Overview
- Until completion of Slate CRM rollout, Bookings is intended as a short-term calendaring option. Bookings questions can be directed to your academic department, as site department admins support Bookings.
- By setting up a Bookings calendar, you enable students, or others with access to your Bookings page
- Anyone may easily share their bookings page link through their Outlook email signature or by sharing the url.
- Microsoft documentation for Bookings
Article Sections
Bookings at Metro State
- When displaying your availability, Bookings considers your Outlook calendar appointments/time off and your Bookings business hours (office hours). Outlook appointments set as Free or Working Elsewhere will not interfere with Bookings availability. Outlook appointments set as Tentative, Busy or Out of office will show you as unavailable for Bookings.
- Any appointments scheduled in Bookings are recorded on your Metro State Outlook calendar but must be managed through Bookings (if there is a need to cancel or reschedule, etc.). Changes made to the appointment in Outlook do not notify the student of the change.
- Multiple employee calendars can be managed within a single group Bookings calendar, or Bookings may be set up for an individual calendar. Your department or division may have a coordinated Bookings roll-out effort planned. We recommend checking with your leadership prior to initiating set-up on your own.
- Bookings, a Microsoft product, is under the umbrella of the Minnesota State single tenant. Metro State ITS does not have access to university-wide administrator capabilities for Bookings.
- Keep in mind that Bookings is a short-term solution for Metro State. As both NextGen and longer-term CRM solutions take shape, it is likely that the online scheduling function will transition to other more integrated tools.
- Every Metro State user of Bookings has a responsibility to follow the guidelines provided in these knowledge base articles to provide a consistent and properly branded experience for our prospective and current students.
Back to Top
Planning for a Bookings Calendar
Consider Staff, services, scheduling
Before creating a calendar, give some thought to:
Staff and faculty to be associated to the calendar (and if a group calendar, their role in it: Administrator (2 needed), Scheduler, Team member, View only). More information provided below on individual vs. group calendar models.
Services (appointment types) that will be offered via Bookings; combinations of:
- Location (in person, virtual/phone)
Duration
- Information you would like the student to provide at the time of scheduling (custom fields)
- Buffer time before or after certain meeting types (Bookings blocks this time on your calendar as part of the appointment, but not for the student.)
- Reminders and notifications
Scheduling defaults
- Time increments: this controls how the available meeting start times appear (suggestion 15 minutes or 30 minutes)
- Minimum lead time (in hours) for bookings and cancellations (suggestion: 24 hours)
- Maximum lead time (in days) a booking can be made in advance (suggestion: 30-60 days)
Back to Top
Consider Calendar Model (group, individual)
Provided below are considerations as you decide on how to structure your Bookings calendar to meet your needs. An informal video is available that shows these options within Bookings.
Individual calendar model
- Booking page will display the individual’s calendar name and provide appointment scheduling only with that individual.
- Virtual service/appointment types can use either Teams or personal Zoom Room (with waiting room enabled) since each service/appointment type is limited to one faculty/staff.
- Provides flexibility to the individual, but makes consistency with other calendars more challenging
- The Bookings calendar is likely created and managed by the individual and no other faculty/staff are added to it, unless you wish to give visibility into your Bookings calendar by assigning your colleague(s) a role as scheduler, admin, or viewer and making them non-bookable.
- This model is achieved by creating a Bookings calendar for a single person. That individual will be the only bookable staff in the calendar and shown on the calendar booking page.
Group calendar models
Display Group calendar as individual
- Booking page will display the group calendar name but provide appointment scheduling only with the individual that is tied to the service.
- Virtual service/appointment types can use either Teams or personal Zoom Room (with waiting room enabled) since each service/appointment type is limited to one faculty/staff.
- Since multiple faculty/staff are within a single Bookings calendar, it is a good choice if support staff will assist with managing the calendar or if transparency is desired.
- This model is achieved by an administrative designee setting up a departmental or other group calendar, adding multiple faculty/staff to it, setting up a specific service/appointment type for each, then using the individuals ‘service booking page’ instead of the overall calendar booking page.
- Less flexibility for the individual but ensures consistency across all faculty/staff within the calendar.
- Recommend designating at least 2 administrators for the group calendar.
Display group calendar as a group
- Booking page will display the group calendar name and provide the ability to select with whom from the group they would like to schedule. If the student opts not to select an individual, Bookings selects ‘anyone’ from the calendar that is available at the student’s desired appointment date/time.
- This model is achieved by an administrative designee setting up a departmental or other group Bookings calendar and adding multiple faculty/staff to it. All associated to the calendar will show as a scheduling option within the calendar booking page
- Recommend designating at least 2 administrators for the group calendar.
Back to Top
Access Bookings
- The Bookings web app (https://outlook.office.com/bookings/calendar) is best for initial calendar set-up and working with settings or features. Bookmark it within your web browser.
- The Bookings app in Teams has more limited functionality, suited for managing appointments, but not changing settings. If you do not see Bookings on your Teams menu, from Teams, search for it in Apps and pin it to your Teams menu.
- Once you are in the Bookings web app, on the top header, toggle to the left to Try the new Bookings.
Back to Top
Set up a Bookings Calendar
Informal video providing: Overview of primary set up menus within Bookings
- Please create Bookings calendars carefully; Although you may rename and edit your calendar name, deletion of a calendar cannot be done locally by Metro State ITS. In addition, each new Bookings calendar creates a corresponding mailbox in Exchange, and a related entry in Azure Active Directory (AAD), which for individuals, may result in them being displayed more than once in the address book and cause some confusion. While you can edit your calendar name later in Settings, that will only update the display name in your booking calendar and in emails to attendees; the email address will not be updated.
- From the drop down in the upper left, select + Create new calendar
- This will initiate a set up wizard. You may choose to set up some of the basics through the wizard or do minimal set up in the wizard and then add details through the main menu.
- Many options exist within Bookings and Bookings frequently makes updates to its user interface. The below highlights recommendations within the key settings. Terminology may vary slightly.
Business information
Basic details
- Business name: Please use a prefix of METRO- on your calendar name, for example: METRO-Admissions, or METRO-Terry Smith, Academic Advisor
- Business Type: Education
- Send customer replies to: The address entered will receive Bookings notifications for this calendar if you opt in for notifications
Privacy policy and Terms and Conditions
Business Logo
- Upload your Metro State faculty/staff profile photo – or - New Metro State logo (refer to attachment for logo located to the right on this page)
- MSU_Centered_color.png
- Background color = white
Business hours
- Enter the times at which faculty and staff associated to this calendar are generally working. Office/appointment hours for each faculty/staff or service will be set up elsewhere in the Settings.
Booking page
Configure booking page
- Available to anyone
- Once your booking page is fully set up, you will share the URL found under Your booking page (add to your email signature). NOTE: Colleges will be using service booking pages instead of calendar booking page
Manage your booking page
- Business page access control
- (check box) Disable direct search engine indexing of booking page
- (uncheck box) Required a one-time password to create bookings
- Customer data usage consent
- (uncheck box) Show a personal data collection and usage consent toggle along with a message on my booking page
- Default scheduling policy
- If uncertain of your default scheduling policy, try 15 minute increments, 24 hour minimum and 30 day maximum lead times.
- Email notifications: (check box) for Send a meeting invite to the custome
- Student receives a meeting invitation (.ics file) as part of the Bookings confirmation – allows student to easily add the appointment to their calendar
- Staff control
- Allow customers to choose a specific person for the booking)
- check box if you want to show a list of department staff and the student may select from the calendar bookings page
- do not check box if you want Bookings to pick any staff member that is available at the student's preferred date/time.
- Note: If you are using a college advising calendar and will be providing students with your service booking page (instead of calendar booking page), this box does not need to be checked.
- Customize your page -
- (check box) Set custom color for your booking page to align with brand
- Highlight color #18344F (dark blue)
- Header color #FFFFFF (white)
- (Check box) Display the new Metro State logo (that you uploaded in Business information)
Customers
No initial set-up needed. If desired, you may add frequent contacts that you expect may book with you.
This section will populate once students and others start scheduling Booking appointments with you.
Staff
+Add new staff as needed to specify who is scheduled via this calendar and/or has another role (administrators, scheduler, etc.). For group calendars, at least 2 administrators on a group calendar
Settings within each staff:
-
(check box) Events on Office calendar affect availability -- This critical setting ensures that Bookings does not schedule over other meetings already on their Outlook/Office calendar. Leave it unchecked only if Bookings appointments should supersede all other Outlook calendar entries.
-
If support staff are serving in a role as administrator, scheduler or viewer, but should not be bookable, toggle off ‘use business hours’ and edit their availability as needed.
Services (appointment types)
+ Add new service to specify the different types of appointments that you/your group calendar offers (duration, location, etc.).
Simplicity in service set-up may be to your advantage, especially if off/on campus schedule varies. Varying appointment type availability would need to be managed through Staff availability and Service availability options. Consider if it could be helpful to provide a virtual meeting link (Teams or Zoom) for every appointment type.
If you are following the Display group calendar as individual model (like college advising calendars) this is where you will set up service(s) for each staff, Assign each staff to their service, and then utilize the ‘Service booking page’ instead of the calendar level Booking page for your email signature and when you share with students.
Virtual appointments
- You may easily add a Teams meeting link to any appointment by using the add online meeting toggle.
- Personal Zoom room
- Zoom room is best for individual calendar or group calendar displaying as individual (where service booking pages are shared with students). It is not recommended in scenarios where there are multiple staff that provide each service and the calendar-level booking page is used.
- the Zoom url can be added to Location field within the service.
- Recommendation is to enable the waiting room feature within your personal Zoom room and using that url in your Bookings invitation. The waiting room should help avoid unexpected/early drop-ins. If you need your waiting room off for other purposes, you could consider adding buffer time between meetings to limit that concern, or consider using the Teams option which generates a unique link for each meeting.
Custom fields
Customer information – specify which information you wish to be provided at the time of booking.
Custom fields – add custom questions/fields that you would like the
Notifications
(Check box) Enable text message notifications for your customer
If enabled, once the student provides a phone number, will be prompted with the option to opt into text notifications about the appointment. Consider if you also wish to make phone number a required field for this reason.
Note: as of March 1, 2023 Microsoft will require that you have a Teams Premium license to use this feature on your Bookings services. IET is currently looking into costs/impacts.
Back to Top
Publish and Share your Bookings Link
Congratulations - your Booking page is configured! It’s time to make your Booking page available.
Ensure your Booking page is available
- Under Settings > Booking page, set Configure booking page to Available to anyone and save.
- Your booking page URL will be displayed. (The button next to it is a copy button.) Exception: Advisors/faculty in the colleges - see NOTE below
- NOTE: If you have opted to use the Group calendar displayed as individual model (college advising model), you will instead select the service assigned to you and copy/share the Service booking page
Ways to share your booking page URL
Back to Top
Tips for Managing your Bookings Calendar
Once your calendar is set up and functioning, it is important to remember to:
- reschedule or decline Bookings appointments within Bookings in order for the student to be notified of the change. If you decline or reschedule in Outlook, the student will not be notified.
- maintain your availability through a combination of:
- Outlook appointments - scheduling time as Tentative, Busy or Out of Office will show you as unavailable for Bookings.
- continue to adjust settings as needed, as you gain experience with Bookings and identify further needs.
Back to Top
Additional Resources