Recurring Activities
FlowForth supports recurring activities for work that repeats on a regular schedule. Instead of creating each activity individually, you set up a recurrence pattern and FlowForth automatically generates future instances.
How Recurring Activities Work
When you create a recurring activity, FlowForth generates individual activity instances based on your chosen pattern. Each instance is a standalone activity with its own status, photos, and notes — but they are linked together as part of a series.
Recurrence Patterns
| Pattern | Description |
|---|---|
| Daily | Repeats every N days |
| Weekly | Repeats every N weeks, on the selected days |
| Bi-Weekly | Repeats every N × 2 weeks on the same weekday as the start date |
| Monthly | Repeats every N months on the same day of the month |
| Yearly | Repeats every N years on the same date |
Interval
The Every … field sets the interval, N. The label shows the unit for the chosen pattern, for example Every … week(s) for Weekly or Every … × 2 weeks for Bi-Weekly. Enter a whole number from 1 to 52. If you clear the field or type a number outside that range, FlowForth corrects it to the nearest allowed value.
Monthly and Yearly series always stay on the date you started with. A series that starts on 31 January falls on the last day of shorter months (28 February, 30 April) and returns to the 31st in months that have one. It does not drift to the 28th.
Days of Week
For the Weekly pattern, you can select which days under Repeat on the activity should occur on (Mon–Sun).
How the interval combines with the selected days: the interval picks which weeks the activity runs in, and the selected days pick the days inside those weeks. Weeks start on Monday, and counting starts from the week that holds the activity's start date.
For example, with a start date of Tuesday 22 September 2026:
| Repeat on | Every | Generated dates |
|---|---|---|
| Tue | 4 weeks | 20 Oct, 17 Nov, 15 Dec, … |
| Tue | 1 week | 29 Sep, 6 Oct, 13 Oct, … |
| Tue + Fri | 2 weeks | 25 Sep, 6 Oct, 9 Oct, 20 Oct, 23 Oct, … |
| Mon | 2 weeks | 5 Oct, 19 Oct, … |
| (no days selected) | 4 weeks | 20 Oct, 17 Nov, … |
So "Tuesday, every 4 weeks" means every fourth Tuesday, not every Tuesday. In the start week, only selected days after the start date get an activity. That is why Monday 21 September is skipped in the "Mon, every 2 weeks" example. If you don't select any days, the activity repeats on the start date's weekday.
End Date
You can optionally set an end date for the recurrence. The end date is included: if an occurrence falls on it, that activity is created. If you leave the end date empty, FlowForth generates instances for up to one year ahead.
Next Dates Preview
While you set up the recurrence, a preview box below the fields shows a summary of the schedule (for example "Every 4 weeks on Tue") and the next 5 dates that will be generated. Check these dates before you save. If they don't match what you expect, adjust the pattern, interval, or days first. When you edit an existing series, the preview starts from tomorrow.
If the preview says no dates will be generated, the end date is before the next occurrence. Move the end date later or change the pattern.
Setting Up a Recurring Activity
- Navigate to the location where you want to create the activity.
- Click Add Activity.
- Fill in the basic activity details (title, date, time, price, etc.).
- Enable the Recurring toggle.
- Configure the recurrence pattern, interval, and optional days of week and end date.
- Check the Next dates preview to confirm the schedule is what you expect.
- Click Create Activity.
FlowForth will create the initial activity and automatically generate all future instances based on your settings.
Updating Recurring Activities
When you edit an activity that belongs to a recurring series, FlowForth asks you to choose the update scope:
This Activity Only
Changes are applied to the selected instance only. All other instances in the series remain unchanged.
This and Future Activities
Changes are applied to the selected instance and all instances scheduled after it. Past instances are not affected.
Tag Changes
Tags work differently. When you add or remove a manual tag, the dialog offers This and all instances in the series instead. That option applies the tag change to every instance in the series that is not cancelled, including past, completed, and invoiced ones. Other tags on each instance, such as auto tags and client tags, are left alone. See Tags on Recurring Activities for details.
Price Change Preview
If your changes include a price update and some affected activities are already on invoices, FlowForth shows a preview before applying. The preview includes:
- Whether the price is changing
- The total number of activities affected
- How many of those activities are on existing invoices
- The date range affected
This helps you understand the impact of your changes on billing before confirming.
Updating recurring activities with the This and Future scope updates the recurrence settings on all future instances. If you change the repeat pattern itself, future instances are regenerated to match the new schedule.
How Regeneration Works
When you save a change to the pattern, interval, days, or end date of a series, FlowForth:
- Replaces future Scheduled instances, from tomorrow up to the end date (or one year ahead if there is no end date).
- Keeps the series aligned to the original start date. A "every 4 weeks" series stays on the same 4-week cycle even if it started months ago.
- Leaves past instances alone, along with future instances that are already Completed, In Progress, or Cancelled. No duplicate is created on those dates.
Fixing Series Created Before the Interval Fix
Before September 2026, a Weekly series with one or more days selected ignored the interval. For example, "Tuesday, every 4 weeks" created an activity every Tuesday. Existing series are not corrected automatically.
To fix an affected series, re-save its recurrence settings:
- Open the series' first (parent) activity and click Edit.
- Change one recurrence setting, for example the interval, and save.
- Edit again, put the setting back to the value you want, check that the Next dates preview shows the right dates, and save.
FlowForth only regenerates a series when a recurrence setting actually changes, so saving without changes won't fix it. You can skip step 3 if the new setting from step 2 is one you want to keep (for example, adding an end date). After regeneration, the extra future Scheduled instances are removed and the series runs on the correct weeks. Past and completed activities are not changed.
Managing Individual Instances
Each recurring instance is a full activity in its own right. You can:
- Change the status independently (complete one instance without affecting others)
- Reschedule a single instance to a different date
- Add photos or notes specific to that instance
- Cancel a single instance without cancelling the series
Cancelling a Recurring Activity
When you cancel a recurring activity — either the parent series or a single child occurrence — FlowForth asks whether you also want to delete all future scheduled occurrences in the same step.
- Leave the option unchecked to cancel just the selected activity; future occurrences stay on the schedule.
- Tick "Also delete all future scheduled occurrences" to remove every scheduled occurrence after the one you are cancelling. Past occurrences and any that are already completed are left untouched.
- Future occurrences that are already on a non-cancelled invoice are skipped automatically — they cannot be deleted while the invoice exists.
Cancelled activities remain visible via the "Show cancelled" toggle on each page. See Cancelled Activities for details on visibility and restoring cancelled activities.
Tips for Working with Recurring Activities
- Start simple — Begin with the most common pattern and adjust individual instances as needed.
- Check the preview — The Next dates preview shows exactly what will be generated, so check it before saving.
- Use the planner — The Activity Planner is the best way to see all upcoming recurring instances at a glance.
- Price changes — When updating prices on recurring activities, use the "This and Future" scope to update all upcoming instances at once.
- Tag changes — To tag a whole series, edit any instance and choose "This and all instances in the series". Tag filters then show the full series.
See also
- Creating an Activity — Step-by-step guide for creating new activities including recurring setup
- Activity Planner — View and manage all upcoming recurring instances in a calendar layout
- Activity Details — Edit individual instances and manage update scopes
- Activity Tags & Tag Rules — How tag changes are applied across a series
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