Since series are built from multiple linked bookings, there are a couple of minor differences to consider when scheduling. To begin with, click the "+" button at the top-right of the page then select "Add Booking" from the drop-down menu.
When setting the service for your booking, be sure to select your series (rather than the service from which it is built). Your class will be listed in the "Series" section of the drop-down and will have "[Series]" before its name.
As for any other booking, you can then select the price, provider(s), booking location, room, and pet limit. Note that the price set for your series booking is the overall price clients will be charged when registering, however the bookings will display on the user-end with the price per class (i.e. total price divided by number of classes in series).
You will then see two options populate at the top of the Schedule section: "Recurring" and "Manual".
Recurring
The recurring functionality allows you to easily book one or more sessions taking place on a repeating schedule. For this process, start by selecting the first class date from the calendar.
Then use the fields beneath the calendar to set the start time and booking duration. These settings will apply to all of the recurring class bookings scheduled in this set.
The "Repeat" menu allows you to set the frequency with which the bookings will recur.
Daily | Schedule the bookings at the same time every day. |
Weekly | Schedule the bookings at the same time weekly. |
Biweekly | Schedule the bookings at the same time every other week. |
Monthly | Schedule the bookings at the same time on the same day once a month. |
Selecting "Weekly" or "Biweekly" opens a sub-menu, allowing you to select the day(s) of the week on which the booking will occur. For example, if you select Weekly, then Wednesday, the booking will be added to every Wednesday starting from the date on which the first booking is set.
The last step for recurring bookings is setting the end date. The "Ends" menu lists two options, "Date" and "Times". Selecting "Date" allows you to choose the date from which to further bookings will be scheduled.
When scheduling series bookings using the recurring functionality, the end date indicates the date after which no more series will start. If the end date chosen is partway through a series, the system will complete that booking set then not schedule any more.
i.e. A 4-step series scheduled weekly set with an end date of 29 December. If the first date was chosen such that a step 1 booking is scheduled 15 December, steps 3 and 4 will be added to the calendar despite landing on 29 December and 5 January (after the chosen end date).
Selecting "Times" allows you to choose the total number of repetitions. Use the up/down arrows to adjust the Occurrences or manually type in the number of times this booking should be repeated until it stops. For example if, including the initial booking, you want a total of 5 bookings for this service, set the occurrences to 4. This will schedule the first booking and then set it to repeat 4 times, resulting in a total of 5 iterations.
When scheduling series, this setting controls how many additional full series sets will be scheduled.
i.e. When scheduling a 4-step series if the Occurrences field is set to 0 the system will schedule only the initial set of 4 bookings. If set to 2, the system will schedule the initial set of 4 followed by 2 more full series (totalling 3 sets of 4, or 12 bookings overall).
Manual
The manual scheduling option is ideal when attempting to book classes on a less consistent schedule due to holidays, vacations, etc. When manually scheduling, each of the steps in your series will be listed at the top of the card.
Use the calendar, time selector, and duration field to set values for the first step, then click on Step 2 above the calendar. Choose the date/time/duration for the second step, then repeat for all of the remaining steps in your series. As you select dates, you will see them populate next to the associated step number at the top. Any step without a selected date will display with "(No Date)".
This manual process allows you to customize the date, duration, and start time for each step in your series.
Once you have finalized your selections, whether via the recurring or manual scheduling process, click the "Add Booking" button at the bottom of the page to create your bookings.
Note that it can take the system a few minutes to generate bookings for all of the steps in your series. During that time you will see the message "This booking is not self-bookable because the series is in the process of being created" on the booking's information page. If ever you see this message on a new booking, give the system a few minutes then try refreshing the page.
When the booking is ready for client registrations, the "not self-bookable" message will no longer display and it will instead have a green "Self-book online" tag beneath the booking details. Keep in mind that your booking window may also impact whether or not your new class is bookable for your clients. Each step will also display properly with the name format Series Name - Step #: Service Name, as well as the price per step.
Series bookings display with the price per step. It is however not possible for clients to register for a single step, so they will be charged the full series amount when registering. Clients self-booking will also only ever see the total price, not the price per step. It is generally recommended to configure automatic invoicing for your series, as it helps avoid rounding differences when invoicing (i.e. if the total price does not divide evenly between the number of steps in the series).