TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What is Microsoft Bookings?
- Access Bookings
- Create a New Personal Booking Meeting Type
- Invite Others to Book a Meeting with You
- Personal Bookings vs Shared Bookings
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is Microsoft Bookings?
Microsoft Bookings allows you to easily configure and share your availability with others, avoiding the back and forth of scheduling. Once you publish your personal booking page, you can share the link with anyone, allowing them to see your availability and easily schedule a time that works for both of you.
Bookings integrates seamlessly with your Outlook calendar. Your availability is based on your calendar and all booked appointments are automatically added to your calendar.
Bookings is currently available for all staff and core faculty.
Access Bookings
To access Bookings, go to lesley.edu/email and click on the App Launcher (the dots menu on the upper left hand side). This will open a menu. Select Bookings.
Create a New Personal Booking Meeting Type
Personal Bookings allows others to book meetings with you. You can create multiple meeting types and decide if they should be public (posted on your Bookings page) or private (only users with the meeting link can book).
Create A New Meeting Type
Click Create meeting type to create a new meeting.
Give your meeting a name, category (optional), and a brief description. In the Location field, enter a location for your meeting.
If you will be meeting online, please note the following options:
- Zoom: Enter the invite link for your Personal Zoom Room and toggle the Teams option to OFF.
- Teams: Toggle the Teams option to ON.
Next, enter the meeting duration and whether the option to book this meeting will appear on your public Bookings page.
- Public meetings: A meeting type set as public appears on your personal booking page.
- Private meetings: A meeting type set as private will not appear on your personal booking page. To share this specific meeting type, you must share the link directly with your recipients.
Customize Your Schedule
Decide whether to allow people to book this meeting using your default regular meeting hours or set up a separate schedule for this meeting. Bookings works in tandem with your Outlook calendar. If you have events on your Outlook calendar, people will not be able to book a meeting with you at that time.
Regular Meeting Hours
This option allows users to book a meeting during your regular work hours. Click the See regular meeting hours link to view and edit your work hours and location.
Your work hours and location can be accessed and edited from your Outlook settings.
Please note that Microsoft Outlook sets your work hours to 8 AM - 5 PM by default. If these are not your work hours, you will want to update this information.
Custom Availability Hours
For some meeting types you may only want to meet during a certain date range, on certain days, or during certain times. Use the custom availability hours to set the date range, days, and times for the meeting.
Add Buffers and Lead Times
In the Advanced Options area you can further customize your meeting options by building in buffers and lead time.
- Buffers: Add time before and/or after meetings to incorporate breaks or prep-time. This will prevent people from booking meetings back-to-back.
- Minimum Lead Time: Set a minimum amount of time required before a booking can be made. This will give you more time to prepare for a meeting and avoid last-minute bookings.
- Maximum Lead Time: Specify the maximum amount of time in advance that appointments can be scheduled. This helps to manage your availability and prevent long-term scheduling conflicts.
Create Automated Emails
In the Advanced Options area you can set up automated emails to send to the person booking time with you. For example, you may send an email reminder 15 minutes before the meeting with a link to your Personal Zoom room. Or you could send a follow-up email to collect feedback or remind them to book their next appointment.
Save Your Changes
Click Save at the top of the page to save your meeting type. You will now be able to share your Bookings page or your individual meetings with others.
Invite Others to Book a Meeting with You
Once you have created one or more meetings, invite others to book with you. Once an appointment is booked, both you and the person booking the meeting will receive a confirmation email. You will also see the appointment in your Outlook calendar.
Share Your Personal Booking Page
The easiest way to invite others to book meetings with you is to share your Personal Booking Page. From the main page, click on the Share button. You will have the option to copy the link to your Personal Booking Page, share the link via email, or add the link to your email signature.
Note: Only public meeting types will be visible on your Personal Booking page. Private meetings will need to be shared individually.
Copy Link
Copy the link to your clipboard and paste it into an email, a Teams channel, a support ticket, etc. This is the easiest way to quickly share your Bookings page.
Share via email
Click Share via email to create a new email with your Bookings information. This will launch a popup window. Enter the email addresses and a brief message and click Send to send the email.
Email Signature Settings
Click Email signature settings to open your Outlook signature settings. Create a new email signature or edit your existing signature and select the option to Include a link to my bookings page in my signature.
Share a Specific Meeting Type
You can share a link to a specific meeting type by clicking the Share icon on the meeting tile. If your meeting has been set to Private, this is the only way to share this meeting type.
This will open a popup menu. Click the Copy button to copy the link to your clipboard. You may then paste the link in an email, a Teams channel, a support ticket, etc. Or click Email to create a new email with your meeting link.
Personal Bookings vs Shared Bookings
There are two different versions of Bookings, each designed for different scheduling needs.
- Personal Bookings: A personal booking page is your own personal scheduling page for Microsoft Bookings. This is the most common use of the tool.
- Shared Bookings: A shared booking page is an advanced online scheduling tool that allows multiple individuals to access and manage a shared Microsoft Bookings workspace. Users can book a meeting that is automatically assigned to an available staff member.
For more information about using Shared Bookings, refer to Microsoft's Get Started With Shared Bookings support page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Bookings handle time zone differences?
The meetings and calendar items in Bookings are responsive to the time zone settings on each user's end. For example, if User A has their time zone set to Eastern Time, the booking calendar will show available appointment times in Eastern Time. If User B has their time zone set to Pacific time, The booking calendar will show available appointment times in Pacific Time.
Users booking appointments can click on the Time Zone button (globe icon) to confirm or change their time zone.
Are you seeing a discrepancy between your time zone and the time zone shown in Bookings? Refer to the Time Zone Discrepancies with Microsoft Bookings support article for more information.
Someone booked a meeting outside of my working hours. How can I prevent this from happening again?
If someone booked a meeting outside of your working hours you will want to double-check your time zone settings as well as your working hours in Outlook.
Check your Time Zone Settings in Office 365
In some cases, the time zone on your computer or mobile device may be correct, but you are still seeing a time zone discrepancy with Bookings. If this is the case, check your time zone settings in Office 365.
Refer to the Time Zone Discrepancies with Microsoft Bookings support article for detailed instructions.
Check your Working Hours in Outlook
Your work hours and location can be accessed and edited from your Outlook settings. Go to https://lesley.edu/email and log into your Lesley email. At the top of the page, click the Settings button (gear icon).
This will open your Outlook settings. Select Calendar and then select Work hours and location. Select the days that you work as well as the hours you work each day. The default setting is M - F, 8 AM - 5 PM. If these are not your work hours, you will want to update this information.
Click Save to save your changes.
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