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.

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 your first Booking page

1. After you login to Office 365, 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. A dialog box will pop up for you to “Choose a calendar”. Select your calendar from the list.
5. If you have never set up your Booking page before, you don't have an existing calendar to choose. You'll need to
   • click on “Add a booking calendar” .
     
   • A dialog box will pop up for you to enter general information about your Booking page.
     
   • Click on “Continue” button, and wait for a while when Booking page is being initialized.
     
6. If you already have a Booking page but would like to create a new one, you may also follow step 5 to create a new Booking calendar.

Steps to configure your Booking page

Once you have created a Booking calendar, 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 member(s). In most scenarios, one staff member (yourself) will be sufficient. 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.
     
   • 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.
   • 
   • 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.
   • Check “Require an Office 365 account from my organization to book” if you want your customers to login to the Booking page. If you do not check this box, anyone can access your Booking page.
   • Check “Disable direct search engine indexing of booking page.
     
   • Scheduling policies
     i. “Time increments” (by minute) is the duration of each appointment. Typically it is set to 30 minutes per appointment.
     ii. “Minimum lead time” (by hour) is typically 24 hours, meaning that customers should request appointments at least 24 hours ahead of time.
     iii. “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.
     iv. "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”.

Steps to publish your Bookings page

1. Once you finish configuration of your Booking page, click on "Save and publish".
2. Make your Booking page available online by posting it on a web site, or email to your customers.
   
3. Once published, your customers will see a Booking page like the one below. They may be prompted to login to Office 365 first.
   
4. 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.