deskbird Calendar sync

Navigate to the Admin Portal and choose the section Integrations. 

Here, you can sync your calendar by clicking on Connect. You can choose between Microsoft or Google. Please note that global administrator rights within Google and Microsoft Entra ID are required to set up this sync.

Sign in via your Microsoft account (2) or Google (3) account, grant the requested permissions and follow the rest of the steps.

In the deskbird app

1. Click on the ‘Connect’ button (after closing this dialog).
2. Sign in using your Microsoft account or add a new one.
3. Consent to all requested scopes.

In the Azure portal

1. Go to Enterprise applications.
2. Select the deskbird app (deskbird Calendar Sync).
3. In the left-hand menu, select Permissions.
4. Under Permissions, click the blue button labeled ‘Grant admin consent for <your company name>’.
5. Choose your account and accept all requested permissions.

The required permissions are:

• Place.Read.All
  Allows deskbird to read company spaces information (e.g., conference rooms and room lists). This is necessary to import meeting rooms into the deskbird admin section.

• Calendars.ReadWrite
  Allows deskbird to create, read, update, and delete events on all calendars. This is crucial to keep room calendars synchronized between deskbird and Microsoft Exchange.

These are application-level permissions, which means deskbird accesses the Microsoft Graph API as the application itself — not on behalf of a user.

Tip: If needed, you can limit access to only specific room calendars using a Microsoft Application Access Policy. This ensures that deskbird can only access calendars for selected meeting rooms.

A step-by-step guide for setting this up is available in the attachment at the bottom of this article.

• From your Google Workspace domain’s Admin console (make sure you’re logged in as a super admin user), go to Main menu > Security > Access and data control > API controls.
• In the Domain wide delegation pane, select Manage Domain Wide Delegation.
• Click Add new.
• In the Client ID field, enter clientID (108092835268664080778).
• In the OAuth Scopes field, enter these values one by one (list of scopes might be changed):
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.resource.calendar
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user.readonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events
• Click Authorize.

Connect Google workspace with deskbird company

• Click on the Connect button 
• From the Google sign in popup, choose your account or enter a new one
• Consent all requested scopes:

Our calendar sync integration allows users to synchronize their deskbird schedule to their Google and Microsoft calendars.

When users select their schedule on deskbird (Office, Home office, Absent, etc.) or enter an absence on the HRIS system, these will be automatically reflected in their Microsoft or Google Calendars. 

How do I set it up?

Navigate to the Admin Portal and choose the section Integrations.  Follow the instructions explained in (1). You can choose between Microsoft or Google. Please note that global administrator rights within Google respectively Microsoft Entra ID are required to set up the calendar sync.

Sign in via your Google or Microsoft account, grant the requested permissions and follow the rest of the steps you find in the pop-up. 

💡 Please notice that to set up this integration, you need to do it through the deskbird web app using a browser (Chrome, Edge, Safari, etc.), not within the Microsoft Teams environment.

💡 The connection works via API. 

💡 It is possible to connect only one calendar (Microsoft or Google) at a time.

💡 Currently, the sync is unidirectional, meaning changes made to a schedule on deskbird will be reflected on the calendars, but not vice versa.

Sync absences through HRIS and deskbird

After setting the integration up following the previous paragraph, there is one more trick up your sleeve if you use a HRIS integration. When users enter their absence on the HRIS system used at the company (i.e. Personio), the absent status (removal/creation/updates) is synchronized with deskbird and subsequently reflected in the calendar. This means that the flow of information follows this path: HRIS > deskbird > Calendars for users with HRIS connected. 

What does it look like for users?

To make this feature work, users must select their status in the Schedule section of the deskbird app.

When selecting a status (Office, Home office, Absent, etc.) on deskbird, this will be synced and become visible from their calendars as well. In particular, Outlook displays statuses as full-day events; Google Calendar shows them as work location entries. 

Different statuses, different calendar event types

As an admin, you probably know there are standard statuses like “Office” and statuses we can customize according to your needs. Here’s how they would look like on Google and Microsoft once you activate the sync: 

• Office and Home Office statuses look like work location entries
• Absent and other custom statuses will be full-day events.

Simplify scheduling across different platforms

In a hybrid work environment, this feature is especially relevant as it enables users to see their own weekly schedule and the one of their colleagues. This makes scheduling, booking, and even practical decisions much easier, such as whether to hold meetings remotely or on-site with colleagues, even based solely on the team’s location.

You can either set up meeting rooms manually (without a sync) or import them from Google or Microsoft. 

If you wish to set them up manually, you can skip step 1 and go straight to step 2. In this case, importing the rooms will not be possible.

Step 1: Set up the Calendar Sync on deskbird

• Open the deskbird web app > Go to the Admin Panel > Integrations > Calendar sync. Here you can  choose which calendar to sync with - Google or Microsoft;
• To activate the sync, you need to have Global Admin rights either in Google/Microsoft or Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD); after that, follow the steps (2) for Microsoft and (3) for Google.

Step 2: Add meeting rooms

Open our web app, navigate to the Admin Portal and click Floors & Spaces. 

Add the new area to the respective floor, and select Meeting Room as the area type.

You can create a meeting room manually or by automatically importing it from Google or Microsoft.

Import from Google/Microsoft

Do you have meeting rooms in Google Calendar or Microsoft? After setting up the sync in the first step, you can now import meeting rooms by clicking on the first option.

Note: Please be aware that to import meeting rooms from Google, the category should be CONFERENCE_ROOM 

Create them manually

If you prefer to create the meeting rooms manually, click on the second option and add the relevant details, like in this picture:

Of course, in both imported and manually created meeting rooms, you can edit the name, the capacity, the description (optional), add access levels (e.g. restricted/ priority access), set the status (active/inactive), and add a photo.

💡 At the moment it is not possible to add a customized maximum lead time for meeting rooms. This means that meeting rooms can be booked for an unlimited period of time in the future and are not restricted by the maximum lead time set for other resource types in the Admin portal.

To find out how to book a meeting room, click here.