In this article
Objective
Learn how the sync between your Outlook calendar and Coconut works, as well as some best practices for optimal use.
How the sync works
Events from Microsoft® Outlook are synced into Coconut as external events. The sync takes on average 5 minutes to complete, but can take longer, depending on throttling, number of requests, nature of the events (for example, many recurring events with long time frames), etc.
NOTE: If changes are made to the Outlook calendar too often, the event can be de-linked and orphaned from the parent event. Coconut recommends making updates no more than once every 5 minutes.
Sync requirements
Syncing from your Outlook calendar to Coconut
An event in your Outlook calendar - and updates made to it - will sync with Coconut if:
The event status is set to either Busy, Away (Out of Office), or Tentative (not Working Elsewhere or Free)
The event has an end date
Hot tip! Coconut recommends that, if the event is recurring, the recurrence is less than 2 years
Another hot tip! If you’re scheduling a multi-day event, Coconut recommends scheduling a single day and then setting the event to recur for the number of days needed (instead of spanning the date range); this helps to optimize the sync and availability for online booking
The event does not have the same start and end time
The event remains in your primary (default) calendar
NOTE: Coconut does not support updating a Coconut appointment in your Outlook calendar to a recurring event.
When an event is synced from your Outlook calendar to Coconut:
In Coconut, the event description is removed and the title is replaced with Busy
NOTE: This can be changed if the setting is updated by your administrator to include title and description for public events
Syncing from Coconut to your Outlook calendar
The appointment is synced to the primary Outlook calendar for the assigned staff
NOTE: If it is a multi-staff appointment in Coconut, the appointment will sync only to the primary calendar of the staff member noted as the Organizer of the appointment in Coconut
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
The sync and your calendar availability
Events in your Outlook calendar impact your availability for clients/members who are booking with you through the Coconut online booking experience. These impacts depend on the event status:
Busy and Out of Office events in your Outlook calendar make you unavailable for online booking during that time
Calendar invites from others where you responded yes or maybe, or invites where you have yet to respond make you unavailable for online booking during that time
Free events in your Outlook calendar do not impact your availability for online booking by clients/members
Calendar invites from others where you responded no do not impact your availability for online booking by clients/members
Recommended best practices
Keep these tips in mind for a smooth experience using the Microsoft Exchange<>Coconut integration:
Make a habit of adding the following to your calendar as early as possible:
Internal team, department, and company meetings
Breaks, lunches, and vacation time
Personal time (for example, a medical appointment, after-school pick-up, etc.)
Whenever possible, set the event duration as a single day (24 hours or less)
Set an end date and time for every recurring event that is no further than 2 years in the future
Refrain from immediately making changes to recently created events, as this can disrupt the initial sync for the event
Additional resources
For more detailed information on syncing events from Microsoft Exchange to Coconut, please refer to this article.