Zoho Bookings allows appointments to be synced with Google Calendar and Google Calendar events to be synced into Zoho Bookings calendar. It makes sure that appointments are booked based on the availability of the Google Calendar. It also makes sure existing events in the Google Calendar do not collide with appointments providing seamless scheduling for businesses. This facilitates availability of appointment information in more than one place.

Tip: This works well if you want Zoho Bookings appointments to be available in Google Calendar and Google Calendar events to be considered while providing booking slots to customers.

Integrating with Google Calendar follows the steps below:

I. Enable the Integration

Notes: Only admins and super admins can enable calendars. Once the calendars are enabled, all staff can manage their own calendars.

1. Click Integration on the top right corner and choose Calendars on the left panel. Google Calendar shows up under the Calendars Available section.
   
   
   
   
2. Hover over Google Calendar. Click Enable that appears over the card.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Click Configure Now on the pop up that appears.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click Authorize against Google Calendar in the Manage Calendars section. You will be directed to Google's login page.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Login to your Google Account. Click Allow when asked for acceptance for relevant permissions.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. You will be redirected to the Manage Calendars page. A pop up will show up asking for preferences.

   
   
   
   
   
   
7. When customers book appointments with you, invites will be automatically sent to their calendars. You can set this calendar as a default calendar to send invites.
   
   
   
   
8. If you already have other calendars sending invites, marking this as default will send duplicate invites to your customer.

   Note: It's advisable to keep calendar invites to a minimum. But you can still set multiple calendars to send out email invites.

II. Choose Calendar(s) and Staff

1. You can sync your calendars in the following ways:
   

   Two-way sync
   

   
   

   
   

   The above selection would mean that Zoho Bookings would check the staff's availability in the selected Google Calendar (left top in the image) while providing booking slots to customers. Also, appointments for the staff would be pushed to the selected Google Calendar (bottom right in the image).
   

   One-way sync
   

   
   

   The above selection would mean that Zoho Bookings would check the staff's availability in the selected Google Calendar (left top in the image) while providing booking slots to customers. Appointments won't be synced to the Google Calendar.
   

   
   

   
   
   
   
   The above selection would mean that appointments for the staff would be pushed to the selected Google Calendar (right bottom in the image). But Google Calendar events won't block the Zoho Bookings calendar.
   
   
   
2. Once the required selections are made, click Proceed. The sync is now configured.
   
   
   
   
   
   Note 1: The sync is instant. Once the integration is turned on, all Google Calendar events (six months from the day the integration is enabled) are synced and they block the corresponding slots in the Zoho Bookings calendar.
   
   

   Note 2: You can add more than one staff or resource to be synced. You can also disable or remove or edit the integration. All of these actions can be performed from the Manage Calendars section under the My Profile tab.
   

III. View Booked Appointments in Google Calendar

Customer appointments can be viewed from the integrated Google Calendar.

Note: This is effected only in the case, when a Google Calendar is chosen to sync its events with the Zoho Bookings calendar.

1. Once an appointment is booked, it blocks the Google Calendar for that duration. Below is the booked appointment.
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   

   The appointment gets added in Google Calendar as an event for both the staff and the customer. The event takes the name of the guest and the service offered as default - Ray Price and Financial Advice, in this case.

   
   

IV. Block Zoho Bookings Calendar with Google Calendar events

Note: This is effected only in the case, when an Google Calendar is chosen to sync Zoho Bookings appointments.

1. When an event is created in Google Calendar, it blocks the Zoho Bookings calendar for that duration.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   The image below shows the Google Calendar event in Zoho Bookings Calendar.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Once the Google event blocks the Zoho Bookings calendar, the corresponding staff (John, in this case) is not available for booking during this period (10:00 AM to 11:00 AM).