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Schedule And Manage Recurring Tasks

Understand how recurring task schedules work and what happens when you change them

Quick summary

Learn how Civic.ly creates recurring inspections, jobs and defects, how far ahead tasks are generated, and how edits affect a task series without losing completed work.

Who is this for?

  • Role: Office staff, Field leads

  • Platform: Web ONLY

  • When: Setting up or changing recurring inspections and jobs 

Before you start

  • You must be signed in

  • You need permission to create or edit tasks

Setting up recurring tasks

When creating or editing a task, you can set:

  • Due date — when the task should be completed

  • Recurrence frequency — how often the task repeats

  • Recurrence end date — optional stop date for the schedule

  • Repeat every year — for seasonal tasks that restart annually after the end date

Frequency options

  • Daily — every day, or selected weekdays only

  • Weekly — every week (future update: repeat every X weeks)

  • Monthly

  • Bi-monthly — every two months

  • Quarterly — every three months

  • Bi-annually — every six months

  • Annually

  • Every two, three, four, five or ten years

How future tasks are generated

Civic.ly automatically creates upcoming tasks so future work is always visible.

Frequency Future tasks created
Daily 20
Weekly 12
Monthly 12
Bi-monthly 6
Quarterly 4
Bi-annually 2
Annually or longer 1

  • Future tasks are refreshed every sunday

  • You can add notes or attachments to future tasks at any time

Editing a recurring task

When you edit a task in a series, choose one option:

  1. Update this task only — changes apply to that task

  2. Update this task and all future tasks — changes apply going forward

What happens when you change a series

If you change the due date, frequency or end date for a series:

  1. The current series ends at the due date of the task you edited 

  2. A new series starts from that task with the new settings

  3. Future unmodified tasks are deleted

  4. Any modified or completed tasks are preserved as standalone tasks

Confirmation dialog

Before saving, Civic.ly clearly shows:

  • What setting is changing

  • When the current series will end

  • Number of future tasks will be deleted

  • That edited or completed tasks will be kept

  • That a new series will be created

Task preservation rules

A task is protected if it has been touched, including:

  • Status changes (Passed, Failed, Complete)

  • Title or description edits

  • Notes or attachments added

Protected tasks are never deleted and no longer recur.

Routine scheduling

Routines group multiple related tasks together under a single schedule. All tasks within a routine inherit the schedule from the parent routine.

Editing a routine's schedule

When you change the schedule on a routine, the system updates all tasks within it. You'll see a confirmation showing:

  • The routine name and schedule change
  • How many tasks will be updated
  • That completed history will be preserved

The same series split logic applies: old series ends, new series begins, future unmodified tasks are deleted.

Editing a single task's schedule within a routine

  • Non-schedule changes (title, notes, attachments) — the task stays part of the routine
  • Schedule changes — if you change a task to a different schedule, it breaks away and becomes an independent recurring task

When a task breaks away:

  • Past routine history remains intact
  • Future routine instances no longer include that task
  • The task continues on its own new schedule

Task preservation in routines

The same preservation rules apply to tasks within routines. If you've touched a task (status change, edits, notes), it will be preserved when the routine's schedule changes.

Example: Single task

You have a monthly swing inspection scheduled on the 22nd of each month.

Its 12th of this month, from next month you change it to weekly:

  • All previous months and this months task stay as they are

  • Future untouched monthly tasks are deleted

  • A new weekly series starts from the edited task

  • Any completed or edited future task is kept as standalone

Example: Routine

You have a weekly "Memorial Park Round" routine containing 5 tasks.

You change it to daily:

  • The current weekly series ends for the routine and all tasks
  • A new daily series starts
  • Past completed rounds remain in history
  • Any individually modified tasks are preserved

Notes & limits

  • Schedule changes are not supported on the mobile app
  • Mobile app supports completing schedule tasks and creating one-off tasks
  • Changing a series always creates a new schedule
  • You cannot merge two recurring series
  • Future task counts depend on frequency (see table above)
  • Defects do not have recurrence

Verify it worked

  • Check the edited task shows the new recurrence

  • Confirm future tasks match the new schedule

  • Verify preserved tasks show Recurrence: None

  • For routines, check all tasks within the routine show the updated schedule

Troubleshooting

  • Future tasks disappeared unexpectedly → /kb/troubleshooting/future-tasks-deleted/

  • Task shows no recurrence → /kb/troubleshooting/task-recurrence-none/

Related

  • Create inspections → /kb/tasks/create-inspections
  • Create jobs → /kb/tasks/create-jobs/
  • Create defects → /kb/tasks/create-defects/
  • Create Routines