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
- Navigate to Events in the sidebar.
- Open the ⋮ More menu and click Event Series (or use the Series tab in the planning tab strip).
Series List
The series dashboard displays all your event series with:
- Stats Cards: Total Series, Active Series, Worship Services, and Classes.
- 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, event type badge, and an Inactive badge if the series is paused.
- Recurrence description (e.g., "Weekly on Sunday").
- Start time and location.
- Number of events generated and exceptions.
- The next date, plus View, Edit, Export iCal, and Delete actions.
Series Detail Page
Click on any series to open its detail page, which shows:
- Stats: Total Events, Upcoming, Past, and Exceptions.
- Series Details: recurrence, time, start and end date, location, room, hosting group, description, and which features are on.
- Upcoming Occurrences: the next scheduled dates (up to ten, from the coming three months), marked Cancelled, Modified, or Rescheduled where an exception applies. Today's date stays in the list until it has ended. For registration series, each date shows how many are registered.
- Registration: a link to the series' shared Registration form (when registration is on).
- Serving Positions: volunteer positions that apply to every occurrence (when Volunteers is on).
- Exceptions: the most recent exceptions.
- Danger Zone: Delete Series.
The Edit button and a ⋯ (More actions) menu with Duplicate Series, Export iCal, and Delete Series sit at the top of the page.
Editing a Series
Edit Scope
Click Edit on the series page. At the top of Edit Event Series, What would you like to update? offers two choices:
| Choice | Effect |
|---|---|
| All events in the series | Update the entire series and regenerate future events. |
| This and all future events | Keep past events unchanged and update from the date you pick in Apply changes from. |
To change just one date, don't edit the series. Use Modify on that occurrence instead (see Handling Exceptions below).
Warning: Saving either choice rebuilds the upcoming dates. If volunteers are already scheduled on them, a yellow box says how many people are scheduled and that they will be taken off the schedule and told they are no longer needed. When you click Update Series, you are asked to confirm ("… will be taken off. Continue?").
Editable Fields
You can change:
- Series title, description, event type, and hosting group.
- Recurrence pattern (presets or your own pattern).
- Series start and end dates, start time, end time, and duration.
- Location name and room.
- Features: Registration, Check-in, Volunteers, Service Order, Waitlist, Public, and Active ("Generate events"), plus Max Registrations.
- Serving Setup: choose a Day Template in Use a Day Template (each occurrence then uses that Day Template's positions and service plan), or leave it on — None (define positions below) — and list the Volunteer Positions yourself. See Event Series Templates.
Handling Exceptions
Exception Types
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Modified | Change details for one occurrence (time or location). |
| Cancelled | Skip one occurrence entirely. |
| Rescheduled | Move one occurrence to a different date. |
Cancelling a Single Occurrence
- From the series detail page, find the occurrence in the Upcoming Occurrences list.
- Click the ✕ (Cancel) icon next to that date. The Cancel Occurrence dialog opens.
- Optionally enter a Reason (optional) (e.g., "Holiday weekend").
- Click Cancel Occurrence (or Keep Event to back out). The occurrence is marked as cancelled.
Cancelled occurrences appear with a red indicator in the series timeline.
Modifying a Single Occurrence
- From the series detail page, click the pencil (Modify) icon next to an occurrence. The Modify Occurrence dialog opens.
- Change any of the following for just that date:
- New Start Time: different start time.
- New End Time: different end time.
- New Location: different venue.
- Reason: explain why this occurrence is different.
- Click Save Changes.
Tip: To give one date a different title or description (for example, "Easter Sunday Service"), open that date's event from the calendar and edit it there.
Modified occurrences appear with a yellow indicator.
Rescheduling a Single Occurrence
- Click the Modify icon on an occurrence.
- Set a New Date (to reschedule) in addition to any other changes.
- Click Save Changes.
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
- From the series detail page, click Generate More next to Upcoming Occurrences.
- TimelyChurch creates the dates for the next three months that don't exist yet and confirms how many new occurrences were generated.
This is useful when you need to extend a series further into the future.
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.
- From the series detail page, click Auto-Fill All Events (shown when the series has Volunteers turned on).
- Confirm "Auto-fill all upcoming events in this series with best-available volunteers?".
- TimelyChurch runs auto-fill on every upcoming event in the series, picking the best available person for each open position (checking availability and how often people have served recently).
- A summary tells you how many positions were filled across how many events ("Auto-filled 18 of 24 positions across 6 events.").
Team leaders who aren't administrators only fill the positions of the teams they lead.
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 following weeks, use Copy Forward.
- From the series detail page, find the source occurrence whose volunteer assignments you want to reuse.
- Click Copy Forward next to that date.
- Confirm "Copy this week's assignments to the next 12 future events?".
- TimelyChurch copies that week's assignments (everyone except people who declined) onto the next 12 events in the series. People already on a later event are skipped, and the copies start as pending so each volunteer can respond.
It's perfect for "we used this same team last Sunday, do it again" cases without retyping.
Tip: Use Auto-Fill All Events 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
- From the series detail page, open the ⋯ menu and click Duplicate Series.
- In the dialog, enter a New Series Name, a Start Date (the new series starts on this date with the same recurrence pattern), and optionally a New Start Time and New End Time.
- Click Duplicate Series. A new series is created "with all settings and serving positions", including its Day Template, so the serving positions come along automatically.
This is exactly how a church that adds a second Sunday service sets it up: duplicate your existing "Sunday Worship" series, keep the same day and pattern, and set New Start Time and New End Time to your new service (e.g., 5:00 PM instead of 10:00 AM). It's also handy for 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
Note: Deleting a series can't be undone from the app. If you want to temporarily stop a series without deleting it, edit it and turn off Active instead.
To delete just one date, or one date and everything after it, use the delete window on the Events calendar instead. See Cancel or Delete an Event.
Exporting a Series
iCalendar Export
From the series detail page, open the ⋯ menu and click Export iCal to download an iCalendar file containing the full recurrence pattern. (The same Export iCal action is on each row of the Event Series list.) This file can be imported into:
- Google Calendar
- Apple Calendar
- Microsoft Outlook
- Any calendar application that supports .ics files
The exported file includes the repeat pattern, event times, title, description, and location.
What Editing a Series Keeps
- Moved and cancelled dates stay as they were when you edit all events or from a date. Generate More fills any gaps, and the preview shows each date's real time. (8.205.303)
- Room bookings and equipment reservations carry onto the rebuilt dates. If the series moves to a new room, the booking moves with it. If you clear the room, the booking is cancelled. (8.205.305)
- "Edit event" on one date is kept. If you change a single date from its own Edit event window (day, time, room, title, description or location), editing the whole series later does not put it back. Only the fields you changed are kept, so a title edit does not freeze the description. The room booking and equipment follow the moved date. (8.205.306)
- A move onto an existing date is refused. You see "This series already has a date on . Move this date to another day, or edit that date instead." and nothing changes. (8.205.306)
- Moving one date moves its room booking too. If the new time is taken, a confirmed booking goes back to Pending. (8.205.305)
- Cancelling a moved date cancels the event that actually moved. (8.205.303)
- Replacing or removing the image on one date keeps the series image for the other dates. (8.205.306)
- Deactivating a series releases its rooms and equipment. Turning it back on does not book them again. Deleting a series closes its registration form (the entries are kept). (8.205.305, 8.205.303)
- Copy Forward, Modify and Cancel wrap onto a second line on a phone instead of running off the screen. (8.205.306)
Note: Dragging a date on the calendar, or editing only its description on one date, is not yet remembered as a change to that date, so a later whole-series edit can put it back.
Last updated: 2026-10-21 (8.205.306).