Objective

Integrate Microsoft® Exchange with Coconut to provide staff members with the ability to sync and view appointments in either application.

This article provides an overview of how create, update, and remove actions on calendar events in Microsoft® Exchange sync with Coconut.

General

Coconut retrieves future events from Microsoft® Exchange (plus one day prior) relative to the date the Exchange user’s calendar is initialized. As a result, events created/updated/deleted in the past will not appear in a staff member’s schedule in Coconut.

The sync can be affected by network bandwidth throttling from the Exchange server for both imported events and exported events, because there is a set number of requests which a server can process within a given timeframe. When the requests exceed this limit, the server delays the requests and processes them again once the queue is cleared up, therefore re-syncing the backed up events.

Hot Tip!

Coconut retrieves changes from Exchange at regular intervals of up to 60 minutes. In other words, it takes on average 5 minutes, but up to 60 minutes, for events to sync. If an event is updated in Coconut before the change is synced from Exchange, the latest changes in Coconut are used.

Mapping of event details

The following elements in an event in an employee’s Exchange calendar map to the following elements in Coconut:

The event title represents the selected service for the appointment in Coconut
The location’s address represents the assigned location in Coconut
The event organizer in Exchange represents the staff member assigned in Coconut
Event attendees are associated with clients in Coconut
- NOTE: Any attendees added to an event in Exchange will not sync to Coconut

Event requirements

The following requirements must be met for an event in Microsoft® Exchange to sync to Coconut:

The event must be for a service provider (employee) in Coconut whose email address in Coconut is the same as the primary email address set in Microsoft® Exchange
The event must be created in the primary calendar for the user in Exchange
The event must be set as busy in Exchange (not, for example, Free or Working Elsewhere)

NOTE: At this time, multi-user appointments are supported if your organization uses Exchange Web Services for the integration with Coconut, but not if your organization uses Graph for the integration.

Create events in Microsoft® Exchange

The following happens when an event created in Exchange is synced to Coconut:

An external absence is created in Coconut and assigned to that employee
The external absence is assigned to one of the locations assigned to that employee in Coconut
The event will be set to Busy in Coconut
The time zone will reflect the employee’s time zone
Details added to the event body above Edits above this line will be synced are added to the appointment's internal notes in Coconut

Update events in Microsoft® Exchange

The following happens when an event updated in Exchange is synced to Coconut:

The event’s free/busy setting is updated in Coconut to reflect the status in Exchange
- Updated to Free: The external absence previously noted in the employee’s schedule in Coconut is removed
- Updated to Busy: The external absence is added to the employee’s schedule in Coconut
If the event’s primary calendar is updated:
- Removed from the primary calendar: The external absence previously noted in the employee’s schedule in Coconut is removed
- Added to the primary calendar: An external absence is added to the employee’s schedule in Coconut
- Details are added to/updated within the event body above Edits above this line will be synced are added to/updated in the appointment's internal notes in Coconut

Recurrence updates

It is not possible to update an event’s recurrence after it is created. Any updates to an event’s recurrence made in Exchange will not sync to Coconut.

Notifications

When an event is updated in Exchange, notifications are sent from Coconut to staff and clients if general notifications are enabled in Coconut.

To enable general notifications:

From the navigation menu, click Settings
From Notifications, click Clients
Configure your desired client notification settings
From Notifications, click Staff
Configure your desired staff notification settings

Remove events from the primary calendar in Microsoft® Exchange

The following happens when an event removed from the user's primary calendar in Exchange is synced to Coconut:

If the event originated in Exchange: When an even is removed from the primary calendar in Exchange, the corresponding external absence in Coconut is removed
- NOTE: Moving the event from the primary calendar in Exchange to another calendar within Exchange is considered a "remove" event
If the event originated in Coconut: When an event that originated in Coconut is canceled in Exchange, notifications are sent from Coconut to staff and clients if general notifications are enabled