Calendar Managed Availability allows you to manage your availability for bookings directly on your linked calendar - without having to login to YouCanBookMe every time you want to modify availability on a specific day.
For flexibility, juggling changing schedules, or limiting availability, Calendar Managed Availability is the right option for you.
Follow this guide and learn how to set Calendar Managed Availability up on your booking page, and see how you can use it to manage your availability from week to week.
Part 1: Setting up Calendar Managed Availability
1. Set your working hours
2. Choose a title for your events
3. Create events in your linked calendar
Part 2: Managing your availability
Add a one-off booking time
Add multiple breaks to your day
Remove a day or time from booking
Setting up Calendar Availability
1. Set your working hours
The first step is to set boundaries on when YouCanBookMe should look for availability on your calendar.
This is done by setting your working hours directly on your booking page, under Times & Availability Availability. Select Calendar Managed Availability and designate your working hours.
Set the widest range of range of times that you may possible offer a time slot for booking.
Be sure to check every day that you may offer a time slot of booking - even if you plan to only offer occasional availability on that day.
👥 Creating a booking page for your distributed team?
Make sure the set working hours is wide enough to cover all team members' available times. We recommend setting an availability range of 12:00am to 12:00am to cover all timezones.
Example: Nicolas is setting his working hours as 9:00am to 6:00pm Monday - Friday. YouCanBookMe will check his calendar on these days between these hours for availability. He will never be booked before 8:00am, or after 8:00pm, or on a Saturday or Sunday.
2. Choose a title for your events
The second step is to select a key phrase that you will use on your linked calendar to indicate to YouCanBookMe you want to display that day and time for booking. Where we find this key phrase on your calendar, we will display the time for booking.
Below where you've set your working hours, enter your unique key phrase in the field Choose a title for your events.
Once you set a phrase, your booking page will say "No Availability" but don't panic, we will populate availability in the third step.
💡 I have multiple booking pages, can they each have their own Calendar Managed Availability phrase?
Yes, if you have different availability for different kinds of booking, you can use Calendar Managed Availability with different unique key phrases on different booking pages.
Example: Your Sales booking page may use the keyphrase "sales calls" and your Onboarding booking page may use the key phrase "onboarding calls."
3. Create events in your linked calendar
The last step is to now populate availability on the calendar you have linked to YouCanBookMe. You'll do this directly on the calendar, not in YouCanBook.me.
Open a new browser tab, and navigate to the Google or Outlook calendar you've linked to your booking page.
Google Calendar
Create a new Event on your calendar for the day and time you want to be available for booking. You must create an Event, not a Task or Appointment Schedule.
- The title of the event you create will be your key phrase you've set in YouCanBookMe- this title must match exactly as you've set it in YouCanBookMe.
- The start and end time of the event you create must fall within the working hours you've set in YouCanBookMe.
- The duration of the event you create must align with your set grid display. If you find the event isn't showing, adjust your grid display in YouCanBookMe.
- The event you create must be set to "Free" on your linked calendar. Only "Free" events will be picked up by YouCanBookMe.
Continue adding new events to your Google calendar to populate your availability. Add as many or as few blocks as you want in a day, week or month. Make an event repeating or recurring if you're available at the same time every week.
Microsoft Outlook
YouCanBook.me checks the cloud-based version of your calendar. For best results, add your Calendar Managed Availability events on this version of your calendar to ensure they will be properly displayed in YouCanBookMe.
- The title of the event you create will be your key phrase you've set in YouCanBookMe- this title must match exactly as you've set it in YouCanBook.me.
- The start and end time of the event you create must fall within the working hours you've set in YouCanBookMe.
- The duration of the event you create must align with your set grid display. If you find the event isn't showing, adjust your grid display in YouCanBookMe.
- The event you create must be set to Show as Free on your linked calendar. Only "Free" events will be picked up by YouCanBookMe.
Continue adding new events to your Outlook calendar to populate your availability. Add as many or as few blocks as you want in a day, week or month. Make an event repeating if you're available at the same time every week.
Refresh the preview
Changes you make to your availability on your calendar will be updated instantaneously in YouCanBookMe. To see your availability, click Refresh the preview below where you've added your key phrase, and watch the preview pick up your available times.
Manage your Availability
Add a one-off slot to your schedule
Now that you've setup Calendar Managed Availability, you can easily add in booking slots to your booking page by adding new events to your calendar.
Example: Offer bookings one Saturday a month.
First, In your YouCanBookMe settings under Times & Availability Availability, make sure Saturday is checked as available for bookings.
On the Saturday you want to offer availability, create a new event, titled with your key phrase and set it to Free. Only that specific Saturday will appear for bookings on your booking page.
Add multiple breaks to your day
Want to break up your day and build in multiple breaks so you're not booked back to back? Use Calendar Managed Availability to build the custom schedule you need to stay productive.
Example: Build in 30 minute breaks between 1 hour calls.
In your YouCanBookMe settings under Times & Availability Duration & Display, make sure your start time of each booking is set to 30 minutes, with 1 hour booking duration for your calls.
On your calendar, add 1 hour blocks of availability throughout your day, spaced out by 30 minute breaks. Your booking page will populate with 1 hour slots for booking, with build in 30 minutes of break time.
Remove a day or time from booking
With Calendar Managed Availability you don't need to modify your availability to take time off. Instead simply delete the Calendar Managed Availability events from your calendar and that time will be removed from booking.
Example: Taking a spontaneous Friday off work.
On your linked calendar, delete any Calendar Managed Availability event on the Friday you want to become unavailable.
In YouCanBookMe or on your live booking, refresh to see the availability disappear.
FAQ about Calendar Managed Availability
When I receive a new booking, does it delete my Calendar Managed Availability event?
New bookings will appear on top of your Calendar Managed Availability block. You can delete the Calendar Managed Availability block from your calendar once you've received a booking, but if that booking cancels, the time will not re-open for booking until that block is added back to your linked calendar.
How do busy events like internal meetings or invitations affect my Calendar Managed Availability?
Any busy event on your calendar during a Calendar Managed Availability event will block that time slot from being booked through YouCanBookMe.
Can I just add one long block to my calendar?
Yes you can! YouCanBookMe will divide the long block into equal increments according to the grid display you've set. For example of you have a grid display of 1 hour, it will break your 8-hour long event into 8 bookable slots.
I've followed all the steps and my events don't show on my booking page, can you help?
Yes we can! This troubleshooting guide resolves over 98% of issues our customers face when setting up Calendar Managed Availability.
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