Outlook Recurring Events

Introducing Recurring Appointments.

This article will go over recurring appointments in calendars and how to use them.

All calendar types support recurring appointments. The only difference being that if you picked Round-robin, there must be a maximum of 1 user or team member on the calendar.

Once you toggle on the Recurring Appointments, we can see the recurring appointments settings and you can select the settings based on your use case.

What is the "If slots are not available" setting?

This basically means that if there is another appointment or event already booked for the intended slot, then the user has the following options:

• Continue Booking
  • That simply means double book the slot
• Skip booking Unavailable slot
  • That simply means book ONLY the ones that are available and ignore the rest
• Book Next Available Slot
  • That simply means to book the reoccurrences irrespective of how far out in the future the calendar needs to scout for the available slots.
    • Caveat: We check only until the next 3 slots for availability
      • if unavailable we drop the booking
      • if available we continue and complete all recurrences

So, now will the already configured triggers fire for Recurring appointments ?

No, it won't. We have added some new filters for Appointment Triggers.

So all your configured triggers will have added a new filter for your Triggers

We added a new Event Type Filter in the appointment trigger, so now you can control the triggers that can fire for the type of your appointments.

For all the existing Appointment Status triggers in your sub-account we have added a new Filter by default, and the Filter is Event Type : Normal.

Here are the new Filters and their scope:

Event Type: 

This new filter is added, so that you can fire for the appointments related to the type of the Calendar (Recurring Appointments Calendar or Non Recurring Appointments Calendar or both)

Event: Normal

So if we select this filter , then the appointments that are normal(which aren't recurring), and all your existing appointments would be considered as Normal and if we select this, then it would work the same as how it is working now.

Event: Recurring

If we select this filter, then the trigger would fire only for the appointments that got booked in Calendars that had recurring appointment settings turned On.

When it comes to our Outlook Integration, previously, only the first event in a recurring series would sync correctly, leading to discrepancies when changes were made in Outlook. Now, all edits made to recurring events in Outlook will sync accurately with _CompanyName, ensuring consistent and reliable calendar management across both platforms.

This enhancement offers several key benefits. It ensures that any modifications to recurring events are mirrored in _CompanyName, maintaining data integrity and preventing scheduling conflicts. Accurate syncing helps manage availability better, avoiding double bookings and providing a seamless scheduling experience for users. 

To take advantage of this new feature, users must disconnect and reconnect their Outlook integration. This step ensures that the latest sync enhancements are applied. Additionally, it's recommended to regularly check the sync status, use descriptive event titles for easy identification, and enable notifications to receive alerts for any potential sync issues. These practices will help maximize the benefits of improved synchronization and maintain an organized and reliable calendar.

Event: Any

If we select this filter, then the trigger would fire for any type of appointment.

Please Note:

We are deprecating Customer Booked Appointment Trigger, please use the Appointment Status Trigger

So now, if you select Created By Filter:

1. Customer: It would work the same as the Customer Booked Appointment, so if this filter is added, then appointments that are booked by customer i.e if the appointment is booked from the widget, then only this would fire.
2. User: All the appointments that are booked inside Referins or any other source other than the appointments that booked from the widget would fire the appointment.

Please Note:

• User cannot bulk update appointments (cancel or reschedule)
• User should be careful when selecting the recurring booking option (book next vs skip booking vs continue booking)
• If meeting location is zoom or google meet, All recurring appointments will have different meeting urls
• If sync is on - events are synced as individual events with the third party calendars
• Recurring appointments can only be booked for standard slots (for custom slots we do not display recurring booking option) 
• Users will not be able to book recurring appointments from the opportunities page. The recurring calendars will be available in the drop down to book but only for a single time slot.