Course session schedule: when the gap between treatments grows

A massage course has the same gap every time: once a week. Laser hair removal doesn't. The second session comes a month after the first, the sixth two months after the fifth, the twelfth half a year after the eleventh. Hair grows in cycles, and each session has to land in its own phase.

Give such a course a single interval and the reminder is wrong both ways. Early in the course it arrives on time; near the end it calls the client back four months too soon. The client comes, the session does less than it could, and trust in the course drops.

That is why a course has a schedule: its own interval before each session.

Setting the schedule

Open Settings → Catalog → Packages and the course. In "Intervals between sessions":

1. Switch to "By schedule".
2. Pick "In months" — that's how schedules are usually written. A month here is 30 days, so "1.5" means 45 days.
3. Fill in "Before session 2", "Before session 3" and so on. There is one row per session in the course.

For example, a twelve-session course for women aged 18–45:

• before session 2 — 1 month;
• before sessions 3 and 4 — 1.5 months each;
• before sessions 5 and 6 — 2 months each;
• before sessions 7 and 8 — 2.5 months each;
• before sessions 9 and 10 — 3 months each;
• before session 11 — 4 months;
• before session 12 — 6 months.

An empty row means "same as the previous step". It isn't an error, but filling every row is clearer.

Different groups, different courses

Sometimes the schedule depends on the client: women over 45 and men need fewer sessions with longer gaps. Create a separate course for each group: "Laser — women 18–45", "Laser — women 45+", "Laser — men". They have different session counts and schedules; the price can stay the same.

When selling, choose the course that fits the client. Everything after that is calculated for you.

Maintenance after the course

After the last session the course is over, but the client will be back for follow-ups. Turn on "Maintenance after the course" and set two periods:

• "First follow-up in" — say, 6 months after the last session;
• "Then every" — say, 8 months.

Any paid visit with one of the course's services after the course ends counts as a follow-up. After the first one, the next is expected at the "then every" step.

Where the schedule is used

Checkout. When you close a visit that used a course session, checkout suggests the next visit date from the course schedule, not from the service interval: a month and a half after session three, half a year after session eleven, and the first follow-up date after the last session.

Booking the next session. In the green course badge on the appointment card, "Book the next session" opens a new appointment on the scheduled date.

The "who is due" list. On the dashboard, "Courses with no next booking" lists clients whose next session is overdue and who have nothing booked. It now includes clients due for a follow-up too — instead of "N left" they show "follow-up after the course". Clients who are already booked or have started a new course aren't listed.

Good to know

• The schedule is copied into the course when it's sold. Changing the template later doesn't move dates in courses already sold. Courses sold before schedules existed keep their single interval.
• The "Course not finished" campaign in the Client Retention plugin reminds about abandoned courses only, not follow-ups. Clients due for a follow-up are on the dashboard card.

Where to start

Copy the schedule you already keep on paper or in a spreadsheet into the course. If you work with several groups, create a course for each. Turn on maintenance, and in six months clients who finished their course will show up on the list on their own.