Recurring Tasks

Recurring Tasks are multiple tasks created from a single task, and are called a recurring task series.  You can create a recurring task series consisting of daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly frequencies.  This allows a user to create multiple tasks such as meetings or personal time.

Getting Started

To create a recurring task series, click the recurring task toolbar icon from within the task you wish to create a recurring task series from. This task will be used as a template for the recurring task series you will be creating. The recurring tasks will be created using the task type (i.e. Meeting, Personal, etc.), caseworker, location (if applicable), description, all day flag, and a reminder (if applicable). Note that client information, SMS, or an appointment checklist are not considered when creating a recurring task series. You may, however, set any of these properties on any task created from the series.

If the recurring task toolbar icon is highlighted, it indicates that it is a part of a recurring task series. If you delete the task, a prompt will appear asking if the entire series is to be deleted. If you want to delete the entire series, click 'Yes', otherwise to only delete the task, click 'No'.

The task date will be used as the Recurring Start date in the recurring tasks screen if it is greater than or equal to today. If the task date is less than today, the selected task will be excluded from recurring series.

Recurring Task Setup

When the recurring task toolbar icon is clicked, the recurring task series window will open. A new recurring task series will generate a series of tasks using the selected task (the task in which the recurring task series was opened) as a template. Editing an existing recurring task series will delete all tasks yet to occur (other than the selected task) in the series and recreate them using the selected task as a template. Exercise caution when editing a recurring task series.

Recurrence Pattern
The Recurrence Pattern dictates when then tasks will be created.

Daily
Creates the tasks Monday through Friday.

Weekly
Select one or more days of the week that the task will occur on.

Monthly
Select the day of the month, or more commonly, the first, second, third, fourth, or last day of the week the task will occur on.

Yearly
Select the day and month of the year, or more commonly, the first, second, third, fourth, or last day of the week and month the task will occur on.

Recurrence Options

Task Conflict Resolution
If the user has rights to overlap tasks, there will be an option to skip a recurring task if the time slot has already been filled, or create a recurring task even if the time slot has already been filled.  If the user does not have rights to overlap tasks, this option will not display and filled time slots will be skipped automatically.

Recurring Start Date
This is the date in which the recurring tasks will begin.  Since tasks cannot be created in the past, this date must be today or later.  The recurring start date will default to the selected task date. If you create a recurring task from a task that has already occurred, the recurring start date will be today, and the selected task will be excluded from the recurring series.  If you change the recurring start date, the selected recurrence will update to match (i.e. changing the recurrence date to 11/15/2023 would set the Weekly pattern to Monday) so if you are going to change the recurring start date, do so prior to changing the recurrence pattern.

NOTE: If the selected task date is today or later and does not match a task date generated in the recurring task series, you will be prompted to either leave the selected task date as is and be excluded from the recurring task series, or change the selected task date to the nearest recurring task date as shown in the following screen:

Recurring Until Date
This is the date the recurring task series will end by. This value will change depending on which recurrence pattern you select. It will be 3 months from the Recurring Start date for a Daily recurrence pattern, 6 months for the Weekly recurrence pattern, 1 year for the Monthly recurrence pattern, and 5 years for the Yearly recurrence pattern. It is recommended that you use the default Recurring Until date until you feel comfortable with generating a recurring task series.

Editing a Recurring Task Series
It is important to note that editing a Recurring Task Series will result in the deletion of any upcoming task (a task which has yet to occur), other than the selected task, that is currently in the series and will then recreate them based on the selected task, recurring start date, and recurring until date.  Any changes made to the individual tasks will not carry over to the recreated tasks.

When editing a Recurring Task Series, the first upcoming task date in the series will be set as the Recurring Start Date. The Recurring Until Date will be adjusted based on the new Recurring Start Date and existing recurrence pattern for the series.

Unless the Recurring Task Series has been recently created and the intent to edit a Recurring Task Series is to extend the series, it is recommended that you either wait until the series has completed or wait until the last task date in the series is about to occur in order to extend it.

Tips for a Recurring Task Series
Once a recurring task series is created, any changes to the individual tasks themselves do not impact the other tasks in the series, including changing the date/time, task type, or even setting a client and SMS notifications.  However, should the recurring task series this task belongs to be edited and recreated, the task will be deleted and a new task will be created without any of the changes that were made.  For example, if you were to set a client along with a SMS notification for a task which is part of a recurring task series, and subsequently edit the series and recreate a new recurring task series, the client will not be set for the recreated task, even if it falls on the same date and time of the original task, and the SMS notification will be canceled.

Some townships allocate a specific time of day on a specific day of the week for client appointments.  For example, you could create a recurring task series every Friday at 1pm with the task type of "Appointment".  When it comes time to schedule a client, you could select the task, set the client, and print the appointment form.