Zoho Bookings allows appointments to be synced with Outlook Calendar and Outlook Calendar events to be synced into Zoho Bookings Calendar. It makes sure that appointments are booked based on the availability of the Outlook Calendar. It also makes sure existing events in the Outlook 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 Outlook Calendar and Outlook Calendar events to be considered while providing booking slots to customers.

Integrating with Office365/Outlook.com follows the steps below:

I. Enable the Integration

Note: 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 Calendar in the left panel. Office365/Outlook.com shows up under the Calendars Available section.
   
   
   
   
2. Hover over Office365/Outlook.com. Click Enable that appears over the card.
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
3. Click Configure Now on the pop up that appears.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click Authorize against Office365/Outlook.com in the Manage Calendars section. You will be directed to Microsoft's login page.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Login to your Microsoft account with username and password. A page shows up asking you for relevant permissions. Read through and click Yes.
   

Note: It's advisable to keep calendar invites to customers 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 Outlook Calendar (left top in the image) while providing booking slots to customers. Also, appointments for the Staff would be pushed to the selected Outlook 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 Outlook Calendar (left top in the image) while providing booking slots to customers. Appointments won't be synced to the Outlook Calendar. 
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   The above selection would mean that appointments for the staff would be pushed to the selected Outlook Calendar (right bottom in the image). But Outlook Calendar events won't block the Zoho Bookings calendar.
   
   
3. 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 Outlook 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 these actions can be performed from the Manage Calendars section under the My Profile tab.
   

III. View Booked Appointments in Outlook Calendar

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

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

   
   

   

   The appointment gets added in Outlook 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 - Greame Smith and Financial Advice, in this case.
   
   

IV. Block Zoho Bookings Calendar with Outlook Calendar events

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

1. When an event is created in Outlook Calendar, it blocks the Zoho Bookings Calendar for that duration.
   
   
   
   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   
2. Once the Outlook event blocks the Zoho Bookings Calendar, the corresponding Staff (John in this case) is not available for booking during this period (2:00 PM to 2:30 PM).
   
   
   
   
   

Disable the Integration

1. Hover over Office365/Outlook.com. Click Disable in the options that appear.
   
   
   
   
   

   
   
2. The Calendar integration is revoked and is listed under the Calendars Available section again.