Managing Event Series

Event Series allow you to manage a recurring schedule as a single entity. This article covers viewing, editing, handling exceptions, and performing bulk operations on event series.

Event Series Dashboard

Accessing the Series Dashboard

1. Navigate to Events in the sidebar.
2. Click the Event Series link to open the series dashboard.

Series List

The series dashboard displays all your event series with:

• Stats Cards -- Total series, active series, worship services count, and class count.
• Search -- Filter by title or description.
• Type Filter -- Filter by event type (Worship, Class, Meeting, Event).
• Status Filter -- View Active, Inactive, or All series.

Each series in the list shows:

• The series title and event type badge.
• Recurrence description (e.g., "Weekly on Sunday").
• Start time and duration.
• Number of events generated.
• Room and hosting group (if assigned).

Series Detail Page

Click on any series to open its detail page, which shows:

• Series Information -- Title, description, type, recurrence pattern, times, location, room, and hosting group.
• Upcoming Occurrences -- The next 3 months of scheduled occurrences, including any exceptions (modified, cancelled, or rescheduled).
• Past Events -- The 10 most recent past events from the series.
• Serving Position Templates -- Volunteer positions that apply to every occurrence.
• Stats -- Total events, upcoming events, and exception counts.

Editing a Series

Edit Scope

When editing an event series, you choose how the changes should apply:

Editable Fields

When editing with "All Events" scope, you can change:

• Title, description, and event type.
• Recurrence pattern (RRULE).
• Start time and end time.
• Duration.
• Series start and end dates.
• Location and room.
• Hosting group.
• Registration, waitlist, check-in, and serving settings.
• Public/active status.
• Calendar display color.

Handling Exceptions

Exceptions allow you to modify, cancel, or reschedule individual occurrences without changing the entire series.

Exception Types

Cancelling a Single Occurrence

1. From the series detail page, find the occurrence in the upcoming occurrences list.
2. Click Cancel next to that date.
3. Optionally provide a reason for the cancellation.
4. The occurrence is marked as cancelled and will not generate an event.

Cancelled occurrences appear with a red indicator in the series timeline.

Modifying a Single Occurrence

1. From the series detail page, click Modify next to an occurrence.
2. Change any of the following for just that date:
   • Title -- Use a different title (e.g., "Easter Sunday Service" instead of "Sunday Worship").
   • Description -- Custom description for this occurrence.
   • Location -- Different venue.
   • Room -- Different room.
   • Start Time -- Different start time.
   • End Time -- Different end time.
   • Reason -- Explain why this occurrence is different.
3. Save the modification.

Modified occurrences appear with a yellow indicator.

Rescheduling a Single Occurrence

1. Click Modify on an occurrence.
2. Set a New Date in addition to any other changes.
3. Save.

The occurrence moves to the new date. Rescheduled occurrences appear with a blue indicator.

Note: When an occurrence is modified or rescheduled, the changes summary shows exactly what was changed (e.g., "Date changed to Mar 15, 2026" or "Time changed to 11:00 AM").

Regenerating Occurrences

TimelyChurch can generate new event occurrences from a series pattern on demand.

1. From the series detail page, click Regenerate.
2. Choose how many months ahead to generate (default is 3 months).
3. The system creates new event records for each occurrence in that window.

This is useful when you need to extend a series further into the future, or if you want to re-generate occurrences after making changes to the recurrence pattern.

Series Volunteer Workflows

Two series-level workflows speed up volunteer scheduling across many occurrences at once.

Auto-Fill the Whole Series

Instead of auto-filling positions one event at a time, you can auto-schedule every occurrence in the series in a single pass.

1. From the series detail page, click Auto-Fill Series.
2. The system runs the auto-scheduler against every upcoming event in the series, scoring candidates against each position's requirements (qualifications, availability, recent serving load) and assigning the best match.
3. A summary tells you how many positions were filled, how many were skipped (insufficient candidates), and any conflicts.

Review and confirm assignments through the normal volunteer workflows on each event afterward.

Copy a Week Forward

If you spent time hand-tuning the volunteer roster for one occurrence and want to use the same lineup for the next one (or several), use Copy Forward.

1. From the series detail page, find the source occurrence whose volunteer assignments you want to reuse.
2. Click Copy Forward.
3. The system copies all confirmed volunteer assignments from that occurrence onto the next event in the series, checking each volunteer's availability before applying.

It's perfect for "we used this same team last Sunday, do it again" cases without retyping.

Tip: Use Auto-Fill Series for fresh planning across many weeks, and Copy Forward when you have a known-good lineup that should ride forward week to week.

Duplicating a Series

To create a copy of an existing series:

1. From the series detail page, click Duplicate.
2. Optionally provide a new title and start date.
3. A new series is created with all the same settings as the original.

This is helpful when creating a seasonal version of a recurring event (e.g., duplicating "Sunday Worship" to create "Summer Sunday Worship" with a different start time).

Deleting a Series

Delete Scope Options

When deleting a series, you choose the scope:

Steps to Delete

1. From the series detail page, click Delete.
2. Choose the delete scope.
3. Confirm.

Note: Deleting events is permanent (though soft-delete is used for the events). If you want to temporarily stop a series without deleting it, set it to Inactive instead.

Exporting a Series

iCalendar Export

From the series detail page, click Export .ics to download an iCalendar file containing the full recurrence pattern. This file can be imported into:

• Google Calendar
• Apple Calendar
• Microsoft Outlook
• Any calendar application that supports .ics files

The exported file includes the RRULE, event times, title, description, and location.