Request new MS Bookings

Overview

Microsoft Bookings is a web-based appointment scheduling tool available through Langara's Office 365. Bookings is available upon request to full-time staff and faculty. Students and retired staff are not eligible to request, administer, or own a Microsoft Bookings site, but can be added as Staff Member(s) in a Bookings site.

Key features:

- A 24/7/365 online solution for booking appointments - no calls necessary
- Automatic email confirmations and reminders.
- The ability to cancel or reschedule online.
- An easy way to add appointments to your existing Outlook calendar.
- The option to schedule via phone or in person, you can easily add appointments to Bookings manually from a computer or on a mobile device.

Common use cases:

- Office hours for teaching assistants or faculty.
- Appointments with staff for advising, support, consultations or technology support.
- Office hours for staff of a center, project, or group.

Solution

Full-time staff and faculty can request a Microsoft Bookings site, license, and the ability to administer the site by providing the following information:

1. Bookings Calendar name (Example: Langara IT)
   NOTE: All names will be appended with -appointments (Example: Langara-IT-Appointments)
2. Owner
3. Description

Upon receiving the request, Langara IT will create the MS Bookings Calendar (since creation is currently limited). Owners will be provided the custom URL for bookings access once the Bookings Calendar is created. The owner will now need to configure the Bookings Calendar and publish it.

Training:

Our IT Department recommends the following for assistance in deployment:

• Step 1: Enter your business information
• Step 2: Set your scheduling policies
• Step 3: Define your service offerings
• Step 4: Create your staff list
• Step 5: Set employee working hours
• Step 6: Schedule business closures, time off, and vacation time
• Step 7: Publish or unpublish your bookings page
• Step 8: Create and staff your bookings

Additional video resource by LinkedIn Learning:

• Microsoft Bookings Essential Training (1 h 10m; Oct 24, 2016)