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Help Center / Apps & Extensions / Calendar App Overview

Calendar App Overview

Calendar

1. What it is

Calendar gives every employee a single view of their work schedule — shifts, approved leave, holidays, native events they host or are invited to, and optionally events from their connected Google or Outlook calendar. Admins configure what shows up, how events sync, and how attendance is tracked.

  • Enablement: Calendar is a licensed app. An admin enables it from Admin → Apps Marketplace, and it requires a license.
  • What it is not: Calendar is not the scheduling tool that creates shifts — that is the Shifts app. Calendar displays shifts and other workforce events on a personal calendar and adds its own native events, RSVP, check-in, and sync capabilities on top.

2. Standing it up

  1. Go to Admin → Apps Marketplace, find Calendar, and enable it for your business.
  2. Open Calendar → Settings → General and confirm the settings tab loads. The app is now active for all employees in your business.
  3. If you want employees to sync events to Google or Outlook, enable external sync under Settings → Connect. Turn on Google Calendar enabled or Microsoft Calendar enabled, choose a connection mode (Per-User OAuth or Org-Enforced), and — for Org-Enforced — add a service account.
  4. Optionally, review the pre-built Event Types under Settings → Events. You can rename, reorder, disable, or add custom types (up to 10 custom types).
  5. To confirm the app works, open Calendar → My Calendar. Employees see their shifts, leave, holidays, and any native events. If external sync is connected, those events also appear.

External sync does nothing until a connection exists. Enabling Google or Microsoft in Settings is step one; each employee (Per-User OAuth) or the service account (Org-Enforced) must then connect before events flow. Without a connection, the calendar still shows all workforce data — it is only the external layer that is absent.

3. How it fits together

Native events vs. workforce events. The calendar grid shows two kinds of content. Workforce events — shifts, leave, holidays, training sessions, interviews, tasks, 1:1 meetings, onboarding checkpoints — are owned by other apps and projected onto the calendar read-only. Native events are created inside Calendar itself (a meeting, an all-hands, a safety briefing) and carry the full feature set: invitees, RSVP, recurrence, attachments, check-in, and visibility controls.

Event types. Every native event belongs to an event type. Nine pre-built types ship with the app (Meeting, 1:1, All Hands, Town Hall, Training, Safety Briefing, Shift Huddle, Interview, Social / Off-site). Each type carries defaults for visibility, duration, color, and attendance method. Admins can create up to 10 additional custom types. Types determine defaults; the host can override them per event.

Example: A “Safety Briefing” type defaults to 30 minutes, Public visibility, and QR check-in. When a supervisor creates a safety briefing, those values pre-fill; the supervisor only needs to add a title, time, and invitees.

Visibility. Native events have three visibility levels: Public (visible to everyone on the guest list), Private (same access, but synced to external calendars as “Busy” with no details), and Confidential (visible only to invitees, hidden from calendar-admin oversight). Admins can disable the Private or Confidential options org-wide.

Calendar Connect (external sync). Calendar Connect pushes workforce and native events to employees’ Google Calendar or Outlook. Admins control which event categories sync (shifts, leave, training, etc.) and whether sync is real-time or on a polling interval. Connection modes are per provider: Per-User OAuth (each employee connects individually) or Org-Enforced (a Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra admin grants tenant-wide access via a service account). An iCal subscription feed is also available as a read-only option.

RSVP. When a native event has invitees, each invitee can accept, decline, or (if enabled) respond Maybe. Hosts see a live rollup of responses. External attendees (email-only invitees without a platform account) receive a signed link to RSVP without logging in, controlled by the Allow external (email) attendees to RSVP via signed link setting.

Delegation. An assistant can create and manage events on behalf of another person. A calendar admin sets up a delegation grant under Calendar → Delegation Grants, linking a principal (the leader) to a delegate (the assistant). The delegate then sees an “on behalf of” option in the event composer.

Attendance check-in. Event types can require check-in via QR code, geo-fence, or either. When QR is enabled, the host displays a QR code on screen; attendees scan it from their phone. When geo check-in is enabled, attendees check in from a mobile device that is within the configured geo-fence radius of the event location. Walk-in check-ins (people not on the invitee list) are recorded separately for admin review when enabled.

Conflict detection. Calendar can detect overlapping events and, depending on the mode, either badge the conflict and suggest alternate times (Suggest) or propose an automatic move (Auto-Resolve, with invitee consent). The default mode is Suggest.

4. Running it

Reviewing the dashboard

Open Calendar → Dashboard. Six cards show a snapshot: today’s events, events you host, pending invites needing your response, upcoming conflicts, attendance alerts (low check-in rates), and feedback summaries.

Creating an event

  1. Go to Calendar → My Calendar and click the New Event button, or click/drag a time slot on the grid.
  2. Fill in title, date/time, event type, location (physical, virtual, or hybrid), and visibility.
  3. Add invitees — individuals, groups, or external email addresses. The composer suggests additional attendees based on past co-attendance when smart recommendations are enabled.
  4. Optionally attach files (up to 10 per event) and set up to 5 reminder offsets.
  5. Save. Invitees receive a notification, and the event syncs to connected external calendars if sync is active.

Events can also be created by importing an ICS file (Settings → Import), which creates one native event per VEVENT entry, up to 200 per import.

Setting up recurring events

The event composer includes recurrence options (daily, weekly, monthly, or a custom rule). A recurring series generates occurrences up to the configured horizon (default 2 years, max 3,650 instances). Hosts can edit a single occurrence, all future occurrences, or the entire series.

Managing RSVP responses

Open an event you host, or go to Calendar → Events I Host for a list view. Each event shows an RSVP rollup — accepted, declined, maybe, and no response. You can send a nudge to invitees who have not responded.

Reviewing analytics

Go to Calendar → Analytics. Three boards are available:

  • Core Calendar — event volume, RSVP rates, recurrence usage, and breakdowns by event type. Visible to calendar admins and leadership by default.
  • Connect — sync health: active integrations, recent syncs, error rates, and subscription-expiry alerts.
  • Autonomous — correlation metrics flagging events with low attendance or low feedback scores.

Analytics can be exported to CSV and scheduled as email digests when those settings are enabled.

5. Settings

All settings are under Calendar → Settings. The settings tree is organized into tabs: General, Events, Connect, Smart, Attendance, Analytics, User Integrations, and Sync Logs.

Setting Tab Default What it changes
Calendar sync master switch General Off Org-wide toggle for external calendar sync
Allow user calendar sync General Off When off, only admins configure integrations
Event title prefix General (empty) Text prepended to synced event titles
Default desktop view My Calendar Week Initial calendar grid view on desktop (Day, Week, Month, or Agenda)
Default mobile view My Calendar Today Initial view on mobile (Today or Agenda)
Join button window (minutes) My Calendar 15 Minutes before a virtual event the Join button appears
Allow private events Composer On Whether the Private visibility option is available
Allow confidential events Composer On Whether the Confidential visibility option is available
Default visibility Composer Public Fallback visibility when the event type has no default
Max attachment size (MB) Composer 25 Per-file upload ceiling
Natural-language quick-add Composer On Enables “All hands Friday 3pm” quick-add parsing
Max attendees per event Invites 5,000 Ceiling on invitees per event
Allow delegation Invites On Whether delegates can create events on behalf of others
Allow Maybe RSVP On Whether the Maybe response is available
Require decline reason RSVP Off Whether declining requires a reason
Allow RSVP comment RSVP On Whether attendees can attach a comment to their RSVP
Allow external RSVP via signed link Marketplace config On External attendees can RSVP without logging in
Max recurrence horizon (years) Recurrence 2 How far ahead open-ended recurring series extend
Allow series-wide edits Recurrence On Whether hosts can edit an entire recurring series at once
Google Calendar enabled Connect — Google Off Org-level switch for Google Calendar sync
Google connection mode Connect — Google Org-Enforced Per-User OAuth or Org-Enforced (service account)
Microsoft Calendar enabled Connect — Microsoft Off Org-level switch for Microsoft 365 / Outlook sync
Microsoft connection mode Connect — Microsoft Org-Enforced Per-User OAuth or Org-Enforced (service account)
Global pause sync Connect — Operational Off Kill switch for all sync without disconnecting users
Conflict-detection mode Conflicts Suggest Off, Suggest (badge + alternate times), or Auto-Resolve
QR code check-in Attendance On Enables QR-based attendance capture
Geo check-in Attendance On Enables geo-fenced mobile attendance capture
Allow walk-ins Attendance Off Unmatched check-ins recorded for review instead of rejected
Check-in validity window (minutes) Attendance 15 How early/late a check-in is accepted
Default geo-fence radius (meters) Attendance 100 Default geo-fence for events; per-type override available
Smart attendee recommendations Recommendations On Composer suggests attendees from co-attendance history
Auto-send post-event surveys Feedback On Dispatches a feedback survey after each event ends
Enable Calendar AI agent AI Assistant On Routes calendar questions in Ask AI to the Calendar agent
Allow exports Analytics On CSV/PDF export from analytics dashboards
Scheduled email reports Analytics On Scheduled email digests of analytics

6. More help

  • Calendar FAQ — specific setup and operating questions, limits, and troubleshooting
  • Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Calendar from these articles.