Audience: Mentors
Introduction
The Appointment Schedule is Google Calendar's main scheduling setup. As of August 2024, Google Calendar removed its appointment slots feature, and you can read more information about it here.
This guide is for our volunteers who are interested in learning how to set up the calendar, customize appointment schedules, and share availability with others.
Training Recording
Last April 19, 2022, we conducted a live training regarding how to set up Google Calendar as a scheduling option for our mentors. You can view our recording here: Managing Your Google Calendar
Table of Contents
Setup
- Access Google Calendar
- Configure Bookable Appointment Schedule
- Sharing Booking Pages
- Delete Availability/ Delete your Bookable Appointment Schedule
- Manage Appointments- Email Notifications
- Manage Appointments - Add Zoom
- Manage Appointments - Add a Co-mentor
Miscellaneous
- View the Client’s Side
- Creating Multiple Booking Pages
- Add your Booking Page to your Email Signature
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How to Access your Google Calendar
1) Sign in to your SCORE Google Account at https://accounts.google.com
- Individual Mentor: Login with your own SVO when setting up your own calendar.
- Client Intake Coordinators: For CICs, log in to the ch.admin####@@scorevolunteer.org email account to set up a chapter calendar. If your chapter admin is unable to access this account, please reach out to engage@score.org.
2) From the menu button on the top right, select the Calendar icon.
How to Configure a Bookable Appointment Schedule
1) In the Google Calendar, click Create on the top left. Select Appointment Schedule.
2) Set up your Bookable Appointment Schedule. Make sure to click on all sections to see how you can customize each of them.
| Label | Description/Recommendation | |
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Bookable Appointment Schedule |
Enter a title for this bookable appointment schedule. This will also appear when a client books an appointment from your bookable page. | |
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Appointment duration |
Select how long should your appointment time should last. The options are 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours or Custom. |
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General availability |
You can set your recurring scheduling here. You can also specify segments of time on one or more days. | |
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Scheduling window |
By default, your client can book 60 days in advance, up to 4 hours. |
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Adjusted availability |
Change your available time for specific dates. |
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Booked appointment settings |
Select a buffer time to ensure you have a break between appointments. | |
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Calendars (Checked for Availability) |
Select other calendars (created by you or calendars you subscribed to), and your appointment scheduler will automatically remove any busy times from the other calendars you've selected here. | |
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Co-hosts |
Add people to co-host appointments. You can add up to 20 co-hosts. |
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Booking page photo and name |
This is how your identity will be displayed on the booking page. Manage Google account photo & name. |
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Location and conferencing |
If you want to use this tool, use Google Meet. The confirmation email will include the Google Meeting details. Select In-Person Meeting to enter the meeting location. For Phone Call provide a field for the phone number. If you want to use Zoom for a virtual meeting, select None/To be Specified LaterNote: See the section to see how to configure Zoom.
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Description |
Add a note to give direction and description of your appointment schedule. We also recommend reminding your client to submit a mentoring request via our website or your online profile. You can add hyperlinks in the description box. The content entered here will be visible to clients accessing your bookable appointment schedule page. | |
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Booking form |
By default, the form will ask your clients for their First and Last Name and Email Address. You also have the option to add one more field and make it required or not. |
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Booking confirmations and reminders |
The person who made the appointment will get a reminder email before the appointment. We recommend setting this to at least one day before the event. Then, don't forget to add notifications to a booked appointment so ALL guests will receive an email reminder. |
3) After setting up your appointment schedule, click Save on the lower right-hand side of the pop-up window to save the settings and close it.
4) Google will then create a unique booking page for your setup. You can create multiple schedules and each scheduling page will get its own unique booking page - see
Note: You can edit these settings at any time by clicking any of the available appointment schedules and clicking the pencil icon to Edit.
Sharing your Booking Pages
You can share your booking pages by sending people a link or by adding a button to your website. You can also share all your booking pages or a single booking page.
How to Share All Your Appointment Schedules
1) To share the booking page created for your Appointment Schedule, click any of the available appointment schedules for your appointment.
2) Select the Share button.
3) Then, select All Appointment Schedules and click Copy Link. Click Done to close the pop-up window. To create multiple booking pages/appointment schedules, please see Creating Different Booking Pages.
4) When you share the copied link with a client user, they can view all the booking pages you've added to your calendar.
How to Share a Single Booking Page
1) To share the booking page created for your Appointment Schedule, click any of the available appointment schedules for your appointment.
2) Select the Share button.
3) Then, select A Single Booking Page and click the arrow going down to select the correct booking page to share.
4) Select the booking page you'd like to share.
5) Then, click Copy Link. Click Done to close the pop-up window.
6) When you share the copied link with a client user, they will be able to view the schedules available on one booking page only.
What to do with the Booking Page Link?
Recommendation: Paste the link you've copied in your email to the client (see screenshot below) or add it to your Email Signature.
How to Manage Appointments to Send Email Notifications (For Booked Appointments Only)
1) In your Google Calendar, find and click the booked appointment. Then, click the pencil icon to Edit.
2) Change Notification to Email.
3) We recommend setting an email reminder 1 day before the appointment and/or 1 hour before the appointment.
4) Click Save on the top right to save the changes.
How to Manage Appointments to Add Zoom Meeting
Note: You can only add Zoom Meeting to booked appointments. When using Zoom Meeting as the Conferencing tool for the appointment.
1) In your Google Calendar, verify that your Zoom Account is connected to your Google Calendar by clicking the Zoom Add. And sign in if it's not connected, please check out this video link to see how to link Zoom in your Google Calendar for the first time.
2) Next find and click the booked appointment. Then click the pencil icon to Edit.
3) Go to Add Video Conferencing and select Zoom Meeting from the drop-down. Wait for the Zoom Meeting to be generated in this page.
4) Click Save on the top right to save the changes.
Note: A Zoom Meeting is also created in your Zoom account as a result of this action, go to Zoom if you want to modify the meeting options.
5) Click Send when prompted to send an update email.
How to Manage Appointments to Add A Co-Mentor
Note: Add a co-mentor as an additional guests after a client has booked an appointment.
1) In your Google Calendar, find and click the booked appointment. Then, click the pencil icon to Edit.
2) Enter the Name or Email Address of the co-mentor under the Guests section.
3) You can also check the availability of your co-mentor by clicking the Find a Time tab.
Note: This only works if you both have @scorevolunteer.org accounts.
4) Click Save on the top right to save the changes.
5) Click Send when prompted to send invitation emails to new Google Calendar guests.
How to Delete Availability
1) In your Google Calendar, select any of the available appointment schedule. Then, click the Trash icon.
2) Select to remove availability only for the week or for all availability then click Ok.
Note: Previously booked appointments will not be deleted.
Client's Facing Side
1) Clients no longer have to log in or create a Google Account to access your Booking page via the link you provide them.
2) When the client selects the appointment time, they will be prompted to complete the booking form. And then click Book when done.
3) The client receives a confirmation email with a calendar extension file included and the links to cancel and/or book another appointment.
4) If you selected Google Meet for the appointment, the confirmation email will include the Google Meeting details. If you opt to use Zoom, an update email is sent to the client with the Zoom Meeting details after you add Zoom as the conferencing tool for this appointment.
Creating Multiple Booking Pages/Appointment Schedules
1) Create your first Appointment Scheduler by following the steps here: How to Configure Bookable Appointment Schedule details
2) After setting up the first Appointment Scheduler, click Create again and use the same steps on How to Configure Bookable Appointment Schedule details
3) Click any of the appointment schedule then select: See all your appointment schedules.
4) This will open up a new window with all the appointment schedules you've created in your Google Calendar.
Note: You can copy the website address of this page and use it on your Website or Email Signature.
Add your Booking Page to your Email Signature
Your booking page is client-facing side and can be sent to your new or existing clients. Clients do not have to log in to a Google account in order to access and book an appointment with you.
1) Your Booking Page can be accessed by clicking any of the appointment schedule in your Google Calendar then selecting Share.
2) Leave the default selection on A Single Booking Page and make sure that you are sharing the booking page with your client.
3) With your copied link, you can add the link in your Gmail signature.
If you don't have an email signature, please refer to these external sources on how to make one.
How to create a Gmail Signature
How to create an Email Signature in Outlook
Note: If you have more than one Appointment Schedule, select See all your appointment schedules.
Relevant Resources:
Add Google Calendar as your Scheduling Tool
Training Recording: Managing Your Google Calendar
Comments
5 comments
Guide updated with the newest info from Google Workspace regarding better sharing options for appointment schedules. See the section on how to Sharing Booking Pages.
Updated to add the latest images and removed re-organized the content.
12/19/22 - updated information regarding which account to use when logging in for individual mentors vs CICs.
See Google Scheduling enhancement [expected 1Q23] to support multiple sub-calendars https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2023/01/check-availability-multiple-calendars-appointment-schedules-google-calendar.html
6/15/2023 - Guide has been updated with the new feature on checking the availability multiple calendars (see Mark's link above).
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