Outlook calendar

What connecting an Outlook calendar does

An Outlook calendar is the calendar that comes with a Microsoft 365 account (a work account) or an Outlook.com account. Once it is connected, Eli works from it as well as from its own bookings:

• Before offering a caller a time, it checks the calendar. Each event that shows you as Busy, Tentative, or Away takes up one of your appointments at the same time while it runs, the same as an appointment Eli booked. Events marked Free or Working elsewhere, and invitations you declined, don't count.
• After booking, it adds the appointment to the calendar, with the service and the caller's name in the title and their number, the detail your business keeps such as the car, notes, and a link to the call in the body. A booking from a Test call starts with "Test:".
• The calendar has the last word on Eli's bookings. Move one of its events in Outlook and the appointment moves too; delete it and the appointment is cancelled. Dialhop picks the change up the next time it checks the calendar for a caller.

If Microsoft doesn't answer during a call, the receptionist doesn't guess: it takes a message so you can call back and book.

Your business books into one calendar. If a Google Calendar is connected, connecting an Outlook calendar takes its place; the card says so before you press the button.

Connect an Outlook calendar

1. Press Integrations in the sidebar.
2. Under Calendars, on the Outlook calendar card, press Connect Outlook calendar.
3. Sign in to Microsoft with the account whose calendar you book in, and allow Dialhop to read and write your calendars. Without that permission Dialhop can't connect.

You come back to Integrations, where the Outlook calendar card says Connected and shows the Microsoft account. Eli books into that account's Main calendar, the one every Microsoft account comes with.

Choose which calendar Eli books into

1. Press Integrations in the sidebar.
2. On the Outlook calendar card, open Books into and pick a calendar.

Only calendars the account can write to are listed: its Main calendar, and any you made yourself in Outlook, such as one just for the shop. Eli checks and books into the one you pick from then on; the events it already added stay where they are, and moving or deleting them no longer changes those appointments.

Disconnect an Outlook calendar

1. Press Integrations in the sidebar.
2. On the Outlook calendar card, press More (the three dots), then Disconnect.
3. Press Disconnect again to confirm.

Eli stops checking the calendar and stops adding bookings to it. Events it already added stay on your calendar. Microsoft has no way for Dialhop to hand back its own access, so to remove Dialhop from your Microsoft account as well, open your account's Apps and services page in Microsoft and remove Dialhop there.

Connect an Outlook calendar again

When Microsoft stops letting Dialhop in, for example because you changed your password or removed its access in your Microsoft account, the Outlook calendar card says Needs connecting again. Until you fix it, the receptionist takes a message instead of booking, so nothing gets double-booked.

1. Press Integrations in the sidebar.
2. On the Outlook calendar card, press Connect again and sign in to Microsoft.