Bookings and Requests

A booking is a confirmed meeting. A request needs your approval before it becomes a booking. Use the dashboard to answer requests and manage bookings while they wait for BusyCal.

Once BusyCal finishes adding a booking to your calendar, including any video call link, it leaves the dashboard. From then on, edit or cancel the meeting in your calendar.

When Someone Books

The person booking, called the invitee, chooses a time and fills in the form. They click Book Meeting, or Send Request if the page requires your approval. Then:

• The invitee sees a confirmation that the booking was made or the request was sent, and receives an email. See What Invitees Receive.
• You get an email about the booking. See What You Receive.
• On your Mac, a notification appears in Notification Center. Click it to open the booking (see Opening and Removing Items). To disable these notifications, turn off Show bookings in Notification Center in BusyCal > Settings > Alarms.
• BusyCal's Inbox on your Mac, iPhone and iPad lists the new booking or request. See Bookings in BusyCal's Inbox.
• When the booking is confirmed, BusyCal adds it to your calendar as a meeting with the invitee. See The Event in Your Calendar.

If BusyCal isn't running, it learns about new bookings the next time it opens.

When the booking leaves the dashboard, manage it in your calendar. See Changing a Meeting in Your Calendar.

Bookings in BusyCal's Inbox

BusyCal's Inbox shows booking and request updates on Mac, iPhone and iPad. The Bookings icon distinguishes them from other meeting invitations.

On a Mac, the Inbox button in BusyCal's toolbar shows how many items are waiting. If the toolbar shows no Inbox button, nothing is waiting. For more about the Inbox, see Receiving Meeting Invitations. On iPhone and iPad, tap the Inbox button next to the gear icon. See Receiving Meeting Invitations on iPhone and iPad.

What the Inbox Shows

BusyCal adds an item to its Inbox when:

• Someone makes a booking on one of your booking pages.
• Someone sends a request.
• A request is approved, declined, withdrawn or expires.
• A booking or request is moved to a new time or cancelled.
• The invitee declines the meeting in their calendar.
• BusyCal can't update your calendar for a booking, for example because the calendar's account didn't accept it.

On a Mac, BusyCal shows a notification only for new bookings and new requests. The Inbox lists them even while Show bookings in Notification Center is off.

If this device can't add a booking to your calendar, its Inbox item explains why, for example "Not added to your calendar. The booking page's calendar is read only". The message clears once the booking is added. See A Booking Doesn't Appear in BusyCal.

Opening and Removing Items

On a Mac:

• Select an item: Click it to show the event if it's already in your calendar. A single click doesn't open your browser.
• Open a booking: Double-click it, or select it and press Return. BusyCal shows the calendar event if it exists; otherwise, it opens the dashboard in your browser. Open requests this way to approve or decline them.
• Dismiss an item: Click OK. This clears the notice without changing the booking or answering the request.

While a request waits for your answer, its item says "Waiting for your approval. Double-click to open the request".

Reading or opening an item doesn't dismiss it. It stays for up to 30 days unless you click OK or remove the invitee's details from the booking.

Automatic and Manual Approval

Each booking page's Approval setting decides whether a booking is confirmed right away:

• Automatic: Each booking is confirmed at once. The invitee gets a confirmation and a calendar invitation. BusyCal adds the booking to your calendar.
• You approve each request: Each booking is a request until you answer it. The booking page tells people that you confirm each booking. Your profile page marks it Needs confirmation.

Even with automatic approval, new bookings become requests if your busy times exceed the limit in Settings > Access > Busy times (1 day by default). See Choosing When New Bookings Need Your Approval.

A booking that you make yourself with Book Someone In… is always confirmed at once. See Booking Someone In.

A request reserves its time while you decide. It expires after 48 hours or at the meeting's start, whichever comes first; Answer by shows the deadline. Until you approve it, there's no event in your calendar and no calendar invitation for the invitee.

Answering Requests

You answer a request in your dashboard or from the email about it.

In Your Dashboard

Find pending requests under Overview > Requests or Bookings > Requests. The count beside Bookings shows how many need your answer.

• Click Approve in the list or inside the request to confirm it.
• To decline a request, click Decline…. You can add a reason in Reason (optional). Then click Decline Request. To leave the request waiting, click Keep Request.

From the Email

The email about a request has two links: Approve Request and Decline Request. Each link opens your browser and shows the request and the time when it expires. You don't need to sign in.

• To approve, click Approve.
• To decline, add a reason if you like, then click Decline.

Opening the email link doesn't answer the request. Click Approve or Decline on the page to confirm your choice.

From BusyCal

On a Mac, double-click the request in BusyCal's Inbox, select it and press Return, or click its notification. This opens the request in your dashboard, where you can approve or decline it.

What Happens Next

• Approved: The invitee gets a confirmation and a calendar invitation. BusyCal adds the booking to your calendar.
• Declined: The invitee gets an email saying that you can't meet at that time, with any reason you added. People can book that time again.
• Expired: If you don't answer in time, people can book that time again. The invitee gets an email saying that you didn't answer in time.

Bookings deletes a declined or expired request once its last email is sent.

The invitee can also withdraw a request before you answer. You get an email when they do, and the request shows in Withdrawals in your dashboard until you click Dismiss Notice.

The Lists in Your Dashboard

The dashboard's Bookings page has four lists. Click a name at the top to switch between them:

• Requests: Requests waiting for your answer, each with Approve and Decline….
• Waiting for BusyCal: Bookings waiting for a calendar update or video call link, and cancelled bookings waiting to be removed from the calendar.
• Problems: Bookings that BusyCal couldn't add to your calendar or update there, and requests whose email to the invitee couldn't be sent. A booking's Calendar line, or a request's Email line, says why. See A Booking Doesn't Appear in BusyCal.
• Withdrawals: Requests withdrawn by invitees. Click Dismiss Notice to clear one from the list.

A booking leaves these lists when BusyCal finishes saving the meeting and any video call link. Manage it in your calendar after that. Withdrawn requests stay in Withdrawals until you dismiss them.

Overview shows up to five items from each list, with See All to open the rest. Requests, Problems and Withdrawals appear only when they have items. Empty lists show Nothing here right now. Waiting for BusyCal also explains that bookings leave the list after they're added to your calendar.

Times use your most recently used device's time zone, which is shown on screen. Click Show More at the end of a list to load more items.

For bookings you can still change, the three-dot More actions menu offers the available actions, such as Reschedule…, Cancel Booking… and Remove Invitee Details….

Click a booking to see its details:

• The meeting's time and status, including whether it has ended.
• The invitee's email address and phone number, their answers, their guests and their message.
• The language of their emails.
• The location and any call link.
• Calendar: Progress or problems adding the meeting, such as Waiting for BusyCal to update your calendar.

If the booking page's time zone is different from yours, the booking also shows its start in the booking page's time zone.

Rescheduling a Booking

You can reschedule requests and bookings that are still in the dashboard. Once a booking leaves the dashboard, move the meeting in your calendar instead. See Changing a Meeting in Your Calendar.

1. Open the request or booking in your dashboard and click Reschedule….
2. Under Choose a new time, choose a day, then a time. The booking keeps its duration. Its current time is marked Current. Times are in the booking page's time zone.
3. Check the current time and the new time, then click Reschedule. To go back, click Choose Another Time.

For a booking, the invitee gets an updated invitation for the new time, and BusyCal moves the event in your calendar. For a request, the invitee gets an email with the new time, and the request still waits for your answer.

The new time must be free. If the current meeting is already in a busy calendar, its existing time also blocks availability, so a partly overlapping time won't be offered.

You can reschedule until the meeting starts, even while its booking page is paused or turned off. You can reschedule only when all of these are true:

• The booking page still exists and has its calendar.
• The account of the booking's calendar is turned on in BusyCal. See When the Calendar's Account Is Turned Off.
• Your access to Bookings is current.
• Your busy times are less than 7 days old, so your booking pages can offer times. See Keeping Your Busy Times Up to Date.

Cancelling a Booking

Cancel a booking in the dashboard while it's still listed there. To end a request, decline it. Once a booking leaves the dashboard, delete the meeting in your calendar to cancel it. See Changing a Meeting in Your Calendar.

1. Open the booking in your dashboard and click Cancel Booking….
2. If you like, add a reason in Reason (optional).
3. Click Cancel Booking. To leave the booking as it is, click Keep Booking.

The invitee gets an email about the cancellation, with any reason you added, and the booking is removed from your calendar. You can cancel until the meeting starts.

Invitees can't reschedule or cancel confirmed bookings through Bookings. They can respond to the calendar invitation or contact you. They can withdraw a pending request using View or Withdraw Request in their email. You'll receive an email, and the request appears in Withdrawals.

Booking Someone In

You can make a booking for someone, for example after you arrange a meeting by phone.

1. In your dashboard, click Bookings, then click Book Someone In….
2. Choose the Booking page and the Day, then click Show Times.
3. If the booking page offers several durations, choose a duration. Then choose a time.
4. Under Who you're meeting, enter the person's name and email address, and anything else that the booking page asks.
5. Click Create Booking.

Checkbox questions, such as consent questions, are omitted because only the invitee can answer them. No answer is recorded for those questions.

Bookings you make this way are confirmed immediately, even if the page normally requires approval or your busy times exceed the approval limit. The invitee receives the usual confirmation, and BusyCal adds the meeting to your calendar.

If the page can't take bookings, a message explains why instead of showing times. For example, its calendar account may be turned off. See When the Calendar's Account Is Turned Off.

The Event in Your Calendar

BusyCal saves confirmed bookings as meetings in the calendar selected in Add bookings to when the booking was made:

• The title follows the booking page's Event title.
• You're the organizer. The invitee and their guests are the attendees.
• The location is the one that the invitee chose: the call link after BusyCal creates the call, or the web link, phone number or address.
• The notes contain the invitee's name, email address, phone number, guests, answers and message.
• The event gets your default alarms, like any new event.

A booking page can leave the booking's details out of the event. The event then has no notes, so the invitee's phone number, answers and message don't go into your calendar. The event keeps its title, location and attendees. See Calendar.

Once BusyCal finishes adding the meeting and any call link, you can edit it like any other event. Bookings no longer manages it.

Some calendar accounts send invitations themselves, such as iCloud, Google, Microsoft 365 and Exchange. These accounts send the invitee and their guests an invitation from you, as for other meetings that you organize. Bookings emails them as well, so they can get two invitations. See The Invitation from Your Calendar.

If the calendar's account has no email address that BusyCal can use for you as the organizer, the event has no attendees. The invitation then comes only from Bookings.

Changing a Meeting in Your Calendar

When a booking leaves the dashboard, use your calendar to make further changes:

• To move the meeting, change its time.
• To cancel the meeting, delete it.
• To change its location, notes or attendees, edit the event.

Your calendar account sends the invitee and their guests an update or a cancellation, the same way as for any meeting that you organize. See Meetings and Invitations. If the meeting has no attendees, because the calendar's account has no email address that BusyCal can use for you as the organizer, your changes don't reach the invitee. Let them know yourself.

These changes don't appear in the dashboard or generate Bookings emails. The original booked time remains blocked on your booking pages until it has passed, even if you move or delete the meeting. See Which Events Count.

When the Invitee Answers

When the invitee accepts or declines the invitation in their calendar app, their answer shows on the meeting in your calendar, as for any meeting that you organize. When they decline, BusyCal's Inbox also lists it, with the Bookings icon. Their answer doesn't change or remove the meeting. If they decline, decide whether to keep, move or delete the meeting.

To change or cancel a confirmed meeting, the invitee uses the calendar invitation, for example to decline it, or contacts you. Bookings gives them no way to change it.

Microsoft 365 calendars

When you move a meeting on a Microsoft 365 calendar to a new time, Microsoft asks the invitee to accept the new time again. Microsoft does this whenever a meeting's time changes.

Which Device Adds the Event

Each booking keeps the calendar that its booking page used when the booking was made. If you choose another calendar for the booking page later, only new bookings use it.

Only one device adds each booking to your calendar: a Mac, iPhone or iPad that uses Bookings, runs BusyCal and has the booking's calendar. The event then reaches your other devices through the calendar's account, like any other event.

Until the calendar update and any video call are complete, the booking stays in Waiting for BusyCal, or Problems if something went wrong. BusyCal keeps trying until a week after the meeting's start. See A Booking Doesn't Appear in BusyCal.

Showing Your Bookings with a Smart Filter

Use a smart filter to show only meetings created through Bookings. BusyCal identifies them independently of their title, notes, location and URL, so editing those fields doesn't remove them from the filter. On your Mac:

1. Choose Filter > New Smart Filter….
2. Select Show events that match the following conditions:.
3. Set the condition to event type is booking.
4. Name the smart filter, then click OK.

See Smart Filters.

This identification syncs through iCloud, Google, CalDAV, Exchange and Microsoft 365, so the filter works on your other Macs too. Duplicates and blocking events aren't identified as bookings.

Apple Calendar accounts

An Apple Calendar account shows the calendars of the Calendar app on your Mac in BusyCal, read-only. It's different from an iCloud or other CalDAV account that you add to BusyCal directly.

BusyCal reaches the calendars of an Apple Calendar account through the Calendar app. The mark stays with an event only as far as the Calendar app passes it on. So the smart filter might not show every booking in these calendars.

Removing an Invitee's Details

You can remove personal details from a request or booking still in the dashboard, for example at the invitee's request. This removes their name, email, phone number, answers, guests, message, location and call link. The record keeps its time and status, with Details removed in place of the invitee's name.

1. Open the booking in your dashboard.
2. Click Remove Invitee Details… at the end of its details. You can also choose it in the booking's More actions menu in the list.
3. Read the confirmation, then click the button below it. To keep the details, click Keep Details.

What happens depends on the booking:

The booking	What happens	The button
An upcoming confirmed booking in Waiting for BusyCal or Problems	It's cancelled and removed from your calendar, and the invitee gets the usual email. Their details are removed from Bookings right away.	Cancel and Remove Details
A booking whose meeting has ended, for example one whose Calendar line says that BusyCal didn't finish updating your calendar	Only their details are removed from Bookings. The booking isn't cancelled, nobody gets an email, and your calendar doesn't change.	Remove Details
A request waiting for your answer	It's declined, and the invitee gets the usual email. Their details are removed from Bookings right away.	Decline and Remove Details
A cancelled booking, or a request that ended	Their details are removed from Bookings.	Remove Details

You can't undo this. Bookings deletes the details completely after the last email to the invitee and any update to your calendar. The invitee's link to the booking then says that their details were deleted.

If the booking changes while the confirmation is open, removal stops. Review the updated confirmation before proceeding.

Once a booking leaves the dashboard, Bookings no longer has its invitee details. To remove them from your calendar, edit or delete the meeting there.

You can remove an invitee's details only in your dashboard. To open your dashboard from BusyCal, click Open Dashboard in BusyCal > Settings > Bookings.