See your bookings in Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar

Your bookings live in Bookatu. The rest of your day lives in the calendar on your phone: the school run, the supplier visit, the dentist. The new Calendar sync page puts your bookings in that calendar too, on every device you use.

Two ways in

One is a private link that you add once to Outlook, Microsoft 365, Apple Calendar or Google Calendar. The other is for Google users: connect your Google Calendar directly, and Bookatu adds your new bookings to it. In Google, use one or the other, or every booking shows twice. Group sessions and workshops are not included in either.

Where to find it

• Settings: Calendar sync is listed under Grow.
• Team page: when you edit a team member, the Google Calendar section links to it.
• Bookings list: staff will find a Calendar sync button at the top, next to Calendar and New booking. In a salon, spa or clinic this list is called Appointments.

Everyone who can sign in to your admin can open it. Trainees keep to their checklist.

Your own calendar link

Under Your calendar, tap Create my calendar link. The new link is shown once, so copy it straight away. Bookatu keeps only a scrambled fingerprint of it, not the link itself, so it cannot be shown again. If you lose it, tap Get a new link. Then add it to your calendar app:

• iPhone, iPad or Mac: tap Open in Apple Calendar when the link appears. Or, on a Mac, open Calendar and choose File, then New Calendar Subscription, and paste it.
• Google Calendar: on a computer, click + next to Other calendars, choose From URL and paste the link. It shows on your phone too.
• Outlook and Microsoft 365: in Outlook on the web, choose Add calendar, then Subscribe from web, and paste the link.

Your calendar then shows your bookings from the last seven days to 180 days ahead, with your blocked time and any closures for the whole business. A booking waiting for confirmation is marked tentative. Cancelled bookings and no-shows drop out. If a booking moves, or is handed to a colleague, the calendar follows.

Google and Outlook check a subscribed link for changes every few hours, so a new booking can take a while to appear.

What the link says about your clients

A calendar app copies what it holds to every device and account it syncs with. So the link says as little as it can: the service and the client's first name. No surname, email, phone number, notes or price. Each booking also carries its reference and a link to it in Bookatu, which only opens for someone signed in to your admin.

Keep the link to yourself

Anyone who has the link can read that calendar, so treat it like a password. If it gets out, tap Get a new link, and the old one stops working at once. To stop it altogether, tap Turn off and confirm with Yes, turn it off. Calendars using that link stop updating.

The page also shows when each link was made and when a calendar app last fetched it. When you remove someone from the team, their link stops working too.

Connect your own Google Calendar

If you live in Google, you can skip the link. In the same Your calendar section, tap Connect my Google Calendar and sign in to Google. You come straight back to Calendar sync. From then on, your new bookings go into your main Google calendar, straight away, or once the deposit is paid if the booking needs one. When a booking is rescheduled or cancelled, Bookatu moves or removes it.

Staff can now do this themselves, but only for their own calendar. Connecting a colleague's still happens on the Team page and needs Manage the business, which owners and admins have by default. Disconnect removes your connection and takes back Bookatu's access at Google too.

It runs one way

Both options send bookings from Bookatu to your calendar. Nothing travels back. If you add a dentist appointment in Google, Bookatu does not see it, and that time can still be booked. Moving or deleting an event in your calendar app does not change the booking either. Time you cannot work still has to be blocked in Bookatu, with Block time on the Calendar page. Blocking time needs Edit the calendar in Role permissions, which owners and admins have by default.

Who sees what

Calendar sync follows your Role permissions, which the owner sets from the Team page. Two settings decide most of it: See everyone's calendar and Manage the business. Owners and admins have both by default. Staff have neither.

• Everyone looks after their own link and their own Google connection.
• The Whole business section needs both settings. Its link puts every team member's bookings and blocked time in one calendar, showing who each booking is with. It suits a screen at the front desk.
• The Team links section needs both too. Make a link for someone without a login, or turn off one that has got out. Each row shows whether that person has Google connected.

The Dashboard and the bookings list follow your Role permissions too. Without See everyone's calendar, a person sees only their own bookings. Without See analytics & earnings, they see no money: no takings, no prices, no revenue chart. Downloads of reports, products and stock need Export data.

The link carries just enough to recognise a booking at a glance. Everything else stays behind your sign-in.

To try it, open Calendar sync, tap Create my calendar link and add it to your phone. If you run the business, also tap Create the business link, under Whole business, for the front desk.