Sundry Works Help · Calendar

A calendar for shows and deadlines

Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.

What it's for

The Calendar tab keeps track of the dates that matter - show openings, submission deadlines, drop-off days, studio visits. It isn't a month grid. It's a simple running list, soonest first, with a countdown next to every entry so you can see at a glance how much time you've actually got.

Your scheduled posts are on the same list. A post waiting to go out sits beside the shows and deadlines on the day it is due, saying where it is going, and a post that has already gone sits with the past events under the button at the foot. One page answers "what is happening this week" - a show on Friday, a post on Tuesday - instead of two.

Posts on the list

They behave a little differently from events, in ways that are worth knowing.

You cannot edit one here. Clicking a post opens its painting on the Post tab, which is where a waiting post can be cancelled and a sent one looked at. Events still open for editing as they always did.

A post that has not gone out stays in Coming up however late its time is. One that failed on Tuesday has not happened, so it is not history - it sorts to the very top, under a month heading that has already been and gone, where you cannot miss it.

Everything already posted is kept for good, because it is written onto the painting itself rather than left with the scheduler. That is what lets it go back months rather than a week.

The printed agenda is events only. It is the sheet you take to a show, and what the app has lined up on Instagram is not something you carry to a gallery.

Auto-post

Auto-post sits above Coming up. It sends the paintings you have ticked for it on your posting days, with nothing for you to press.

Each post is the painting's locked caption, word for word, with a new hello written on top each time. The caption itself is never changed.

To get there from Home, press Auto-post on the Posts card. The Calendar opens at the panel.

Setting up auto-post

1. Open a painting's Post page. Check its captions for Instagram, Facebook, Threads and Bluesky read the way you want.
2. Under "How should it go out?", pick Auto-post and press Add to auto-post. That locks the captions, so they cannot change by accident. Do the same on each painting you want in auto-post.
3. Go to the Calendar. Choose how many posts a week, which days, and Morning, Midday or Evening.
4. Tick where they go. Only the places you have connected are offered.
5. Tick Auto-post is on. The next seven days are lined up straight away, and show in Coming up marked Auto.

How it chooses

Only paintings ticked for auto-post, with a picture and a locked caption.

A painting goes out at most once in 30 days, and never while a post for it is already waiting.

Paintings never posted come first, newest first. Then the ones posted longest ago.

It lines up one week at a time, whenever Sundry Works is open: when you open it, and every few hours while it stays open. Nothing is lined up months ahead. If the app is not opened for a week, auto-post runs out, and you get an email saying so.

Ticking a painting while the app is open lines it up straight away, if a posting day in the week ahead is still empty.

One post a day at most, each at a different minute in the hour you chose, so it does not land with everybody else's.

The picture is the painting itself. A tall one sits on a light mat, because Instagram will not take a picture taller than 4:5.

The hello

The hello is written fresh for the day the post goes out. It follows your note's settings on the Story page - its tone, its length and your own brief - and it is only ever a greeting, never news about you or the painting.

If the writer cannot be reached, or there is no AI key, the hello is a plain one: "Hello, and happy Wednesday."

A caption you typed over by hand has its own hello in it already, so it goes as it is, with nothing added on top.

What it checks

Each place gets its own locked caption. A place with no locked caption, or a caption too long for it, is left out of that post.

Before a post is lined up, its words are checked against the painting. A caption that offers a sold painting for sale, names a price that is not the painting's own, or names the buyer is not sent to that place.

Every artist can send up to 3 posts to one place in any 24 hours, at least 2 hours apart, with up to 100 waiting at once. That holds for posts made on the Post tab too. A post that would break it leaves that place out.

Press Take it out of auto-post, on the painting's Post page, to take it out. Unlocking all its captions takes it out too. A post already lined up can be cancelled from the painting's Post page until it goes.

Hold

For a sad day or big news. Press Hold every post, in Auto-post or on Home, and nothing waiting goes out - auto-posts and your own. Nothing is cancelled, and nothing goes out until you press Start posting again.

A post already on its way that minute still lands. While Hold is on, auto-post lines up nothing new.

When you start again, any post whose time came while it was held goes out one at a time, at least two hours apart, so a held week does not all land at once.

Your own posts come first

Line up a post of your own on a day auto-post already has one - Post now, Post later, a reel or a pin - and the auto-post one moves to the next of your posting days with nothing on it. The message under the button says where it went.

Auto-post also leaves a day alone if one of your own posts is already waiting on it.

Emails about your posts

If a post fails, or stops because a connection needs signing in again, Sundry Works emails you: which painting, where, and what to do.

When auto-post has nothing lined up past the next two days, it emails you once, so your feed does not go quiet without you knowing. Opening Sundry Works is usually all it needs.

Never more than one email a day. It goes to the address you subscribed with.

Adding an event

1. Press + New event at the top of Coming up, or go straight to the form. Type what it is - the show name, or the deadline you're working towards.
2. Pick the date it starts.
3. Add a time if it has one - a private view at 6pm, a drop-off at ten. Leave it empty for a deadline or a day with no set hour, and the entry simply doesn't mention a time.
4. If it runs for more than one day, set the Last day too. Leave it empty for something that happens on one day - a deadline, a drop-off, an opening night.
5. Say where it is, if it has a where. Pick the gallery or the organizer from your Contacts and the event carries their phone number and email, or just type the place - a market hall, a village square, somewhere that isn't in your address book.
6. Choose a kind: Show, Deadline, Event, or Other. Each gets its own colour in the list.
7. Add notes if you want - booth number, door code, how many pieces to bring, entry fee, anything. It's a box rather than a line, so write as much as you need and press Enter for a new one.
8. Attach a checklist if it needs one (see below). You can skip this.
9. Tick the pieces you're taking, if it's a show (see below). You can skip this too.
10. Press "Add to calendar". It saves on its own.

A show that runs for several days

Fill in the Last day and the event covers the whole run. The row reads "Sat, Sep 5 to Sun, Sep 27", and it stays under "Coming up" until that last day has passed - so a fair that opened on Friday does not drop into the past on Saturday morning while you are standing at the booth. The Overview, the checklist made for it, the paintings going to it, the printed agenda and the inventory sheet all read it the same way.

The countdown beside it changes as the run goes:

• Before it starts, it counts down to the first day, exactly as a one-day event does.
• On the morning it opens it says "Starts today", and then "On now" for as long as it is on. Days away is the wrong answer while the show is happening - it is not away, it is on.
• On the final day it says "Last day", and after that it counts from the day it finished.

A last day typed before the first one is ignored, and the app says so under the box rather than stopping you - the two dates get filled in either order.

Attaching a checklist

An event can carry one of your Lists checklists, so the date and what you still have to do sit together. The "Checklist" box offers two things:

• Use a list I already have - links an existing list from the Lists tab.
• Make a new list from - pick one of your templates and a fresh list is built for you, named after the event, without leaving the Calendar tab.

Working with a linked checklist

Once a checklist is attached, the event shows how far along you are ("4 of 12 done"), and clicking that takes you straight to the list. The list itself shows the event it belongs to and how many days you have left, so you can see the deadline while you tick things off.

Listing the pieces you're taking

Under "Pieces" is your catalogue, with a tick box against each painting. Tick the ones going to this event and they're listed on it. The picker starts on For sale, because that's what usually goes on a show table - press Everything to see the whole catalogue, and use the search box on a long one. Anything you've already ticked stays visible whichever way the filter is set, so a piece that sells between now and the show doesn't quietly drop out of the event still carrying it.

Only the ids are kept on the event, never a copy of the painting. Retitle a piece or change its price in the Paintings tab and the event is right straight away, with nothing to re-save. A painting you delete simply stops appearing.

The inventory sheet

An event with pieces on it shows how many and what they come to ("6 pieces, $4,200"), and a "Print inventory" link beside it. That prints the sheet you put on the table at a show: a thumbnail of each piece, its title, medium, size and signing date, the price, and a blank column to write in who bought it. The foot of the sheet totals what you brought, and says how many pieces went out without a price on them.

It's built from the catalogue at the moment you print, so it can't disagree with your records. Bear in mind it carries your own working column - it's the sheet you keep behind the table, not a price list to hand out.

A time of day

An event can carry a time as well as a day, and it is optional on purpose - most of what goes on this page is a day, and a deadline has no hour. When there is one, the entry reads "Sat, Sep 19 at 6:00pm", the same way the scheduled posts beside it have always read.

Two things on the same day sort by the time. Anything with no time on it comes first that day, because "sometime on Saturday" is where the day opens rather than somewhere in the middle of it.

On something that runs for several days the time is read as the start - the entry says "Sat, Sep 5 to Sun, Sep 27, from 6:00pm" rather than hanging the clock on the last day.

Where it is

"Where" holds the place: the gallery, the hall, the fair. It is optional, because a submission deadline does not happen anywhere.

If the place is in your Contacts, press "Pick from Contacts" and choose it. The event then shows the name with their phone number beside it, right there on the row - which is the whole point of picking rather than typing, because standing outside a locked door the number is the thing you want and nobody sends an email. Click the name on a row and it opens that contact, with everything else you know about them.

Nothing is copied. The event keeps a link, so renaming a gallery in Contacts renames it on every show it is hosting, with nothing to re-save. Delete the contact and the events keep the name you knew it by and simply lose the phone number.

Typing a place instead is a whole answer, not half of one. It just isn't linked to anybody, so it doesn't gather shows on a contact the way a picked one does.

The venue goes out with the calendar file too, as the event's location - which is the line a phone turns into a map.

Unlink leaves the name in the box. Breaking the link to a contact isn't the same as forgetting where the show was.

Reading the list

• Events are grouped by month, soonest first.
• The countdown on the right reads Today, Tomorrow, or "N days away". Anything within a week is highlighted. An event that runs for several days says "On now" or "Last day" instead while it is on.
• The coloured label shows the kind of event.

Editing and deleting

Click any event in the list to load it back into the "Add to calendar" form, then change whatever you need and press "Save changes". Delete asks you to confirm first, so a stray click can't wipe something.

Past events

Once the date passes - the last day of it, for something that runs - the event drops into a "past events" section at the bottom of the list. Nothing is ever deleted for you. Press the button to show or hide them - they're dimmed, and you can still click one to edit or remove it.

Printing

"Print agenda" prints everything coming up, grouped by month, on one clean sheet, including how far along any attached checklist is. There's nothing to configure. The print dialog is also where "Save as PDF" lives, so you can keep a copy on your computer or email it to someone.

Deleting an event never deletes its checklist or its paintings - everything is linked, not merged. Delete a linked list and the event simply stops showing a checklist; delete an event and the pieces stay in the catalogue exactly as they were.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Putting Sundry Works on your phone, beside the laptop or instead of it.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - Where the app opens: what to carry on with, what needs you, what's coming up.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Story cards, show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's story cards or labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.
• Making an artist bio sheet for a show - One page about you, to stand beside your work at a show.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, and colours.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - Galleries, collectors and suppliers - what they bought, and when you last spoke.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Pinning your paintings to Pinterest - Pins with a link back to your page, sent by the Sundry Works service.
• What social media may do with your paintings - What each place you post to may do with your pictures, and what you can do about it.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the app closed.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.