Best Setup for Office 365 Vacation Calendar

Adam Ochs
Steel Contributor
Nov 15, 2018
So i would do this a bit different than what people described, but that is probably due to my background.

Especially if your current organization is not using SharePoint I think you are going to have trouble getting people to adopt into this.

I would do this through a resource mailbox in Exchange Online, atleast in the original scenario of a 30 person company. The more people you have, the more I think you may want to look at a Public Folder, or indeed SharePoint.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/manage/room-and-equipment-mailboxes?view=o365-worldwide

Create a "room mailbox" called Time Off Calendar. Set the management permissions to be managed by a person. Set that person to be whoever you want to control/approve timeoff requests. Users would submit their timeoff to the resource calendar by sending a meeting invite, and the person in charge could approve or deny it.

Adam
- KPS77
  Copper Contributor
  Dec 28, 2018
  I'm seeking a simple Outlook solution to create a Vacation or Visitor calendar where employees can put Vacation or Visitors on a public calendar that everyone can see. I'd like this to be done in a single transaction from their own email calendar. No work flow or approvals required. Just a public "whiteboard" for everyone to see who is on Vacation or whether there are any Visitors scheduled and when. One example, if I am out of the office next Wednesday, I'd like to schedule that on my calendar so that it shows me out of the office, send a copy to my boss so she knows and can add it to her calendar if she chooses, and then put it on the public calendar so everyone in the office knows I will be out of the office as well (but it doesn't clog up everyone's inbox with a calendar or email entry if they don't care that I'll be OOTO). Setting up a separate public calendar where a separate transaction is required is not an acceptable solution due to the negative "productivity perception" of having to complete two transactions. As simple as this sounds, my IT department has been unable to provide me a solution.
  - adam deltinger
    MVP
    Dec 28, 2018
    If sharepoint calendars is out of the question and outlook is to be used, there’s either a shared calendar or using your own! I belive using only your own calendar is the way to go...make sure all people necessary share their calendar with free/busy and all other wanted permission like read on subject or all information! That way it’s easy to add each other’s calendar and get information!
    If you like your boss to receive a mail and possibility to add to their own calendar just create an activity ( Vacation ) and add your boss! He/she will receive a mail and can add the activity to his/her own calendar
    I think this solution is the most used one and also the simplest one because you only use your own calendar and everyone have access to as much information as you’d like
    
    Adam

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Best Setup for Office 365 Vacation Calendar