# Schedule a monthly visit on a weekday, not a date

> Supply frequency_id, day_of_week, week_of_month and anchor_date together — a bare monthly frequency will not reliably produce the schedule you expect. Preview with confirm:false and read the anchor_check and computed dates before committing. The ordinal composes with seasonal months, quarterly cadences and last-of-month.

URL: https://biloh.com.au/docs/how-to/schedule-a-monthly-visit-on-a-weekday
Category: How-to guides | Audience: operator | Updated: 2026-08-28

Set `day_of_week` and `week_of_month` on the service line, and anchor it to the first date you want served. "Second Tuesday of every month" is a first-class schedule, not a workaround.

Clients remember weekdays. Almost nobody remembers that you come on the 14th.

## Why a bare monthly frequency is not enough

Picking a frequency called "Monthly" and nothing else will not reliably give you the schedule the client expects. The frequency is the shape; the weekday and ordinal are the phase.

Always supply all three:

| Input | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| `frequency_id` | The monthly cadence template | Monthly |
| `day_of_week` | 0 = Sunday … 6 = Saturday | `2` for Tuesday |
| `week_of_month` | Ordinal positions; `[-1]` means last | `[2]` for the second |
| `anchor_date` | The first date to serve — drives the phase | `2026-08-11` |

That produces a durable recurrence rule — `FREQ=MONTHLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=TU;BYSETPOS=2` — and a human-readable label: *"Every month on the 2nd Tuesday."*

## Check the preview before you commit

Every path that creates a recurring line previews first with zero writes: `onboard_client` and `create_recurring_service` both take `confirm: false`.

The preview returns an `anchor_check` — the date, its weekday spelled out, its ordinal position in the month, and whether it matches what you asked for:

```
anchor_check: { date: "2026-08-11", weekday: "Tuesday",
                ordinal: 2, matches_inputs: true }
```

plus the next several computed occurrences. Read those dates. If the second Tuesday is what the client agreed to, the dates in the preview are the dates on their calendar for the next year.

## Reading next_occurrences honestly

`get_contract_service_line` returns upcoming dates, but they are bounded by a look-ahead window of roughly a year. Ask for six occurrences on a quarterly line and you will get about four — that is the window truncating, not the series ending.

The response tells you which is which: `next_occurrences_window_days` and `next_occurrences_seasonally_filtered`. Check them before concluding a schedule has run out.

## The ordinal composes with other constraints

The nth-weekday anchor is not a special case. It combines:

- **With a seasonal month set.** "Third Wednesday of odd months" is the monthly cadence with `day_of_week: 3`, `week_of_month: [3]`, and `months: [1,3,5,7,9,11]`. You get a real recurrence rule and an honest six visits a year on the proposal, not twelve.
- **With quarterly, biannual, annual.** "Second Tuesday, quarterly" is the same two fields on a quarterly frequency.
- **With last-of-month.** `week_of_month: [-1]` gives the last Friday, regardless of whether the month has four or five.
- **With twice-monthly.** `[1, 3]` gives the first and third weekday — a clean 24 visits a year, which is genuinely different from fortnightly's 26.

## Phase-locking two lines to the same day

When a client has two services that should be done on the same visit — outside glass monthly, inside glass every second month — give both lines the same weekday and ordinal and use `align_with_line_ref` to lock the second line's anchor to the first.

Same weekday, same ordinal, same anchor means the visits co-land. Use `line_label` to tell the two apart on the proposal and the invoice.

## When the label and the frequency name disagree

The frequency's catalogue name is a template name. The line's `human_description` is the authoritative label, derived from the actual recurrence rule.

If a line overrides the day of week, the catalogue name can lag behind. Trust `human_description` — it is what the client-facing documents render, and it is what the schedule actually does.

## Related

- [Schedule recurring work before a proposal is signed](/docs/how-to/schedule-recurring-work-without-a-signed-proposal)
- [Scheduling jobs by the day](/docs/concepts/scheduling-jobs-by-the-day)