Below you can read how to connect Google Calendar, what changes once you do, and how it works if you would rather plan in Outlook.
What happens when you connect your calendar to Schedulinq?
A connected calendar does two things at once. Everything already in it (a dentist appointment, a meeting, a day off) now counts as busy time, so a customer can never book over it. And every new appointment that comes in through Schedulinq is put into that same calendar automatically. So you never have to keep track of anything twice.
The connection belongs to you personally, not to your company. If you work with a few people, everyone who can be booked online connects their own calendar.
How do you connect Google Calendar to Schedulinq?
- Go to My Profile and find the Calendar integrations block.
- Click Add calendar and choose Connect Google account.
- Sign in to Google and give Schedulinq permission to read your calendar and write to it. You then land back on your profile page by itself.
- Tick which calendars from that account you want to use. If you have several (a shared family calendar, for example), you don't have to choose: you can tick both.
- Turn Read and Write on or off per calendar, and confirm.
Done! From now on your existing appointments block your availability and new bookings are added automatically.
At step 3, make sure you don't untick the box for your calendar on Google's permission screen. If you do, your account is connected, but Schedulinq can't fetch anything from it. You then get a message asking you to reconnect.
Can you connect an Outlook calendar too?
Yes. Besides Google Calendar you can also connect Schedulinq to Microsoft 365 or Exchange, or to your regular Outlook account. The steps are the same: go to My Profile, click Add calendar and this time choose Connect Microsoft account. Sign in, grant access and choose which calendars you want to use. You can also connect Google and Microsoft side by side, for example if you keep a personal calendar in Google and run your work calendar in Microsoft.
Read and write: what's the difference?
Every calendar you connect gets two separate checkboxes.
Read blocks your availability. Schedulinq fetches the appointments from this calendar and treats them as busy time, so a customer never books over them again.
Write puts new bookings in your calendar. Everything booked through Schedulinq now appears automatically among your other appointments, on your phone and in your email.
Turn on only one of the two and the connection only half works. If you turn Write off while Read stays on, for example, your calendar still blocks your time, but your Schedulinq bookings no longer show up in it. Most people turn both on, unless they have a good reason not to (a personal calendar, for example, which may block your time but where you would rather not see work appointments).
How does Schedulinq work out your travel time from your calendar?
As soon as Schedulinq can read your calendar, it also uses the locations of your appointments. If an appointment has a full address, Schedulinq converts it into a driving time and takes that into account in the time slots it offers new customers. Your calendar appointments and your Schedulinq bookings are looked at together, so a new customer is never offered a time slot that wrecks your route.
If an appointment only has a town name or something vague like “office”, Schedulinq falls back on an average travel time for your service area. So full addresses in your calendar give you the sharpest schedule.
Do you work with several calendars or a shared calendar?
You can connect up to five calendars, across all your accounts combined. Handy if, for example, you have your own calendar and also take part in a shared work calendar. If a calendar has been shared with you as read-only, Schedulinq can never put bookings in it, not even if you try to turn Write on. The appointments already in it still block your time as usual.
Want a shared calendar to receive only certain appointments, for example only the jobs at a fixed location? You can set that per calendar, so you decide what ends up where.
Never double-book again
Connect your Google Calendar or Outlook once, and you no longer have to think about double bookings or missed appointments. From then on your calendar and your booking page work as one, without you having to copy anything over.
Try Schedulinq free for 30 days, without having to add a credit card.
Frequently asked questions
A customer booked me while I was actually busy. How is that possible?
Check that Read is turned on for the calendar that appointment was in. If the appointment is set to “Free” instead of “Busy” in Google, it doesn't block any time, even if the calendar is connected.
My Schedulinq appointments don't show up in my calendar.
Then Write isn't turned on for any calendar, or only for a calendar that has been shared with you as read-only. Schedulinq can never put anything in that one.
Does everyone on my team have to do this separately?
Yes, the connection belongs to one person. If you work with colleagues, everyone connects their own calendar. As an admin, you can set it up for a colleague through their profile page.
What if I change my Google or Microsoft password?
Usually nothing changes and the connection keeps working. If you revoke access at Google or Microsoft itself, the connection stops and you have to set it up again.