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 links 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 links 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

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 User Integrations. 

Under the OnceHub advanced integration settings heading, you'll see two toggles. 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.
• And 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. [Legacy only]

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

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.