Support Center›Setup Checklist›Step 5
Calendar Setup
Booking links that work while you sleep
Before you begin
- Estimated time
- 25–35 minutes
- Have ready
- Your real working hours, a decision on appointment lengths, and access to the personal calendar you already use.
Every availability rule on this page is calculated from it. Building calendars against the wrong time zone means rebuilding them.
Why this matters
Done properly
- Clients book without any back-and-forth
- Your existing commitments block automatically
- Reminders cut no-shows substantially
- Buffers protect you from back-to-back days
Skipped or rushed
- Endless emails finding a time
- Double bookings against your personal calendar
- People forget and do not turn up
- Meetings stacked with no gap to breathe
How to set it up
Decide what people can book
Create one calendar per distinct thing. A 20-minute discovery call and a 90-minute session need different lengths, different questions, and different availability.
Start with one. Add more once the first is working.
Create the calendar
Go to Calendars → Create Calendar. Give it a name your client will understand — Discovery Call, not Cal 1. This name appears on the booking page.
Connect your personal calendar both ways
This is the setting that prevents double bookings, and it needs to work in both directions:
- Read: the platform checks your existing events and blocks those times
- Write: new bookings appear on the calendar you actually look at
Connect it under Settings → My Profile → Calendar Connections. A one-way connection is the most common cause of double bookings.
Set your working hours honestly
Enter the hours you will genuinely take appointments — not the hours you wish you worked. A slot you regret at 7am helps nobody.
Consider blocking one focus day a week with no bookable slots at all.
Set buffers before and after
A 10 to 15 minute buffer on each side prevents appointments stacking directly onto each other. It gives you time to write notes and get to the next thing.
Set minimum notice
Four to twenty-four hours is typical. Without it, someone can book a slot starting in ten minutes while you are driving.
Limit how far ahead people can book
Thirty to sixty days is usually right. Open-ended calendars fill with appointments people booked months ago and have entirely forgotten.
Set a daily maximum
Cap the number of bookings per day. Eight discovery calls in one day sounds like a good problem until you are living it.
Write the confirmation and reminders
The confirmation should say what happens next, what to prepare, and how to reschedule.
Set two reminders — one 24 hours ahead, one an hour before. Include a reschedule link in both. A moved appointment is far better than an empty slot.
Book yourself, end to end
Open the booking link in a private browser window, as a stranger would. Book a real slot.
Check every one of these: the confirmation email arrived, the reminder fires, the event appeared on your personal calendar, the time is correct, and the reschedule link works.
Then cancel it and confirm the cancellation behaves too.
Nothing else you configure here will reduce no-shows as much as a 24-hour and a 1-hour reminder with a reschedule link in each.
Every extra question loses bookings. Name, email, phone, and one question about what they need is usually enough. You can learn the rest on the call.
Booking pages behave differently on a phone. Most of your clients will book on one.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | What to check |
|---|---|
| Times show wrong for clients | Check the time zone in Step 1 first. Then check whether the calendar has its own time zone override. |
| Double bookings against personal events | The calendar connection is one-way. It needs read access to your existing events, not just write access. |
| Nobody is booking | Usually too few slots offered, too much notice required, or a booking form asking too many questions before someone has committed. |
| Confirmation email not arriving | Check Step 3 is complete. Unauthenticated confirmation emails go to spam like any other. |
FAQ
Can I have different availability for different appointment types?
Yes. Each calendar carries its own hours, buffers, and notice rules. That is why one calendar per booking type works better than one calendar for everything.
Can I take payment when someone books?
Yes, you can require payment at booking. Worth considering for consultations where no-shows are costly.
What happens if I add something to my personal calendar?
If the connection reads both ways, that time immediately becomes unavailable. This is why the two-way connection matters.
Can my team have their own booking calendars?
Yes, once they are added as users in Step 8. Each person connects their own personal calendar.
✅Done when
- You booked a real test appointment as a stranger would
- Every confirmation and reminder message arrived
- The appointment appeared on your personal calendar at the right time
- Your existing commitments show as unavailable
- Cancelling and rescheduling both work