Microsoft Bookings Setup (Student Advisor)

Owned by Mark Kolodziej, created
Last updated: Sept 08, 2023 by Bryan Olive
4 min read

Microsoft Bookings can be a powerful tool allowing one to easily book meetings with both internal and external contacts. Want to learn how to leverage this software? Read on!

Instructions

  1. Sign in at https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/137/group/401/create/1670 to request your bookings calendar. This can take up to 24-48 hours, and this is the current naming scheme to follow:

    • Bookings Name: Department Name and Job Title - Full Name (Co-op Student Advisor - John Doe)

  2. Sign into bookings.office.com once you receive an email stating your calendar was created.

  3. Navigate to the Business Information tab and fill in the following fields:

    1. Business name: This should be Full Name - Job Title (John Doe - Student Advisor), if you made an error when first creating the calendar, this is where you can correct it. 

    2. Business address: This field can be left blank since you are not providing a location for hosting in-person meetings.

    3. Business phone: This should be the University's phone number, followed by a period, then your extension. Eg. (519)888-4567.42183. 

    4. Website URL: This should be left blank since we have separate websites for employers and students

    5. Privacy Policy URL: The University's privacy website can be entered here https://uwaterloo.ca/privacy/ 

    6. Terms and conditions URL: Leave this field blank

    7. Business Hours: set the daily hours you wish to be available to be booked. These hours are recurring and cannot be set on a per-week basis. 

    8. Business Logo: please use the logo provided below, and be sure to select the white background when uploading to eliminate the coloured bars around the logo.

  4. Click Save at the top of the webpage and then click on the Services tab.

  5. Click Add a service and enter the following details

    1. Service Name: Student Work Term Consultation

    2. Description: “Please select this meeting type if you are a student.” 

    3. Default location: Leave this blank

    4. Add online meeting: Click to enable this. This will automatically generate a Teams meeting and add it to the meeting invite. 

    5. Default duration: 30 minutes

    6. Maximum attendees: 1

    7. Custom fields: Click Modify, Add a question, Add a text question, then enter "University of Waterloo Email"

    8. Add a question, Add a text question, then enter "Student number"

    9. Deselect the default customer information fields phone number, customer address, customer notes.

    10. Ensure that the default customer information fields Customer Email and Phone Number are selected and required

    11. From the custom field list, click Student number and University of Waterloo email so they are highlighted, then click the Required box

    12. Ensure Use the default scheduling policy is checked, then click Save

  6. Click Add a service again and enter the following details

    1. Service Name: Employer Work Term Consultation 

    2. Description: “Please select this meeting type if you supervise a co-op student.” 

    3. Default location: Leave this blank

    4. Add online meeting: Click to enable this. This will automatically generate a Teams meeting and add it to the meeting invite. 

    5. Default duration: 15 minutes

    6. Maximum attendees: 1

    7. Custom fields: Click Modify, Add a question, Add a text question, then enter "Student Name"

    8. Add a question, Add a text question, then enter "Company Name"

    9. From the custom field list, click Student name so it is highlighted, then click the Required box

    10. Deselect all the default customer information fields except for customer email and phone number (customer address, customer notes) and hit OK

    11. Ensure Use the default scheduling policy is checked, then click Save

  7. An Initial consult service is created by default. Delete this service by moving your cursor over it, then clicking the delete button that appears. 

  8. Navigate to the Booking Page tab to setup your shareable bookings page. On this page you'll need to fill the following fields:

    1. Booking page access control: Ensure the 'require a Microsoft 365 account from my organization to book box' is unchecked and 'disable direct search engine indexing' is checked

    2. Customer data usage and consent: ensure this box is unchecked

    3.  Scheduling policy: These settings specify how users can book your calendar

      1. Time increments: This sets the increment of available time slots in your calendar. For example, if set to 1 hour then users will only be able to book a time slot every hour during your business hours. Recommended: set as same duration as your configured service

      2. Minimum lead time: Minimum time (in hours) before a time slot can be booked or canceled Default: 24 hours

      3. Maximum lead time: Maximum time (in days) before a time slot can be booked Default: 365 days

    4. Email Notifications: Ensure the 'notify the business via email when a booking is created or changed' is disabled and the 'send a meeting invite to the customer, in addition to the confirmation email' options is enabled

    5. Staff: Allow customers to choose a specific person for the booking should be disabled

    6. General Availability - You may change between the following options, as needed.

      1. Bookable when staff are free: bookable in any open slots in your calendar during business hours

      2. Not bookable: disable booking until setting is changed

      3. Custom Hours: set personal hours outside of business hours if needed

    7. Colour Theme: Set custom colour scheme for your booking page should be checked with Highlight colour #E4B429 and Header colour #FFFFFF

    8. Region and time zone settings: Select the 'change language and time zone settings' and ensure that the 'Current time zone' is correct. If you want your bookings link to display a different time zone please change to that time zone and select the Always show time slots in business time zone option.

    9. Click Save and publish in the top left to confirm your booking page updates

    10. Open published page to review your bookings page. Email or copy your bookings page link from the Share your page box.



You must give Microsoft Bookings access to your calendar to allow your calendars to sync and ensure appointments do not overlap. Do so with the following steps.

 Giving Bookings Calendar Access

  1. Open Outlook, and navigate to the calendar tab.

  2. Right-click on your personal calendar under the 'My Calendars' heading and select Properties.

  3. Select the Permissions tab and set the Permission Level for either the 'Default' group or the 'My Organization' group to 'Free/Busy time' and hit OK