Syncing an outside calendar so you can't be double booked

If you keep appointments anywhere else — a personal Google Calendar, a shared Outlook diary, another booking site — you can connect it here so those times are blocked and nobody can book over them.

Add a calendar

1. Go to Calendar → Calendar sync 2. Give it a name you'll recognise, like "Google — Sam" 3. Choose whether it blocks time for one team member or for the whole business 4. Paste the calendar's private link and press Connect calendar

We check it straight away and tell you how many busy events we found.

Finding the link

• Google Calendar — Settings, click the calendar on the left, scroll to Secret address in iCal format and copy it
• Outlook or Microsoft 365 — Settings → Calendar → Shared calendars → Publish a calendar → copy the ICS link
• Apple Calendar / iCloud — right-click the calendar, share it publicly, and copy the webcal link
• Another booking site — look for "iCal export", "calendar feed" or a link ending in .ics

Treat the link like a password. Anyone who has it can see that calendar's events.

Options

• Ignore all-day events — leave this off if all-day entries mean you're unavailable, turn it on if you use them as reminders
• Ignore events marked "free" — on by default, so tentative or "free" entries don't block bookings
• Check for changes — how often we re-read the calendar, from every 15 minutes to twice a day. You can press refresh any time

What it does and doesn't do

• We only read the other calendar. We never add, change or delete anything in it
• Busy times behave exactly like time off: they disappear from your online booking slots
• A calendar attached to the whole business blocks everyone; one attached to a person only blocks them
• Your calendars and their events are only visible to your own business

If something's wrong

If a calendar shows Needs attention, the link has usually been reset or made private again. Copy the private iCal address again and paste it in. If the other calendar was recently changed, press refresh rather than waiting for the next check.

To send your BookAppointment diary the other way — into your phone or Outlook — see Settings → Calendar feed instead.