Google Calendar Sync Explained

Groundhogg Booking Calendar is one of the advanced enhancements to your Groundhogg account. Using the calendar, admins can enable appointment bookings for their site. Booking Calendar is packed with lots of features which include two way Google Calendar sync. In this article, the Google Calendar sync process is explained in detail.

To enable Google Calendar sync please follow the How to Sync Google Calendar documentation for the initial setup.

Once you successfully completed your initialization setup you will be able to see a screen with the message that indicated that Google Calendar sync is ON.

Groundhogg provides two different types of sync functionality.

1. One Groundhogg Calendar to One Google Calendar sync
2. One Groundhogg Calendar to Many Google Calendars sync

One Groundhogg Calendar to One Google Calendar Sync

When you sync Google Calendar with Groundhogg, it creates a new Google Calendar inside your Google account. The calendar will have the same name as your Groundhogg one. It also syncs the Groundhogg calendar appointments with this newly generated Google Calendar.

For Example: If you have a Groundhogg Calendar named “My Booking Calendar” when you sync it with Google it creates a new Google Calendar with the name “My Booking Calendar”.

Creating an Appointment from Groundhogg Calendar to Google Calendar 

When you enable Google Calendar sync each and every appointment that is created syncs with the Google Calendar.

For example: If you book a new appointment inside Groundhogg “My Booking Calendar” it will automatically create a new appointment inside the Google Calendar named “My Booking Calendar”.

This sync process is immediate, which means you will be able to see newly generated appointments inside your Google Calendar in less than a minute.

Creating an Appointment from Google Calendar to Groundhogg Calendar

Groundhogg provides two-way sync with Google Calendar. This means if you create an appointment in Google Calendar it can be synced with the Groundhogg Calendar on your website.

Groundhogg uses Cron Jobs to sync with Google Calendar. Groundhogg's Google Calendar Sync runs every 12 hours, which means that the transfer will not be immediate. But, you can sync Google Calendar with Groundhogg Calendar any time by clicking the “Sync Now” button.

Sync Google Calendar Appointment with Groundhogg

There are certain details that need to be available inside a Google Calendar appointment to properly sync it with Groundhogg Calendar. The details are listed below:

1. Calendar: Appointments need to be created in the calendar where the two-way sync is enabled. For example, appointments created in “My Booking Calendar” Google Calendar will only sync with the appointments created in “My Booking Calendar” Groundhogg Calendar.
2. Appointment Date: Only the appointments with the future date and time will be synced with the Google Calendar.
3. Times: Appointments need to have a valid appointment start time and end time for successful sync.
4. Guests: Appointments need to have one guest to successfully integrate it with Groundhogg contacts.

The sample appointment for Booking Calendar is displayed below.

Delete Operation

Groundhogg does not support a delete operation sync from Google Calendar to Groundhogg Calendar due to security reasons. 

If you want to delete an appointment then delete it from Groundhogg Calendar. Groundhogg Calendar changes will be reflected in the Google Calendar. Note: if you delete an appointment from Google Calendar it will be recreated after the syncing process.

One Groundhogg Calendar to Many Google Calendars Sync

In case you have multiple Google Calendars and wish to match availability with more than one schedule you can use this second type of sync.

Using this type of sync you can block appointments that are already booked in other calendars. To do this, go to the edit page of the Groundhogg Calendar and select all the calendars from the list to compare availability.

Note: Groundhogg only syncs appointment with the daily Google appointment which has a start and end time. Groundhogg does not support sync with whole day booking.

Once completed, you will notice that all the conflict appointment slots are removed from availability.