Google Calendar and other calendars

Crewtavo works with Google Calendar both ways without any Google setup:

• Your Google Calendar on Crewtavo’s schedule, so nobody books over a supplier meeting or a day off. Crewtavo checks it every 15 minutes.
• Your visits in Google Calendar, so the day is on your phone next to everything else.

Do both on a computer. Google’s phone app can’t show calendar addresses or add calendars, but once they’re set up, everything shows on your phone too.

Show your Google Calendar on the schedule

1. In Crewtavo, open Apps → Google Calendar and choose Install.
2. Choose Open Google Calendar settings.
3. On the left, under Settings for my calendars, click your calendar.
4. Scroll down to Integrate calendar and copy the Secret address in iCal format.
5. Back in Crewtavo, paste it. The calendar is added as soon as you paste.

If your server has Google sign-in turned on, Install shows Sign in with Google first. Use that, or paste the address under Or add a calendar by its secret address.

Once a calendar is added, Google Calendar shows as installed. Uninstall, at the top of its page, takes its calendars off the schedule; your Google calendars themselves aren’t changed.

Each Google calendar has its own secret address, so repeat this for every calendar you want to see. Then open a calendar’s settings (the pencil) to give it a color, put it in one crew’s lane, or show its events only as Busy.

Copy the secret address, not the public one, the calendar ID or the calendar’s web link. Crewtavo says which one you pasted if it isn’t the right one. Keep the secret address to yourself: anyone who has it can see the calendar. If it gets out, choose Reset next to it in Google and paste the new one.

Some Google Workspace accounts have secret addresses turned off by their admin. If you don’t see one, upload a calendar file instead, or ask your Workspace admin.

Show your visits in Google Calendar

1. In Crewtavo, open Apps → Google Calendar (step 2 on that page), or Settings → Calendars.
2. Choose Get my calendar link, then Add to Google Calendar.
3. Google Calendar opens and asks whether to add the calendar. Choose Add.

Your visits update in Google on their own, but Google decides how often to check, and that can be up to a day. For changes made today, look in Crewtavo. People who dispatch can choose to show the whole schedule instead of only their own visits.

Everyone on your team can do this for themselves under Settings → Profile. For Apple Calendar and Outlook, see Show your visits in Outlook or Apple Calendar.

Upload a calendar file

If you’d rather not use links, or want to bring a calendar over once, upload a file:

1. In Google Calendar on a computer, open Settings, then Import & export, then Export. Google downloads a .zip file with all your calendars.
2. In Crewtavo, open Settings → Calendars (owners, and admins with Connect apps) and choose that .zip file. There’s no need to unzip it. Each calendar in it is added separately.

From Apple Calendar on a Mac, click the calendar, then File → Export → Export. From Outlook for Windows, choose File → Save Calendar. Any .ics file works.

A file shows the calendar as it was when you exported it: its events from last month through the next year, including repeating events. It doesn’t change when the calendar does. To catch up, export it again and choose the upload button next to the calendar in Settings → Calendars. To keep a calendar current on its own, add it by its secret address instead.

Turn an event into a visit

If you schedule visits, click any calendar event on the schedule, from Google or another calendar, and choose Add to schedule. Crewtavo starts a new visit with the event’s day, time, crew and notes. Pick the client or job, then save.

For regular customers, a recurring job is quicker than converting each weekly event: Crewtavo adds its visits for you.

Outlook, Apple, Zoho and other calendars

Outlook, Apple Calendar (iCloud), Zoho Calendar and any other calendar with a subscribe link each have their own app: Apps → Outlook, Apps → Apple Calendar, Apps → Zoho Calendar and Apps → Other calendars. Each puts a calendar’s events on Crewtavo’s schedule, next to your visits. There’s no sign-in: Crewtavo reads the calendar from its private link, called an ICS or webcal link. Owners and admins with Connect apps add them.

Add one

1. Open Apps, choose the calendar’s app, then Install.
2. Find the calendar’s link with the steps below (they’re on the app’s page too), and paste it under Calendar link. It starts with https:// or webcal://.
3. If you like, type a Name (otherwise it uses the calendar’s own), and pick Whose time is it?: The whole team, or a crew, so it sits in that crew’s lane and only blocks its time.
4. Leave Show event names and details on, or turn it off to show the events only as Busy, with no names, places or notes kept. That suits someone’s personal calendar.
5. Leave Count as busy in Find a time on, so nobody gets booked over these events. Events marked free in the calendar never count.
6. Choose Add calendar.

Crewtavo says how many events it found, like “Office added · 42 events”. Repeat for each calendar you want to see. The link is kept encrypted and never shown again.

Find the link in Outlook

For Outlook.com, Microsoft 365 and Exchange calendars:

1. In Outlook on the web, open Settings, then Calendar, then Shared calendars.
2. Under Publish a calendar, pick the calendar and Can view all details, then Publish.
3. Copy the ICS link, not the HTML one.

Find the link in Apple Calendar (iCloud)

1. On an iPhone, open Calendar and tap Calendars at the bottom.
2. Tap ⓘ next to the calendar and turn on Public Calendar.
3. Tap Share Link, then Copy.

On a Mac or at icloud.com, the share button next to the calendar has the same option. Anyone who has a public calendar’s link can see the calendar, so keep it to yourself.

Find the link in Zoho Calendar

1. In Zoho Calendar, open the calendar’s settings: Settings, then My Calendars, or the ⋮ menu next to the calendar.
2. Under Share or Publish, turn on the private address.
3. Copy the private ICS link.

Any other calendar

Other calendars takes any calendar with a subscribe link: Yahoo, Fastmail, Proton, Nextcloud, booking and rental tools, holiday and school calendars.

1. In your calendar app, look for Share, Publish, Export or Subscribe.
2. Copy the link that ends in .ics or starts with webcal://.

What comes across, and how often

• Crewtavo reads each calendar again every 15 minutes, with repeating events, moved meetings and cancellations. To read one now, choose Refresh now (the arrows) on its row.
• It keeps the calendar’s events from the last month through the next six months.
• It only reads. It can’t add to or change the calendar, and what you change in Crewtavo (a calendar’s name, color or crew) only changes Crewtavo.
• Events show on the schedule in the calendar’s color, by day, week and month, for everyone on your team except field crew.

It’s one way: the calendar’s events come into Crewtavo. To see your visits in Outlook or Apple Calendar, see below.

Change or remove a calendar

Each calendar is listed on its app’s page under Calendars on your schedule, and with all the others under Settings → Calendars. Its row shows whose time it is, how many events it has and when it was last read.

Choose the pencil on its row to open Change calendar. There you can rename it, give it a Color, change Whose time is it? and the two switches, or turn off Show on the schedule to hide it for a while. Remove takes its events off the schedule. Uninstall on the app’s page removes all of that app’s calendars.

If a calendar stops updating

The app shows Needs attention on the Apps page, and the calendar’s row says what’s wrong:

• “That calendar needs a sign-in. Use its private or secret ICS link (the one with a long code in it).”
• “That link opened a web page, not a calendar. Use the ICS link (also called the iCal, webcal, private or secret address).” In Outlook, that usually means the HTML link was copied instead of the ICS one.
• “No calendar at that link. It may have been turned off or replaced; copy the link again.” The calendar was unpublished, or its link was reset.
• “Couldn’t reach that calendar. Check the link, or try again in a few minutes.”

You can’t change a calendar’s link, so copy the link again, add it as a new calendar, then remove the old one.

Show your visits in Outlook or Apple Calendar

Your visits can go the other way too, into Outlook, Apple Calendar or any calendar app that subscribes by link:

1. Open Settings → Profile, or Settings → Calendars, and choose Get my calendar link.
2. Choose Apple or Outlook to open the calendar app on this computer or phone and subscribe. For another app, choose Copy link and add it there as a calendar from a link.

Each calendar app checks for changes on its own schedule, from about an hour to a day, so for a change made today, look in Crewtavo. Anyone with the link can see those visits, so keep it to yourself. New link makes a fresh one (the old one stops working), and Turn off stops it.

Instant updates with Google sign-in

For most businesses the steps above are enough. If you run your own Crewtavo server, you can also turn on Google sign-in. Then people pick calendars from their Google account instead of pasting addresses, and visits reach a Google calendar Crewtavo makes within a few minutes.

It takes a Google Cloud project with an OAuth client. See Google Calendar in server settings for the steps.