How to build a class schedule you never have to re-upload every week
A recurring class schedule is a table that repeats every week with no fixed date, set up once, with optional per-class capacity, so you never have to re-upload it every Monday.
Darío has been teaching taekwondo in Ciudad Juárez for nine years, at Academia Dragón Rojo. Every Sunday night he does the same thing: opens Canva, edits the schedule image with that week’s changes — the blue belt class moved half an hour, or there’s a special class on Saturday — and reposts it to his WhatsApp status and Facebook. On Tuesday someone messages him: “is the 6pm class still at 6?” He’d already changed it to 6:30 on Sunday, but that person saw the old image a white-belt classmate had forwarded her.
That problem has a name: an image doesn’t update for everyone at the same time, and there’s always someone with last week’s version still saved on their phone. What Darío needs isn’t a prettier calendar. It’s a class schedule you set up once and that repeats on its own.
What is a recurring class schedule?
A recurring class schedule is a table that shows the classes you repeat week after week, with no calendar date behind it: each row lives on a day of the week and a time, not on “September 24th.” You set it up once and it stays live until you change or delete it — unlike an event, which is a specific date and ends that day.
That’s exactly the opposite of the image Darío uploads, where every week is a new file. Here, Monday’s white-belt class is a single row that exists once and repeats on its own, Monday after Monday, with no one having to write it out again.
What data does each class carry?
Of the nine columns a class in the schedule can carry, only three are required: the title, the day of the week, and the start time. The rest are what make someone decide to show up: how long it runs, which room, with whom, and for what level.
Darío sets up Monday’s white belt class like this: title “White and yellow belt,” day Monday, time 6:00 pm, duration 60 minutes, room “Tatami 1,” level “White and yellow belt” again (so it reads at a glance in the list), and instructor himself. Nine fields, captured once — not every Sunday.
What does your schedule look like on the inside?
It’s not a list of rows stacked top to bottom. Underneath, it’s a grid from Monday to Sunday, with each class in its day’s column and ordered by time — like a school timetable, not a spreadsheet you have to read row by row. That’s where Darío sees, at a glance, that Tuesday has an opening at 6 and Thursday is already booked solid from the afternoon on.
Does it connect to the pricing you already charge?
If your page already has a Services list with prices — say “Kids’ taekwondo, $650 a month” — you can link each class to that service instead of typing the name and price by hand all over again. The class’s name, photo, and price are pulled straight from there. The day you raise the monthly fee to $700, it updates on its own across every schedule row using that service: you don’t go class by class fixing a number that repeats ten times.
When should I turn on per-class capacity?
The rule is the same as for any business with classes: as long as you’ve never had to tell anyone “sorry, we’re full,” leave it without a cap. It’s an informational schedule and people still sign up over WhatsApp, like always — adding a number there just adds an extra step for someone who was already going to show up.
The day Tatami 1 fills up and someone’s left standing at the door, you set a number for that class — fifteen, twenty, whatever fits — and from then on it counts on its own. Each week counts separately: if Monday fills up, that doesn’t affect the following Monday, which opens back up at full capacity. On the page, people see “12 of 15 spots” while there’s room, plus a button to reserve one; once it’s full, the button reads “Full” and won’t let them click it.
Is this the same as an appointment system or a class package?
No, and it’s worth telling them apart because each one solves something different. An appointment system reserves a time slot for one person, like booking with the dentist. A recurring class schedule is the opposite: the same time, the same class, for the whole group that fits, week after week. And a prepaid class package is a different thing still: it tracks how many visits your student has left, not which room or what time her next class is. All three can live on the same page, each handling its own part.
How this looks in practice
Here’s how Darío described it to Proyecta:
“Academia Dragón Rojo, in Ciudad Juárez. I teach taekwondo: white and yellow belt on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6pm in Tatami 1, capacity fifteen; green belt and up on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7, capacity twelve, in Tatami 2. Kids’ classes cost $650 a month and I already have them in my services. I want a WhatsApp button and a map of where we are.”
Out comes a real, published schedule, laid out in a grid by day, with capacity counting on its own every week. No more image to re-upload on a Sunday night, and no one asks him again if the 6pm class is still at 6.
If your business already has classes that repeat every week, start by describing them to Proyecta the same way you’d tell a new student: which days, what time, with whom. Capacity and linking it to your prices are things you add the day you actually need them — not before.