Forum Discussion

Jonathan Smith's avatar
Jonathan Smith
Copper Contributor
Feb 15, 2017

Integration of personal calendar with bookings calendar

A fundamental requirement to make the app usable is to integrate the user's own 365 calendar with the bookings calendar.   Firstly I see this link suggesting that time can be blocked out when the p...
Calendar
office 365
  • Gabriel_Valdez's avatar
    Gabriel_Valdez
    Feb 24, 2017

    You might have a setting preventing the Bookings calendar to show up automatically.

    Try this:

     

    1. Go to the Calendar tab in Outlook for Windows

    2. On the left nav go to "Other calendars"

    3. Right click on Other calendars

    4. Hover over "Add calendars"

    5. Click on "From Adress Book"

     

    This will open the Global Address List (GAL). Depending on the size of your org, you will be able to immediately see your Boookings calendar or you might have to search for it through the search box. Once you find it, just double-click on it, and then click on "OK".

     

    Following those steps should bring up your Bookings calendar.

     

    Hope this helps!

     

    Gabriel.

Evan Goss's avatar
Evan Goss
Copper Contributor

I just tried setting it up and the "Events on personal calendar affect availability" setting makes no difference.  If I manually add an appointment to the personal calendar of the user, clients can still book conflicting appointments through public Bookings page.  Just wasted 2 hours on the phone with tech support only for the tech to tell me at the end that the appointment made by the client is merely a request that could be declined if there is a conflict.  I had to show him the page that describes the intended behavior.  I guess after 2 hours of "troubleshooting", he forgot what he was attempting to fix in the first place.  Extremely aggravating experience when I understand the product better than tech support personal even though I've had maybe 60 mins on it while testing the functionality.

Neel Joshi (TEAMS)'s avatar
Neel Joshi (TEAMS)
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Mar 17, 2017

Hi Evan, I'll follow up with you offline about this.

 

Thanks,

Neel Joshi

Microsoft Bookings Team

  • Nikolas Lyons's avatar
    Nikolas Lyons
    Copper Contributor
    Apr 10, 2017

    Hi Neel,

    I'm having the same trouble as Evan, where the 'Events on Office 365 Calendar Affect Availability' checkbox does not seem to make a difference and customers are still able to book conflicting appointments.


    Was a solution ever reached that prevents conflicting appointments from being booked?

     

    Thanks,

    Nik

    • Neel Joshi (TEAMS)'s avatar
      Neel Joshi (TEAMS)
      Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
      Apr 20, 2017

      Hey Nikolas,

       

      The issue Evan had was that the staffs O365 calendar wasn't set to share free/busy information inside their organization. Here's how you can make sure your staff calendar is setup correctly:

       

      1. Have the staff member sign into Outlook Web App and navigate to their Calendar
      2. Click the "Share" action at the top of the calendar
      3. Confirm that "My Organization" is set to anything but "Not shared"

       

      Let me know if that helps!

       

      Neel

      • Clare Farrell's avatar
        Clare Farrell
        Copper Contributor
        Jan 24, 2018

        This worked a treat for me - Thank you

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