My Outlook Calendar is not syncing with Bookings

Configure the assigned staff member for Monday–Friday, 10:00 AM–9:00 PM, remove Saturday and Sunday from their working hours, and enable Events on Microsoft 365 calendar affect availability so Outlook conflicts block those weekday slots.

1. Set weekdays and permanently block weekends

In the Microsoft Bookings web app:

1. Open Shared Bookings and select the relevant booking page.
2. Select Staff in the left pane.
3. Select the person who conducts the interviews.
4. Under Working hours, clear Use business hours.
5. Set Monday through Friday to 10:00 AM–9:00 PM.
6. Select the x beside Saturday and Sunday so those days have no working hours.
7. Select Save.

A day with no specified staff availability is treated as unavailable, so customers cannot book that staff member on Saturdays or Sundays.^1^ The documented working-hours screen also supports removing a day with the x control.^2^

Repeat this for every staff member assigned to the interview service. If one of several assigned staff members remains available, Bookings may continue offering the slot for that person.^3^

2. Make Outlook events block Bookings availability

For each assigned interviewer:

1. Go to Bookings → Staff and open the staff member.
2. Enable Events on Microsoft 365 calendar affect availability.
3. Select Save.

This setting makes Microsoft 365 calendar free/busy information affect the staff member’s availability and is the supported mechanism for avoiding double-booking.^4^

Then open the interview service:

1. Go to Services and select the service.
2. Open Availability options.
3. Set General availability to Bookable when staff are free.
4. Save the service.

That setting limits the service to times when an assigned staff member is available.^5^

The Outlook event used to block a slot should be on the staff member’s primary calendar and marked Busy or Out of Office. A secondary/shared calendar, or an event that does not publish the required busy status, may not block the slot.^6^

3. Correct the 12:00 AM slots

Slots appearing around midnight when the intended hours are daytime can indicate a time-zone display mismatch:

1. Open the Bookings page’s Business information or regional/time-zone settings and verify its business time zone.
2. Open Booking page.
3. Review Always show time slots in business time zone:
   • Enable it if every visitor should see the business time zone.
   • Leave it disabled if visitors should see converted times in their own local time zones.
4. Save, reopen the public booking page, and test it in a private browser window.

Bookings working hours use the business time zone. If the “always show” option is disabled, visitors see slots converted to their own time zone.^7^

4. If Outlook conflicts still do not block slots

Check free/busy access for the affected staff member:

1. Sign in to Microsoft 365 as that staff member and open Outlook.
2. Select Share → Calendar.
3. Under People inside your organization, set My Organization to Can view when I’m busy.
4. Select Done.^7^

Also verify that the staff entry was selected from your organization’s directory. Staff added as external users cannot share free/busy information with Bookings.^4^

After saving, create one test event on the primary Outlook calendar, mark it Busy, and test the corresponding booking slot after several minutes. If that slot remains available after all settings above are correct, collect screenshots of the staff settings, service availability, Outlook event’s Show as value, and both time-zone settings for Microsoft 365 support.

References

1. Adding staff availability in Microsoft Bookings
2. Employee working hours in Microsoft Bookings
3. My bookings page is allowing customers to book appointments when I am busy - Microsoft Q&A
4. Add team members to Bookings
5. Configure service availability in Microsoft Bookings
6. Calendar in Microsoft Bookings is not syncing with Outlook - Microsoft Q&A
7. Shared Bookings Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)