Microsoft Bookings - Creating a New Booking Calendar

Overview

Booking Calendars can be created from scratch or they can be cloned from other existing calendars

Procedures 

Terminology

Bookings - “bookings” means “appointments”.

Staff – anyone who will be taking appointments through Bookings.

Business - this is usually the organizational unit through which people will provide appointments. Examples of a “business” academic department. NOTE: You should assign one or more staff who can all accept appointments using the same calendar.

Customers - will be students but could be anyone else inside or even outside the University you expect to request appointments using the calendar.

Booking page - this is the appointment calendar that people use to request appointments.

From the Bookings Homepage

IMPORTANT - Before make a new bookings page, check in your Outlook properties that the option is set to Can view when I am busy under properties.

1. Open Outlook and go to your calendar.
2. From the left navigation right click on your calendar and choose Properties...

[My calendar highlighted and mouse pointer on Properties...]

3. Click the Permissions tab and check to make sure "Can view when I'm busy" is selected and then click OK.

[Permission tab, Can view when I'm busy and OK highlighted within the Calendar Properties window]

Creating a New Booking Calendar

1. Click the Create new calendar button located on the right side of the homepage.
2. You can choose to create a new calendar from scratch or clone another calendar.

[Create a Bookings calendar dialog box with Create from scratch Or clone from an existing calendar highlighted]

Create from Scratch

1. Click Create from scratch.

The Create a new Bookings calendar screen appears.

2. Add a Business name, logo, Business type and Business hours.

• • • Business name – Type the name of your calendar

NOTE: When naming your calendar - Don't use "special characters" - Your booking calendar name can't include any of the following characters:  ~ # % & * { } + / \ : < > ? | ' "

NOTE: Keep in mind that this name will create the email address for sending booking invites (e.g. businessname@domain.com) and booking page link (e.g., https://book.ms/b/buisinessname@domain.com)

• • • Logo – save image as a .jpg, jpeg.
    • Business type – choose the drop-down arrow to the right for different selections.
    • Business hours – Hours of the business. You can add closures, time off and vacation time once the calendar is created.

[New Bookings screen highlighting Name, logo, business type and business hours]

3. Click Next.

4. Invite staff who will need access to this calendar and designate their role.

[Choose a designated roll for a Team member from the drop-down menu]

5. Click Next.

6. Set up a service – What days and hours will you or team be available?  Will this be a Team meeting

7. Click Update service.

8. Add more services, or just click Next.

9. Choose who can book appointments – No self-service (can only book from the bookings app), People in my organization, or Anyone can schedule.

10. Click Create calendar and a message appears stating the calendar is being setup.

• • • An email is sent to you stating that the calendar was created and that you are the Administrator.
    • The Bookings screen shows a shared link for the new calendar.

[A new bookings link to share for people to book an appointment]

Cloning an Existing Calendar

1. From the Bookings homepage, locate the calendar you want to clone and click the . . . three dots in the upper right corner of the calendar icon and choose Clone.

[Clone option from a calendar on the bookings homepage]

2. The Copy a Bookings calendar screen is where you can Edit Services, Staff and Settings for the new cloned calendar.

[Copy a Bookings calendar screen]

3. Click Continue.

4. Rename the Calendar and change the Business type.

[Rename the Calendar and Business type screen]

5. Click Continue.

6. Choose who can book appointments.

7. Click Create Calendar and once the calendar is setup, you will receive an email and the shared link screen appears in the booking app.

Creating a Calendar while Viewing Another Calendar

1. While viewing a calendar, click the drop-down arrow to the right of the name of the calendar on the left side navigation pane and choose Create new Calendar.

[Create a new calendar button highlighted]

Enter your Business Information

1. From the navigation pane on the left, click Business information.

[Business information screen with business name, address, phone, URL link to homepage details]

2. On the Basic details section, complete your business name, address, phone, URL link (homepage for your business, i.e. http://rpi.edu/)and other basic details.

3. Under Business logo, you can change or delete a logo.

4. Hours can be changed under Business hours section. Click + to add start- and end-time selectors

How to set hours for a split shift (information directly from link below)
(https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/bookings/enter-business-information?view=o365-worldwide)

You might need to block out a portion of each day or week to have staff meetings, update inventory, or take care of other rhythm-of-business details. The Bookings app allows you to limit customer appointments to your specified time slots.

For example, you have staff meetings every Thursday from 1 o'clock to 2:30 and want to block out that time so all of your staff members can attend. To do this:

1. 1. On the Business information page, under Business hours, select a start and end time for Thursdays. In this example, we'll set 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
   2. Select + to create a new row for Thursday.

[Business hours screen with the plus sign highlighted]

3. In the new row, select 2:30 p.m. for the start time and 6:00 p.m. for the end time.

[Business hours screen with 2:30 pm, 6:00pm time highlighted]

4. Select Save.

When a customer goes to your booking page, he or she will see that your business is closed from 1 to 2:30 on Thursdays.

5. Click Save at the top when you are finished setting up your business information.

1. In Microsoft 365, select the app launcher, and then select Bookings.

2. In the navigation pane, select Booking page and select Change language and time zone settings.

   
   [Change language and time zone settings option within the Region settings]

3. Select your language and current time zone and choose OK.

[Region and time zone settings window showing Language and Current time zone selections]

References/Links 

How to set hours for a split shift 

Last Reviewed:   15-Mar-2023