Skip to main content

BusyCal Bookings

BusyCal Bookings lets people book a meeting with you at a time you're free. Create a booking page for each type of meeting, such as a 30-minute call, then share its link. The person chooses an available time and fills in a short form. BusyCal adds the confirmed booking to your calendar.

Illustration of a booking calendar with available meeting times

Your existing events stay private. Bookings receives their busy times, without titles, notes or other event details. It keeps a confirmed booking until BusyCal has finished adding it to your calendar, including any video call link. You then manage the meeting in your calendar.

Set up Bookings in BusyCal for Mac. Your iPhone, iPad and other Macs can then use it through the same iCloud account. See Getting Started with Bookings.

How Bookings Works with BusyCal​

Bookings has two parts that work together:

  • BusyCal on your devices shares your busy times, adds bookings to your calendar and creates video calls. Its Inbox shows updates to bookings and requests. On your Mac, use BusyCal > Settings > Bookings to sign in and choose which calendars to check for conflicts. Devices using the same iCloud account join automatically.
  • Your dashboard, at busybook.me/my, lets you manage Bookings in a browser. Use it to create booking pages, answer requests, check bookings waiting for BusyCal, and change your settings.

The Bookings service doesn't connect to your calendar accounts. BusyCal handles calendar access on your devices and receives booking updates through push notifications, with regular checks as well. Keep BusyCal running on a Mac to keep your busy times up to date. On iPhone and iPad, updates run while BusyCal is open and when iOS allows background refresh.

BusyCal shares only the start and end times of busy periods from the calendars you choose. It doesn't send their event titles, locations, notes or guests. It also shares calendar names, colors and account names so you can choose a calendar in the dashboard, the organizer email address used for invitations, and whether each calendar's account is turned on.

Bookings uses encrypted connections and encrypted storage, with each booking's invitee details encrypted separately. See Account, Security and Privacy for an overview, or the Bookings Privacy Notice for full details about storage and retention.

Each booking page offers a type of meeting, with its own duration, hours, questions, location and approval setting. For example, offer a 15-minute call that confirms automatically and a one-hour consultation that needs your approval.

Each page has a link such as busybook.me/jane/intro. It combines your username (jane) with the page's Link setting (intro).

A booking page's Visibility setting decides who can book it:

  • Turned off: No one can book. People who open the link see that the booking page is turned off.
  • Link only: Anyone with the link can book. The booking page isn't listed on your profile page.
  • On your profile: The booking page is listed on your public profile page, so anyone with your profile link can find it and book.

See Booking Pages.

Your Profile Page​

Your public profile, such as busybook.me/jane, shows your name, photo and the booking pages set to On your profile. Share this link when you want people to choose from your available meeting types. See Your Profile and Appearance.

Bookings and Requests​

A booking is a confirmed meeting. A request needs your approval.

  • On a booking page with Automatic approval, each booking is confirmed right away.
  • On a booking page set to You approve each request, each new booking is a request until you approve or decline it.

A pending request reserves its time until you approve or decline it, or it expires. See Bookings and Requests.

Busy Calendars​

Choose which calendars should block booking times in BusyCal > Settings > Bookings. These are your busy calendars. For example, include both work and personal calendars to avoid conflicts with either. Bookings keeps their last shared busy times until they are replaced or removed, or you delete your account. If an account stops syncing, those times become out of date. See Availability and Busy Calendars.

Where Bookings Go​

Choose a destination calendar for each booking page using Add bookings to in the dashboard. BusyCal adds confirmed bookings there, and the calendar account syncs them to your other devices. Requests are added only after you approve them. You can use a smart filter to show just your bookings in BusyCal. See Showing Your Bookings with a Smart Filter.

If you turn off the account of a booking page's calendar in BusyCal > Settings > Accounts, that booking page stops taking new bookings until you turn the account on again or choose another calendar. See When the Calendar's Account Is Turned Off.

Once BusyCal finishes adding the booking and any video call link, it leaves the dashboard. Edit, move or cancel the meeting in your calendar, as you would any other meeting you organize. See Changing a Meeting in Your Calendar.

Bookings sends you email updates, and BusyCal's Inbox shows booking and request updates with the Bookings icon. On your Mac, new bookings and requests also appear in Notification Center. To stop these notifications, turn off Show bookings in Notification Center in BusyCal > Settings > Alarms. See Bookings in BusyCal's Inbox and Receiving Meeting Invitations.

Your Dashboard​

To open your dashboard, click Open Dashboard in BusyCal > Settings > Bookings. Or go to busybook.me/my in your browser. You sign in with the same email address that you use in BusyCal.

The dashboard has four sections:

  • Overview: A summary of requests, bookings waiting for BusyCal, problems and withdrawals, plus your booking links.
  • Bookings: Four lists for managing outstanding items: Requests, Waiting for BusyCal, Problems and Withdrawals. A booking leaves these lists when BusyCal finishes saving the meeting and any call link. See The Lists in Your Dashboard.
  • Booking pages: Your booking pages. Here you create, edit and preview booking pages, and turn them on or off.
  • Settings: Profile, Appearance, Email replies, Access, Sign-in and security, and Privacy and data. Access also has Busy times, where you see how old each calendar's busy times are and choose when new bookings need your approval.

Who Can Use Bookings​

Bookings is included with BusyCal for Mac. You can use it with:

  • BusyCal from the Mac App Store, while your subscription is active.
  • BusyCal through Setapp, while your membership is active.
  • BusyCal bought from our website, while your license includes free updates, and for 14 days after they end. See Licensing Explained.
  • The free trial of BusyCal from our website, until the trial ends.

If you don't have access, BusyCal > Settings > Bookings explains why and offers Buy…, Renew… or Subscribe…, as appropriate. For a Setapp copy, check your membership in Setapp.

Access on iPhone and iPad depends on your Mac copy's eligibility. If that ends, renew your Mac license, subscription or membership to keep using Bookings on those devices. See Using Bookings on Your Other Devices.

Last updated on