Overview
A recurring job is a work order that repeats on a schedule - quarterly maintenance, monthly lawn service, twice-yearly system checks. You set it up once, and MotionOps creates the appointments and generates the draft invoices for you.
There are two separate schedules to configure: when the work happens, and when the customer gets billed. They don't have to match.
When to Use This Feature
A maintenance agreement with two visits a year, billed annually up front.
Weekly lawn care through the season, invoiced monthly.
Quarterly filter changes for a commercial client on a fixed contract.
Monthly pool service where each visit is billed as it's completed.
Any work where you're currently setting a calendar reminder to create the same job again.
How It Works
When you create a work order you choose its frequency: One Off or Recurring. Choosing Recurring gives you two rules to set.
The Appointment Schedule controls when the work happens. It uses the same recurrence options as recurring events - daily, weekly, monthly, and monthly on a particular weekday, such as every second month on the second Tuesday.
Creating the recurring job creates a draft appointment carrying that recurrence rule. If you've enabled auto-publish on approval, the appointments publish automatically once the job is approved.
The Invoicing Schedule controls when draft invoices are generated, and comes in two modes described below.
Invoices are always created as drafts. Nothing is sent to your customer automatically - you review each one and send it yourself.
The Two Invoicing Modes
This is the most important decision in the setup, because it changes what appears on the invoice.
Fixed bills the same amount every time. The invoice line items and total match the work order exactly, one to one, regardless of how many visits happened.
Use Fixed for contracts where the customer pays a set amount on a set cycle — a monthly maintenance agreement at $200 a month.
Per Appointment (Cumulative) bills for the visits you actually completed. MotionOps counts the completed appointments in the previous period and multiplies the work order's line items by that count.
So if a weekly service ran four times last month at $75 a visit, the monthly invoice comes out at $300. Miss a week and it's $225.
Use Per Appointment when the customer pays for work performed rather than a flat retainer.
How to Set Up a Recurring Job — Web App
Start creating a work order and set the frequency to Recurring.
Add your line items and pricing as you would on any job.
Set the Invoicing Schedule - choose Fixed or Per Appointment (Cumulative), then set how often invoices generate.
Save the proposal.
Once it's approved, the invoicing rules will apply, and the billing schedule will start immediately.
Scheduling happens independently, and the scheduling rules can be different from the invoicing schedule. You can even have multiple recurring appointments with different recurring rules for a single recurring job.
Checking the Invoicing Schedule
The Invoices tab on a recurring work order shows the upcoming invoice schedule - what will be generated and when, looking ahead about twelve months.
Check this after setting up any recurring job. It's the fastest way to confirm your billing rule does what you meant. If the schedule is empty you'll see "No upcoming invoices," which usually means the rule needs another look.
Finding Your Recurring Jobs
The Work Orders page has a Job Frequency filter with three options: All, One Off, and Recurring.
Filtering to Recurring gives you your contract book in one view. Save it as a preset and it's one click. See Filter Presets.
Working With Recurring Invoices
Generated invoices arrive as drafts, and you can edit them before sending. On a recurring invoice you can add line items, change existing ones, and remove items - for both labor and materials.
That matters in practice. A quarterly maintenance visit that also needed a part can be billed accurately without leaving the recurring structure.
You can also change whether items are taxable and which tax rate applies. See Setting Up Sales Tax.
You can create invoices on a recurring job manually at any point too - you aren't limited to the generated ones.
Recurring Proposals
A recurring job can start as a recurring proposal, so the customer approves the arrangement before it becomes a live contract. On approval it converts to the recurring work order with its schedules intact.
Recurring proposals can also be created from the Mobile App.
Tips & Best Practices
Pick your invoicing mode from how you sold the job. A flat monthly fee is Fixed. Paying per visit is Per Appointment. Getting this wrong means every invoice needs hand-correcting.
Check the upcoming schedule before you walk away. Thirty seconds on the Invoices tab catches a wrong rule before it generates twelve wrong invoices.
Don't assume the two schedules match. Weekly work billed monthly is a normal setup, and the whole reason the schedules are separate.
Mark appointments completed promptly on Per Appointment jobs. The invoice counts completed appointments, so uncompleted visits are unbilled visits.
Review drafts before sending. Generated invoices are drafts on purpose. A quick look catches the visit that got skipped for weather.
Use the Recurring filter as a retention list. It's your recurring revenue in one place.
Things to Know
Generated invoices are always drafts. Nothing is sent to your customer without you sending it.
Recurring jobs don't support change orders. The Add Change Order button and the proposal history section are hidden on recurring work orders, on both web and mobile. Adjust the invoice line items instead.
Invoices generate for any open recurring work order, not only approved ones.
Line items on recurring invoices are fully editable — add, change, and remove labor and materials.
The invoice generator window is skipped on recurring jobs. You go straight to a draft invoice.
Per Appointment (Cumulative) counts completed appointments from the previous period. Appointments not marked completed aren't billed.
The upcoming invoice schedule looks ahead roughly twelve months.
Recurrence supports monthly-on-a-weekday patterns, such as every second month on the second Tuesday.
Recurring jobs and their invoices are reflected in revenue reporting.
Automatically sending and charging recurring invoices is a separate capability that isn't covered here. This article covers generating draft invoices on a schedule, which you then review and send.
Troubleshooting
No invoices are generating on my recurring job.
Open the Invoices tab and check the upcoming schedule. If it reads "No upcoming invoices," the invoicing rule isn't producing dates - review the Invoicing Schedule setup.
My invoice amount is lower than expected.
On Per Appointment (Cumulative) billing, the total is based on completed appointments in the previous period. Check whether the visits were actually marked completed.
Every invoice is the same amount even though visits vary.
The job is set to Fixed invoicing, which bills the work order total each cycle regardless of visit count. Per Appointment (Cumulative) is the mode that varies with the work.
I can't add a change order to a recurring job.
Recurring jobs don't support change orders. Edit the line items on the invoice instead, or create a separate one-off job for the extra work.
The appointments were created but aren't on the schedule.
They're drafts. Publish them, or enable auto-publish on approval so they publish when the job is approved.
A customer's price changed mid-contract.
Update the line items on the work order. Future generated invoices pick up the new pricing; drafts already created keep what they were generated with.
Have questions? Reach out via the support chat or email support@motionops.com.