Overview

Microsoft Bookings is a powerful tool allowing you to schedule meetings that are integrated with your Outlook calendar. It is ideal for advising, office hours, or any service that needs to connect people in their preferred times. Bookings can automatically include a Teams meeting link so you never have to copy and paste something for an online meeting. You can set automatic reminders for all parties in your meetings. Bookings can be accessed in at least three ways: 1) using Bookings with me integrated in your Outlook calendar, 2) using the Office 365 Bookings app, or 3) using Bookings integrated in your Teams calendar. If Bookings is only available to employees. If you do not find it in your apps, request it from the IT Service Desk. 

Bookings with Me

Bookings with me is the simplest method for facilitating 1:1 meetings while integrating your free/busy information from your Outlook calendar. If you wish, your booked meetings can automatically have a Teams meeting link built into the appointment so that you can meet online without having to generate a online link separately.

To get to Bookings with me, open your Outlook calendar in a browser. You can also get to your Outlook calendar through the Email link on theROCK and open the small Calendar icon on the left, then click Edit bookings page  as shown below. Bookings with me is not available in the Outlook desktop app.

1. When you open Bookings with me, it first displays an Organizer view.
   
   Here you can set up your Bookings with me banner and your available hours for Public and Private meetings. The main difference between Public and Private bookings is that a Private booking has its own unique link that will expire after 90 days. You can also have it expire when the user books one time. You might typically use a Private booking for creating a particular meeting with someone within a special time frame. Public bookings, on the other hand, would typically be used for general ongoing availability.
2. Once you have defined your regular meeting hours and all the settings for a meeting type (including meeting length), Save your settings, then click the Share button in the upper right to copy your Bookings page link or email it directly to someone.
3. The link you get from the Share button is the link to your Attendee view. Open the Share link in a new browser window to see it.
   
   The user can select a date on the calendar and view all available times for a meeting with you.
4. Bookings with me is a preview application at the time of this writing, so there may be periodic changes to the tool.

Bookings App

If you need advanced features like meetings with groups, collecting data from those who book time with you, setting up services with multiple staff members, or sending reminder notifications via text, use the Bookings app as described in the video below. It explains the basics for setting up your Bookings app the first time.

Bookings Integrated in Teams

Most University of Northwestern users will likely use Bookings with me to easily set up most single meetings. However, Microsoft provides some information about using Bookings in Teams if that is more convenient for your workflow.

If you have further questions or feedback about Microsoft Bookings, view the video in Microsoft Stream and leave a comment. We will follow up. Or, contact Academic Technology.