Calendar and contacts.

Adding an appointment

In “Calendar”, click a free slot in the week or month view, or click “Event” at the top left. A small window opens: title, start and end, “All day” if you need it — then “Save”.

“More details” opens the full appointment. There you add a location and a description, make an appointment repeat regularly or attach a file from your files. At the top you switch the view between day, week, month, year and list; “Today” jumps back to the current day.

In an appointment’s details you can also give it a reminder. It appears as a notification in your BusinessCloud, a few minutes after the time you set.

1. 1Open “Calendar” in BusinessCloud.
2. 2In the week view, click the day and time.
3. 3Enter a title under “Title”, for example “Tasting the new roast”.
4. 4Click “Save”.

Creating more calendars

Your first calendar is called “Personal”. Create more for anything you want to see separately — a staff rota, events, deliveries. Each calendar has its own colour; clicking its entry in the left-hand column hides its appointments and shows them again.

Which calendar an appointment belongs to is chosen in the appointment itself. To bring in appointments from another program’s calendar file, use “Import calendar” under “Calendar settings” at the bottom left.

1. 1In the left-hand column, click the plus next to “My calendars” (“Add new”).
2. 2Choose “New calendar”.
3. 3Enter a name, for example “Staff rota”, and confirm with Enter.

Showing a calendar by link

You can pass on a calendar for viewing through a link — the staff rota for your team, say, or upcoming events for regular guests. Anyone who opens the link sees the appointments in the browser; they can’t change anything.

The same place offers two more ways: “Copy subscription link” gives an address others add to their own calendar program to see your appointments there. “Copy embedding code” gives you a piece of code that shows the calendar on a website. “Delete share link” makes the link invalid.

1. 1In the left-hand column, open the three dots next to the calendar and choose “Edit and share calendar”.
2. 2Next to “Share link”, click the plus.
3. 3Copy the link with “Copy public link” and send it on.

The link works for anyone who knows it. So only share calendars whose appointments everyone may see — anything private belongs in a calendar of its own.

Letting people book appointments

With appointment booking, your customers book an appointment with you themselves — on a page that shows your free times: for a consultation, a pickup, a first conversation. It belongs to your calendar: “Bookings” in BusinessCloud opens it, and your booking pages are listed on the left under “Appointment schedules”.

For each page you decide how long an appointment lasts, which calendar booked appointments go into and at what times people can book. Times that are taken in that calendar, or in the calendars you choose for conflicts, are not offered.

Your guest picks a free time, enters their name and email address and clicks “Book appointment”. They then receive an email with a link; only once they confirm the appointment with it does it appear in your calendar. Each time can only be booked by one person. BusinessCloud sends the emails for you — there is nothing to set up.

Your guest can’t cancel or move the appointment themselves: they reply to the email, the reply reaches you, and you take care of it in your calendar. If your plan ends, your booking pages stop responding — like your other public links.

1. 1Open “Bookings” in BusinessCloud.
2. 2On the left, under “Appointment schedules”, click “Create new”.
3. 3Enter a name under “Appointment name”, for example “Catering consultation”, and choose the “Duration (minutes)”, the “Booking calendar” and, under “Booking availability”, the times when people can book.
4. 4Click “Save”.
5. 5Open the three dots next to the schedule, choose “Copy link” and pass the link on.

Deadlines from Invoice

When you issue an invoice with a payment term in Invoice, the deadline appears in your calendar as an all-day appointment with the document number and amount; for a quote, the day it expires. The appointment links back to Invoice and has the document’s PDF attached. There is nothing to set up — everything else is under Due dates in the calendar.

Adding and keeping contacts

“Contacts” is your address book — for customers, suppliers, your team and everyone your company deals with. “New contact” creates an entry; you type in name, company, phone, email address and postal address directly.

You change an existing contact with “Edit” and “Save”. To bring in a whole address book from another program, use “Import contacts” under “Contacts settings” at the bottom left — with a vCard file (.vcf), which most address books and phones can export.

1. 1Open “Contacts” in BusinessCloud.
2. 2Click “New contact”.
3. 3Enter name, company, phone and email address and click “Save”.

Groups — and the “Customers” group

Groups organise your address book: a contact can be in several, for example “Suppliers” and “Press”. In the left-hand column you create new ones under “Contact groups” and see with one click who belongs to them.

Invoice fills the group “Customers”: every customer you add there appears in this group of your address book with name, email address and postal address. The group is named in the language of your BusinessCloud. The other way round, Invoice lets you take contacts instead of typing them again — see Customers from the address book.

1. 1Open the contact and click “Edit”.
2. 2Choose the group in the “Contact groups” field.
3. 3Click “Save”.