Using the Calendar


Videos

Calendar and Scheduling

This Sessions Health tutorial teaches you how to use the calendar and schedule appointments.

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Changing the view of the calendar

The calendar has three views: month, week, and day. Change the view by selecting from the drop-down in the top-right of the screen

Once you've changed the view, the navigation in the top-left will change as well.

Month navigation

Week navigation

Day navigation

Keyboard navigation

Alt-c - You may navigate to the calendar from any screen by pressing 'Alt-c.'

t - While on the calendar, you can navigate to today by pressing 't.' Navigating to today won't change the type of view you have selected. For example, if you are navigating by month and press 't,' the calendar will return you to the month of the current day.

Time Zone

The calendar is always displayed in the local time where you are currently located. The time zone we detect is displayed in the upper right corner of your calendar view.

Example: If your default time zone is Central Time, but you are in New York while looking at your calendar, the times will be displayed in Eastern Time.

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Filtering the calendar

Filter by Practitioner

If your clinic has more than one practitioner, it may be the case that more than one practitioner's appointments need to be viewed. You may select the filter icon to filter on the practitioners you wish to display on the calendar.

Filter by Location

If your clinic has more than one location, you may also filter by location within the filter icon.

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Setting your calendar office hours

In your calendar, you can set your office hours so your time away is grayed-out. This can be helpful when scheduling an appointment or if you have a scheduler for your practice scheduling appointments.

Note: Your office hours are separate from your online booking availability. Office hours are not visible externally and are only visible to your practice.

To setup office hours, click "..." in the upper right corner of your calendar view and select Office Hours. Next, click the Set Office Hours button and select the days and times of your office hours.

Last, select the time zone of the office hours you set.

Your office hours will auto-save. You may now view your calendar to confirm the grayed-out portion reflects the office hours you setup.


Note: For group practices, each practitioner can set their own office hours. Schedulers and Practitioners with an Administrator role will have the ability to set both a default practice-wide office hour schedule and individual practitioner office hour schedules.

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Calendar sync with an external provider

Sessions Health offers One-Way calendar sync with several external calendars, and Two-Way sync with Google calendar. One-Way sync will enable you to see your Sessions Health events on your external calendar. Two-Way sync will also allow you to see events from your Google calendar on your Sessions Health calendar.

To setup calendar sync, click "..." in the upper right corner of your calendar view and select Sync Calendar.

From the following screen, click the box next to Allow your Sessions calendar to sync to an external calendaring application. You will then select how you would like your client names to be displayed in your external calendar.

  1. Use Full Name - When selected Sessions will sync your clients' names with your external calendar provider. Due to the risk of exposing PII, we do not recommend this option. Syncing your clients' real full names with a non-compliant service would be a HIPAA violation.
  2. Internal ID - When "Internal ID" is selected, Sessions Health will never share the real name of your clients, but will instead use a pre-assigned identifier. When using this option, you'll want to make sure your account has Internal IDs enabled under the Account Settings > Clients page. When an administrator enables Internal IDs, all practitioners will see the client's identifier in the Clients page and in each client's record. This will allow you match the client ID with the client's name. If you are unsure if your 3rd party calendar provider is HIPAA compliant, you should use internal identifiers.
  3. First Name - This will show only the client's first name.
  4. Initials - This option will only display the client's initials.
View of the Clients page when Internal IDs are enabled

You'll then want to choose whether you want One-Way or Two-Way sync enabled:

One-Way Sync

Below are a few links from popular calendar providers on how to use this URL to add your Sessions Health calendar. If you use another calendar provider, most offer a way to import an external calendar from a .ics URL. Please search your calendar provider's help documentation to accomplish this, if you are having trouble, please contact us at support@sessionshealth.com

Apple: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-multiple-calendars-iph3d1110d4/ios

Google: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100

Outlook: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/import-or-subscribe-to-a-calendar-in-outlook-on-the-web-503ffaf6-7b86-44fe-8dd6-8099d95f38df


Two-Way sync with Google calendar

Select Two-Way Sync with Google Calendar to allow your Sessions Health and Google calendars to send and receive changes. Making changes in your Sessions Health calendar will  update your Google calendar and vice versa.

You'll need to use a Google account to sync your Sessions Health appointments with your Google calendar. After clicking the  Connect with Google button, you will need to provide Sessions Health permission to connect with your Google calendar.

You will then select your Default Calendar to sync. We highly recommend syncing to a New Google Calendar instead of your primary calendar. If you sync to your primary Google calendar and remove 2-Way sync, you will need to either delete your primary calendar or manually remove Sessions Health events from your primary calendar. You may still sync your primary Google calendar as a Secondary Google Calendar so your Google events display in your Sessions Health calendar.

Note: While you can sync your Google calendar to Sessions Health, you cannot create Sessions Health appointments with clients from Google calendar. Client sessions with related billing and notes must be created in Sessions Health.

Secondary Google Calendars

You may also connect secondary Google calendars to your Sessions Health calendar. After syncing your default calendar, any additional Google calendars you have will be listed with an option to sync each calendar. 

Note: Syncing your Google calendar events to your Sessions Health calendar when the Google event is set as "Busy" will also be set to "Busy" on your Sessions Health calendar and prevent online booking requests during that time if you have online booking enabled.

Note: If you edit a recurring event from a secondary calendar and select the "this event" or "this and future occurrences" option, the forked event will remain tied to the secondary calendar. When removing secondary calendars, we'll keep all events that were pulled in from that secondary calendar in your Sessions Health calendar (i.e., events created in Google and synced into Sessions Health), but they'll remain tied to that secondary calendar’s identifier so they don't ever sync to any other calendar.

Events in Google

When client events are synced to Google, you will see a lock icon. The lock icon indicates a client-level event whose title is un-editable. You may edit the title in your Google calendar, but it will not change the title in your Sessions Health calendar. If you ever re-sync your Google and Sessions Health calendars, the title you changed in your Google Calendar will be overwritten.

Deleting events in Google Calendar
You can delete events in Google Calendar and Sessions Health will ignore that action if the session in Sessions Health has completed notes associated with the session (or is marked as cancelled). If anything in Sessions Health occurs that triggers a session to sync with Google, it will show up again in Google.
Removing access of Sessions Health events in your Google calendar

If you need to remove access for Sessions Health to your Google calendar, you can make this change within your Google account. Sign in to your Google account and go to Manage Your Google Account. Click Security and scroll to the Third-party apps with account access panel. Click Manage Third-party access. Scroll through the apps shown until you see Sessions Health. Click the item and then the Revoke Access button.

Removing Google events from your Sessions Health calendar

If you synced your 2-way Sessions Health calendar with Google, you can switch from the 2-way sync option to 1-way sync. This will clear your Sessions Health calendar from any Google events.

Common calendar sync questions

Why is my Google Calendar not syncing or taking a long time to sync?

If using a one-way sync calendar, Google calendar has a known limitation where they only sync "From URL" calendars about once per day. Other calendar apps like Apple on iPhone allow you set a frequency including as often as every 15 minutes. One-way sync and so we rely upon the consuming calendar app to get new events by checking the URL. Using 2-way sync will provide better performance.

Why do I not see the changes I made on my Google Calendar in Sessions Health?

If you are using two-way sync, you may need to refresh your Sessions Health screen to see updated events in the calendar.

How can I change how clients are displayed in my Google Calendar after the sync?

Changing the way client identifiers are displayed requires a triggering event from your Sessions Health calendar (or a new sync). To re-sync all events, first select how you want your clients displayed. Then, toggle your sync type back and forth (ex. if you have 2-way sync, change the sync to 1-way, then back to 2-way). Re-syncing your calendar will display the updated client identifier you chose.

Your Google Calendar may have duplicate records (from both the older and newer sync instances). In that case, you can just remove/unsubscribe the older instance from your Google Calendar.

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Create an all-day event

To create an all-day event show at the top of the calendar, click the area at the top of the calendar or click into any timeslot and select Other Event and check the All day box.

Note: Client events cannot be created as all-day events.

You may also select whether you'd like the all-day event to be shown as Busy or Free on your calendar. If you show it as Busy, any online booking availability will be blocked all day. The all-day event will display at the top of your calendar. 

Managing Availability When Out of Office

You may also add days out of the office to your online booking availability.  First, click the Manage Availability button from your calendar.

Next, click the + Add button in the Date Overrides area. select any dates you'll be out of the office and remove any hours available at the bottom by clicking the trash bin icons. Lastly, click the Save button.

FAQ

Do you offer calendar sync?

Yes, we currently offer both two-way sync with Google and a one-way calendar sync that is compatible with any software that accepts ICS calendar formats.

Do you sync with ical?

Yes. We export the calendar as an ICS URL which integrates with most calendar apps.

Regarding Calendar syncing, what client identifier options do you have with 3rd party calendars?

You can select to use a client ID, client initials, first name, or full name. Please be careful about exposing PII in calendars outside of Sessions Health. We suggest you refer to HIPAA to make sure you're not making a PII violation.

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