The idea
One booking, many dates.
A class every Tuesday, a client every other Thursday, a committee on the first Monday of the month. A regular booking is one booking with many dates: one reference, one place to cancel it, and every session in your bookings with its place in the run. You tell me the day, the time and how often; I look across every date before I offer you anything, so what you pick is free all the way through.
Asking for a series
Choose the recurring booking on Make a booking, then say when it starts, how often it repeats (daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, whichever your organisation allows) and how many sessions. Say when in the day as a part of the day, or, where people book any start and end time, as a specific start time. A monthly series keeps to the same weekday of the month, the second Tuesday or the last Friday. A weekly or fortnightly one steps over a closed date and adds a session at the end, so you still get the number you asked for.
A series needs at least 2 sessions. Your organisation sets the most it may have: by default 24 weekly, 12 fortnightly, 12 monthly and 14 daily. Extras cannot go on a series; add them to the sessions that need them as single bookings.
For example
A counsellor sees a client every other Thursday afternoon for a set of sessions. She asks for Thursdays, fortnightly, the number of sessions agreed, at a specific start time, and I plan the run from her first date.
Leave it alone if
Every booking in your building is a one-off. Switch repeating bookings off on Booking rules and the recurring door disappears.
What I offer, and what I say when I cannot
I come back with up to three options. The best keeps one room for every date; another may keep your time but move rooms from week to week. Each shows the price per session and, when the series has a fixed end, the total. On an option that keeps one room, the times that lose dates show greyed beside the free ones, with how many dates each loses: that is how you see that your time is not free.
Two things get a note above the options. If none of them can start on the date you asked for, an amber note says so, and a card headed What you asked for shows how many of its sessions are free and lists the dates that are not, with the reason: the room is taken, you are already booked, or it is outside opening hours. If you named a room and it is not free for the whole series, a note says so and the options use other rooms.
Neither the What you asked for card nor a Closest match can be booked. They are there so you know what is in the way: free up those dates, change the time or the room, or try a different start date, and ask again. An admin sees whose booking is in the way; a member sees another member’s name only when that member shares it.
For example
A member asks for the meeting room on Mondays at nine, starting next week. Two of those Mondays are held by the monthly all-hands. The option I offer starts next Monday in the same room at ten, and nine shows greyed beside it with two clashes. Had nothing been free from next Monday at all, the options would start a week later, with an amber note saying so and a What you asked for card listing the two Mondays.
Leave it alone if
Your first choice is usually free. Then it is the first option, you pick it, and nothing is greyed or explained.
Every date, or none
A series is booked whole. The options I show are free on every date when I show them. If one of those dates is taken in the moments before you confirm, I book nothing and show you the updated options, rather than hand you a run with gaps you did not choose. The one exception is a co-working regular booking, which can take the free dates and leave the rest. A series in a room that needs approval waits for it as a whole.
For example
The choir picks Wednesdays in the main hall. A moment earlier someone booked one of those Wednesdays for a party. I book none of the choir's dates, say one has just gone, and show them the options that are still whole.
Leave it alone if
You book in co-working. There a regular booking takes the dates that are free and leaves the rest.
No fixed end
Where your organisation allows it, a series can run with no fixed end. I book it out to your booking horizon, counted from its first date, and every Monday I extend it so it stays 7 days beyond the horizon, in the room and at the time of its latest session. Nobody can make a single booking that far ahead, though another member’s long series can reach a date first. If a date is already taken when I extend, I skip that date and say nothing, so check the far end now and then. The series runs until it is cancelled, even if the room is later taken out of use; move or cancel those sessions from the diary.
For example
The bridge club books the small hall every Tuesday evening with no end. In January the diary shows its Tuesdays out to the booking horizon; every Monday one more Tuesday appears at the far end, and it will keep appearing until the club cancels.
Leave it alone if
Your regulars sign up for a term at a time. A fixed number of sessions ends when the term does, and nobody has to remember to cancel.
Cancelling one, some or all
Open any session from your bookings. Cancel this session takes that one out. Cancel this and all future sessions ends the series from that date. On a series with a fixed end there is a third choice, Skip this session - add one at the end: it cancels the session and adds one after the last, when a matching date is free; if none is, the session is still cancelled and nothing is added. A session already on a statement that has been sent cannot be cancelled; your organisation can sort it out. Members cannot move a series to another time or room: cancel and ask again.
For example
A client is away in August. The counsellor opens the August session and chooses Skip this session - add one at the end; I cancel it and add a Thursday after the last one, because that Thursday is free.
Leave it alone if
The session is simply not needed, and nobody wants an extra one at the end. Cancel this session is enough.
Booked for you by someone else
An admin, or a team booker, can book a series for a member. Normally it confirms at once (a team booker’s series in a room that needs approval waits for that first) and the member gets one note inside Doris: who booked it, what it is, and the price per session. If your organisation has switched on Ask members to accept bookings made for them, a Diary & Billing setting, a series with a price waits for the member instead. Every session is held, so nobody else can take it, until they choose Accept this series or Decline this series, once, for the whole run. The same is true of a single booking made for someone.
They have until a deadline set from the first session: 4 hours when it is a day or less away, 48 hours when it is within a week, 7 days within a month, and 14 days beyond that. For a member who has never signed in, the clock starts when they first do. If the deadline passes, the series is cancelled and both of you are told. When the member has already agreed, the admin can tick that they have and confirm it straight away.
For example
A co-working space has the switch on and books a month of Tuesday desk days for a new member. She signs in for the first time on Friday, which is when her time to answer starts, sees the series with its price, and chooses Accept this series.
Leave it alone if
You only ever book for people who have already agreed. Leave the switch off: they are told what you booked and what it costs, and can cancel it.
What I never do
- I never book a series with gaps you did not choose. If a date goes as you confirm, I book nothing and show you what is still whole.
- I never start your series on a later date than you asked for without saying so above the options.
- I never take a payment when a series is booked. Where your organisation sends statements, each session is its own line.
- I never hold a series for a member to accept unless your organisation asks for that and the series has a price.
- I never let a series with no fixed end lose its slot to a single booking made far ahead.
Where it lives
A series starts from Make a booking; the tap-through is on Making a booking (bookwithdoris.com/guides/making-a-booking), and finding and cancelling sessions on My bookings (bookwithdoris.com/guides/my-bookings). Settings, then Booking rules, carries Repeating bookings (the patterns, the most sessions, and no fixed end), Ask members to accept bookings made for them, and How far ahead; the rows and their defaults are on Booking rules (bookwithdoris.com/guides/settings-booking-rules). Rooms that need a yes are on Approvals (bookwithdoris.com/guides/approvals).