Calendar entry (ICS file): setting your own title and description

What is this about?

For every booked appointment, bookingtime sends along an ICS file. That's a small calendar file: your customers and employees click it, and the appointment goes straight into Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. You decide what appears there as the title and the description.

Where do I find the setting?

Under Settings → Default settings → "Export" tab. Here you set the text once for your entire organization. You'll find two separate areas:

• Customers: the text your customers see in their calendar.
• Employees: the text your employees see in their calendar.

The two can differ. Employees often need more detail than customers do.

What are text modules?

Placeholders that are filled automatically with the real appointment data when the file is sent. Using "+ Text module" you can insert your organization's name, the appointment title, or the date and time. You write the text only once, and every calendar entry still comes out correct.

A title such as "[ORGANIZATION_NAME] – [APPOINTMENT_PUBLIC_NAME]" appears in the calendar as, for example, "Sample Practice – Consultation".

Why do I see the same setting in several places?

Because you can define the text at three levels, from general to specific:

1. Default settings: applies to your whole organization.
2. Appointment template: applies only to that one service.
3. Email template: applies only to that one email.

At each level you'll find the field "Source for default texts" at the top. It decides whether that level inherits the text from above or uses its own:

• Default setting: takes the organization-wide text.
• Appointment template: takes the text from the appointment template (this option exists only in the email template).
• Own setting: a separate text that applies only here.

Which level wins?

Always the most specific one. If the email template is set to "Own setting", that text is what gets used, no matter what the appointment template or the default settings contain.

I changed the default text, but the calendar still shows the old one. Why?

This is the most common case: somewhere more specific, "Own setting" is still selected and overrides your change. Check in this order:

1. The email template being used, on the "ICS file customer" or "ICS file employee" tab: is it set to "Own setting"?
2. The appointment template being used, on the same tabs: is it set to "Own setting"?

As soon as you switch that place back to "Default setting", your central text takes effect again.

How do I undo an exception?

Set "Source for default texts" back to "Default setting". The organization-wide text from the default settings then applies again.

Our tip

Set the text once centrally in the default settings and leave everything else on "Default setting". An exception is only worth it when a particular appointment genuinely needs a different calendar entry, for instance an online consultation where the dial-in link should also appear in the calendar. The fewer exceptions you create, the easier your texts stay to maintain.