My Calendar, My Bookings, or your client's Bookings & Packages page.
- In the popup, add details for the first session in the recurring series including the service type, date, time, and duration.
- Click on the Recurrence Options tab in the top-left corner then enable the This session recurs option.
-
Set up the recurring schedule for your sessions, e.g. every 3 days, weekly, or monthly.
💡 Tip:A series follows one recurrence pattern only. If you need sessions on multiple, non-uniform days, like the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month, set up two separate recurring series instead of trying to build both patterns into one.
- Select the total number of sessions to include in the series. You can include a maximum of 100 sessions per series.
- Optionally, you can schedule a reminder notification near the last session date in the series. This is useful if you need to extend the series or complete associated tasks.
- Review your session details and recurrence schedule, then click Schedule in the bottom-right corner. Use the Upcoming sessions button in the bottom-left corner to preview the sessions that will be scheduled for this series
.
Handling Conflicts
We'll check your schedule for conflicts before scheduling a recurring series. If conflicts are found, a Conflicts tab will appear with a list of existing events in your calendar and the dates in the series that need to be adjusted.
Open the picklist to the right of each session date to select a new time. If you've set up availability for that day, we'll provide a list of suggested times when you're free.
Select Custom time to pick a custom date and time for the session, or leave it as "Accept conflict" to schedule the session with the conflict. These are the only two options; there's no way to skip a conflicting date out of the series entirely at this step.
Recurring Zoom Meetings
Zoom allows you to set up a maximum of 50 recurring fixed-time meetings per series. If your series has more than 50 sessions, we'll create an indefinite Zoom recurring meeting.
Indefinite Zoom meetings do not have individual occurrences, so you'll only see one meeting for the entire series in your Zoom dashboard. Keep in mind, indefinite Zoom meetings may still appear in your Zoom dashboard after your series has ended.
Zoom also has restrictions on the repeating intervals for recurring meetings. For example, if your meetings recur on a monthly interval they can be scheduled for a maximum of every 3 months.
You'll see the following prompt if a recurring Zoom meeting cannot be created for the recurring schedule you've set up.
Updating a Recurring Series
You can easily identify recurring sessions in your calendar by looking for the "recurring" icon in the top-right corner of each session.
If you've selected the session in your calendar, click the series description in the popup to view the series details page.
You can also navigate to the series details page by going to My Schedule > My Bookings page. Click the Recurrence Settings tab at the top of the page then select a series from the list.
Editing the Whole Series
Click Edit series on the Series Details page to make adjustments to the series and schedule. Keep in mind, changes will only impact upcoming sessions; previously conducted sessions will not be impacted by your changes.
When changes to the recurring schedule are made (e.g. changing the start time), all upcoming sessions in the series will be deleted and re-created based on the new schedule. There's no option to apply a schedule change to only some of the remaining sessions; it's all upcoming sessions or none.
Editing or Canceling a Single Session
When you want to change or cancel just one date instead of the whole series, work from the individual session rather than the series. Adjustments can be made from the series details page, your calendar, or My Bookings page.
On the series details page, click the 3 dots next to a session and select Edit or Cancel from the options provided.
A session will be considered "Edited" if it is updated or rescheduled after the recurring series is created.
Non-schedule changes to the series will have no impact on edited sessions. For example, changing the session location for the series will not adjust the location for an edited session.
However, if the series schedule is modified, all upcoming sessions (including edited sessions) will be deleted and re-created based on the new schedule.
Transferring Sessions to Team Members
If a recurring session is transferred to another team member, the session will be disassociated from the recurring series. Future changes made to the series will not impact transferred sessions.
Adding a Recurring Series to a Fixed-Date Program
You can schedule recurring group sessions if they're part of a fixed-date program. Make sure Group Session Availability is set up for the service first; see Setting Up Group Services with Practice Better →
If you'd like to set up recurring group sessions without using a program, set up recurring group availability for the service instead. Learn more about Setting Up Group Services with Practice Better →
Linking a Recurring Series to a Package
A recurring session (or series) can be linked to an existing package by following the instructions in Linking and Managing Sessions in a Client's Package →
You'll have the option to either link the individual session or the entire series to the package.
Similarly, you can either unlink individual sessions or all sessions in the series when unlinking from a package.
📍 Note: If you cancel a package-linked series, the sessions return to the client's package balance, as long as the package is set up to account for that service type.
Canceling a Recurring Series
You can cancel a recurring series from the Series Details page or by going to your My Schedule > My Bookings page.
- Click the Recurrence Settings tab at the top of the page.
- Click the 3 dots next to the series and select Cancel series from the options provided.
Canceling a recurring series will delete all upcoming sessions from your account. Previously conducted sessions will remain in your records.