This article explains how to schedule recurring jobs in the Skedulo web app. This feature is useful for scheduling multiple jobs on either a regular or irregular basis.
Before you begin
This article expands on the process of creating a job that is explained in the schedule a Skedulo job article. If you haven't created a new job, check out that article first.
After filling in the Job Details on the Schedule Job form, check the Make Job Recurring checkbox to open the recurring jobs tab. Scheduling recurring jobs can be done in two ways:
- the pattern builder, and
- the calendar.
You can also indicate whether you want the system to skip holidays, and dispatch and accept per job.
The Pattern Builder provides an easy way to quickly schedule regularly occurring jobs, whereas the Calendar provides a way to make irregular schedules, but can also be used to easily create regular schedules for those who prefer a visual approach.
When you make a job recurring, the system creates a new JOB record for each occurrence. These are collected on a recurring schedule (RS) record.
Make recurring jobs with the pattern builder
There are two main parts to making recurring jobs with the pattern builder; setting up the repeat, and then nominating days of the week. In this part of the article, we'll walk through the steps for setting up recurrences, and then take a more detailed look at the different requirements for the different frequencies.
To create recurrences using the pattern builder:
- Make sure that the Pattern Builder tab is selected.
- Click on the Repeat drop-down menu and select whether you want the job to repeat daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.
- The name of the next field will change depending on what you chose at step 2. Click in the Every 1 Day/Week/Month/Year field and type in the number of intervals between repeats. For example, to repeat a job every two weeks, type 2.
- Click in the Ending field and select how you'll work out the last appointment:
- Ending On opens the On field, where you can enter a date for the job recurrences to end. If the last repeat occurs on this date, it will be included.
- Ending After will open the Number of Occurrence(s) field, where you can enter the number of job occurrences. Jobs will be scheduled until this limit is reached.
Please note: when using Ending After to determine the number of jobs scheduled, the number entered in the Number of Occurrence(s) field does not include first job for scheduling jobs over Days, Months, or Years. However, it does include the first occurrence when scheduling Weekly. For example, if you would like to schedule one job per month over six months, for six jobs in total, then you should enter five in the Number of Occurrence(s) field when scheduling jobs on a Monthly basis. The original job, plus the extra five occurrences will result in six jobs being scheduled in total. 
- The next part of the form changes depending on the frequency you selected at step 2:
- If you've chosen to repeat Daily, Monthly or Yearly, you can select days of the week to skip under Skip Days of Week. If a repeat falls on one of these days, the job will not be scheduled. However, the day will still be counted when calculating the interval until the next repeat.
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- If you've chosen to repeat Weekly, you'll need to select the days on which the job will be delivered each week.
Please note: The days of the week selected will cause different things to happen on these days, depending on the option selected in the Repeat field.
Pattern builder examples
The following examples provide more information about how to use the different Days of Week fields for the different repeat frequencies:
Daily repeat
Repeating Daily will allow you to create a job schedule that repeats after a certain number of days.
Days of week
Select how many days between recurrences in the Every 1 Day(s) field. Click any days of the week that should be skipped if a job falls on one of these days in the Skip Days of Week section. Jobs that fall on one of these days will be skipped entirely.
Example
In the example below, jobs will be scheduled every third day up until the 31st of January 2021. However, if a job falls on a Saturday or Sunday it will be skipped. If the schedule below began on a Monday, the second job would occur on Thursday, then the third would land on Sunday, which would be skipped. The following job would be scheduled on Wednesday, resulting in six days between jobs.
Weekly repeat
Repeating Weekly will allow you to make a schedule that repeats over a certain number of weeks, with multiple days in each week if needed.
Days of week
Choose how often the schedule will repeat in the Every 1 Week(s) field. Instead of skipping days of the week, the weekly repetition requires you to choose on which days of the week you want to schedule jobs in the On section.
Example
In the example below, jobs will be scheduled every second week on Tuesdays and Thursday for a total of 12 occurrences. The Number of Occurrence(s) field in weekly recurrences refers to individual weeks where jobs are scheduled, rather than the number of jobs scheduled for each week. In this example, 12 occurrences will actually schedule 24 jobs, since each week has two jobs scheduled in it. The weeks in between when jobs are not scheduled don't count towards the Number of Occurrence(s).
Please note: weekly recurrences behave very differently to Daily, Monthly and Yearly, recurrences. Here are some key differences to look out for:
- Instead of skipping days of the week, weekly recurrences require you to select which days the jobs will be scheduled on in the On section.
- If selecting After in the Ending field, the Number of Occurrence(s) will include the first occurrence. You will have to add one to the number of occurrences to get the total number of jobs to be scheduled for the other frequencies.
- Also when selecting After in the Ending field, the Number of Occurrence(s) actually refers to the number of weeks, not the total number of jobs. If you are scheduling multiple jobs per week using the On section, you will need to multiply the number of days selected by the Number of Occurrence(s) to get the total number of jobs to be scheduled.
Monthly repeat
Repeating Monthly allows you to specify a recurring date for a job to repeat each month. Choose which day the job will repeat on from the Repeat on the field.
Days of week
Select how many months between recurrences in the Every 1 Month(s) field. Click any days of the week that should be skipped if a job falls on one of these days in the Skip Days of Week section. Jobs that fall on one of these days will be skipped entirely.
Example
In the example below, jobs will be scheduled on the 15th of every month until the 31st of May 2021. However, if the 15th falls on a Sunday, then the job will not be scheduled for that month.
Please note: the Start Date that is entered into the Job Details field will mark the date of the first job that is scheduled, then all recurring jobs will be scheduled on the day of the month entered in the Repeat on the field. For example, if the Start Date is set to the 10th of October, but the Repeat on the field is set to the 15th of each month, then two jobs will be scheduled in the first month (October in this case), one on the 10th and one on the 15th, with all jobs being scheduled on the 15th after the first month. To avoid this, it's best to schedule the Start Date in the Job Details field as the same date in the Repeat on the field.
Yearly repeat
Repeating Yearly allows you to schedule jobs on a yearly basis. Select how many years between recurrences in the Every 1 Year(s) field. The job will occur every year (or every several years) on the date specified in the Start Date field in the Job Details section.
Days of week
Select how many years between recurrences in the Every 1 Year(s) field. Click any days of the week that should be skipped if a job falls on one of these days in the Skip Days of Week section. Jobs that fall on one of these days will be skipped entirely.
Example
In the example below, a job will be scheduled each year on the 15th of October until the 30th of June 2022. The appointment will still be scheduled regardless of which day of the week it falls on because the Skip Days of Week section has been left clear.
Make recurring jobs with the calendar
The calendar is a great way to create multiple jobs that do not occur on a regular and consistent schedule. It's also a great tool if you prefer a more visual approach to scheduling jobs.
To make recurring jobs using the calendar:
- Select the Calendar tab, next to the Pattern Builder tab.
- Click on the days for which you want to schedule the job. Individual days can be selected by clicking on them, while multiple consecutive days can be selected by clicking and dragging. Selected days will be highlighted in blue and the current date will be yellow.
- If you need to change the year, scroll to the top of the calendar and click on the left or right arrow.
- Click the OK button to create the schedule.
Skip holidays and dispatch and accept per job
After you schedule your job recurrences, you can use the checkboxes at the bottom of this part of the form to indicate how the system should handle holidays and send the job to resources:
- Skip Holidays will stop jobs from being scheduled on a public holiday. If a scheduled job falls on a public holiday it will be skipped. Public holidays are dependent on the region to which the job is assigned. Public holidays will need to be added manually to a region from your environment. To learn how to do this, see Skedulo's guide on creating holidays.
- Dispatch and Accept per job will send jobs through to the assigned resource one at a time, as they need to be dispatched. Leaving this option unchecked will send all jobs through to the assigned resource/s.
Now that you've created job recurrences, jump back to the schedule a Skedulo job article to finish scheduling your jobs.