Calendar Sync - Connect Google Calendar and Outlook
Two-way sync between GroomSome and Google Calendar or Outlook. See your grooming bookings alongside personal appointments, no double-booking.
If you keep your personal life in Google Calendar or Outlook (school runs, appointments, family events) and your grooming bookings in a separate system, double-booking is inevitable. Not often, but enough to matter. A Wednesday parent-teacher meeting overlaps a client booking you forgot to move. A Saturday wedding gets booked over.
Calendar sync fixes this at the source. Your grooming bookings appear in the same calendar app you already look at every day, and any events you add to that calendar block time on the grooming side, so clients can't book over them online.
What is calendar sync in GroomSome?
Calendar sync is a two-way connection between your GroomSome calendar and your Google Calendar or Outlook. Grooming appointments appear in your external calendar automatically; personal events you add in Google or Outlook appear as "busy" blocks in GroomSome, preventing bookings on top.
You choose the direction. Some groomers want only to see grooming bookings in Google Calendar without affecting availability; others want full two-way sync so personal events block GroomSome too. Both work, and you can change your mind.
Why calendar sync matters
The practical gain is small conflicts disappearing, but the compounding benefit is peace of mind. You stop worrying that your week has hidden overlaps.
- No more accidental double-booking. A Tuesday dentist appointment in Google Calendar appears as busy in GroomSome before clients can book over it.
- One view for the day. Open your phone calendar in the morning and see grooming and non-grooming together.
- Holidays carry over. School holidays, family trips, public holidays; all block the online booking page automatically.
- Less mental overhead. You stop keeping two mental copies of "this week" in your head.
Key capabilities
- Google Calendar two-way sync.
- Outlook / Microsoft 365 two-way sync.
- Conflict detection: if an event in Google overlaps an existing grooming booking, you're warned.
- Direction selection: one-way (GroomSome → external), or two-way.
- Per-calendar selection: sync to a specific Google or Outlook calendar (e.g. "Grooming Work"), not all of them.
- Privacy controls: client names and pet details can be hidden in external calendars if you share with family.
- Real-time updates: a reschedule in GroomSome updates Google Calendar within seconds.
How to set it up
One-time setup, five minutes. You won't touch it again.
- Go to Settings → Calendar Sync.
- Choose Google or Outlook and authorise the connection.
- Pick the calendar. A dedicated "Grooming" calendar in Google is cleaner than using your main personal one.
- Decide the direction: one-way or two-way. Two-way is recommended for most salons.
- Set privacy options: full detail, or just "busy" with no client names.
Once connected, everything flows automatically. You don't need to open the sync screen again.
Common gotchas
- Use a dedicated external calendar for grooming. If you sync to your main personal calendar, your family sees Doodle Bella's appointments. A separate "Grooming" calendar keeps it clean.
- Don't delete a booking from Google. Always reschedule or cancel from GroomSome. Deletions in Google don't always propagate properly.
- Watch reminders. Google Calendar sends its own reminders; GroomSome sends reminders to clients. These are separate systems, so adjust your expectations so you're not confused.
- Tokens expire. Once every few months you may need to re-authorise. The app will prompt you.
Calendar sync is one of those features that does its job silently and then disappears into the background. You set it up once, and it stops being a thing to think about. What you're left with is one cleaner view of your week (grooming and life together) without the nagging fear that you booked over something you shouldn't have.
