All image rights reserved by Microsoft
What is Bookings?
Bookings is a new Microsoft 365 app that provides a universal and adaptable way to schedule and manage any type of meeting or appointment with persons either internal or external to your organization. Its administrative interface works across multiple platforms, mobile, desktop, cloud, apple, or android. Bookings was developed with the user experience in mind, the layout is simple and easy to navigate. Whether you’re managing staff members, schedules, or booked appointments; all your tools are at a glance. Bookings offers 3 apps. The web app is used to manage all settings across your Bookings apps and create a Bookings page, which enables your clients to schedule their own appointment. The Teams app, which allows you to connect your clients and staff within a project environment. And finally, a mobile app to manage it all on the go! Whether you need a client page for self-scheduling, customizable notice periods, or automated e-mail confirmations; with Bookings you can achieve a solution to even the most unique of scheduling roadblocks.
How does it work?
Bookings has two interfaces, an internal version which is used by the organization to manage the application and calendars, and an external web-based Bookings page that can be used by staff or customers to book their appointment. Whomever first creates the Bookings web app is considered the “Admin”. You can add other staff as Administrators if they need the ability to make changes or leave them as “view only”. Any staff member who has access to the Bookings calendar, will be able to use any of the three apps. The “Bookings Page”, once customized and published from the Bookings administrative interface; is a customer viewed web page with its own URL. The link to this page can be added to Facebook, embedded on a web page or shared in an e-mail. From this page, users would select a time and date available from the calendar and input their name and e-mail address. It’s not required but clients also have the option to pick from different services and even chose a particular staff member. Once submitted, the appointment triggers an e-mail notification to the staff member based on their availability. The Bookings calendar is immediately updated and if the customer is new, their information is saved to the organization’s contact list, and an automated reminder is set to notify both the staff member and the customer before the appointment. All of these features can be managed from the organization’s administrative page located on the internal web-app.
The internal interface offers three components, a Web App, a Mobile App and a Teams App. With the Microsoft 365 web app you can schedule meetings both internally and externally. Within the organization Bookings can pull data from any type of Microsoft supported calendar including, Outlook, Teams and Skype. To schedule a meeting within your organization, Bookings pulls all your staff availability and suggests an optimal time that works for everyone. Once an appointment has been scheduled, friendly confirmations are sent to each party to be sure they’re available. After they’ve confirmed, they will get a friendly reminder before their meeting is scheduled to begin. From that point the staff's office calendar is auto booked to reflect the change. To set appointments outside of your group or organization, you can send a link to your Booking Page. All types of Bookings whether it be internal or external can be managed on Booking’s internal facing Web Dashboard along with all your other tools.
The Bookings mobile app allows calendar owners and administrators to see all their appointments, access customer lists, contact information, and make manual bookings on the go. The Bookings app within Teams, enables professionals and administrators to schedule bookings with Microsoft Teams Meetings. Staff can use this scheduling tool to send appointment reminders from your business or department to meet virtually with any attendee. Bookings Teams was designed to assist with external engagements and minimize switching between apps, creating new bookings, adding appointment categories, assigning staff, scheduling new appointments and managing existing ones. All Bookings apps sync appointment data,
How does Bookings compare to popular scheduling apps?
How is Bookings Licensed?
Bookings is turned on by default for customers who have the Microsoft 365 Business Standard, or Microsoft 365 A3 and Microsoft 365 A5 subscriptions. It is available to customers who have Office 365 Enterprise E3 and Office 365 Enterprise E5, but it is turned off by default. The user who initially sets the Bookings web app up is considered the “Admin”. This user can add other staff as Administrators if they need the ability to make changes or leave them as “view only”. The all Admins have the same permissions.
Users external to your organization can use an authorized link to access the Bookings page for free.
Learn More:
