Overview of Microsoft Bookings

Microsoft Bookings is a scheduling tool and is part of the Microsoft Office family of products. The major use case for the University of Toronto is that instructors could use Bookings to schedule office hours and allow students to self-book the time they attend. A similar use case is that student support staff (e.g. Academic Success or Academic Counselling) could use Bookings to schedule appointment slots that students can self-sign up for.

Get access to Bookings

1. To get started sign into mail.utoronto.ca and click the waffle icon.
   

    

    
2. Select All apps to see an alphabetical list of the Microsoft 365 apps available to you. 
   

    

    
3. Select Bookings from the app launcher.
   

    

    
4. Choose Get it now on the Bookings page.

Create a Bookings calendar

1. Open the Bookings app.
2. Click on Create new calendar on the dashboard. 
   

    

    
3. In the new Create a Bookings calendar window, click on Create from scratch.
   

    

    
4. In step 1 of 4 of creating a bookings calendar, provide the name and type of business or organization you own or run (e.g. Academic Counselling). Note: Do not add an email address as the business name for your Bookings page. This will cause the page to not work properly.
   
   1. You also have the option to set your Business hours by clicking on Change. You can then pick days of the week and the time.
      

       

       
5. Click Next to move on to step 2. 
6. In step 2 of 4 of creating a bookings calendar, invite staff who need access to this calendar by typing their contacts in Search for people in your organization. You can always add more people and make changes later. As the calendar's creator, you are, by default, the administrator. 
7. For each staff member added, select a role: Team member, Scheduler, Viewer, or Guest by clicking on the role dropdown:
   

   • Team member can manage bookings on their own calendar and their availability in the booking mailbox. When adding or editing a booking in their calendar, they will be assigned as staff.
   • Scheduler can manage bookings on the calendar and customer details. They have read-only access to settings, staff, and services.
   • Viewer can see all the bookings on the calendar, but they can’t modify or delete them. They have read-only access to settings.
   • Guest can be assigned to bookings, but they can’t open the booking mailbox.
     
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8. Click Next to move on to step 3. 
9. In step 3 of 4 of creating a bookings calendar, set up a service. A service is an appointment type. A default service type is set, which can be customized by clicking on Change. 
   

    

    
10. In the Edit Service, customize the service name, duration (e.g. 30minute time slots), and when the service is available. Check the checkbox for Make this a Teams meeting if this service is to be conducted through Microsoft Teams. Click Update service to save the settings.
    

     

     
11. Click Next to move on to step 4. 
12. In step 4 of 4 of creating a bookings calendar, choose who can book appointments. If you pick People in my organization, people can make their own bookings with an internal self-service page.
    

     

     
13. Click Create calendar to finish the calendar creation process. Bookings will then begin Setting up your calendar.
    

     

     
14. It will give you a link that people can book appointments from. Share the link by copying, emailing, or embedding the link for people to use.
    

View or edit a Bookings calendar

In the main dashboard listing all the calendars you have created, click on the calendar you want to view or edit. The side panel has different pages where you can view and edit the calendar setup.

• On the Calendar page, you and your staff can add or update customer appointments. You can view your calendar by day, week, or month.
• On the Bookings page, you'll find many settings like your scheduling policy, time zone settings, and more.
• On the Customers page, new student information can be added or imported from other accounts like Gmail, or a device.
• On the Staff page, you can add and manage your staff. It's important to add their email addresses so they can receive immediate notifications of new appointments.
• On the Services page, you can add or manage the services that students choose when booking an appointment.
• On the Business information page, review your business address, hours, and other business information, and update if needed.

Related Information

• Integrate your Bookings page with a website
• Customize Bookings page settings
• Customize Bookings business information settings
• Configure Bookings for room/desk reservations
• Integrate Bookings for rooms/desks reservations with shared resources
• Book an appointment in Bookings