With our Calendar app, external Google and Microsoft calendars can be connected to Zendesk with a 2 way sync. This allows events created on tickets to be synced through to the external calendar and all external events to be synced to our app showing availability.
Steps covered in this article:
Further information:
1. Create a calendar in the app
We have 2 different types of calendars, global & personal and the setup is slightly different for each. First we will create the calendar that will be synced to your external account, please follow the guide that matches your calendar type.
1a. Global calendars
For more information on Global calendars, please see our full guide here.
To create a global calendar, as a Zendesk admin, in the Calendar app click Calendars in the left side menu and then click Add calendar on the top right.
In the new calendar Settings:
- Name your calendar.
- Select a color.
- Set any read & write permissions, workflows and calendar mappings.
Click Create calendar.
1b. Personal calendars
Personal calendars are used and setup by agents directly as the calendar is for their own use and they will be connecting their own external account. For more information on Personal calendars, please see our full guide here.
First, an administrator for the Calendar app will need to enable Personal calendars from the Settings menu if this is not enabled already.
Then to create a personal calendar, as an agent in Zendesk, open the Calendar app on the top right of Zendesk and then click the calendar drop down box on the left. At the very end of the calendar list will be the option to '+ Add or edit calendars'.
In the new popup, click Add calendar on the top right. Then:
- Name your calendar.
- Select a color.
- Set any workflows and calendar mappings.
Click Create calendar.
2. Connect an external account
Once the calendar has been created, on the same screen you have just created your calendar, under the Actions drop down menu on the top right select from Google or Microsoft accounts to connect to the app.
Login to your selected accounts to provide the app access and permission to sync and create calendar events.
For a Microsoft connection, click the Accept button to proceed.
For a Google connection, click the Continue button to proceed.
| For Google accounts, ensure to tick the Select all checkbox for the permission options so our app has access to your calendars. |
3. Sync to your calendars
Once your external account has been connected, we can now link them to the calendars we created in step 1.
On the calendar you have created there will now be a drop down for either Google or O365. Click this drop down and select the calendar you would like to sync.
If your account has multiple calendars, they will all show in the drop down here. Create a separate calendar in the app for each calendar you want to connect.
Now that your calendar has been connected, there are new visibility options under the Settings tab when you click the calendar in the app.
Events from external calendar options:
Don't show will stop any external events being synced and shown in the app.
Hide details will sync the events, but the details of the events will be hidden and any agent viewing the calendar in Zendesk will only be able to see free/busy times (example below).
Show full events will sync all events and show all details of the events so that agents viewing them will see exactly what they are.
Your external calendar is now connected and all events will be 2-way synced! To test, open the calendar app in the top bar and check all your external events have been synced:
Next, if you would like to automatically create tickets for every external event that's created, please follow our guide here.
Adding a shared calendar
Our Calendar app integrates with Microsoft and Google calendars by connecting to the account used during authentication. Shared mailbox calendars may not appear automatically when connecting your personal account.
Microsoft Shared Mailboxes
To use a shared mailbox calendar with our app, one of the following approaches may work:
-
Use a dedicated mailbox account
Connect using a user account that has direct full access to the shared mailbox. -
Create an event in the calendar
If the shared calendar was only recently added, it may not appear immediately. Creating an event in the calendar can help initialise it and make it visible to integrations. -
Authenticate as the shared mailbox (workaround)
Some customers have connected shared mailboxes by enabling sign-in and setting a password on the mailbox account, then using those credentials to authenticate. This allows the app to treat the shared mailbox as the primary account and access its calendar.
⚠️ This is not Microsoft’s recommended setup and may have security, licensing, or reliability implications. Disabling login after connection may cause the integration to stop working.
Please note, the above methods are only suggestions and are not guaranteed to work. Please contact your system administrator to investigate further.
Admin consent to access our app
When integrating our calendar app with your Microsoft environment, obtaining approval from your administrators may be necessary through ‘admin consent’. If you encounter this message, please refer to our article here.