Connecting Google Calendar
Google Calendar is the tile to pick if you don't use a CRM. It is also where bookings go if you picked "I don't use one" at signup. Only the account owner can connect it, and you sign in to Google yourself: Ansa staff never sign in to your Google account.
Open the Google Calendar tile
During setup it is in step 3, Where bookings should land. Later, it is on the Integrations page. Click Connect Google Calendar.
Approve Ansa on Google's screen
Sign in with the Google account that holds the calendar you book in. Google asks to let Ansa see your email address, see your list of calendars, and view and edit events. Leave every box ticked. If one is unticked, the connection fails and you need to start again.
Choose your calendars in Set up your booking calendars
You come back to Ansa and pick the calendar for new appointments, plus any calendars that should block your time. Save, and Ansa runs its connection check. Once it passes, Google Calendar can take your bookings.
Booking calendar and blocking calendars
Where should Ansa add appointments? This is the one calendar new appointments go into. Only calendars you can edit are listed, and your default calendar is selected to start with. This calendar also blocks your availability, so Sarah never double-books it.
Which other calendars should block your availability? Optional, up to 10. Sarah won't offer a time when you are busy on any of them. Use it for a personal calendar, a shared crew calendar, or anything else that means you can't take a job.
What lands on your calendar
Each booking is a calendar event, written during the call. The event title has the caller's name and the service. The description lists the caller's name, phone number, address, the service and any notes Sarah took.
Sarah only offers times inside your Hours that are free on the booking calendar and every blocking calendar. She reads your calendar live during each call, so anything you add or move in Google Calendar is what she sees on the next call. If a caller moves an appointment, Sarah moves the event and adds a note to its description. If a caller cancels, she removes the event.
Test calls never write to your calendar. To see a real event land, call your business line from another phone once you are live.
Changing your setup later
To change blocking calendars, open Integrations, select Google Calendar and click Edit setup. Your changes apply from Sarah's next call.
To book into a different calendar, disconnect Google Calendar and connect it again, picking the new calendar on the way back in. If Google Calendar is your active connection and you have no other one, Sarah has nowhere to book between those two steps and takes callback numbers instead, so do it in one sitting. See Switching or disconnecting a connection.
Troubleshooting
We couldn't connect Google Calendar.
Usually a permission was unticked on Google's screen, or the sign-in was cancelled. Click Connect Google Calendar again and leave every box ticked.
The calendar I want isn't in the list.
The booking calendar list only shows calendars your Google account can edit. If the calendar belongs to someone else, ask them to give you permission to make changes to events, then reconnect.
Google Calendar shows Reconnect needed.
Google stopped accepting Ansa's access, for example because the access was removed in your Google account. Click Reconnect and sign in again with the same Google account.
A calendar in my setup says access is unavailable.
Ansa can no longer read that calendar. Restore your access to it in Google, or remove it from your blocking calendars in Edit setup. If it is the booking calendar, restore access or disconnect and reconnect with a new one.
Sarah offered a time when I was busy.
The busy event is probably on a calendar that isn't in your setup. Add that calendar under Which other calendars should block your availability?