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Connect Google Calendar

Link each artist's Google Calendar so appointments are pushed to Google and busy events block booking slots.

Updated

Open this in the app

Google Calendar is connected per artist, with each artist's own Google account. Once connected, appointments made in TattooBooking appear on that Google calendar, and events already on the Google calendar can block booking slots.

Before you start

  • Each artist needs a Google account. A dedicated shop Google account works well — you can give other people access to it without sharing a personal inbox — but a personal Gmail is fine too.
  • A shop owner or manager can start the connection for another artist, but they will need that artist's Google login at the Google sign-in screen. An artist can always connect their own.
  • There is no plan requirement for calendar sync.

Connect

  1. In the app, open Settings and choose the Integrations tab.
  2. Under Artist Calendars, find the artist's row. Your own row is marked You.
  3. Press Connect Your Calendar (or Connect for … on another artist's row — the app asks you to confirm, because you will need to log in with their Google account).
  4. Sign in to Google and press Allow. Keep the Calendar checkbox ticked on Google's consent screen — if it is unticked the app rejects the connection with "Google Calendar access was not granted. Please reconnect and keep the Calendar checkbox ticked on the Google consent screen."
  5. You land back on the Integrations tab with "Google Calendar connected" and the row shows ✓ Connected.

The Artists Connected counter at the top of the tab shows how many of your artists are linked.

You can also connect from Booking → Settings, on the artist's calendar tab, with the Connect Google Calendar button.

Choose what the calendar does

Open Booking → Settings, pick the artist, and open the calendar tab. Under Calendar Role:

  • Primary Calendar — "TattooBooking appointments will be added to this calendar. Only ONE calendar can be primary."
  • Blocking Calendar — "Check this calendar for conflicts when booking new appointments. Multiple calendars can be blocking."

When Blocking is on, a Calendars to Check list appears with every calendar on that Google account. Tick the ones that should block bookings; your Google primary calendar is checked by default.

The same tab has:

  • Buffer Times — "Add buffer time before and after existing events to prevent back-to-back bookings." Choose no buffer, 15, 30 or 45 minutes, or 1 hour on either side.
  • Ignore all-day events — so holidays and birthdays do not block a whole day.
  • Ignore tentative events — so "Maybe" events do not block.
  • Ignore Events by Title — add titles such as "Lunch" or "Break" that should never block booking times.

Press Save Calendar Settings.

What syncs, and which way

TattooBooking → Google. New appointments — from your booking links, from the calendar, and from walk-in consent — are created as events on the artist's Primary calendar. Time blocks you add in the app go across too.

Google → TattooBooking. Busy events on a Blocking calendar remove those times from the artist's public booking availability. Events the app pushed itself are recognised and do not block twice. A Google event is a soft conflict for staff: when you create an appointment inside the app on top of one, you are warned and can choose to go ahead; clients booking through your public links never can.

External Google events are also shown on the app's Calendar page alongside your appointments.

Keeping it in sync

Google tells TattooBooking about changes as they happen, so the app does not poll. If something looks stale, press Sync Now on the artist's row under Integrations; it pushes that artist's upcoming appointments to Google again and reports how many were synced.

If a row shows ⚠️ Reconnect Required, ⚠️ Not Syncing or ⚠️ Token Expired, Google has stopped accepting the saved authorisation — usually because access was revoked from the Google side or the password changed. Press Reconnect, sign in again, and keep the Calendar checkbox ticked. Until then, appointments still appear on the TattooBooking calendar; they are just not reaching Google.

Disconnect

On the artist's row under Integrations, press Disconnect and confirm. The app stops listening for changes from that Google calendar, tells Google to revoke its access, and forgets the connection. Nothing is removed from TattooBooking — appointments, clients and history all stay. Events already on the Google calendar are left where they are.

Shop calendar

A shop can have its own Google connection too, separate from any artist. Open the Calendar page, choose the shop calendar, and use Connect Google Calendar in the Shop Calendar settings. Shop events — guest artists, art nights, closures — sync out to that Google calendar, and events created directly in Google appear on the shop calendar in the app as read-only. Only the shop owner or a shop admin can change this connection.

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