A recurring event is a single event record with a rule that generates many occurrences — for example, every Wednesday at 3 pm for Term 2. Individual occurrences can be moved or cancelled without affecting the rest.
Turning a new event into a recurring one
Open the event form (New event) and fill in the Details tab as you would for a one-off — see Creating a one-off event. The Start and End times you enter become the times for the first occurrence.
Then go to the Recurrence tab and tick Is this a repeating event? Two more fields appear:
- End recurring period — the date the recurrence stops. Required for recurring events. Use the end of the term, semester or year as appropriate.
- Frequency rule — choose how often the event repeats:
- Daily — every day, every second day, every weekday.
- Weekly — pick one or more weekdays (e.g. Monday and Wednesday). Optionally set the interval to repeat every n weeks.
- Monthly — repeat on the same day of the month, or on the same weekday position (e.g. third Tuesday of the month).
The form preview shows the next few occurrences as you change the rule.
Adding a rule to an existing one-off event
If an event is already in the calendar without a rule, open it and choose New rule. The same recurrence options appear. New occurrences are generated from the rule starting after the original event date.
Editing a single occurrence
Recurring events have two layers:
- The event itself — the title, description, location, requirements and rule.
- Individual occurrences — auto-generated from the rule. Each occurrence has its own start/end and can be moved or cancelled independently.
To change one occurrence without affecting the rest:
- Open the calendar and click the occurrence.
- Choose Edit this occurrence.
- Change the date, time or status.
Moved occurrences keep a reference to their original date, so the calendar can show that an event was rescheduled rather than added.
Editing the whole series
To change something that applies to every occurrence — for example, the description, location or owner — open the event itself (not a specific occurrence) and edit it.
If you change the start time or recurrence rule on an approved event, the event is sent back to Draft and needs to go through the approval workflow again.
Cancelling a single occurrence
Use Cancel this occurrence from the occurrence detail page. The occurrence is marked cancelled but stays in the calendar — staff can see that the event was meant to happen and was withdrawn. See Cancelling events and occurrences for the full options.
Cancelling the whole series
Delete or cancel the parent event. All future occurrences go away in one step.
When to use a single event with a rule vs. many separate events
Use a rule when the same activity repeats with the same details — same description, same location, same staff.
Use separate events when each one is meaningfully different — for example, three excursions in a term to three different venues, each with its own catering and risk profile. Lumping those together under one rule makes them hard to approve and report on individually.