Tired of the “when suits?” email ping-pong? Microsoft Bookings gives you a shareable link that lets clients book time on your calendar directly — with buffer times, availability windows, and automatic Teams invites.
Prerequisites
- Microsoft 365 Business Standard or Business Premium (Bookings is included; not available on Business Basic)
- Access to admin.microsoft.com if you need to enable it (usually already on for Business Standard tenants)
- Ten minutes
Why this matters
The typical “when suits?” exchange is 4–6 emails and 2–3 business days to nail down a 30-minute meeting time. A Microsoft Bookings link cuts that to one click and 30 seconds of the client’s time — no login required for them.
Perfect for: sales scoping calls, client review meetings, professional-services consultations, tradie site visits.
Step 1 — Open Bookings
Sign in to Microsoft 365. Click the app launcher (the 9-dot grid, top left) → Bookings. Or go directly to outlook.office.com/bookings/.
If Bookings isn’t in your app launcher, your admin needs to enable it — a 30-second toggle in the M365 admin centre.
Step 2 — Create a booking calendar
Click Get it now → Create booking calendar. Name it (e.g. “IT Live Scoping Calls”). Choose a business type (“Consulting”) — this just tunes the default templates.
Step 3 — Set your business hours
Click Business information (sidebar). Fill in your business name, address, phone, and hours.
Make sure the business hours reflect when you actually want clients booking you — not just when you’re technically working. If you don’t want 4:30pm bookings on Fridays, exclude them here.
Step 4 — Create a service (the thing you offer)
Click Services → + Add a service. For each service you offer, fill in:
- Name — what the client will see (e.g. “Free 30-min IT scoping call”)
- Description — plain-English explanation of what the client will get out of the meeting
- Default duration — 30 min is a good start
- Buffer time before/after — 5-10 min after each meeting is worth setting up so you’re not back-to-back
- Advance notice — how many hours ahead they need to book (2-24 hours prevents anyone booking you in an hour and catching you off guard)
- Maximum lead time — how far out they can book (30-60 days is standard)
- Location — tick “Add online meeting” for automatic Teams links
Step 5 — Add staff (if it’s not just you)
Click Staff → + Add staff. Add each team member who takes bookings. Their existing Outlook calendar automatically syncs — Bookings will only offer times they’re free.
Step 6 — Grab your shareable link & publish
Back on the main Bookings page, click Booking page in the sidebar. You’ll see the public URL — usually something like https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/YourBusiness@yourdomain.com/bookings/.
Test it in a private browser window. If it looks good, add it to your email signature, your website contact page, and your LinkedIn.
Common mistakes to avoid
- No buffer time between meetings. Back-to-back 30-min bookings mean you’re always five minutes late to the next one.
- No advance notice window. Setting it to zero means someone can book you for 15 minutes from now, catching you in a bad state.
- Not adding a Teams link automatically. Manually adding it later is tedious — the tick box for online meetings does it for you.
- Not testing the client-facing view. Bookings looks different from the outside — always test in a private window before sending the link to a real client.
When Bookings isn’t the right tool
If you need complex features — payment collection at time of booking, appointment reminders via SMS, multi-service round-robin routing across a big team — you’ll outgrow Bookings and want a specialist like Calendly, Acuity, or a proper booking platform. For 90% of NZ SMB use cases, Bookings is enough.
Related quick wins
Need help getting Bookings, Teams & Microsoft 365 set up properly for your team? Get in touch.