Bookly Advanced Google Calendar (Add-on)

The Bookly Advanced Google Calendar (Add-on) is the essential bridge between your WordPress booking system and your personal or professional Google Calendar. Designed for business owners who rely on Google Calendar for daily scheduling, this add-on ensures that your availability is always perfectly synced, preventing double-bookings and eliminating the need to manually update your website whenever your schedule changes. By automating the flow of information between Bookly and Google, you can focus on serving your clients rather than managing your calendar.

Key Features

• Two-Way Synchronization: Automatically sync appointments created in Bookly to your Google Calendar and import events from Google Calendar into Bookly to block out your time, ensuring your availability is always accurate.
• Multiple Calendar Support: Connect multiple Google accounts and map them to specific Bookly staff members, making it ideal for teams and businesses with multiple service providers.
• Real-Time Updates: Changes made in your Google Calendar‚Äîsuch as adding a personal appointment or shifting a lunch break‚Äîare reflected in your Bookly booking form almost instantly.
• Customizable Event Details: Control exactly what information is sent to your Google Calendar, including client names, service types, and booking details, so your calendar remains organized and informative.
• Conflict Prevention: Automatically block time in Bookly when you add a busy event to your Google Calendar, preventing customers from booking slots when you are unavailable.
• Seamless Integration: Designed specifically for the Bookly ecosystem, this add-on installs and configures directly within your existing Bookly settings panel.

Use Cases / Who It’s For

This add-on is perfect for any professional who uses Bookly to manage appointments and also manages their life or business through Google Calendar. If you are a consultant, therapist, personal trainer, or salon owner, you likely have appointments, meetings, or personal commitments that exist outside of your WordPress booking system. Without this tool, you risk a client booking a slot that you have already committed to elsewhere.

For team-based businesses, the Bookly Advanced Google Calendar (Add-on) is a game-changer. Each staff member can link their own individual Google account to their specific Bookly profile. This allows the business to maintain a centralized booking system while respecting the autonomy and private schedules of individual employees. It eliminates the administrative burden of checking multiple calendars before confirming a client’s request, significantly reducing scheduling errors and improving the overall client experience.

Setup / How It Works

Getting started with the synchronization process is straightforward and designed to be completed within your WordPress dashboard:

1. Install and Activate: Ensure you have the core Bookly plugin installed, then upload and activate the Bookly Advanced Google Calendar (Add-on).
2. Google API Configuration: Create a project in the Google Cloud Console to obtain your API credentials (Client ID and Client Secret).
3. Authentication: Enter these credentials into the Bookly settings panel to authorize the connection between your WordPress site and your Google account.
4. Staff Mapping: Navigate to the staff settings in Bookly and select the specific Google Calendar you wish to sync for each individual staff member.
5. Sync Settings: Configure your preferences regarding how often the sync occurs and which details should be included in the calendar events.

Once configured, the system runs in the background. When a client books an appointment through your website, it appears on your Google Calendar automatically. Conversely, when you add a new event to your Google Calendar, the system detects it and updates your Bookly availability accordingly, ensuring your website always shows the most up-to-date schedule.