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Calendar Sync for Schedule Status and Meeting Rooms

  • Updated

With deskbird’s calendar sync integration, you can streamline hybrid work planning by syncing both user schedule statuses and meeting rooms with external calendars. Users can connect their Google or Microsoft calendar so that schedule information (e.g., “Office”, “Home Office”, “Absent”) and meeting room bookings are reflected across platforms. Both functionalities can be activated separately.

  1. Overview & prerequisites
  2. Choose your calendar provider
  3. Microsoft 365 setup
  4. Google Workspace setup
  5. Schedule status sync
  6. Creating a Meeting room
  7. FAQs – Microsoft 365
  8. FAQs – Google Workspace

1. Overview & prerequisites

deskbird can sync schedule statuses and meeting rooms with either Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. You can enable these syncs independently.

  • Admin rights required: Google Workspace Super Admin or Microsoft Entra ID Global Administrator.
  • Setup in a browser: complete setup in a web browser (not within Microsoft Teams).
  • Calendar provider is the source of truth: room bookings are ultimately accepted or declined by the room’s resource calendar in Google/Microsoft.

💡 Multi-tenancy: Multi-tenancy is available for Meeting Rooms sync with our Rooms Plus plan. You can add both Microsoft and Google tenants. To add another tenant, go to Admin Portal > Integrations, open your existing sync, and click Update sync.

2. Choose your calendar provider

Follow the setup instructions for one provider below. The steps are different for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

  • Microsoft 365: setup requires admin consent in Microsoft Entra ID and uses Microsoft Graph permissions.
  • Google Workspace: setup requires Domain-wide delegation in the Google Admin console.

3. Microsoft 365 setup

  1. Go to Admin Portal > Integrations.
  2. Click Connect (or Update sync if you already have a connection).
  3. Select Microsoft.
  4. Sign in with a Global Administrator account.
  5. Consent to all requested permissions and follow the on-screen steps.
  1. Open the Microsoft Entra ID (Azure) portal.
  2. Go to Enterprise applications.
  3. Select the deskbird app (deskbird Calendar Sync).
  4. In the left-hand menu, open Permissions.
  5. Click Grant admin consent for <your company name> and accept all permissions.

Tip: You can limit access to specific calendars using a Microsoft Application Access Policy.

  • Place.Read.All
    Allows deskbird to read company spaces information (e.g., meeting rooms and room lists) so rooms can be imported into deskbird.
  • Calendars.ReadWrite
    Allows deskbird to create, read, update, and delete events on room calendars to keep meeting room bookings synchronized.

These are application-level permissions, meaning deskbird accesses Microsoft Graph API as an application (not on behalf of a user).

4. Google Workspace setup

  1. Open the Google Admin console (Super Admin required).
  2. Go to Security > Access and data control > API controls.
  3. Under Domain wide delegation, click Manage Domain Wide Delegation.
  4. Click Add new.
  5. Enter Client ID: 108092835268664080778
  6. In OAuth Scopes, add the scopes below and click Authorize. 
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.resource.calendar.readonly
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user.readonly
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events
  1. Go to Admin Portal > Integrations.
  2. Click Connect (or Update sync if you already have a connection).
  3. Select Google.
  4. Sign in with your Google admin account.
  5. Consent to all requested permissions and follow the on-screen steps.

Google scopes screenshot

5. Schedule status sync

Schedule status sync allows deskbird to reflect users’ schedule statuses (e.g., Office, Home Office, Absent) in their connected calendar. This improves visibility and coordination for hybrid work.

  • If you use an HRIS integration (e.g., Personio), absences will follow the flow: HRIS → deskbird → calendar.
  • One-way sync: deskbird pushes updates to the calendar provider (not the other way around).

What users see in their calendars

  • Microsoft Outlook: statuses are shown as full-day events.
  • Google Calendar: statuses appear as work location entries.

Event types depend on the status selected:

  • Office and Home Office → work location entries
  • Absent and custom statuses → full-day events

Example of schedule statuses shown in calendars

6. Creating a Meeting room 

You can manage meeting rooms in deskbird either manually (without calendar sync) or by importing rooms from Google/Microsoft (with calendar sync enabled).

  1. Open the deskbird web app.
  2. Go to Admin Portal > Floors & Spaces.
  3. Click + Add area and select Meeting room.
  4. Enter room details (name, capacity, etc.) and click Save.

💡 Manually created meeting rooms cannot be synchronized with Google or Microsoft calendars.

Step 1 – Set up Rooms calendar sync

  • Go to Admin Portal > Integrations > Rooms calendar sync.
  • Choose Google or Microsoft and complete the provider setup above.

Step 2 – Import rooms

  • Go to Admin Portal > Floors & Spaces > + Add area > Meeting room > Import room from Microsoft or Google.
  • Select rooms from your connected tenant and import them.

Import meeting rooms

Notes

  • Microsoft: newly created or updated rooms can take up to 48 hours to appear.
  • Google: ensure the room category is set to CONFERENCE_ROOM.
  • Acceptance & rejection: the room’s resource calendar in Google/Microsoft decides if a booking is accepted. If a booking is rejected, it will be removed from deskbird.

💡 Once rooms are imported, you can create conference links when booking meeting rooms in deskbird (depending on your provider setup).

💡 Search respects the room name exactly (including spelling and punctuation). Enter the room name as shown in the provider directory.

7. FAQs – Microsoft 365

In Microsoft Outlook, schedule statuses are shown as full-day events. This applies, for example, to Absent and any custom statuses.

Example of schedule statuses shown in calendars

Yes. deskbird respects restrictions configured in Outlook/Exchange (e.g., “cannot be booked more than 6 months in advance”). The request may appear successful at first, but if Outlook declines it, the user will be notified and the booking will not remain in deskbird.

Restrictions are not applied retroactively: bookings created before the rule was enabled are not affected (same behavior as Microsoft).

deskbird cannot bypass Outlook restrictions. The room’s resource calendar decides whether a booking is accepted. If Outlook rejects the request (e.g., user not allowed, approval required), the booking is removed from deskbird after the rejection.

8. FAQs – Google Workspace

In Google Calendar, schedule statuses appear as work location entries for Office and Home Office.

Absent and any custom statuses are shown as full-day events.

Example of schedule statuses shown in calendars

Ensure the room is set up as a resource in Google Workspace and (for best compatibility) uses the category CONFERENCE_ROOM. Also confirm domain-wide delegation was configured correctly and all required scopes were authorized.

Yes. Google is the source of truth for room acceptance. If a room calendar rejects a booking request, the booking will not remain in deskbird.

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