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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bellabooking.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Introduction

Google Calendar Sync connects a team member’s Google Calendar with Bella Booking so that:
  • Bella appointments appear in Google Calendar — every appointment for the team member is pushed to their chosen Google calendar within seconds.
  • Personal Google events block availability — external events (dentist appointments, school pickups, meetings) are pulled into Bella as read-only blocked time, preventing double-bookings in both the admin scheduler and online booking.
Each team member connects their own Google account. The connection is personal — admins cannot connect on behalf of a team member, but they can view connection status and force-disconnect if needed.
Google Calendar Sync is rolling out gradually. If you don’t see the Calendar tab on a team member’s profile yet, it will be enabled for your account soon.

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How It Works

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What gets pushed to Google

When a Bella appointment is created, rescheduled, or cancelled for a connected team member, the corresponding Google Calendar event is created, updated, or removed automatically.
  • Events include the appointment time and service details
  • Bella is the source of truth — if someone edits a pushed event directly in Google, Bella overwrites it on the next sync cycle
  • Cancelled appointments are removed from Google Calendar

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What gets pulled from Google

External events on the connected calendar are imported into Bella as read-only blocked time:
  • Only events marked as Busy block availability (events marked as Free are ignored)
  • All-day events always block the entire day, regardless of their free/busy setting — this ensures holidays and days off are respected
  • Recurring events are expanded into individual occurrences within the sync window
  • External blocks appear on the admin scheduler and are respected by the online booking engine
The sync window covers 60 days before and after today. Events outside this range are not imported.

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What is NOT synced

  • Client contact information is never sent to Google. Pushed events contain the appointment time, service name, and client name, but not phone numbers, email addresses, or notes.
  • Minimal data read from Google. Bella accesses event start/end times, the free/busy status, and — when the “Show event titles” toggle is on — the event title. Event descriptions, attendees, and attachments are not accessed.

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Connecting Google Calendar

Only the team member themselves can connect their Google Calendar. The connection uses Google’s secure OAuth flow.

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Step-by-step

  1. Go to Team from the sidebar and click on the team member’s name
  2. Select the Calendar tab
  3. Click Connect Google
  4. You are redirected to Google — sign in and grant Bella permission to access your calendar
  5. After authorising, you are returned to Bella and a calendar picker appears
  6. Select which Google calendar Bella should use (your primary calendar is pre-selected)
  7. Click Use this calendar
Once connected, Bella immediately:
  • Pulls existing external events from the selected calendar as blocked time
  • Begins pushing upcoming appointments to Google Calendar
  • Registers for real-time notifications so new Google events appear in Bella within seconds

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What you see when connected

The Calendar tab shows:
  • The connected Google account email and calendar name
  • When the last sync occurred
  • Three sync facts: the 60-day event window, Busy-only filtering, and live push speed
  • A title visibility toggle (see Calendar Preferences below)
  • A Disconnect button

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Calendar Preferences

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Show event titles to colleagues

By default, external Google events appear as Busy on the admin scheduler — colleagues cannot see what the event is about. This protects your privacy. If you prefer, you can toggle Show event titles to colleagues to on. When enabled, the actual event title (e.g. “Dentist” or “School pickup”) is visible to other team members on the scheduler.
Regardless of this setting, clients booking online never see event titles — they only see that the time slot is unavailable.

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Reconnecting

If your Google Calendar connection loses access — for example, if you revoke Bella’s permissions from your Google account settings — syncing pauses and a Reconnect needed banner appears on the Calendar tab. To fix this:
  1. Go to your team member profile and select the Calendar tab
  2. You will see a Reconnect needed status with an explanation
  3. Click Reconnect Google
  4. Complete the Google authorisation flow again
  5. Syncing resumes automatically
While disconnected, new Google events will not block your availability and new Bella appointments will not appear in your Google Calendar. Reconnect promptly to avoid double-bookings.

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Disconnecting

You can disconnect Google Calendar at any time:
  1. Go to your team member profile and select the Calendar tab
  2. Click Disconnect
  3. Confirm in the dialog
When you disconnect:
  • Syncing stops immediately
  • External blocked time entries in Bella for this connection are removed
  • Bella appointments that were already pushed to Google Calendar remain in your Google calendar — they are not deleted
  • You can reconnect at any time to start syncing again

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Admin force-disconnect

Business owners and admins with the appropriate permissions can force-disconnect a team member’s Google Calendar from that team member’s profile. The team member will need to reconnect from their own profile to resume syncing.

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FAQs

Google Calendar Sync currently supports Google Calendar only. For other calendar apps, you can use the Calendar Feed feature, which provides a read-only subscription URL compatible with Outlook, Apple Calendar, and any app that supports iCal feeds. Note that the Calendar Feed is one-way (Bella to calendar) and does not pull external events back into Bella.
Yes. Each team member connects their own Google account independently. There is no limit on how many team members can connect.
Yes. After authorising with Google, a calendar picker lets you choose from any calendar on your Google account. Your primary calendar is selected by default, but you can pick any calendar you own.
Google defaults all-day events to Free, which means holidays and days off would not block your calendar. Bella intentionally treats all-day events as blocking regardless of their free/busy setting — this prevents clients from booking over your days off or holidays.
Bella is the source of truth for its own appointments. If you edit a pushed event in Google (for example, change the time), Bella will overwrite your changes on the next sync cycle. Always reschedule appointments within Bella.
The event will be re-created by Bella on the next sync cycle. To cancel an appointment, use the Bella scheduler or appointments page.
Bella to Google: Appointments appear in Google Calendar within seconds of being created or updated. Google to Bella: External events typically appear as blocked time within seconds, thanks to real-time push notifications from Google. A nightly reconciliation ensures nothing is missed.
Bella requests access to your Google account (for sign-in identity) and three calendar-specific permissions: read events on your calendars (to pull external events as blocked time), create and manage events that Bella creates (to push appointments), and list your calendars (so you can pick which one to use). Bella cannot modify events you created — it can only manage events it pushed itself.
Yes, though this is uncommon. Both team members will have the same external events blocking their availability, and each will have their own appointments pushed to that calendar separately.
Calendar Feed is a read-only subscription URL — it pushes Bella appointments to your calendar app but does not pull anything back. It works with any calendar app (Google, Apple, Outlook). Google Calendar Sync is a two-way connection — it pushes appointments to Google and pulls external events back as blocked time. It requires a Google account and OAuth authorisation.
Yes. Bella accesses event start/end times, free/busy status, and — when the “Show event titles” toggle is on — event titles. Event descriptions, attendees, and attachments are not accessed. Pushed appointments contain service names and the client’s name but not their phone number, email, or notes.