Use Bookings for Hassle-free Scheduling
What is Microsoft Bookings?
Bookings (personal) is a web-based personal scheduling page that integrates with your Outlook calendar. It lets anyone schedule a meeting or appointment with you through a dedicated URL. The service allows you to create custom meeting types, and both parties will automatically receive email confirmations and calendar items automatically added.
When to use a Personal Bookings?
Bookings is ideal for 1:1 meetings with folks inside and out of the organization. Some examples of using Bookings
- Schedule interviews with external candidates
- Set up student and colleague meetings
- Schedule tech support
- Set up office hours
- Set up mentoring hours
- 1:1 meetings with direct reports
- Lunch and coffee breaks
Step 1
Login to Cardinal Apps and open the 'Bookings' app.
If you cannot find the Bookings app, contact the UIW Help Desk to get access to the app.
Step 2
Ignore the bottom part of the page, and click on 'Go to my booking page'.
Step 3
To use Bookings effectively, you'll want to add some meeting types you want people to book with. This is strictly for organizational purposes, but helps both parties understand what the meeting is about. To start setting up these services, click the + icon next to the 'Public' box.
Public sessions are services that will appear on your Bookings page when you share your dedicated Bookings link.
Step 4
Here, you'll setup your meeting type/session details. For a guided walkthrough on each field, see the guide below and continue to step 5 once you've finished.
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Meeting Icon (Optional)
- You can change the icon for the event, which adds personality to your Bookings page.
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Title
- Enter a Title which will automatically appear on invitations created from this session type (e.t., Office Hours, Coffee Chat, Consultation, etc.)
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Category
- Same as Outlook categories, which are visible only to you. These are organizational tools to sort event types on your calendar.
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Description
- This will be the purpose of the meeting. Explain what the meeting/session will be about, what it'll offer, and be clear on what would be accomplished.
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Location
- If In-person
- Enter the building/room location that your service will plan to meet in.
- If Online
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To meet via Teams - turn on the 'Teams meeting' toggle to generate a dedicated Teams link for the meeting type.
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Duration
- Adjust how long that scheduled session/meeting would be. Default is 30 minutes.
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Public & Private
- Public is default and recommended (Anyone with your Bookings link can see)
- Private (Access and bookings only with a separate, dedicate link)
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Scheduling customization
- These settings make sure people can only book time with you when you're available and have no conflicts on your Outlook calendar.
- Click on 'See my Regular Meeting Hours' to adjust your default working hours. Leave on 'Use my Regular Meeting Hours' if those working hours work.
- To adjust working hours per meeting type, click on the drop down and choose 'Use custom availability hours'. More in the FAQ below.
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Advanced options
- Allows you to set buffer-times for meetings, and to change the min/max lead time. See FAQ for more details.
Step 5
When you're finished customizing your session/meeting type, click the 'Save' button in the upper right to save to your Bookings offerings.
Repeat steps 3 & 4 for every session you'd like to create on your Bookings calendar page.
Step 6
When you're ready, you'll want to share your Bookings link with others. To share your bookings page, click on the 'Share' button and select your sharing method.
When others click on your Bookings link, they'll select the meeting type and choose a date/time to book the session (pictured below). This calendar will only show your availability options and scheduling for each meeting type is based on the 'Scheduling Customization' field in step 4.
FAQ
"Is 'Personal Bookings' the same as 'Shared Bookings'?"
No. Personal Bookings works only with your personal calendar while 'Shared Bookings' is designed for a team or departmental use.
"Once someone books a time, do I need to do anything?"
Nope. Both you and the person booking will receive an email confirmation including the date/time, details, and the location. Additionally, the item will be added to your calendar. If the person booking the meeting signed in with a UIW account, it'll be added to theirs as well.
"How do I add a Zoom meeting to a 'Bookings with me' service?"
By using the 'Teams Meeting' toggle in the location field, Bookings will generate a unique Teams meeting link/ID for your meeting. This will save you the trouble of scheduling a meeting in Teams each time someone books time with you.
"What is the difference between public and private meeting types?"
Meeting types can be public or private. Public meeting types are available to anyone that you share your Bookings page link with. Private meeting types are only available to people that you share the individual private meeting type with.
Private meeting types can also generate single use links. Single use links expire after their first booking.
"Do people need a UIW (or Microsoft) account or Bookings license to schedule a meeting on my page?"
Nope! Users will have the option to sign in to complete, or to continue as a guest (Pictured below). The first option, to sign in, simply fills out their email field and would automatically add the booking to their calendar upon finishing.
If someone decides to continue as a guest, they'll still be asked for their contact information. Unfortunately, there's no way to restrict a 'Bookings with me' link to UIW-only users yet.
Video Walkthrough
This video was taken from a general session on Microsoft Bookings held through the CTL on 4/14/23.
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