Recurring tasks

A lot of agency work is the same job, over and over: the monthly WordPress update, the quarterly SEO review, the annual domain renewal. A recurring job card is set up once and then reschedules itself every time you finish it, so routine maintenance is never forgotten and never has to be re-typed.

How recurrence works

Recurrence is a property of a single, perpetual job card, not a pile of pre-generated future cards. There is always just one card, and it moves itself forward. When you complete a recurring card with Mark done:

• Its next due date is advanced by one interval from the current due date.
• It is recorded as last completed now, so you have a history of when it was actually done.
• It returns to the To do column, ready for next time, rather than being closed.
• It drops out of view until shortly before it is next due (see lead time below), so it does not clutter your board in the meantime.

A non-recurring card, by contrast, simply closes and moves to Done when you complete it. The recurring card lives on.

The recurrence options

You set two things: how often, and every how many of them.

• Daily, repeats every day, or every N days with an interval.
• Weekly, every week, or every 2 weeks, every 3 weeks, and so on.
• Monthly, every month, or every N months.
• Quarterly, every three months (an interval of 2 makes it every six).
• Yearly, every year, or every N years.

The interval multiplies the frequency, so between them these cover almost any routine: "every fortnight" is weekly with an interval of 2, "twice a year" is quarterly with an interval of 2, "every 18 months" is monthly with an interval of 18. The next date is always calculated from the card's current due date when you complete it.

Lead time: surfacing it before it is due

A recurring card usually should not sit on your board for the whole month between occurrences. That is what the lead time is for. Set a number of days, and after each completion the card stays quietly out of the open lists until that many days before its next due date, at which point it reappears so there is time to act.

So a monthly card with a seven-day lead vanishes after you finish it and comes back a week before it is next due. Your board only ever shows the routine work that is actually coming up, not everything that will ever recur.

Setting a card to recur

1. 1
   Create or open a job card in the agency workspace as normal, with its client, site and checklist.
2. 2
   Set a due date. Recurrence counts forward from it; without one, it counts from the moment you complete the card.
3. 3
   Choose the recurrence: pick daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, and set the interval if it is not "every one".
4. 4
   Set a lead time in days so the card resurfaces before it is next due rather than the moment after you finish it.
5. 5
   Work the card as usual and complete it with Mark done. It reschedules itself and steps aside until the next occurrence is near.

Recurring invoicing reminders are separate

There is a related but distinct feature worth knowing about. Recurring services, your hosting and retainers, can generate their own invoicing reminder cards on a schedule, so you are prompted to bill each period. That is driven from the service, not from a card's recurrence setting, and it is covered in services and invoicing. Use card recurrence for work that needs doing, and service auto-reminders for money that needs billing.

Good to know

• A recurring card is a single card that moves forward, not many cards. There is only ever one to look at.
• Completing it with Mark done never sends it to Done for good; it reopens with a new due date. Dragging a recurring card to the Done column on the board closes it like a one-off card and does not schedule the next occurrence. To stop it repeating, switch its recurrence back to "does not repeat" (or delete it).
• The last-completed date is kept each time, so you always have a record of when the routine was actually carried out.
• Without a lead time, a completed recurring card can reappear immediately for the next cycle. Set a lead so it waits until the job is genuinely near.
• Recurring cards are part of the Agency CRM. It is included on the Agency plan and is a paid add-on on Starter and Pro.

Where to manage recurring work