How do I synchronise my calendars and set my availability on the JA Portal?

Calendar syncing functionality allows you to effortlessly display your accurate availability across multiple calendars to your JA candidates.

The portal will search for any 1-hour gaps in your calendar during the availability you have selected to present to your candidates. 

Once you have synchronised your calendar and set the days and hours of your availability, you can then manage your time and appointments through your calendars.

Please follow the below steps to complete the process of setting up your calendar and availability on the portal. 

1. Log into the JA portal and go to the Booking Screen – Coaches will be taken to the new Calendar screen when they log in if they have not set up their new availability.

Click on ‘Manage’




2. Select one calendar at a time to sync (Google Calendars will show a warning that it is not authenticated, however, it is still safe to connect google calendars)



3. Click on ‘Manage’ to now set up your Working Hours

Bookable
Select what starting time you prefer for bookings e.g. On the hour only would allow candidates to only book in at 9 am, 10 am, or 11 am. They will not be able to select 9.30 or 9.15.  

Lead Time

This allows you to control how much lead time is required for candidates to book in with you (how much time between someone being able to book in and the session).

Buffer Time
This allows you to add a buffer between session. This will show in your calendar only and prevent any bookings during this time.

Working Hours

You can create multiple windows of availability in the same day by clicking on the + icon next to the day. This can allow you to create a window of two hours in the morning and another 3 hours later in the afternoon if you wish. 





Session Forwarding
You can choose which of your synced calendars to forward session invites to — either none, one, or several. This automatically blocks the time across those calendars, saving you the manual step and helping you avoid double bookings in other work streams.

This is the Candidate View of your availability.

Can I book sessions outside of the pre-set availability?

You can book a coaching session with a candidate that is outside of a ‘locked to client’ window or outside of your normal coaching availability.

1. From the candidate profile select ‘schedule session’

2. Select ‘Go to Advanced View’

3. In the calendar view click on the time you want to make a session

4. Select ‘Video’

5. Click ‘Book Session’







Can I modify availability for specific dates?

If you need to change your availability for a specific date, you can do so without impacting your standard availability.

1. Hover the mouse over the displayed timing under the date impacted and it will change to ‘Modify Availability’ click on this.


2. It will open a sidebar that allows you to change your availability or remove your availability for that specific date only.




How do I set up holidays and leave?
It is best to block out your leave in your outlook or personal calendars, this will then show as unavailable in your JA Portal Calendar automatically.

How do I close my calendar to new candidates when I reach capacity?

If you are at capacity and have availability to service your existing participants only, you can select ‘Close to new clients’. This will allow only your existing clients to see your availability and book in with you. 
You can open it again at any time. 

To close your calendar follow the below steps:

Click 'My Profile' on the top right hand side of the JA Portal
Click 'Edit Profile"
Click on the 'Calendar' toggle to change from 'Open' to 'Close'

Important Points to Remember

• By syncing your external calendars with the Hudson Outlook Calendar and JA Portal. Your privacy and confidentiality of your calendars are maintained, the system just sees booked or available spots no details.
  
  
• This means if you book a Dr. Appointment or a coaching session into your personal calendars on a day when you are open for JA participants, that time will automatically be shown as unavailable. However, we will not see the nature of the appointment.
  
  
• Appointments in any of your synced calendars that are set up as ‘Free’ or ‘Tentative’ will be viewed by the portal as not available and will not show up for participants. This is a good opportunity to do a calendar clean-up, so your accurate availability is represented on the portal.
  
  
• If you are at capacity and have availability to service your existing participants only, you can select ‘Close to new clients’. This will allow only your existing clients to see your availability and book in with you.
  
  
• You cannot reschedule a coaching session that has already commenced or passed. You will need to request the Candidate Care Team to do this for you. Please avoid this wherever possible.
• If you wish to connect O365 calendars, be mindful that O365 will pick up that you are already logged in so it will just re-connect the already connected calendar.  To get around this issue you will need to log out of your O365 account. Do this by copying the below link into another tab in the same browser, clicking on your account at the top right, and clicking on Log Out. Once logged out you should then get the option to add another O365 account in JA. https://www.office.com/?auth=2

Download a PDF of the instructions here

Instructions for connecting your iCloud Calendar are here

Please watch the below recording of the session that was facilitated to support Coaches through the process of syncing their calendars.

JA Calendar Support Drop in Session