Scheduled date or completion date: choose your recurrence

“Every three months” can mean two different things. It may mean a job is due on the same quarterly dates, or it may mean three months should pass after the work is actually completed. Choosing the wrong interpretation creates reminders that drift, arrive too early or never catch up.

Completion-based: measure from the work

Imagine a model-specific six-month filter reminder. It was due April 1, but you replaced the filter on April 12. A completion-based schedule makes the next reminder October 12. The interval starts from the actual recorded completion date.

This mode is appropriate when elapsed time since servicing matters, subject to manufacturer instructions. It does not make late maintenance safe. If an inspection or replacement is overdue, use the relevant instructions or professional advice rather than relying on a schedule reset.

Scheduled-date: preserve the cadence

A quarterly record review due January 1 and completed February 10 remains due April 1. If you complete it August 10, the next future date is October 1. The app does not generate January, April and July completion records. It records only the work you say happened.

Early completion also has a consequence: the next due date follows the original scheduled date, not the early completion date. Review the preview. If you want the interval to begin immediately from the early work, use completion-based scheduling instead.

Month-end and leap-day behavior

A scheduled monthly task anchored on January 31 moves to February's last day, then March 31. A completion-based task finished on February 28 anchors its next interval on the 28th. For a twelve-month scheduled task on February 29, non-leap years use February 28 and a later leap year returns to February 29.

Upkeep Atlas stores plain calendar dates, not time-of-day appointments. A due date does not shift because your browser crosses a daylight-saving boundary. Supported dates run from 1900 through 2199; a recurrence that would fall outside that range produces an error rather than silently corrupting the schedule.

One-off jobs and corrections

A one-off task leaves the active queue when completed, but its record stays in Finished. Archive is different: it removes a task from the active plan while preserving its history. You can restore archived tasks without importing anything.

The latest completion for a task can be undone if the next due date has not subsequently been edited. Older completions cannot be undone through that shortcut because later scheduling depends on them. Use the task editor to correct a changed due date. Keep a JSON backup before substantial edits or imports.

Calendar exports do not synchronize

The calendar file contains each active task's next due date as an all-day event. It deliberately does not promise an infinite maintenance recurrence: a completion-based schedule cannot know its future dates before the work happens. Re-export after changes. Your calendar controls notification support, and importing files repeatedly may create duplicates in some clients. Use a separate maintenance calendar that you can replace when necessary.