Waitwhile allows users to connect their linked resource to their Outlook calendar in order to automatically synchronize them. Once connected, it enables Waitwhile bookings to be exported to their Outlook calendar, their external Outlook calendar events to be imported as availability blocks in Waitwhile, or both.
Note: The Outlook calendar integration is currently only available to select customers. Please reach out to your Waitwhile contact for more information.
How to enable the integration
To get started with the Outlook calendar connection, you will need to enable the integration on both an account and location level.
Enable for your account
Navigate to Account settings > Calendar > Outlook calendar.
Select the Outlook calendar integration.
Toggle Enable integration to activate the integration and enter your Allowed domains in the field below. The allowed domains field controls which domains of the external identities (usually their email) users are permitted to connect their resources to. If your connected email is john.doe@example.com, you will need to list "example.com" as an allowed domain.
Click Save.
Enable for your location(s)
Navigate to Location Settings > Integrations > Outlook calendar.
Enable the integration for the location by making a selection under Integration configuration (other than "None" — read more under Configuring the integration).
Set the Event title and Event description for events that are being exported from Waitwhile to Outlook (or leave them as they are for the time being — you can set them up later, as per Configuring the integration).
Click Save.
Setting up the connection with Outlook
After having enabled the integration for your account and desired location(s), it's time to set up the connection with Outlook. This is done from each user's respective User Settings. For this to be possible, you need to make sure that the user at hand is linked to a resource. Connections cannot be created on behalf of other users.
Once a user is linked to a resource, a new section will appear at the bottom of the User settings page: Connect resource to external calendar.
Click on Connect your linked resource to your Outlook calendar to get started.
You will now be sent to Microsoft and asked to sign into your Outlook account.
You will be asked to let Waitwhile access your information in order to set up the connection — click Accept to move on.
That's it! Your connection is now fully set up.
When connecting, bookings will sync as per your setup, following some limitations. The connection will be enabled for all locations the resource exists on and where the feature is enabled by the location manager.
If you’re having trouble connecting your external calendar, please ensure the requirements listed in the troubleshooting section are met.
How to disconnect a calendar
You can disconnect your calendar either as a user, from User settings, or as an administrator (with permissions to edit resources), from Edit resource.
Disconnect as a user
Visit your User settings and click the Disconnect button that appears next to the calendar integration.
Disconnect as an administrator
Navigate to Location settings > Resources, and then click Disconnect in the “Link to user” section.
Note: When disconnecting, future Waitwhile bookings will be removed from your Outlook calendar. However, past bookings will remain.
Configuring the integration
A number of options are available on both the account and location level to further customize the behavior of the integration.
Account settings
Access account-level settings for the integration from Account Settings > Calendar > Outlook Calendar.
Enable integration
This toggle must be switched on in order for the integration to work. If disabled, all existing connections will become dormant, and will not receive or send updates. Dormant connections may be cleaned up after prolonged inactivity.
Allowed domains
Controls which domains of the external identities (usually their email) users are permitted to connect their resources to. If your connected email is john.doe@example.com, you will need to list "example.com" as an allowed domain. Please note that removing a domain from this list does not remove any existing connections.
Location settings
Access location-level settings for the integration from Location Settings > Integrations > Outlook calendar.
Integration configuration
Controls the direction of synchronization for the location.
Import events into Waitwhile: Resources’ external calendar events will be imported as availability blocks on this location.
Export Waitwhile events to Outlook: Bookings on this location will be exported to resources’ external calendars.
Event title and Event description
When bookings from a location are exported, they’ll use the title and descriptions as specified in these settings. By default, the event title will be "Waitwhile Booking" if no service is selected, or "Waitwhile: {Service name}" if a service is selected.
Additionally, you will be able to see the location's display name and its address (as set up in Location settings > Location details).
You can edit the title and description using the same powerful message templating system as customer and team messages, allowing you to dynamically populate it with values such as the customer’s name, their selected services, and more. See the help articles on basic or advanced use of message variables for more information.
Limitations
When exporting Waitwhile bookings to the Outlook calendar, the following limits apply:
The booking may take place at most 24 hours in the past, or up to 2 years into the future.
Bookings that took place over 24 hours ago are not removed or updated.
Events exported from Waitwhile must be modified via the Waitwhile platform. Any changes made to the bookings in Outlook will not be reflected in Waitwhile.
Updates to a location’s title or description templates, or indirect updates such as changing the name of a service referenced in the templates, will not update previously exported bookings until those bookings themselves are updated.
When importing external Outlook calendar events to Waitwhile, the following limits apply:
Only events are imported, not working hours, statuses, or other Microsoft 365 or Teams features.
Waitwhile imports the first 500 upcoming events up to 3 months into the future.
Past events do not count towards the limit.
Previously imported events are removed from Waitwhile after they have ended.
Events are not imported if they are marked as free, cancelled, or draft in the external calendar.
Only events in your primary calendar are imported.
Events in your calendar which you’ve been invited to are only imported if the event’s invitation has been accepted.
Events imported from Outlook cannot be modified in Waitwhile.
Synchronization can take up to a couple of minutes. However, some older calendar applications may not check for updates often enough to reflect the changes in a timely manner. If you find that your external calendar app is frequently more than a few minutes out of date, you may want to consider installing a different calendar app.
Note: We currently only support connections to Outlook calendars. We will be expanding this capability to other calendar providers in the future.
Troubleshooting
If you’re having trouble creating a connection to an external calendar, or if an existing connection stopped working, please ensure the following requirements are met:
The account’s plan includes the external calendar integration feature.
The calendar integration is enabled on the account.
The user attempting to create the connection is linked to a resource.
The calendar integration is enabled on at least one location that the resource is present on.
The resource, user, or email is not already linked to a calendar.
The resource is on at most 10 locations (whether those locations are active or not).
The domain of the linked external account’s identity (usually an email) is on the account’s calendar domain whitelist — "Allowed domains".
The Outlook account’s organization does not impose restrictions on connecting to external applications, or block external applications’ access to calendar or user resources. Waitwhile requires the following permissions when connecting to Outlook (delegated scope names in parentheses):
Read a user’s profile (
User.Read)This permission is required to identify the external account, in order to ensure it is eligible.
Full access to a user’s calendars (
Calendars.ReadWrite)This permission is required to export bookings to the external calendar and to import the external events as availability blocks to Waitwhile. Waitwhile only stores the data necessary to perform its two-way synchronization. No titles, descriptions, or other sensitive external event information is stored.
Maintain access (
offline_access)Allows Waitwhile to retain its access without needing to prompt the user anew when synchronizing.
Something still not working as expected? Reach out to us for assistance!
Common issues & FAQ
I have an all-day event that isn’t being imported
Some calendar clients mark all-day events as “free” by default. If your calendar client does this, you will have to manually edit the event in Outlook to mark it as “busy” instead.
Do events imported from my external calendar prevent customers from booking my resource during the event’s time?
Yes. Locations with the calendar integration’s import feature enabled will block your availability for the duration of your external event, just like if you had changed your working hours for that day.
If you have Allow staff to override availability switched on, you can still override these blocks — as per usual.
My resource has availability for multiple bookings in each time slot. How does an external event impact my time slot?
Your resource’s availability will be blocked off regardless of how many simultaneous visits could normally be served, just like if your working hours were changed.
What happens if I add an external event to a time slot where I already have a Waitwhile booking?
The external event will still be imported as usual and prevent future bookings, but any conflicts with pre-existing bookings must be manually resolved.
Will my exported Waitwhile bookings get imported from my external calendar and start blocking availability at my other locations?
No.
How can I see which location an exported booking comes from?
The location will be populated with name and address, and is displayed when opening the external event in most modern calendar applications. The location can also be configured to be included in the event’s title or description.
Is it possible to add a link directly to the booking in the event’s description?
Yes, adding a copyable link back to Waitwhile is as simple as adding this line to the location’s event description template:
https://new.waitwhile.com/visits?visitId={{id}}