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

Integrating with Zoho Calendar 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 Calendars on the left. Zoho Calendar shows up under the Calendars Available section.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Hover over Zoho Calendar. Click Enable that appears over the card.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Click Configure Now on the pop up that appears.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click Authorize against Zoho Calendar in the Manage Calendars section under My Profile​.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. A pop-up appears asking for acceptance. Click Accept.
   
   
   
   
   
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 Zoho Calendar (left top in the image) while providing booking slots to customers. Also, appointments for the staff would be pushed to the selected Zoho 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 Zoho Calendar (left top in the image) while providing booking slots to customers. Appointments won't be synced to the Zoho Calendar.
   

   
   

   
   
   
   
   The above selection would mean that appointments for the staff would be pushed to the selected Zoho Calendar (right bottom in the image). But Zoho 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. Calendars linked through Zoho Calendar will not be available for selection and won't be displayed in the Manage Calendars section.
   
   2. Events are synced at a delay of 1 hour (for instant sync use Sync Now). Once the integration is turned on, all Zoho Calendar events (6 months from the day the integration is enabled. The sync time may vary between 2-15 minutes based on the number of events) are synced and they block the corresponding slots in the Zoho Bookings calendar.
   
   3. You can add more than one staff or resource to be synced. You can also disable, remove, reauthorize, or edit the integration from the Manage Calendars section under the My Profile tab.
   
   

III. View booked appointments in Zoho Calendar

Customer appointments can be viewed from the integrated Zoho Calendar.

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

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

   
   

   The appointment gets added in Zoho Event 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 - Bruce and Financial Advice, in this case.
   
   

IV. Block Zoho Bookings calendar with Zoho Calendar events

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

1. When an event is created in Zoho Calendar, it blocks the Zoho Bookings calendar for that duration.
   
   
   
   
   
   The image below shows the Zoho Calendar event in Zoho Bookings calendar.

   
   

   
   

   
   
2. Once the Zoho Calendar event blocks the Zoho Bookings calendar, the corresponding staff (Jason in this case) is not available for booking during this period (4:00 PM to 4:30 PM).
   
   
   
   
   

Disable the integration

1. Hover over Zoho Calendar. Click Disable on the options that appear.
   
   
   
   
   

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