Third-Party Calendar Sync with Services (v2)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Overview: Service Bookings and Appointments
• How Calendar Sync Works Today
• Limitation: Changes Made on the Third-Party Calendar Aren't Reflected in the Platform
• Status Changes Apply to the Entire Service Booking
• Rescheduling or Cancelling One Service in a Multi-Service Booking
• FAQs

This article explains how Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCal sync currently works for Services (v2) bookings — including bookings that contain more than one service — and what to expect when a staff member's connected calendar is edited directly.

Overview: Service Bookings and Appointments

When a client books one or more services in a single checkout, the platform creates one Service Booking. If the booking includes multiple services (for example, a haircut followed by a hair spa with a different staff member), each service is scheduled back-to-back for that visit and gets its own Appointment record underneath that Service Booking — one Appointment per service/staff member.

The Service Booking is what carries the shared details for the visit: the customer's information, custom values, the overall status, and the single payment/checkout for all services included.

How Calendar Sync Works Today

For staff members with a connected Google, Outlook, or iCal calendar, Service Booking appointments can be synced to their connected calendar.

• Single-service bookings: Third-party calendar sync is fully supported. Changes made in Chat To Clients CRM are synced to the connected calendar, and supported changes made on the connected calendar are synced back to Chat To Clients CRM.
• Multi-service bookings: Each service is pushed as a separate calendar event based on the staff member assigned to that service. However, two-way sync is not supported for multi-service bookings. Changes to these bookings should always be made from within Chat To Clients CRM.

Limitation: Third-Party Changes to Multi-Service Bookings Aren't Synced

For Service Bookings containing more than one service, changes made directly on a connected third-party calendar are not synced back to Chat To Clients CRM.

For example:

• Moving a service's event to a different time in Google Calendar does not reschedule that service in Chat To Clients CRM.
• Deleting or editing an individual service event on the connected calendar does not update the Service Booking in Chat To Clients CRM.
• Since each service can appear as a separate calendar event, changing one of these events externally may cause the third-party calendar to show information that differs from the Service Booking in Chat To Clients CRM.

Chat To Clients CRM will continue to reflect the booking details saved within the platform, including the scheduled time and information used for customer confirmations and reminders.

For multi-service bookings, make all rescheduling, cancellations, and other booking changes directly within Chat To Clients CRM.

Status Changes Apply to the Entire Service Booking

A Service Booking has a single status. When a booking contains multiple services, changing the status of any one of the associated appointments (for example, from the Appointment List View) will prompt a confirmation that the change will apply to all services associated with that Service Booking. You cannot currently set a different status for one service in the booking without changing the rest.

Rescheduling or Cancelling One Service in a Multi-Service Booking

To change an individual service within a multi-service booking, make the change directly in Chat To Clients CRM:

• To cancel one service: Open the booking, remove that specific service, and save. The remaining services stay part of the booking.
• To reschedule one service to a different time: Remove the service from the existing booking and create a new appointment for it at the desired time.

Changes made directly to the service's event on the connected third-party calendar will not update the multi-service booking in Chat To Clients CRM.

FAQs

• I moved an appointment's time on Google Calendar. Will it update in Chat To Clients CRM?
  For a single-service booking, supported changes made on the connected third-party calendar are synced back to Chat To Clients CRM. For a multi-service booking, changes made on the third-party calendar are not synced back. Make all changes to multi-service bookings directly in Chat To Clients CRM to ensure the booking and customer communications stay accurate.
  
  

• Why did changing the status on one service change the status of the whole booking?
  Status is managed at the Service Booking level, not per service. All appointments associated with a multi-service booking share the same status.
  
  

• Can I cancel just one service without cancelling the entire booking?
  Yes. Open the Service Booking, remove the specific service, and save. The remaining services will stay part of the booking.
  
  

• Is my customer added to the calendar events created for each service?
  The customer may appear as a guest on the calendar events created for the assigned staff members.
  
  

• Why do my services show different times on Google Calendar than they do in Chat To Clients CRM?
  For a multi-service booking, this can happen if one of the service events is edited directly on the connected calendar. These changes are not synced back to Chat To Clients CRM, so the Service Booking and customer communications will continue to use the details saved in Chat To Clients CRM. Make changes to multi-service bookings directly in Chat To Clients CRM to keep both calendars consistent.