In short

How do you let visitors book a time on your Google Calendar straight from an inquiry form?

Connect your Google Calendar to Qualiform, then set your hours on the form's Booking tab and choose a Routing rule that offers a time. A visitor whose answers earn that rule picks a time inside the form. Times you are busy are never offered, and the booking is added to a calendar named Qualiform in your Google account.

On this page
  1. Who is this for, and what does it do?
  2. What do you need before you start?
  3. How does each person connect Google Calendar?
  4. How do you choose which calendars count?
  5. How do you set hours and meeting details on the Booking tab?
  6. How do you make a rule offer a time?
  7. What does the visitor see?
  8. What lands on your Google Calendar?
  9. What does Qualiform never store or read?
  10. How do you test it before it goes live?
  11. What are the honest limits?

You can let a visitor book a call on your Google Calendar without leaving your inquiry form. The visitor answers a few questions, and if their answers fit your work, the form offers real times from your hours. This page shows the setup from start to finish. It is for any business that already runs on Google Calendar and takes calls or visits from its website.

Who is this for, and what does it do?

It suits a business that wants to meet its good leads without trading emails to find a time.

  1. A visitor talks to the AI in your form. Code scores the lead from their answers.
  2. A rule you wrote decides what the score earns. A good score earns an offer of a meeting time.
  3. The form shows times from your hours, minus anything already on your calendar.
  4. The visitor picks one. The meeting is added to your Google Calendar, and both of you get an email.

A lead that scores lower gets a different ending, such as a promise to reply by email, and never sees your open times. For why that order works, see how to put a qualifying form before your booking calendar.

What do you need before you start?

You need three things:

  1. A Qualiform form with its questions and scoring in place.
  2. A Google account with Google Calendar for each person who takes meetings.
  3. A plan with room for the people. One calendar person is included on every plan, Free among them. On a paid plan, each person after the first who connects a calendar is $10 a month. A person is counted once, however many calendars they connect. On Free, a second person cannot connect a calendar.

How does each person connect Google Calendar?

Each person connects their own calendar, because they have to sign in to Google themselves.

  1. Add the person to the form. On the form's People tab, invite them with the Takes meetings tick, or give a person already there a calendar seat from their menu. Everyone on a form is also emailed about its leads.
  2. They press Connect. On the People tab, the person's own row has a Connect Google Calendar button. Someone invited as a Guest finds the same button on their /calendar page.
  3. They approve at Google. Google shows what Qualiform is asking for. Qualiform asks for three permissions, which Google describes as:
    • View your availability in your calendars.
    • See the list of Google calendars you're subscribed to.
    • Make secondary Google calendars, and see, create, change, and delete events on them.
  4. They land back in Qualiform. Their row now says the calendar is connected. Qualiform also creates a calendar named Qualiform in their Google account.

If you want a colleague to do this, open their menu on the People tab and press Ask them to connect a calendar. A person who takes meetings and has no calendar yet shows Calendar not connected yet, and booking waits for it.

One thing to know about a row that says Needs reconnecting. It means Google stopped accepting the connection. While it lasts, no times are offered on the forms that person is on. Press Reconnect and it clears.

How do you choose which calendars count?

Many people have more than one calendar in Google. You choose which of them block your times.

  1. On the People tab, open the menu on the person's row and press Calendars. (On /calendar, the button is Choose calendars.)
  2. Under Check for busy times, tick every calendar that holds a commitment you would not break. The dialog says a time is offered only when you're free on every calendar ticked.
  3. Under Add booked meetings to, pick Your Qualiform calendar, or Nowhere (email invite only) if you would rather get the meeting by email alone.
  4. Press Save.

Some details are good to know:

  • If you tick nothing, Qualiform checks your main calendar only.
  • Google's built-in holiday and birthday calendars are not listed.
  • A second calendar only takes times away. It never adds any.

How do you set hours and meeting details on the Booking tab?

The form's Booking tab answers two questions: when you are free, and what a meeting is. A new form starts on From your hours, the option that uses your calendar. The other, Your scheduling link, hands the visitor a link to a scheduler you already run, and Qualiform then checks no calendar.

On From your hours, you set:

  • Bookable hours. The weekdays, hours, and time zone you take meetings. A new form starts with Monday to Friday, 9 to 5.
  • Meeting length. 15, 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes.
  • How you meet. Tick Google Meet, Phone call, or both. A video call gets its own Meet link on the host's Google Calendar. Until everyone who takes meetings has connected Google Calendar, visitors are offered phone calls only.
  • Name visitors see. Your business name, shown on the booking page, the invite, and the email.
  • Earliest start. How soon a meeting can begin. A new form starts at one hour.
  • More limits. A gap between meetings, how far ahead times are offered, and the most meetings a day or a week.

Press Save on the Booking tab at least once. No time is offered to anyone until you do. Also check Who else hears on the Routing tab. A booking nobody would hear about offers no times.

How do you make a rule offer a time?

Booking settings alone reach nobody. A visitor sees a time only when a rule on the Routing tab offers one.

  1. Open the Routing tab. Each rule has a cut-off score and an ending.
  2. On the rule for your best leads, choose the ending Book the soonest time. The visitor sees up to three of the soonest times, plus a way to pick a later one.
  3. On a rule below it, you can choose Book any time. The visitor then sees all your open days.
  4. Under Routed to, choose who the meeting is with. Everyone offers a time only when all of them are free, and the meeting goes on all of their calendars. Taking turns and The primary offer a time when any one of them is free, and the meeting goes on that person's calendar.

A lead lands on the first rule its score reaches, reading down. For more on writing the cut-offs, see lead routing rules for a small service business.

What does the visitor see?

When a lead's rule offers a time, a booking card appears under the conversation.

  1. The soonest times. Up to three appear first, under Soonest times. Pick a later time opens a day-and-time picker, with the visitor's time zone shown.
  2. Their details. Name, email, and phone are filled in from the conversation. A phone call needs a number, and the card says "We'll call you at" it.
  3. Confirm booking. Then the card says "You're booked."
  4. An email. It confirms the meeting and carries a calendar file that opens in any calendar. It also has a link to reschedule or cancel, and from that page the visitor can pick a new time or cancel. The card itself offers an Add to Google Calendar button.

While a visitor decides, the soonest time is held for them for 15 minutes after each message, so it is not offered to someone else meanwhile.

What lands on your Google Calendar?

For each person who attends, Qualiform adds one event to that person's Qualiform calendar. It shows with your other calendars in Google Calendar.

  • The title reads like "15-minute phone call with" and the visitor's name.
  • The notes hold the visitor's email, their phone number if it is a phone call, and a link that opens the lead in Qualiform.
  • A Meet link, when the visitor chose video. A meeting with several hosts shares one Meet link across all of their events.
  • Nobody is invited. The visitor is not a guest on your event. They have Qualiform's email and its calendar file, so they do not get a second copy from Google. Because they are not on the guest list, Meet may ask you to let them in.

When a meeting is canceled or moved, Qualiform deletes the event. A move adds a new one at the new time. Qualiform sets Google to send no emails about these events, so the only messages are Qualiform's own, which carry the links to move or cancel. When every attending host got an event, the host's email leaves out its calendar file, so the meeting is not on your calendar twice.

What does Qualiform never store or read?

The privacy policy makes these promises, and the code is built to keep them:

  • It asks Google at the moment a visitor is choosing a time, and reads start and end times. It never asks for a subject, a guest, or a location.
  • Nothing about your calendar is stored. The answer is used to hide times you are not free, and then discarded. Your calendars' names are shown while you choose, and not stored.
  • It does not store which Google account the calendar belongs to.
  • It stores the connection itself, which holds encrypted tokens, which calendars you ticked, where bookings go, and the ids of the events it added, so it can delete them.

To stop it all at any time, press Disconnect on the person's row. You can also remove Qualiform's access in your Google Account, where Google lists third-party connections: choose the app, press Remove access, then Confirm. Events already on your calendar stay where they are.

How do you test it before it goes live?

1. Preview. Press Save in the form header, then press Preview. Under the form, Endings has a button for each rule that is switched on. Press the one that books. The card is built from your real hours, so you can check the times, the picker, and the wording. It is only a picture. No time is held, no booking is made, and nothing is written to your calendar.

2. A real booking. Open the form's direct link and fill it in as a good lead. Pick a time and confirm. This is a real lead, so it shows in your Leads list and sends the usual emails. Then check four things:

  1. The event is on your Qualiform calendar, at the right time, with the right notes.
  2. The visitor email arrived, and its calendar file opens.
  3. The time you picked is no longer offered.
  4. Cancel from the link in the email, and the event disappears.

If the card offered no times, check the People tab. It says when a calendar cannot be read, and in that case no times are offered.

What are the honest limits?

  • Only people who are connected are checked. If nobody on a form has connected a calendar, Qualiform checks your hours and the meetings already booked, and nothing else, so keep those hours to times you are really free. If one person has connected and a colleague has not, the colleague is not offered at all.
  • A calendar that cannot be read offers no times. Qualiform will not guess. The fix is on the People tab.
  • Video needs everyone connected. Video calls are offered only when every person who can be booked has a calendar Qualiform can write to.
  • Days off are blocked on your calendar. There is no separate list of dates in Qualiform. To close a day, block it in a calendar you ticked. To shorten a day every week, change that weekday's hours.
  • Disconnecting does not clean up. Events already on your calendar stay. A meeting canceled after you disconnect can no longer remove its event, so delete that one yourself.

Common questions

Does Qualiform read the titles of my events?

No. Qualiform asks Google only for the start and end times of your busy periods. It never asks for an event's subject, guests, or location, and nothing it learns about your calendar is stored.

Can a visitor book a time when I am already busy?

No. A time is offered only when you are free on every calendar you ticked, and only inside your hours. If Qualiform cannot reach your calendar while a visitor is choosing, it offers no times at all.

Does the visitor need a Google account?

No. The visitor books inside the form with a name, an email address, and a phone number. They get an email with a calendar file that works in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, and others.

What happens to the event if the visitor cancels or moves the meeting?

The event is deleted from your Qualiform calendar. A move deletes it and adds a new one at the new time. Qualiform's own emails tell everyone, so Google sends nothing.

Does this cost extra?

One calendar person is included on every plan, Free too. On a paid plan, each person after the first who connects a calendar adds $10 a month. A person counts once, however many calendars they connect.