Calendar App Overview

Calendar

1. What it is

Calendar gives every employee one view of their working time: shifts, approved leave, holidays, the native events they host or are invited to, and optionally their connected Google or Outlook calendar. With Company Events turned on, hosts can open an event for self-registration. Employees then find it on the Company Events page and sign themselves up. Admins decide what shows up, how events sync, who may open events for registration, whether an event needs approval first, and how attendance is tracked.

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

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Admin → Apps → All Apps, find Calendar, and enable it for your business.
2. Open Calendar → Settings. The app is now live for everyone in your business: Dashboard and My Calendar are visible to all users.
3. For Google or Outlook sync, open Settings → Calendar Sync & Connect. Turn on Google Calendar enabled or Microsoft Calendar enabled and pick a Connection mode (Per-User OAuth or Org-Enforced). Org-Enforced also needs a service account, added on the same tab.
4. Optionally review Settings → Event Types. You can rename, reorder, or disable the pre-built types, and add up to 10 custom ones.
5. For self-registration, open Settings → Events and check Company Events, then choose Who can open events for registration. The Company Events tab appears for every employee as soon as the switch is on, even before anything is published.
6. Optionally require approval before an event opens for registration. Go to Admin → General Settings → Approval Workflows, click Create Workflow, and choose Calendar. Set Applies to process to Event publication, configure at least one approval level, and leave Enable this workflow checked.
7. To confirm it works, open Calendar → My Calendar. Employees see their shifts, leave, holidays, and native events; connected external events appear too.

Two pairings do nothing on their own:

• External sync needs a connection. Turning on a provider 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.
• Event approval needs a complete workflow. A workflow only takes effect when it is enabled, applies to Event publication, and has at least one approval level. Until then, hosts publish exactly as before.

3. How it fits together

Native events vs. workforce events. The 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 shown read-only. Native events are created in Calendar itself 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, which supplies defaults for visibility, duration, color, and check-in. Ten pre-built types ship: Meeting, 1:1, All Hands, Town Hall, Training, Safety Briefing, Shift Huddle, Interview, Social / Off-site, and Focus Group. The host can override any default per event.

Example: Safety Briefing defaults to 30 minutes, Public visibility, and QR check-in. A supervisor creating one only adds a title, a time, and invitees.

Visibility. A native event is Public (visible to everyone on the guest list), Private (same access, but synced to external calendars as “Busy” with no details), or Confidential (visible only to invitees, hidden from calendar-admin oversight). Admins can switch off the Private or Confidential options.

Calendar Connect and sync direction. Calendar Connect pushes workforce and native events to employees’ Google Calendar or Outlook. Per-User OAuth means each employee connects their own account. Org-Enforced means a Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra admin grants tenant-wide access through a service account. Sync is one-way by default. With Sync Direction set to Bi-directional, edits made in Google Calendar flow back; Outlook stays outbound. An iCal feed is also available as a read-only option.

RSVP. Invitees accept, decline, or (if allowed) answer Maybe, and hosts see a live rollup. People invited by email only can answer from signed buttons in the invitation, without signing in.

Discussion. Every event has a comment thread with one level of replies and @mentions. Anyone who can see the event can post; on an open event, registrants and waitlisted people can too. Comments can be deleted by their author, the host, or an admin.

Delegation. A delegate (an assistant) can create and manage events for a principal (the leader). A calendar admin sets this up under Settings → Calendar Sync & Connect → More ways to manage events → Manage delegation. The delegate then sees an “on behalf of” option in the event composer.

Open events (Company Events). An open event is an ordinary native event its host has published for self-registration. The host sets a capacity (blank means unlimited), a waitlist, an optional registration window, and who may register — everyone, or chosen groups. People who were not invited find it on the Company Events page and register. They then get the reminders, join link, and check-in, as if invited. A recurring series can be opened too: one registration covers every session, and one seat holds across the series. When someone gives up a seat, the first person on the waitlist takes it and gets an Inbox notice. If the Training app is on, the same page also lists the instructor-led training sessions each person can book.

Two gates decide who can publish. The person must be the event’s host, a delegate, or an admin. They must also pass the Who can open events for registration setting.

Example: a team lead hosts “Summer Volunteer Day” with 40 seats and the waitlist on. The forty-first person joins the waitlist as #1. When a registrant cancels, #1 is promoted, told in their Inbox, and the event lands on their calendar.

Event approval. When approval is configured (step 6 above), a host cannot publish an event for registration until it is approved. What gets approved is what people will read: the event’s title and description, and the listing’s summary and audience. Change any of those after approval and the event needs approving again. Capacity, the waitlist, and the registration window are logistics, so changing them never re-opens approval. Approval does not publish the event — it unlocks Publish to Events, and the host picks the moment. Admins are not exempt.

Attendance check-in. Event types can require check-in by QR code, by geo-fence, or either. With QR, the host displays a code and attendees scan it. With geo check-in, attendees check in from a phone inside the event’s geo-fence. Walk-ins (people not invited) can be recorded for review when allowed.

Conflict detection. Calendar spots overlapping events. In Suggest mode (the default) it badges the conflict and offers alternate times. Auto-resolve proposes a move and makes it after a response window unless the person with the conflict dismisses it on the event page or the organizer turns on Don’t auto-move this event; a move can be undone for 60 minutes.

4. Running it

Reviewing the dashboard

Open Calendar → Dashboard. Six cards give a snapshot: Today’s Events, Needs Response, Upcoming Conflicts, Attendance Alerts, Feedback Summary, and Your Hosted Events.

Creating an event

1. Go to Calendar → My Calendar and click New Event, or click or drag a time slot.
2. Fill in the title, date and time, event type, location (physical, virtual, or hybrid), and visibility.
3. Add invitees — people, groups, or email addresses. With recommendations on, the composer suggests attendees from past co-attendance.
4. Optionally attach up to 10 files and set up to 5 reminders. Save.

Events can also come from a .ics file: Settings → Calendar Sync & Connect → More ways to manage events → Import from file (.ics), up to 200 events per import. A recurring series can be edited one occurrence at a time, from an occurrence onward, or as a whole.

Opening an event for registration

1. Open an event you host and expand Open for registration.
2. Set the capacity, waitlist, registration window, summary, and audience groups, then click Set up registration.
3. If approval is required, click Submit for approval. The panel says in plain words why it is waiting — under review, rejected with the reviewer’s comment, or changed since it was approved. Withdraw approval request takes it back while it is under review.
4. Once the event may be published, click Publish to Events. It now appears on the Company Events page, the home dashboard’s upcoming events card, search, and Digital Signage screens that show events.
5. The same panel shows the roster and offers Close registration (existing seats are kept) and Announce… (a ready-to-send post with the registration link).

Open events can also be created in bulk with Import events on the Company Events page.

Approving events

Approvers find pending events on the Manager Approvals Dashboard, in the Publishing queue, alongside policies, surveys, and other content waiting for sign-off. Deleting an event removes its pending approval request from the queue.

Following up after an event

On an event you host, the Follow-up survey card sends a survey to People who checked in, Everyone who said yes or maybe, plus anyone who checked in, or Everyone invited. It needs the Surveys app. Sending the same survey again for the same session reaches only people not yet asked.

Reviewing analytics

Go to Calendar → Analytics. Core Calendar covers event volume, RSVP rates, recurrence, and event types. Connect covers sync health and subscription-expiry alerts. Autonomous flags events with low attendance or low feedback scores.

5. Settings

All settings are under Calendar → Settings, on these tabs: General, Events, Event Types, Calendar Sync & Connect, Smart Calendar, Attendance, Analytics, User Integrations, and Sync Logs. Event approval is the one control outside the app, under Admin → General Settings → Approval Workflows.

Setting	Where (tab → section)	Default	What it changes
Enable Calendar Sync	Calendar Sync & Connect	On	Org-wide switch for external calendar sync
Allow user calendar sync	Calendar Sync & Connect → General	On	When off, only admins configure integrations
Event title prefix	Calendar Sync & Connect → General	[Work]	Text added to synced event titles
Sync Direction	Calendar Sync & Connect	One-way	Bi-directional also pulls Google Calendar edits back
Google Calendar enabled	Calendar Sync & Connect → Google	Off	Org switch for Google Calendar sync
Connection mode (Google, Microsoft)	Calendar Sync & Connect	Per-User OAuth	Or Org-Enforced, through a service account
Microsoft Calendar enabled	Calendar Sync & Connect → Microsoft	Off	Org switch for Outlook sync
iCal feed enabled	Calendar Sync & Connect → iCal	On	Read-only iCal subscription feed
Global pause sync	Calendar Sync & Connect → Operational	Off	Stops all sync without disconnecting anyone
Company Events	Events → Company Events	On for businesses created since September 2026; Off for earlier ones	Adds the Company Events tab and self-registration
Who can open events for registration	Events → Company Events	Managers and admins	Everyone, Managers and admins, or Admins — on top of being the host
Waitlist on by default	Events → Company Events	On	Prefills the waitlist switch
Default capacity	Events → Company Events	0 (unlimited)	Prefills the capacity field
Default desktop view	Events → My Calendar	Week	First view on desktop
Default narrow-screen view	Events → My Calendar	Today	First view on tablets and narrow windows; the phone view is fixed
Join button window (minutes)	Events → My Calendar	15	When the Join button appears before a virtual event
Allow private events	Events → Composer	On	Offers the Private visibility option
Allow confidential events	Events → Composer	On	Offers the Confidential visibility option
Max attachment size (MB)	Events → Composer	25	Per-file upload ceiling
Natural-language quick-add	Events → Composer	On	“All hands Friday 3pm” quick-add
Max attendees per event	Events → Invites	5,000	Ceiling on invitees per event
Allow delegation	Events → Invites	On	Delegates may create events for others
Allow Maybe	Events → RSVP	On	Offers the Maybe answer
Require decline reason	Events → RSVP	Off	Declining asks for a reason
Let emailed attendees RSVP without signing in	Events → RSVP	On	Yes / Maybe / No buttons in invitation emails
Max recurrence horizon (years)	Events → Recurrence	2	How far ahead open-ended series extend
Allow series-wide edits	Events → Recurrence	On	Hosts can edit a whole series at once
Conflict-detection mode	Smart Calendar → Conflicts	Suggest	Off, Suggest, or Auto-resolve
Smart attendee recommendations	Smart Calendar → Recommendations	On	Composer suggests attendees
Auto-send post-event surveys	Smart Calendar → Feedback	Off	Sends the event’s feedback survey after it ends
Who gets the survey	Smart Calendar → Feedback	Yes/Maybe replies and check-ins	Or Check-ins only
Enable Calendar AI agent (Ask AI routing)	Smart Calendar	On	Sends calendar questions in Ask AI to the Calendar agent
QR code check-in	Attendance	On	QR attendance capture
Geo check-in	Attendance	On	Geo-fenced attendance capture
Allow walk-ins	Attendance	Off	Uninvited check-ins recorded for review, not rejected
Check-in validity window (minutes)	Attendance	15	How early or late a check-in is accepted
Default geo-fence radius (meters)	Attendance	100	Geo-fence size unless the event type overrides it
Allow exports	Analytics	On	Export from analytics boards
Scheduled email reports	Analytics	On	Scheduled analytics digests

6. More help

• Calendar FAQ — specific setup and operating questions, limits, and troubleshooting
• Surveys overview — the surveys behind post-event feedback and follow-ups
• Ask AI — the assistant answers questions about Calendar from these articles, and the Calendar agent acts on your calendar: agenda, invitations and RSVPs, open events and registration, an event’s discussion thread, and how to watch a streamed event.