How calendar sync works
Business Box checks your connected calendars before offering booking times and adds confirmed appointments to your chosen calendar. This page explains what is shared and how to check the connection.
Reading: how times are decided#
A time appears on your booking page only if it survives all of this:
- It is inside the availability schedule the service uses.
- It is not on a blocked public holiday, and not on a date you closed with an override.
- It is free in every calendar you ticked Use to check availability on.
- It does not clash with another Business Box booking, including the buffers either side.
- It is further away than the service's minimum notice, and nearer than its bookable up to limit.
- The day has not hit the service's daily cap.
- Nobody else is currently holding it while they fill in the form.
Business Box reads only whether you are busy — not what the appointment is. An event marked Free in Google or Outlook does not block anything, which is exactly why closing a whole day belongs in a date override and not in an all-day calendar event.
Writing: the booking in your calendar#
One calendar receives bookings. Business Box creates the entry when the booking is confirmed, moves it if the appointment is rescheduled, and removes it if the booking is cancelled. It never touches an entry it did not create.
Your customer is added as a guest, so your calendar provider sends its own invitation on top of the Business Box confirmation. That is deliberate: it means the appointment appears in their calendar in the form they expect.
Calendar status on a booking#
| Badge | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| On calendar | The appointment is saved in your calendar and is up to date. | Nothing. |
| Adding to calendar… | The appointment is being added. This usually takes a few seconds. | Nothing. Reload if it stays. |
| Not on calendar | No calendar is set to receive bookings. | Choose one under Booking → Calendars. |
| Calendar sync failed | The appointment could not be added to your calendar. The reason is shown below. | Press Restore calendar event on the booking. |
| Missing from calendar | The entry was deleted or moved out of your calendar. The booking is still live. | See below. |
When you change a booking in your own calendar#
You can reschedule an appointment in Google Calendar or Outlook. Business Box handles changes to the time differently from deleted calendar events, as explained below.
If you change the appointment time#
The booking updates to the new time and any unsent reminders are rescheduled. The original appointment time becomes available for other customers.
Your customer is not emailed again, because your calendar provider has already told them — it moved their copy of the invitation. Moving it yourself also does not use up one of the customer's own reschedules.
Two exceptions, where the move is not followed:
- The new time clashes with another booking. Business Box leaves its copy where it was and emails you naming the clash, because this is almost certainly a mistake.
- The new time is in the past. Treated as a deletion.
If you delete the calendar event#
Deleting a calendar event does not cancel the booking. The appointment remains reserved and is marked Missing from calendar. You receive an email so you can choose whether to cancel the booking or restore the calendar event.
From the booking you then choose:
- Cancel, if the appointment really is off. Your customer is told, and refunded if they paid.
- Restore calendar event, to put the entry back.
No reminder is sent for a booking whose entry has been deleted, so nothing goes out to your customer while you decide.
When calendar changes appear#
Business Box compares its bookings against your calendar at four different moments:
- Whenever you press Refresh on the Calendars page.
- Every few minutes for anything starting within the next twelve hours.
- Immediately before any reminder is sent, so no reminder can carry a stale time.
- Nightly, for everything else.
So a change to this afternoon's appointment is picked up almost at once, and a change to something three weeks out within a day. If you have just made a change and want it reflected now, press Refresh.
Reconnecting a calendar#
Calendar access can lapse — a password change, a security policy, permission revoked somewhere else. When it does, the connection shows Needs reconnecting, you get an email about it, and your booking pages tell visitors Bookings temporarily unavailable.
To prevent overlapping appointments, new bookings are paused when Business Box cannot check the connected calendar. Reconnect the calendar to resume bookings. Existing appointments are unchanged.
- Go to Booking → Calendars.
- Press Reconnect on the connection showing the amber badge.
- Approve the same permissions again.
Disconnecting#
Disconnect removes the connection. Entries already in your calendar stay where they are, but new bookings will not be added to it, and any Meet or Teams links depending on it stop being created. Existing bookings keep working for you and your customer.
If it was the calendar receiving bookings, pick another one afterwards — or new bookings will show Not on calendar.
Common questions
Will Business Box double book me?
Not if a calendar is connected and ticked for conflict checking. Busy time in that calendar is never offered, existing bookings and their buffers are excluded, and a slot being filled in by someone else is held until they finish or give up.
What happens if I move a booking in Google Calendar or Outlook?
Business Box follows the move: the booking is updated to the new time, unsent reminders are re-timed and the old slot is freed. Your customer is not emailed again because the calendar provider has already moved their invitation. If the new time clashes with another booking, the move is not followed and you are emailed about it.
What happens if I delete the calendar entry for a booking?
Nothing is cancelled. The booking stays live, the badge becomes Missing from calendar, and you get one email asking what you meant. From the booking you can then cancel it properly — telling your customer — or press Restore calendar event.
Why is my booking page offering no times at all?
Most often a calendar needs reconnecting, which pauses bookings on purpose so you cannot be double booked. Check Booking → Calendars for an amber Needs reconnecting badge. Other causes are listed in Troubleshooting.
Can I have bookings written to one calendar and check clashes in several?
Yes, and that is the intended setup. Tick Use to check availability on every calendar that means you are busy, and set just one as the calendar that receives bookings.
Last reviewed 16 October 2026.