Scheduling links are links to personalized web pages that others can use to automatically schedule meetings with you only at times you are available.
Follow these steps to create a new CalendarBridge scheduling link (or “scheduler”).
1. Go to your schedulers overview page. While logged into the CalendarBridge dashboard, click the “Schedulers” link on the left navigation bar. Or just enter https://calendarbridge.com/dashboard/scheduling into your browser. If you have not yet created any schedulers, it will look like this:
2. Click “Create Booking Link” button. This will take you to the first step of creating your scheduler:
2a. Select the booking calendar. The booking calendar for a scheduler is the calendar (a) to which meetings scheduled through the link will be booked (and, therefore, the email address from which the invite will be sent); and (b) will be used to determine your availability. If other calendars are synced to your booking calendar, those calendars are automatically accounted for when determining your availability.
2b. Select additional calendars to check. If you have any calendars which are not synced to the booking calendar, but you still want taken into account when determining your availability, select those calendars in this box. You can select up to 3.
2c. Set a custom URL (paid subscriptions only). If you have a paid subscription, you will additionally see a Custom URL section for configuring a custom URL for this scheduling link. To use a custom URL for this scheduling link, you will first need to configure your custom url id. Once your custom id is set you have three options for the format of this scheduling link:
i. If you would like this scheduling link to be of the format /book/<custom id>, check the “Set as Default Path” checkbox. Note: you can only have 1 scheduling link of this format. If a first scheduling link already has the “set as default path” box checked, then checking the box on a second scheduling link will revert the first scheduling link to a url of format /book/<random id>:
ii. If you would like this scheduling link to be of the format /book/<custom id>/<additional field>, then type the additional field in the text box. For example:
2d. Name the scheduler. The scheduler name is simply for helping you to identify this scheduler in your list of schedulers.
2d. Set a greeting message. This is the text that appears at the top of your booking page (see image below).
2e. Upload a banner logo/image (optional). If an image is uploaded, it will be shown in place of the CalendarBridge logo at the top of the page (see image below).
2f. Upload an avatar (optional). The avatar is displayed below the greeting text. If no image is uploaded, the space is simply blank. The image will be scaled to a width of 100px. It is usually best to use an image file that is square or that is 100 pixels wide.
3. Click “Continue to Availability” to proceed to the availability configuration screen:
3a. Select meeting length options. Whichever boxes you check will be the duration options that someone visiting your link will be able to choose from. If you check only 60, then users of your link will only have the option to book 60 minute meetings, if you check 60, 30, and 15 then visitors to your link will be able to choose between 60, 30, and 15 minutes for their meeting, and so on.
By default, there are are 15, 30, and 60 minute options. If you would like a different meeting duration option, click the “Add custom time” link to display a textbox. Enter the meeting duration in minutes and then clock the “Add” button.
3b. Select Available Days & Times. This allows you to restrict the days and hours during which visitors to your link can book a meeting with you. The default configuration is Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 5:00 in the timezone shown in the timezone picker (which defaults to the Timezone of the computer from which you are creating the scheduling link).
3c. Select how far in advance can someone book with you. Setting this to, for example, 1 month means a visitor to your link can book a meeting with you up to 1 month from the date on which they visit your link.
3d. How much notice do you need before a meeting starts. Setting this to, for example, 1 hour means a visitor to your link can book a meeting with you that starts no sooner than 1 hour from the time on which they visit your link.
Advanced Options
Clicking the “+Show Advanced” link will reveal three additional settings:
3e. Configure Buffer Times.
- Before buffer: If your before buffer is X minutes, time slots presented as available must end at least X minutes before any existing meetings on your calendar.
- After buffer: If your after buffer is X minutes, time slots presented as available must start at least X minutes after any existing meetings on your calendar.
3f. Configure Start Time Increments.
The “default” setting is that the times at which a meeting can start depends on the duration of the meeting:
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- For meetings of 15 minutes or less, meetings can start at :00, :15, :30, :45
- for meetings between 16 and 30 minutes, meetings can start at :00 and :30
- For meetings of 31 minutes or more, meetings can start at :00
Instead of “default” you can pick a certain number of minutes by which to increment start times. Choosing 5 minutes will result in to the most possible meeting slots, but with potentially unusual start times (e.g., a meeting starting at :10 or :35).
4. Click “Continue to Event Details” to proceed to the final step of scheduler creation:
4a. Set custom subject line. In this text box you can set the subject of events booked through this scheduler. To have the subject customized per event, you can use the following placeholders:
- {subject} – this placeholder will be replaced by a subject provided by the invitee when booking a meeting via this scheduler.
- {invitee_name} – The name provided by the invitee when booking a meeting via this scheduler.
- {invitee_email} – The email address provided by the invitee when booking a meeting via this scheduler.
- {my_name} – The name on the account that is used as the booking calendar for this scheduler.
- {my_email} – The email address on the account that is used as the booking calendar for this scheduler.
Example 1: 1-on-1 Meeting with Jane All events booked through this scheduler will have the subject “1-on-1 Meeting with Jane.”
Example 2: {invitee_name} and {my_name} – {subject} An example event booked through this link might be “Jack Doe and Busy Jane – strategy session”
4b. Configure event details. In the text box, you can enter any details you would like to appear in the body of the invitation. This can include personalized messages, zoom/webex/etc. links, or any other desired text.
Zoom users: if you want to use your Personal Meeting ID, enter that information in the Event Details box. If you want to generate a unique Zoom conference for each meeting, see the “Online Meeting” section in step 4c below.
4c. Customize booked event color. This allows you to select a specific color for events created through the scheduling link. This can be useful to help see at-a-glance which events on your calendar were booked through your scheduling link. “Calendar default” means events booked through your scheduling link will be the default color determined by Outlook or Google Calendar.
4d. Indicate whether to add an online meeting. If a box in this section is checked, then a unique online conference will be automatically generated and the conference details will be automatically added to the invite.
If the booking calendar is a Microsoft calendar, there will be a checkbox to add a unique Teams or Skype conference to meetings booked via this scheduling link (whether it is Teams or Skype is determined by your Microsoft account settings).
If the booking calendar is a Google calendar, there will be a checkbox to add a Google Meet conference to meetings booked via this scheduling link.
If you have connected a Zoom account (see connecting a Zoom account), there will be a checkbox to add a unique Zoom conference to meetings booked via this scheduling link. Note: if you want to use your Zoom Personal Meeting ID, see the “Event Details” box discussed in step 4a above.
4e. Add additional invitees. If there are other people that should automatically be invited to meetings booked through this scheduler, enter there email addresses here separated by commas.
4f. Add a custom form/questionnaire, if desired. This section allows you to create a form/questionnaire to be filled out by invitees that book though the scheduler. Each question/prompt you add will be associated with a text box in which the invitee can type a response.
5. Click “Review and Create” to bring up the scheduler review screen:
If you need to make any changes, click “Back.”
If everything looks good, click “Create” and you will be taken back to your schedulers overview page showing the newly-created scheduler.
To let someone view your availability and book a meeting with you using the scheduler, simply share the link with them via email, chat, etc..