Summary

Leave Dates makes it easy to sync your leave data into Outlook, Google or any other calendar.

There are 3 types of integration:

Option 1 - Real-time sync of leave information to your calendar

• • Available for Outlook and Google Calendar only.
  • Events are automatically added in your calendar to show when you are on leave.
  • Your calendar will be shown as Busy on days when you are on leave.
  • Sync your leave only.
  • Can be configured by all users.

Option 2 - Regular feed of leave information to an external calendar

• • Available for most calendars providers
  • An external calendar is created which can be overlayed on your calendar but no events will be added to your calendar.
  • Your calendar will not be shown as Busy on days when you are on leave.
  • Sync the leave of your department or company to the same external calendar.
  • Can be configured by all users.

Option 3 - Real-time sync of leave information to a shared company calendar

• • Available for Outlook and Google Calendar only.
  • Events are automatically added to the calendar to show when staff are on leave.
  • One calendar event is added per day with a list of everyone who is on leave on that day.
  • Sync the leave of department(s) or the entire company to the same calendar.
  • Can only be configured by a company Admin

 

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Options 1 or 2

To configure options 1 or 2, go to the My Year page and click the link to Add to regular calendar

 

A popup will appear as shown below:

 

Then follow the instructions below, depending on which type of integration you prefer:

• Option 1 - Connect to Google or Outlook Calendar
• Option 2 - Subscribe to Calendar Feeds

 

Option 1 - Connect to Google or Outlook Calendar

Steps for connecting to Google

Steps for connecting to Outlook

Click the Connect button Sign in to your Google account (if not already signed in) Click Allow to give Leave Dates permission to view and edit events on your calendars. Click Allow to give Leave Dates permission to see and download calendars. Click Allow again to reconfirm your choices. Google Calendar will redirect you back to Leave Dates, and show Google Calendar as Connected. If you receive an error in this step, please check that your Google account has signed up for Google Calendar.  Leave will be synced in real-time to your Google Calendar.

Click the Connect button Sign in to your Microsoft account (if not already signed in) Click Yes to give Leave Dates permission to see and update data on your Outlook calendar. Microsoft will redirect you back to Leave Dates, and show Outlook Calendar as Connected. If you receive an error in this step, please check that your Microsoft account has signed up for Outlook Calendar.  Leave will be synced in real-time to your Outlook Calendar.

 

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Option 2 - Subscribe to Calendar Feeds

1. Log in to Leave Dates
2. Navigate to the My Year page
3. Click the Add to regular calendar link
4. Up to 3 links are shown in the Subscribe to calendar feeds section (as shown in the top image)
   
   
   • My Leave - This will sync only your own leave to the calendar. Everyone is shown this option.
   • My Department - This will sync the leave of your department to the calendar. You will be shown this option if you have access to view your department's leave.
   • My Company - This will sync the leave of the entire company to the calendar. You will be shown this option if you have access to view everyone's data.
     
     
5. Click the copy icon to the right of the appropriate link.
6. Follow the steps below to add this link to your calendar.
   
   

Supported calendars are:

• Google Calendar
• Outlook 2007 Calendar
• Outlook 2010 Calendar
• Outlook 2016 Calendar
• Outlook Office 365 Calendar
• Outlook/Live Web Calendar
• iPhone Calendar
• Any calendar which supports iCal (almost all really)

Sync with Google Calendar

1. Open Google Calendar
2. In the top right, click Settings
3. Click Add Calendar > From URL
4. Paste in the link you generated earlier
5. Click the Add Calendar button

Sync with Outlook 2007 Calendar

1. Open Outlook
2. Go to Tools > Account Settings > Internet Calendars
3. Click New
4. Paste in the link you generated earlier
5. Click the Add button
6. Provide a Name, click Ok and then close.
7. Click on Send/Receive to refresh the calendar. 
8. You'll see your leave calendar appear under other calendars on the left-hand side.

Sync with Outlook 2010 Calendar

1. Open Outlook
2. Go to Manage Calendars > Open Calendar > From Internet
3. Paste in the link you generated earlier
4. Click Ok and then Yes to verify.
5. You'll see your leave calendar appear under other calendars on the left-hand side.

Sync with Outlook 2016 Calendar

1. Open Outlook
2. In the Calendar view, click Add Calendar > From Internet
3. Paste in the link you generated earlier
4. Click Add
5. Your calendar will appear in the list on the left-hand side
6. If you want to overlay it with your default calendar then right-click it, and select Overlay

Sync with Outlook Office 365 Calendar

1. Open Outlook
2. In the Calendar view, click Open Calendar > From Internet
3. Paste in the link you generated earlier
4. Click Ok
5. Your calendar will appear in the list on the left-hand side
6. If you want to overlay it with your default calendar then right-click it, and select Overlay

Sync with Outlook / Live Web Calendar

1. Go to your outlook.com account
2. Go to Calendar
3. Click Import Calendar > From Web
4. Paste in the link you generated earlier and give your calendar a name.
5. Click Import

Sync with iPhone Calendar

1. On iPhone go to Settings > Calendar > Accounts
2. Tap Add Account
3. Tap Other > Add Subscribed Calendar
4. Paste in the link you generated earlier
5. Leave all the settings the same and tap Save.
6. Now when you go into the Calendar app you can select your Leave calendar using the Calendars link.

Sync with any calendar which supports iCal

The iCalendar (or iCal for short) format is an industry-standard that describes calendar events. Most calendars will support integrating with feeds using this format, and therefore most can be synchronised with Leave Dates. We cannot provide instructions for every calendar, but the initial steps are the same to generate the link, then you need to work with your calendar vendor to learn how to add the subscribed internet calendar.

If your calendar will not connect to the iCal feed, please try replacing webcal:// with https:// in the address.  

Change from this:	To this:
webcal://api.leavedates.com/feeds/my-leave/............	https://api.leavedates.com/feeds/my-leave/............

 

Update frequency

The feed from Leave Dates to your calendar is not a real-time feed. Updates take place a few times every day and the update frequency is set by your calendar (eg. Outlook or Google calendar), rather than us.

As a general rule, leave should be updated in your calendar every 4 hours or so.

The direct sync with Outlook and Google Calendar (described in option 1 above) is real-time.

 

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Option 3 - Sync leave to a shared company calendar

This option can only be configured by a company admin.

1. Go to the Settings > Integrations page.
2. Click Add Calendar within the Company Calendars section.
   
   
   
   
3. A popup will appear as shown below.
   
   
   
   
   1. Select whether to sync leave to Google or Outlook calendar.
   2. Select whether to sync leave for everyone in the company or specific departments.
   3. Choose the format of the event title. This is how the title of the calendar event will be shown in Outlook or Google Calendar.
      
      Examples could be:
      
      
      • On leave: John, Steve, Maria
      • Vacation - JP, SM, MR
        
        
4. Press Connect
5. You will then be taken to Google or Outlook Calendar to grant Leave Dates access to the calendar. These steps are described in Option 1 above.
6. Once all the permissions have been granted, you will return to Leave Dates with the connected calendar shown.
   
   
   
   
7. Leave will then appear in the calendar as a single event per day with a list of who is off. Any requests pending approval will be shown with a question mark. Further information about who is off can be found in the event description. 
   
   
   
   
8. The initial sync of leave records to a company calendar may take a few minutes to complete. Further updates will occur in near real-time.