Connecting your calendar and meeting tool
Connections are saved per person, not per organisation. Here is the difference between the calendars read for availability and the one confirmed events are written to.
- Help category
- Scheduling
Connect a calendar and the hours you are already busy drop out of the candidates automatically, for Booking link, Group booking link, and Team availability. Poll is the exception: its candidates are the times the host lists by hand, so nothing in a calendar narrows them down. Connect a meeting tool and a meeting URL is created at the moment a time is confirmed. Both are set up under "Tools" > "Integrations" in the left-hand navigation.
After confirmation, only the host's connection is used
Issuing the meeting URL and writing the calendar entry both use the connection belonging to the host of that schedule. With Group booking link, the host is whichever single person is covering that slot.
Connecting requires no administrator rights. Those are needed only for changing "Defaults for post-confirmation actions", which applies across the whole organisation.
Three kinds of calendar can be connected
Several accounts of the same kind can be connected at the same time. To reconnect an account, use "Reconnect" on its own row. To add another one alongside it, use "Add account".
| Calendar | Reading availability | Creating events | Meeting URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Yes | Yes | Can issue Google Meet |
| Microsoft 365 / Outlook | Yes | Yes | No |
| iCloud Calendar | Yes | Yes | No |
iCloud is connected with an app-specific password from your Apple Account. A Google account that does not have Google Calendar enabled cannot be connected at all, so finish the initial set-up at calendar.google.com first.
- Connect the service you use, under "Calendar"
- Check "Use for availability" on each calendar
- Pick one "Calendar for new events"
"Use for availability" and "Calendar for new events" are separate settings
"Use for availability" marks the calendars that are consulted when candidate times are worked out, and several of them can be selected. "Calendar for new events" is where a confirmed event is written, and there is exactly one of those per person. Only calendars you can write to can be chosen for it.
Anything chosen for you is chosen at the first sync and never again. The calendar marked "Primary" is switched on for availability, and becomes the destination for new events as well if it is writable.
Participants are not added to the event that gets created, and no invitation goes out from the calendar. See "What happens automatically once a time is confirmed" for the rest of what follows a confirmation.
Only whether the time is taken is read
Events that Google Calendar marks as "Free" are not counted as taken. The reverse case is stricter: if even one calendar selected for availability cannot be read, the time is not assumed to be free — the whole candidate calculation fails instead. See "Getting a booking link ready" for what to check when no slots appear.
Only connected tools are offered as conference methods
There are seven conference methods: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, nCha, "In person", and "Hybrid". The creation screen opens on "In person". There is no "None" option, so when you do not want a meeting URL, pick "In person" or "Hybrid". "Automatically issue meeting URL" can be switched off for Poll and nowhere else.
The creation screen lists only the conference methods that match a tool you have connected. With nothing connected, "In person" and "Hybrid" are the only two left. If the confirmation itself does not arrive, see "When a confirmation or reminder does not arrive".
Zoom and Webex each accept several accounts. "Make default" decides which one is used, and the issuing account can also be chosen per schedule. A Zoom connection that lacks the permission needed to cancel a meeting is shown as "Partial reauthorization pending": URLs are still issued, but the meeting cannot be deleted when the schedule is cancelled.
Webex requires a paid licence that covers Webex Meetings. Microsoft Teams shows "Support for Microsoft 365 accounts in external organizations will be rolled out once the Microsoft review is complete."
Google Meet is reached from somewhere else
Google Meet is not connected as a meeting tool. It uses the Google Calendar connection instead. If a writable Google Calendar has not been chosen as the destination for new events, the schedule cannot be saved: "To create a Google Meet automatically, select a writable Google Calendar as the event destination." appears while you are still creating it.
Choosing nCha as the conference method
With nCha chosen, the automatic call URL and the confirmation notification are always on and cannot be switched off from the screen. Reminders after confirmation are not used, and the calendar entry is the only part that stays optional.
The channel is either "Create a reservation-only channel" or "Use an existing channel". An existing channel needs an email address on file for every participant.
Events already created survive disconnecting
"Disconnect" turns the connection off. "Disconnect and delete" goes further, removing the stored credentials and the account identifiers as well.
If you cancel a schedule after removing the connection, the event in the external calendar and the meeting cannot be deleted, so the processing stops there and does not resume until the same account is connected again. A connection can only be removed by the person it belongs to.