Professionals: Calendar Sync between your Kara Connect calendar and your Google/MS Outlook Calendars - Product Update

In this article, we explain improvements to the Calendar Sync functionality for both Google and MS Outlook Calendars

External calendars such as Google (Gmail) or Microsoft Outlook are crucial for managing schedules across various booking platforms.

For participants in our Wellbeing Hubs program, we highly recommend using your secure and functional Kara Connect Workstation as your main hub for booking and schedule management. This approach ensures efficient management of both your private and wellbeing hub clients, and helps to minimise conflicts and ensure GDPR compliance.

At times, you may have events scheduled in external calendars, such as Google (Gmail) or MS Outlook. Based on your feedback, we understand the importance of having these events reflect in both your Kara Connect Workstation (in the Sessions tab) and your external calendars (primarily Gmail or MS Outlook).

With this taken into account, we are delighted to announced that we are rolling out our two-way calendar sync in four phases.

This will include:

• The ability to automatically send any events booked in your Kara Connect Workstation directly to your External Calendars (Google or MS Outlook).
• The ability to automatically send any events booked in your External Calendars (Google or MS Outlook) directly to your Kara Connect Workstation (in the Sessions tab). 

To sum up: We're enhancing and automating the Calendar Sync for our Professional Community!

Recognising the significance of external calendars like Google and MS Outlook, we're introducing extended integrations and automations. These improvements aim to ease your management process, reduce administrative tasks, and let you concentrate on your expertise: helping your clients overcome their struggles or challenges.

Phases to Calendar Sync Improvements

Phase 1

Roll-Out Date: 4th June 2024

Google (Gmail) -> From your Kara Connect Workstation to your Google calendar

If you are using Google Calendar (Gmail), the first phase is focussed on automating this flow.

The first phase will change the following for you as a professional:

• Professionals will not need to be logged into Kara Connect for their sessions to sync: 
  • The current Sync right now only works when you log in to Kara Connect; so if you have connected your calendar prior to this date, you would have noticed that, as soon as a session is booked in your Kara Connect calendar, you would need to click "Sync" to sync it to your Google (Gmail) calendar.
    This will no longer be the case after Phase 1, as the sync will happen automatically.
• Wellbeing Hub sessions booked by clients will go automatically into your external Google (Gmail) calendar.
  • Any 'Blocked' sessions in your Kara Connect workstation (in the Sessions tab) will automatically appear in your Google (Gmail) calendar.
• You will no longer receive the "You have unsynced sessions" pop-up message when you login.
  • Prior to this date and change, you may be aware of a message which states that some sessions are unsyced and you have to click "Sync" to send them to your external calendar: this will no longer be the case because the sync will happen automatically.

What do you need to do in order to enable this automatic Sync for your Google (Gmail) Calendar?

1. Log in to your Kara Connect Workstation by clicking here. 
2. Go to Settings in the top-right corner under your name.
3. Click on Calendar and Schedule in the menu on the left.
4. Under Connect calendars, click Reconnect and authenticate your calendar.
   
5. If your Google (Gmail) calendar doesn't show as "Connected (with the green check box)" as per below image or you see the "Reconnect Button": It means your calendar is NOT synced yet. So you need to reconnect it and re-authenticate.
6. Once your calendar is connected and authenticated successfully it will look like below image.
   
7. That's it! Now your calendar will automatically be synced and ready to send all of the events that go into your Kara Connect workstation directly to your Google (Gmail) Calendar.
   
   

Phase 2

Roll-Out Date: TBC

Google (Gmail) -> From your Google calendar to your Kara Connect Workstation

If you're using Google (Gmail) calendar, the second phase will aim to automate this process. It's important to ensure that you have connected and authenticated your connection as outlined in the steps provided in the section above, title "What do you need to do in order to enable this automatic Sync for your Google (Gmail) Calendar?"

Phase 2 will change the following for you as a professional:

Any sessions or events scheduled in your external Google (Gmail) calendar will automatically be marked as "BLOCKS" in the Sessions tab of your Kara Connect Workstation.

This will mean that, when you create an event in your Google (Gmail) calendar (as per the instructions above), it will sync automatically in the Sessions tab of your Kara Connect workstation, preventing anyone from booking that time slot manually or through a Wellbeing Hub.

Phase 3

Roll-Out Date: TBC

Microsoft Outlook -> From your Kara Connect Workstation to your MS Outlook calendar

If you are using MS Outlook calendar, this phase will focus on automating this flow.

Phase 3 will change the following for you as a professional:

• You will not need to be logged in to Kara Connect in order for your sessions to sync to your MS Outlook calendar: 
  • The current Sync that is available right now only works when you log in; so, if you have connected your MS Outlook calendar to your Kara Connect workstation prior to this date, you may have noticed that, as soon as an event is booked in your Kara Connect workstation, you would need to click "Sync" in order to sync the event to your MS Outlook calendar: this will no longer be the case because the sync will happen automatically.
• Wellbeing Hub sessions booked by clients will go automatically into your external MS Outlook calendar too.
  • Any blocked sessions in your Kara Connect workstation will also automatically appear in your MS Outlook calendar.
• Professionals will not receive the "You have unsynced sessions" message when you log in.
  • Prior to this date and change, you may be aware of a message which states that some sessions are unsynced and that you need to click "Sync" in order to send them to your MS Outlook external calendar: this will no longer be the case because the sync will happen automatically.

What do you need to do in order to enable this automatic Sync for your MS Outlook calendar?

1. Log in to your Kara Connect Workstation here. 
2. Go to Settings in the top-right corner under your name.
3. Click on Calendar and Schedule in the left menu.
4. Under Connect calendars, click Reconnect and authenticate your calendar.
   
5. If your Outlook (Microsoft) calendar doesn't show as "Connected (with the green check box)" as per below image or you see the "Reconnect Button": It means your calendar is NOT synced yet. So you need to reconnect it and re-authenticate.
6. Once your calendar is connected and authenticated successfully it will look like below image.
7. 
8. That's it! Now your calendar is automatically synced and ready for you to send all the events that go into our Kara Connect Workstation directly to your MS Outlook calendar.

Phase 4

Roll-Out Date: TBC

MS Outlook -> From your MS Outlook calendar to your Kara Connect Workstation

If you are using your MS Outlook calendar, this phase will aim to automate this process.

It's important to ensure that you have connected and authenticated your connection as outlined in the steps provided in the section "What do you need to do in order to enable this automatic Sync for your MS Outlook Calendar?"

This phase will change the following for you as a professional:

Any sessions or events scheduled in your external MS Outlook calendar will automatically be marked as "BLOCKS" in the Sessions tab of your Kara Connect Workstation.

This will mean that, when you create an event in your MS Outlook calendar (as per the instructions above), it will sync to your Kara Connect workstation, preventing anyone from booking that time slot manually or through a Wellbeing Hub.

This concludes our updates! We trust that these enhancements will assist you to efficiently manage your clients, streamline administrative tasks, and increase your visibility within the Wellbeing Hubs program.

By participating, you can now offer more availability for your clients, which will boost your chances of securing bookings, attracting new clients, and gaining more exposure for your profile.

To discover more about enhancing your visibility and attracting clients for bookings through our Wellbeing Hubs program, please click here.