Microsoft 365 Bookings App

Created by Kevin Schmidt - HCPro, Modified on Thu, 9 Oct at 3:06 AM by Kevin Schmidt - HCPro

The following document walks through the process of activating the Microsoft 365 Booking app for your AHIMA Outlook account. Use the steps below to give external contacts the option to see your availability and book an appointment linked to your AHIMA calendar. You can create a Booking page for yourself, or for your entire team.

Click to learn more about the Microsoft Bookings App

1. To access Bookings as the admin of a site, go to https://outlook.office.com/bookings/ and sign in to your AHIMA Microsoft account (use your standard AHIMA staff log-in)

2. On the Bookings homepage, click on "Get Started"

*If prompted, clone an existing calendar or click "New Bookings Calendar" to create new.

3. Creating a new Booking calendar:

Edit business name - be sure to include "AHIMA" and your department or project name (e.g. AHIMA Foundation - Jane Smith).
Edit business type field (recommended: Other).

Complete the action items on the top banner of your Bookings homepage:

(BANNER ONLY AVAILABLE IN OLD BOOKINGS VERSION)

Add Business Information

In the Business Information tab, specify details about your site. You can also add a logo to better identify your site, and you can set the specific hours within which appointments can be booked. If your staff/team members need more flexible hours, they can be set on an individual basis. Save any changes you wish to keep.

4. Add AHIMA Logo by clicking on the Add logo section

Add Staff

As the creator of the Bookings calendar, you will be listed as Staff and your calendar will be synced. You will need to add additional staff or team members of people who will be using this Bookings page to schedule meetings.

5. In the left-hand nav, click Staff then select + Add Staff

6. In the Staff details page, start typing the username in the “Add People” field. You may need to click “Search Directory.”

When suggestions appear, choose the name of the person. You don’t need to enter any additional information. The email address should be populated automatically. By default, new members are given the “Viewer” role. If you want the person to help manage the site, change their role to “Administrator.”

7. In the Availability column, select “Events on Office 365 affect availability.”

8. Click to Save updates.

Validate staff calendars are synced under "Calendar"

? Tip: Use the new Bookings version to take full advantage of staff group availability feature.

Add Service(s)

9. Click on Services to add or edit existing "Services":

To manage services appointment scheduler go to Services and click to edit the service settings

*Note: A default service will appear on your services list which you can edit to customize.

Edit default service (i.e. Book one-on-one meeting with X, Book Initial Consultation)
Add Default location (i.e. Teams)
Enable Add online meeting - This is an important step that turns on the integration with Microsoft Teams.
Edit Default Duration (recommended: 30 minutes or 45 minutes)
Enable Buffer time (recommended: 15 minutes Before and 15 minutes After)
Set the number of Maximum Attendees. (By default, it is
set to 1.)
(Optional) Enable Let customers manage their appointment when it was booked by you or your staff on their behalf.
Change your Default price to “Free” or leave it as “Price
not set.”
(Optional) Modify Custom Fields requirements
Edit Notification Settings -

RECOMMENDED:

In Services tab, only select 1st option:
In Booking Page tab, select both options:

Set Up and Publish Booking Page

In the left-hand menu, click the Booking Page tab to finish setting up the features of your site and to publish the booking page.

10. Configure Booking page

Use newest version of Bookings
Disable direct search engine indexing of booking page
Scheduling policy: Set the time increments of your services/meetings. Also, specify any lead time required for booking appointments. For example, if you don’t want last minute bookings, you can specify a lead time of one hour or more.

Default:

30 minutes - time increments
24 - minimum lead time (hours)
365 - maximum lead time (days)
Activate all email notifications
Allow customers to choose a specific person for the booking (for 1:1 bookings). If group, disable this feature.
Set availability to "Bookable when staff are free"