MS Bookings - Get Started Guide

Question

• How do I use MS Bookings for the first time?

Environment

• Oregon State University
• OSU Employees
• MS Bookings

Explanation

New users of MS Bookings may not know how to access the web app where they can set up and manage their booking calendar(s) and services.

What is Bookings? Microsoft Bookings is an online scheduling tool that assists with booking appointments, and it is now included with Oregon State University employee's Office 365 licenses. There are many ways to use Bookings in a university environment. Examples may include an individual staff member could use it to create a calendar where students could book office hour appointments, advisors could use to book appointments, or even group events. 

Microsoft designed Bookings for small business use. However, it also works well for Higher Education administrators who need to schedule appointments, too. You will see the term “customer” is used to describe when we would typically say “student,” and while you can make your services have a price, you do not need to.  

Logging Into MS Bookings:

1. To get started sign in to Microsoft 365 and select Bookings from the app launcher.
   • If you don't see Bookings listed, select "All apps" with the top left button that looks like 9 small circles
     
      
2. Choose Get it now on the Bookings page.
   
    
3. Click "+ Add a booking calendar"
   
   
   OR
   
   Enter the name of the booking calendar you wish to open in the text entry box
   
    
4. Add your business information (you can edit it later)
   
    
5. Click "continue" and you're ready to start using Bookings.
6. To manage your bookings on your mobile device, download Bookings from your app store.
   1. Apple Store download link
   2. Google Play download link

Very Important New User Tips:

• 1. Set Time Zone 

  The Bookings calendar time zone may not be set correctly by default. The calendar owner can update this in the Bookings app.  

  See: MS Bookings - Set Your Time Zone 

  2. Set Availability to Sync with Outlook 

  The Bookings calendar owner needs to enable "Booking when staff are free" to sync staff Outlook calendar availability with Bookings. 

  See: MS Bookings - Get Started Guide 

  3. Cancel Appointments in Bookings, Not in Outlook 

  Deleting a Bookings appointment from a staff member's Outlook calendar will not cancel it in Bookings. Users need to cancel the booking in Bookings instead so that both the staff person and the customer who booked the appointment receive a cancellation notice 

  See: MS Bookings – Cancelling An Appointment 

  4. Add an Additional Administrator to Your Booking Page That is Unbookable 

  If you are unavailable to cancel your appointments, having an additional administrator on your Booking Page will allow them to cancel for you. Make sure that for each of your available services you have yourself or whoever is available to be booked with for that service selected and not the additional person, so they cannot be booked with. If you do not select yourself or whoever else is available to be booked with, it will default to anyone. 

  See: MS Bookings – Add Staff 

  5. Explore What Your Access Level Means You Can / Can’t Do 

  Bookings has 3 different access levels for staff (learn more here). 

  6. Remove Service Price from Booking Page 

  MS Bookings was created for small businesses. The pricing feature may not apply to most uses cases at OSU and can be turned off. 

  See: MS Bookings - Remove Service Price from Booking Page 

  7. Collect Emails in the Intake Form so Confirmation Emails Can Send 

  Bookings’ needs to collect emails via the customer information setting for the automated confirmation emails to be sent. 

  See: MS Bookings – No Confirmation Emails Are Sending 

Microsoft Training Materials: