You can sync your Outlook Calendar with your vcita calendar to manage your schedule from one place. All events will be imported from Outlook to vcita and block time on your vcita calendar. Syncing your calendars will prevent your clients from booking when you are unavailable. When trying to book an appointment from your own calendar, you will be notified if the booking clashes with an Outlook event. 

Connecting to Outlook two-way sync can be done from the Settings / My Schedule page or directly from the App Market on the left menu.  

When syncing your calendars, you can choose to import your Outlook calendar into vcita, export your vcita calendar to your Outlook calendar, or both.

Syncing with your Outlook Calendar

1. From your Calendar page, click on "Connect external calendar"
2. Next to "Outlook Calendar", click on "Connect"
   
3. Log in to the desired Microsoft Account.
4. Set up your Import preferences - What Outlook Calendars should create "Busy times" in your vcita calendar.
5. Set up your Export preferences - How to update your Outlook Calendar with vcita appointments.
6. Click on "Done", and select to "Sync now" or to schedule the sync for 1 am, local time.

The initial sync includes calendar items from the prior and following two years.

Free/Busy states of Outlook calendar items

A calendar item in your Outlook calendar has one of several states:

• Free (Free - does not sync to vcita)
• Working Elsewhere (Busy in vcita)
• Tentative (Busy in vcita)
• Busy (Busy in vcita)
• Away (Busy in vcita)
• Out of Office (Busy in vcita)

For the purpose of calculating "Busy" time, vcita considers all states apart from "Free" as "Busy".

Import your Outlook calendar to your vcita calendar

When importing your Outlook calendar into vcita, you'll be able to view all of your Busy times on your vcita calendar, as long as you remember to mark the event as a Busy time in Outlook. Adding Outlook calendar items will help you make sure you prevent double bookings. 

You can choose to keep your Outlook Calendar appointment details private and visible only to you on your vcita account.

Export your vcita calendar display to Outlook calendar 

When exporting your calendar, you'll need to choose how you'd like to export your vcita calendar to Outlook during the export process. The default option is to export all your calendar items to your Outlook calendar. 

Additionally, you can export your vcita calendar to a brand new one that will be added to the "my calendars" section as a new subscribed calendar. (see image below). The new calendar will be named according to your vcita business name as a default when choosing this option. You can choose a unique name during the process.

If you're viewing your calendar from Mac or iPhone, make sure the exported calendar is selected there as well.  

Initial sync

The initial sync process typically takes a few hours but can take up to 24 hours. During this time, some of your calendar items may not be available. All changes that occur on your vcita calendar will be updated automatically on your Outlook calendar.

Migrating from the old version of Outlook Calendar sync:

To migrate to the new version of Outlook Calendar Sync, go to the relevant Calendar Sync settings page. This would be Setting-> Availability & Calendar for single-staff businesses and Settings->Staff->Advanced settings->My Schedule for multi-staff businesses.

The yellow banner to Update your Outlook sync has a "Click Here" button that, when clicked, will take you to your calendar page and to the new Outlook Calendar Sync wizard.

During this process, your Outlook calendar will subscribe to your updated vcita calendar while the old synced calendar items are removed to prevent duplicates. 

The new 2-way sync app offers improved syncing between calendars by creating a 'mirror' of your vcita calendar on Outlook and vice versa. This also eliminates the need for emails with .ics files that fill your inbox. 

Disconnecting your vcita Outlook calendar 2-Way sync

When disconnecting the 2-way sync, all events and appointments will be removed from the Outlook calendar as a default. Before completing the process, you would be able to choose to keep all existing events and appointments.

FAQ

I have an event on Outlook that is not syncing to vcita

Check the event status to be sure that the event is marked as BUSY time. vcita only syncs busy times. You can check the event status type by clicking on the Event on your Outlook Calendar, then Selecting  Edit, then Other Options to view or change the event type. Please remember to save your changes.

I stopped receiving email notifications for calendar updates 

With the new 2-way sync now activated, we've taken steps to reduce your inbox clutter by turning off redundant email notifications. You can turn them back on at any time in your email template settings.

I can't connect to my Outlook calendar from vcita

If you encounter issues connecting to your Outlook calendar, try logging out and then back into your Outlook account. Once you've done that, open the two-way sync app and try again. 

If you still aren’t able to connect your Outlook account, please contact support.

I can only see parts of my vcita calendar in my Outlook calendar

The Outlook calendar sync may take up to 24 hours. If you still can't see some or all of your vcita calendar items on your new Outlook calendar, please contact support.

Updates I make on my vcita calendar are not visible in my Outlook calendar

The Outlook sync connection is immediate; sometimes, it can take a few minutes to get updated due to server issues. Try refreshing your browser after 15 mins. If you still can't see the update reflected on your Outlook account, please contact support.

I've added the new calendar to my iCal, but I still can't see my vcita calendar items in it. 

If you've successfully synced your Outlook calendar and checked the box beside your business name on your iCal, try clearing the cache on your browser. You can access your browser's Help menu to locate step-by-step instructions on how to do this or view those steps.

Basic Troubleshooting 

If you run into any issues syncing your Outlook calendar with your vcita calendar:

• Make sure that your browser is up to date. We recommend you use Chrome to sync your calendar the first time.
• Clear the cache on your browser. You can access your browser's Help menu to locate step-by-step instructions on how to do this.  You can also see instructions on how to do that here.
• Refresh the page.
• Switch to a different browser. We recommend Google Chrome.

If the above steps do not resolve your calendar sync issues,  please submit a ticket by using this link.