Google Calendar sync
Keep your Protocol appointments and your Google Calendar in step, both ways. What syncs, how to put a Google Meet link on every online session, how event titles are named, how busy time from Google blocks your booking page, and what disconnecting does.
Basic Connect your Google account once and every appointment you create in Protocol appears in the Google calendar you pick, moves when you move it, and disappears when you cancel it. Events you create in Google show in Protocol as Busy blocks so nobody can book over them.
Where to find it
Integrations > Apps, then Connect (or Manage account once you’re connected) on the Google card. The same Google card also sits at the bottom of Scheduling > Config, under Calendar & meetings. Both lead to the Google account screen, where the sync settings below live. In the classic dashboard it’s Scheduling > Configuration, or Vault > Integrations > Google account.
What syncs
| Direction | What happens |
|---|---|
| Protocol to Google | Every future appointment, one-offs and recurring series alike, is written to the calendar you chose under Sync to calendar. Editing the time, the client or the title updates the Google event; cancelling removes it. |
| Google to Protocol | Busy time from the calendars you tick under Block booking with shows on your calendar as Busy and is held against your booking page. Protocol never reads the contents of those events, only that the time is taken. |
Turning sync on backfills every future appointment you already have. Past appointments are left alone in both directions.
Client reminders never sync. A check-in or general reminder on a client’s record is a nudge the app sends them, not time in your day, so it stays out of Google. If any reached your calendar before this rule, switching sync off and on again removes them.
Google Meet links for online sessions
Switch on Create a Google Meet link for online sessions and Google adds a Meet link to every online appointment Protocol writes to your calendar. Protocol reads the link back onto the appointment, so it shows up everywhere the session does: the booking confirmation email, the reminder email, your calendar, and the client’s app.
A few things worth knowing:
- It is your own Google account hosting the call. Nothing extra to sign up for, and no per-meeting limit beyond whatever your Google plan already allows.
- Your own links are never touched. If you have already typed a link into an appointment (a Zoom room, for instance), that appointment keeps it.
- In-person sessions get nothing, so the link only appears where it makes sense.
- Turning it on adds links to your existing future sessions too, not only to the next one you create.
- Turning it off leaves links already sent to clients working. It only stops new ones.
Editing a repeating session keeps its link. Move the time, rename it, cancel one week: the same link keeps working for everyone who already has it. The one exception is an edit where you also clear out the changes you had made to individual occurrences, which starts the series fresh with a new link.
If you would rather write your own emails, the link is available as [[virtualMeetingUrl]] in the
booking email templates, and you can wrap the whole line in [[if:virtualMeetingUrl]] ... [[/if]]
so it only appears when there is a link to show.
Event title detail
Your Google calendar sits outside Protocol, so what an event is called there is your choice:
| Option | Example |
|---|---|
| Appointment type only (recommended) | Personal training |
| Type + client initials | Personal training — A.K. |
| Type + client full name | Personal training — Ana Kovač |
| Client name + title/type | Ana K. - Upper push, the same wording as the Protocol calendar; when the appointment has no title, the type stands in: Ana K. - Personal training |
The description of every event carries only a link back to the appointment in Protocol, never client details. Any option that names a client puts that name in a calendar Protocol does not control, so the privacy of that calendar is yours to keep.
Disconnecting
Disconnect turns sync off straight away: the panel answers at once, and Protocol then removes the future events it had written to Google in the background (a coach with a large calendar may see them fade over a minute or two). Past events stay in Google as history; recurring series are cut off at today rather than deleted. Protocol then removes its access to your Google account, so it no longer appears under your Google Account’s third-party connections, and the panel shows Connect Google Calendar again. Connecting later asks for Google’s permission once more.
To pause sync and stay connected, turn off Sync appointments to Google Calendar instead. Turning it back on is one switch, and backfills your future appointments again.
If something looks off
- An appointment moved in Protocol still shows as Busy at the old time. Give it a moment and click back into the tab; the Busy overlay re-reads Google as soon as the move has landed.
- A new appointment did not reach Google. Check that Sync appointments to Google is on and a calendar is chosen; the panel shows the last sync error, if there was one.