Microsoft Bookings Quick Start Guide

Introduction

Below is a set of steps to help you get started with Microsoft Bookings. There are links to other knowledge base articles and vendor resources with more information about how to complete the identified steps. You should be able to create a basic Booking page following the instructions in the Microsoft Bookings Quick Start Guide. 

Estimated Time to Complete

Reviewing this guide and following the steps to create and configure your Bookings page will take approximately 60 minutes.

It is also recommended to review the official Microsoft Tutorials for Bookings after following the steps to create your Bookings page.

Vocabulary

Special Concepts

You will need to login to Office 365 in order to access the Microsoft Bookings app. Please see the related articles section for more information about how to access office 365.

All employees have access to Microsoft Bookings. Student workers may get access to Microsoft Bookings upon the request from full-time supervisor.

Report an Issue

If you experience any problem with Microsoft Bookings, please use Office 365 - Report an Issue to submit a ticket.

Steps to create a Booking page

1. After you login to Office 365, click on the 3X3 dots at the top left corner, and you'll see the list of all apps. If Bookings is not visible, then click "All apps" to expand the apps list.
   
    
2. Click on Bookings logo.
3. If this is the first time you create a Bookings page, click on “Get it now”.
   
4. There are two types of Booking pages: personal booking page and shared booking page.
   
    
5. Personal booking page is your own personal scheduling page for Micrisoft Bookings. 
   
    
   • Click on "Go to my booking page" to configure your personal booking page.
   • There are three options to share your personal Bookings page. Choose the one of your preference from the share options.
     

6. Shared booking page allows multiple individuals to access and manage a shared Microsoft Bookings workspace.
   

   • Click on "Create" button to create a new shared booking page.
   • Click on an existing Booking page to modify the booking page.

Steps to configure your Booking page

Once you have created a shared Booking page, you'll be able to configure staff member, service type, business information, scheduling policies, etc.. The configuration menu is located on the left side of the Bookings site.

Every time you modify the configuration, click on "Save" button at the top of the Booking site to save your changes.

1. Manage staff member.
   • Click on "Staff" to manage staff members. You may add more staff members if your team wishes to work together as a group, and allows customers to schedule appointment with anyone of you. If you are the only staff member , then you may also use Personal booking page instead.
   • To modify staff information, Move your mouse over to the name line under “Manage staff”, click on the pencil to edit staff availability and other information.
     
2. Modify service type (highly recommended).
   • Click on "Services". By default, the only service type is "Initial consult", and the length is set to one hour. We highly recommend that you change the service type to something more meaningful, and change the appointment length to 30 minutes.
   • To modify an existing service, move mouse to the right end of the service, and click on the pencil logo.
   • There is an option to "Add online meeting". Once you turn it on, your meeting appointment will contain a Teams meeting link.
   • You may add more service types if you wish. If you have more than one service type, your student or customer needs to select a specific service type, before they can see your available time.
3. Update business information (your logo goes here).
   • Click on "Business Information". Scroll down to Business logo section. Click on “change”. Upload the image of your choice.
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   • If you seldom schedule work time with Outlook calendar and just wish to use a Booking page to schedule dedicated service, such as a faculty's office hours, you may modify the Business Hours in the Business Information section to achieve that purpose.
     
4. Customize Booking page
   Click on “Booking page” on the left menu.
   • Under "Configure booking page", there are three options.
     • Select “Available to people in your organization" , if you want to publish your booking page to only ISU users.
     • Select “Available to anyone" , if you want to publish your booking page to anyone.
     • Select “No self-service" , if you want to make your Booking page unvailable for other people (unpublish).
   • Check “Disable direct search engine indexing of booking page" under Businrss page access control.
     
   • Default cheduling policies
     • “Time increments” (by minute) is the duration of each appointment. Typically it is set to 30 minutes per appointment.
     • “Minimum lead time” (by hour) is typically 24 hours, meaning that customers should request appointments at least 24 hours ahead of time.
     • “Maximum lead time” (by day) is how far ahead a student can request appointment. Typically it is 30 to 60 days, which allows a student to pick a date in the upcoming 30-60 days.
     • "General Availability" is typically set to  "Bookable when staff are free".
     • In most cases, it is sufficient to set “General Availability” to “Bookable when staff are free”.

After you publish your Bookings page

1. Once you finish configuration of your Booking page, click on "Save" to save all your configuration.
2. Once published, your customers will see a Booking page like the one below. They may be prompted to login to Office 365 first.
   
3. After a student/customer submits an appointment request, the Booking page will display their appointment detail. Both the staff and the student/customer will receive an appointment in their Outlook calendar.
   

When your customer experience error message

Microsoft Bookings is a cloud based service. Occasionally, customers may experience error message when they book appointments on your Booking page,like the one shown in the screenshot below.

Chances are, that their appointment request might have already gone through, even if they saw error message. If they keep trying, you'll get multiple appointments from the same customer. To avoid multiple submission attempts at the occurrence of error message, you may advise your customers that they should contact you immediately if they experience any error message.

Conclusion

You should be able to create a basic Booking page following the instructions in the Microsoft Bookings Quick Start Guide. 

Advisors, including University College advisors, professional advisors for each academic unit, and faculty advisors for each department, are encouraged to use Bookings as an appointment scheduling tool. If a student is not able to schedule an appointment via Bookings, they should try other methods including, but not limited to,email and phone call to contact their advisors.