Google Calendar quota

Google sets a quota on the number of bookings that can be created in its calendar. As with any Google algorithm, the quota calculations are not revealed and there is no set amount of bookings after which the quota activates. Google does publish some numbers, but we have not seen any correlation between these numbers and when the quota activates.

• We have seen the quota activate with as low as 30 bookings per day when they are all done during a very short timeframe. If your activity is spread out evenly over the day, you may be able to go as high as 150 bookings per day before hitting the quota. Customers who schedule with you will see a message from OnceHub alerting them that bookings cannot be accepted at this time.
• When you hit the Google Calendar quota, you will not be able to accept bookings for any Booking pages attached to that User and Google Calendar account for up to 24 hours. This operates on a rolling 24-hour window, so exactly 24 hours after activity took place, that activity is no longer counted toward the quota.
• This means that if many appointments were booked at 3 PM yesterday, you must wait until 3 PM today for these bookings to no longer count toward the quota. At that time, your customers might be able to book normally again. However, if a number of appointments are immediately created soon after, the quota might be hit again, until the next time the rolling 24-hour window moves past activity made exactly 24 hours previously.

When planning your setup, it is important to consider the following guidelines in order to prevent hitting the Google Calendar quota:

1. Use Users and not calendar sharing: If your Google Calendar is connected to OnceHub and you are accepting bookings for people who share their calendar with you, any bookings they receive will be treated by Google as if they were received by your Google Calendar account and will count towards your Google Calendar quota. To avoid this situation, create each team member as a OnceHub User in the system so they can connect their calendar directly.

2. Split the load when using sub-calendars: If you are accepting bookings for multiple booking pages by using sub-calendars in your Google Calendar account, you may be getting a large amount of bookings. In this case, you can create another User account in OnceHub and connect it with another Google Calendar account. You can then use pooled availability with automatic assignment to distribute the booking load between the two calendar accounts.

If you have already hit the quota, you have the following options:

1. Adjust your setup as described above. If you would like to consult with us on the optimal configuration changes, please contact us.
2. Disconnect from Google Calendar and work without a connected calendar. When you work without a connection to Google Calendar, there is no quota and you can accept as many bookings as you like.
   Learn more about the differences between working with vs working without a connected calendar

Using G Suite 

Resource calendars

OnceHub is fully compatible with G Suite resource calendars for both resource scheduling and conditional booking in OnceHub.

Resource calendars are designated specifically for scheduling organizational resources such as conference rooms, projectors, guest offices, equipment, or any other resource that members of your organization might schedule a time to use.

Creating and managing resources using G Suite

1. When creating resources, you should use specific naming conventions to make your resources easy for users to find. Only G Suite administrators in your organization can create resources.

2. To use resources in OnceHub, you can subscribe to the resource calendars.

   • If you are not the administrator of the Google account, the resource calendar will appear under the Other calendars section. Learn more about subscribing to a resource calendar.

   • If you are the administrator of the Google account, the resource calendar will appear in the My Calendars list. You need to share the resource with the appropriate permission level with the users of your organization. If you don't explicitly set the sharing option for your new resource, it will inherit the default sharing option for calendars in your organization.

3. Your OnceHub account connects to a Google Calendar account and allows you to access all calendars under that account. After subscribing to the resource calendars, they will appear automatically in the Calendar list of the Booking page associated calendar section in OnceHub.

   • If you have been granted administrative access to the resource calendars, they will be organized in alphabetical order together with all other calendars in your account. You will be able to select any resource as the Main booking calendar.

   • If you do not have administrative access to the resource calendars, the resources to which you are subscribed will be located at the bottom of your calendars list. You will not be able to select a resource as a Main booking calendar. In this case, you will need to book the resource using the Additional booking calendar column.

User action: Cancel or reschedule in Google Calendar

When you're connected to a Google Calendar, you can select whether changes made in your connected calendar are reflected in OnceHub. 

Read on to learn about canceling and rescheduling from your Google Calendar. 

Adjusting OnceHub advanced integration settings

Open OnceHub and click on your profile image or initials in the top right corner and select Calendar connection. 

Under the OnceHub advanced integration settings heading, you'll see two toggles (Figure 1). These control how your Google Calendar two-way sync will function. By default, both toggles are set to OFF.

Canceling an event in your connected Google Calendar

If you delete a calendar event created by a OnceHub booking while the Deleting an event in Google Calendar cancels the booking in OnceHub toggle is set to ON, the booking will be automatically canceled in OnceHub. The following actions are performed, as if you (the User) canceled the booking in OnceHub:

• Your Customer receives a cancellation notification.
• The event is deleted from your calendar, and the time is set to available.
• If you are using any other integrations (like CRM, video conferencing, or Zapier) – they are updated with the cancellation.
• If you are using Payment integration, no refund is issued. If your Customer is entitled to a refund, you can refund them manually via OnceHub or via PayPal. 

If you delete a calendar event created by a OnceHub booking while the first toggle is set to OFF, the booking remains unchanged in OnceHub, no email notifications are sent, and no integrations are updated.

Rescheduling an event in your connected Google Calendar

The Changing the time in Google Calendar updates the booking in OnceHub option determines how OnceHub is updated with the new time of the event. When you move a booking in your connected calendar, you're actually rescheduling on behalf of your Customer. Therefore, the time change must be coordinated with your Customer. No email notifications are sent to you or your Customer.

When you move an event in your calendar while the second toggle is set to ON, the following actions are performed: 

• The OnceHub booking time is updated immediately.
• All reminders are sent on schedule.
• All integrations (CRM, video conferencing, Zapier, and payment) are updated as well. 
• The status of future events is changed to "Rescheduled".

If the second toggle is set to OFF, the OnceHub booking time is only updated when the next reminder is due, subsequent reminders are sent on schedule and integrations are not updated.

The Customer calendar event

Whether your Customer’s calendar will be updated or not depends on your choice in Google’s Would you like to send update emails to existing Google Calendar guests pop-up. Make sure to click the Send button, so that your Customer’s calendar is updated. Learn more about the Customer's calendar event

How to disable the Google Meet video in the calendar event

When using OnceHub with a Google Calendar, a hangouts video call is added automatically every time a new Google Calendar event is created in your Google Calendar. Learn more about Google Meet

You can disable this in your Google Calendar. G Suite users require a different method than non-G Suite users. 

For non-G Suite Google Accounts

This is relevant for anyone using a Google Account who does not pay Google for their service. 

1. After signing into your Google Account, access your Google Calendar settings. 

2. Scroll down to Event settings. 

3. Deselect Automatically add Google Meet video conferences to events I create (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Deselect the checkbox

For Google Accounts through G Suite

If you want to disable the Google Hangouts video setting in the calendar event, you can ask your Google account Administrator to follow the steps below.  

1. Sign in to the Google Admin console.
2. Click Apps.
3. Go to G Suite → Calendar.
4. Click Calendar sharing options in the gray header link.
5. Under Video Category, click to edit the pencil icon.
6. Uncheck Add video box.

How to disable your browser's pop-up blocker

When connecting to your Google Calendar account, you might see an alert about the browser's pop-up blocker blocking the Google Calendar connection window. The message might say: "The window was unable to open, and may have been blocked by a pop-up blocker. Please add this to the list of the sites your pop-up blocker allows to open”.

There are two possible ways in which this can be fixed:

1. Create an exception for https://app.oncehub.com/. This will whitelist OnceHub with your browser and pop-ups from OnceHub will not be blocked.
2. You can disable the pop-up blocker entirely.

The following links provide step-by-step instructions for each browser type:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari

When are Google events treated as busy in OnceHub?

Read on to learn about the busy time settings in the Google Calendar. To change the busy time settings, you need to update the calendar event details.

Changing busy time settings in Google

1. To change the setting, double-click an event or select Edit event in your Google Calendar.  
2. Scroll down and search for the Show me as setting. The following options are available (See Figure 1):
   • FREE: OnceHub will not read this time as busy. This is useful when you want to indicate specific events on your calendar without having those events block your availability.
   • BUSY: OnceHub reads this time as busy and blocks availability.

Figure 1: Google calendar event