The link with your calendar works through ICS: you subscribe to an external calendar to block busy slots, and subscribe your phone to the agenda from 4appointments.
A booking system has to respect the calendar you already use. For that, 4appointments uses the standard ICS format, not a direct sync with Google Calendar or Outlook. You can subscribe to an external calendar (any calendar that can publish an ICS link) to import busy blocks, upload an .ics file once to create confirmed bookings, and export each team member’s agenda as an ICS link that you subscribe to from your phone. Sync does not run both ways: what you do in an external calendar does not change bookings, and a new booking appears in your calendar only when your calendar app refreshes its subscription.
In the external calendar section of the panel, you paste the ICS (https) link of the calendar you already use. 4appointments reads it about every 15 minutes and treats its events as busy blocks: those slots disappear from the public booking page. Each team member can subscribe to up to 3 calendars. Events marked as free block nothing.
If you already have appointments in an .ics file (2 MB at most), you can upload them once. Events starting within the next 60 days become confirmed bookings, with the event title as the client name; past events and those that overlap others are ignored. The file brings no e-mails or phone numbers, so client details are left to fill in by hand if you need them.
Each team member has an ICS export link. If you subscribe to it in your phone’s calendar app, bookings appear next to your personal events and the app can show alerts. Updates depend on how often the app refreshes the subscription. The link reminds you, not the client, and sends nothing to clients.
Any calendar that can publish an ICS (https) link, for importing busy blocks, and any calendar app that can subscribe to an ICS link, for export. There is no direct connection to Google Calendar or Outlook, and none to Apple/CalDAV.
No. Import only brings busy blocks from an external calendar, and export offers an ICS link with bookings. Changes made in a calendar are not passed back to 4appointments.
Yes, up to 3 per team member — for example a personal one and a business one. All their blocks hide slots on the public page.
The subscribed calendar is read about every 15 minutes, so a change can appear with a short delay. Until then, the public page shows the slots as they were.
Yes, once, from an .ics file of 2 MB at most: events starting within the next 60 days become confirmed bookings, with the title as the client name. No e-mail or phone is imported.
Import busy blocks and export the agenda to your phone. The first 12 months are free, no card needed.
