External Calendars
LeaveWizard allows external calendar applications that support iCalendar (iCal), primarily Outlook calendar and Google Calendar, to display LeaveWizard user events. Leave information can then be viewed anywhere the user has access to Outlook or Google calendar including on a smart phone.
Setting Up Calendar Integration
Users can either subscribe to all personal leave or all visible leave. By default only subscription to all personal leave is available but as an administrator you can optionally allow users to subscribe to all visible leave.
All personal leave means all their personal leave that you have authorised them to view.
All visible leave means all their personal leave and leave for other users in the company who you have authorised them to view.
To allow users to subscribe to all visible leave, you can change the ‘Do you want to share all leave with your employees via Outlook or Google calendar?’ setting to ‘Yes’ on the Company Settings page.
This setting will dictate if the ‘Subscribe to all visible leave’ option is available in the ‘Outlook/Google Calendar Integration’ section of the My Settings page of users.
Additionally, you can also select which event types are available on the external calendars. On the Event Types Details page in the ‘Visibility’ section, the ‘Publish this event type in iCalendars’ should be ticked for events of that type to appear on the external calendar.
It should be remembered that notification of changes made on LeaveWizard to Outlook and Google require these calendars to act on the changes and this is not instantaneous. For example, Outlook advise that updates should be action-ed every 3 hours but can take more than 24 hours.
Selecting Calendar Integration
You can subscribe to the LeaveWizard calendar and add it to your external calendar from your My Settings page. The options available in the ‘Outlook/Google Calendar Integration’ section will vary depending on the settings you made in Company Settings as described in the ‘Setting up Calendar Integration’ above.
If all visible leave is not available, as an administrator, the section will look like this with a link to enable the all visible leave option and a ‘Subscribe to all personal leave’ link:
If all visible leave is available then the section will look like this for you and all users:
Subscribing To Outlook Calendar Integration
If you have an Outlook calendar account you can subscribe to the LeaveWizard calendar by clicking on a subscribe link, either ‘Subscribe to all personal leave’ or ‘Subscribe to all visible leave’ that is available to you.
You will then get a pop-up, similar to that shown below, requesting permission to launch Outlook if it is installed on your computer. Agree to continue.
Outlook will then open and another pop-up, similar to that shown below, will request permission to add the calendar and subscribe to updates. Again, agree to continue.
Finally, you will get another pop-up, similar to that shown below, showing the progress of the calendar being added to Outlook.
Subscribing To Google Calendar Integration
If you have a Google calendar account you can subscribe to the LeaveWizard calendar by copying the link address for either ‘Subscribe to all personal leave’ or ‘Subscribe to all visible leave’ that is available to you.
To copy the link address to your clipboard, right click on the subscribe link and select ‘Copy link address’ on the pop-up menu. The terminology varies between browsers. For Chrome, ‘Copy link address’, for Edge ‘Copy link’, for Internet Explorer ‘Copy shortcut’ and for Firefox ‘Copy Link Location’.
When you have copied the address to your clipboard, open the Google calendar web app and click the ‘+’ icon next to ‘Other calendars’ label on the main menu.
This will open a context menu. Choose the ‘From URL’ selection.
Then paste the URL you copied previously into the ‘URL of calendar’ field. We recommend that you don’t tick the ‘Make the calendar publicly accessible?’ box unless you want anyone with a Google account to be able to see your calendar. Then click ‘Add calendar’ to complete integration.
Although beyond the scope of this article, you may also want to integrate your LeaveWizard calendar with your iOS or Android smart phone app. This is usually straightforward once you add your Google mail account to your device.
Subscribing To Outlook Web Calendar And Integration On A Mac
As a Mac user, you can subscribe to the Outlook calendar using the Outlook web app. Copy the link address as described in the ‘Subscribing to Google Calendar Integration’ section above. When you are logged in and on the Outlook calendar app page, click ‘Add calendar’ on the main menu.
This will open the Add Calendar pop-up menu. Choose the ‘Subscribe from Web’ selection.
Then paste the URL you copied previously into the ‘Enter calendar URL’ field. When you do this more options will appear and you need to give the calendar a name. Then click ‘Import’ to complete integration.
These instructions for a Mac user are appropriate to anyone wanting to subscribe using the Outlook web app. A similar procedure is applicable for the Office 365 calendar except ‘Import calendar’ rather than ‘Add calendar’ on the main menu should be used. This will open the import calendar pop-up menu. Choose the ‘From Web’ selection. Then paste the URL you copied previously into the ‘Link to the calendar’ field. Then click ‘Import’ to complete integration.