The integration between Salonized and Google Calendar allows you to view your schedule on the go and automatically block off time in Salonized when you add any appointments to your Google Calendar. Read this article to discover how to activate it, share the calendar with your employees and solve the most common hiccups.
How do I set up the Salonized to GCal integration?
The integration allows your Salonized appointments to appear automatically in a Google Calendar.
If you do not have a Gmail account yet, start by creating one.
Go to www.gmail.com to create an account for your salon.
Next, go to www.google.com/calendar and keep this tab open.
To enable the integration:
Log in to Salonized.
Go to Settings > General > Integrations.
Under Google Calendar, click ‘Enable’ and grant the requested permissions.
In the Salonized → GCal section choose your sync type:
If you work alone, select the option ‘All appointments in one Google Calendar’.
If you work with a team, select the option ‘Separate Google Calendars for each employee’s appointments’.
Next to each employee's name, click ‘Create a new calendar: Salonized - [Employee Name]’.
Click Save.
Note: The initial synchronization can take approximately 15 minutes to appear in Google.
How can I share specific employee calendars with my team?
Once the calendars are created, you can share them so employees can view their individual schedules on their private mobile devices. Here’s how:
Open your Google Calendar.
On the left-hand menu, hover over the specific employee calendar you just created.
Click the three dots (options icon) next to the calendar name
Select ‘Settings and sharing’.
Scroll to 'Share with' and enter the employee's private email address.
This ensures they only see their own appointments.
How do I set up the GCal to Salonized integration?
This advanced two-way sync grants Salonized access to read your calendar appointment information. It ensures that when you create an event in Google Calendar, it automatically creates an 'Absence' in Salonized, preventing customers from booking that time.
To enable the integration you must have the manager role:
Log in to Salonized.
Go to Settings > General > Integrations.
Click Settings on the Google Calendar integration.
In the GCal → Salonized section tick the ‘Show Google Calendar events as absences in Salonized’ box.
Select a specific Google Calendar for each employee. When an event is added to that Google Calendar, an absence is created for only that employee.
You can also select the ‘Entire company’ calendar. Events here will block the schedule for all employees simultaneously.
Note: Use this setting with caution, as it significantly impacts customer booking availability.
How can I prevent specific Google appointments from blocking my time?
If you have a personal note or event in your Google Calendar that you don't want to block your availability in Salonized, you can use hashtags to ignore them.
To ignore a single appointment: Add the hashtag #sz_ignore to the description of the event in Google Calendar.
To ignore a recurring series: Add the hashtag #sz_ignore_all to the description of one appointment in the series.
In this way, Salonized will read the calendar but will skip any events containing these tags, leaving those time slots open for bookings.
What are the limitations of the Google Calendar sync?
While the integration is powerful, there are specific technical limitations regarding recurring events and editing rights.
Initial Setup: Existing recurring appointments created before enabling the integration will not be imported. Only new recurring events created after setup will sync.
Complex Recurrence: The sync does not support 'Relative days' (e.g., 'the last Friday of the month'). However, it works with specific dates (e.g., 'the 15th of every month').
Event Types: Yearly recurring events and 'All Day' events are not supported.
Read-Only: Absences created by Google Calendar are 'read-only' in Salonized. To change or delete them, you must make the edit within Google Calendar itself.