What is Microsoft Bookings App? How to Enable & Use It

So you don’t know what is Microsoft Bookings app?

Think of it as a smart scheduling option to book appointments with clients, colleagues, and anyone else part of your Office 365 or Microsoft 365 subscription.

With MS Bookings, it becomes incredibly easy to tell others whether you are busy or available during a specific time slot.

Same way, you can also check the availability of other members who use the Bookings app on O365 without actually contacting them.

Here in this blog, we will teach you all about MS bookings from what you need to access it, how to access it, and the steps to use Bookings when you have access.

Let us start by identifying the real-life situations where this Bookings app is used.

What is Microsoft Bookings Used For?

The following infographic shows in what domains MS Bookings can be used.

Use case is not limited to the fields that are shown on this chart. Organizations outside these industries may use the Bookings app if they feel it satisfies their requirements. Before that, let’s check out what the prerequisites are to use the tool.

What M365 Licenses are Needed for Using Microsoft Bookings?

If you are wondering what is Microsoft Bookings license requirement dont worry, we will make it clear for you:

All of the following Office 365 subscription tiers have access:

• A3,
• A5,
• E1,
• E3,
• E5,
• F1,
• F3,
• G1,
• G3,
• G5.

Likewise, for Microsoft 365 subscriptions, the MS Bookings license requirements list is as follows:

• A3,
• A5,
• E1,
• E3,
• E5,
• F1,
• F3,
• Business Basic,
• Business Standard,
• Business Premium,
• Teams Essentials,
• Teams Premium.

The following licensing/subscription editions lack support for the Bookings app:

• Microsoft 365 Family
• Microsoft 365 Personal
• Microsoft 365 Apps for Business
• Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise
• Microsoft 365 A1
• Office 365 A1
• Exchange Online plans (like Plan 1 or Plan 2)

Also, Microsoft does not sell Bookings as a standalone app. You can compare Office 365 plans and features in more detail to make the best choice. Now that we are aware of the license requirements, we are ready for the next step, which is to enable the app for users.

How to Check the Bookings App Status and Enable it?

For Your Entire Organization:

1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. In the left-side navigation pane, expand Settings. (You might have to toggle “Show all” if Settings is hidden from the default view.)
3. Under Settings, select Org Settings.
   
4. Then, scroll down and click on Bookings or use the search bar to find it.
   
5. A fly-out pane will appear on your screen from the right side. Check the box for “Allow your organization to use Bookings” and click Save.
   

 

For a Specific User:

1. Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and go to Users > Active Users.
2. Select a licensed user from the list.
3. Then, on the user’s details pane, open the Licenses and Apps tab.
4. Expand the list of apps.
5. Scroll down to see the status of the Microsoft Bookings app.
6. If there is a blue check mark, it is enabled; otherwise, it is disabled.
7. If you change the status, hit Save changes, and close the pane.

Also Read: What is Microsoft Fabric? Best Guide for the M365 Data Analytics Platform

How to Add or Enable Microsoft Bookings via PowerShell?

IT administrators who want a GUI-free approach to enable and interact with MS Bookings can use PowerShell.

Open a new local PowerShell instance in admin mode. Search for PowerShell.

If this is your first time using PowerShell for such a task, you must install and load the Exchange Online module. Use:

Import-Module ExchangeOnlineManagement

Next Step is to Connect to Exchange Online environment, Type (Replace UPN placeholder with your Admin account address):

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName <UPN>

A pop-up appears; type your password and sign in.

Then, to unlock Bookings (Enable Bookings for your entire organization), you have to type:

Set-OrganizationConfig -BookingsEnabled $true

Also See: Steps to Transfer TalkTalk Emails to Gmail ID

Here is a PowerShell cmdlet Cheat Sheet that is useful for admins who deal with Microsoft Bookings daily.

Note, you won’t see the results of Set-OrganizationConfig commands right away. It can take up to 4 hours for the changes to take effect for your users. That is why we recommend that you perform such administrative changes during off-hours/weekends so that the next time users log in, they can access Bookings without issues.

Moreover, if you are a developer and want a more comprehensive set of PowerShell tools, you can check out the official Microsoft.Graph.Bookings module. It contains 175 unique cmdlets; use them to interact with Microsoft Bookings programmatically.

How is Microsoft Bookings Made? Key Steps Explained

Users can access Bookings in 3 ways

• 1. By directly visiting the page on https://book.ms
• 2. Via Outlook > More apps icon > Search for Bookings > Right click and Pin.
  
  • Use it from the quick access bar.
• 3. Using Teams > 3 horizontal dots > Type Bookings in the search bar > Click Add.
  
  • Start using it directly in Teams.

Creating Personal Bookings Pages

• Click on the Create Meeting type button.

• Under Regular settings, you have the options to:
  • Type a title
  • Choose a category
  • Add a description
  • Set a location (toggle the Teams meeting switch)
  • Pick a duration
  • Make it Public or Private
  • Check mark to add the booking details to your email signature.
  • Customize your meeting hours.

• Advance Options allow you to:
  • Add a buffer time at the start and end of the booking period
  • Limit Start time
  • Set a Max and Min Lead time
  • Use email reminders and follow-up

In Personal Bookings, only the Title field is mandatory to fill; other options can be left blank, as they just use the default placeholders.

Make the Shared Booking page:

• Tap the Create booking page button.
• A new pane appears. Add a name, logo, Business type, and Business hours (Work week and Time) press Next.
  
• Invite Staff from your organization and assign them unique roles. Press Next.
  
• To Set services, click Change (You can set these later in the post creation phase as well).
  
• Edit service allows you to change the name, duration, and the Business hours (Work week and Time). You can also toggle a checkbox to make it a Teams meeting.
  
• Hit the Update service.
• The Last Step is to choose who has access to the bookings page. Once done, click Create.
  
• It may take a few seconds for the page to build. After which, you should see a Get started screen.

The Microsoft Shared Bookings page is closely related to the calendar you see in Outlook or Teams. Take the default guided tool to understand what all the buttons do.

Steps to Remove Bookings Calendars

Personal Bookings Page

1. On the Bookings home page, hover over the specific booking page you wish to delete.
2. Click on the three horizontal dots that appear.
3. Select Delete.
4. Confirm the deletion.
   

Shared Bookings Page

Deleting a shared Bookings page is not as straightforward. Regular users cannot delete these pages, even if they are the ones who created them. If you try the same tactic used for the personal page, you won’t find a delete option.

Instead, Office 365 administrators must follow these steps:

1. Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. Navigate to Users > Active Users.
3. Search for the name of the Shared Bookings page (it is listed as a user).
4. Select it and click Delete user in the top toolbar.
5. Confirm the action by pressing the Delete user button on the right-hand pane that appears.

There are also PowerShell commands that can perform this deletion. For removing older shared booking pages (made in 2017 or before), using these PowerShell cmdlets may be the only option.

Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell.

Connect-ExchangeOnline -UserPrincipalName <UPN>

Find the booking mailbox you want to delete:

Get-EXOMailbox -RecipientTypeDetails SchedulingMailbox

Delete the mailbox. Replace with the actual name:

Remove-Mailbox -Identity <BookingCalendarToDelete>

Run the first command again to verify; the deleted page should not appear.

Conclusion

Now, the question of what is Microsoft Bookings has a clear answer: it’s nothing but a smart, integrated solution designed to eliminate the friction in scheduling. Organizations in various industries like education, hospitality, IT, law, etc, can use this tool to improve their productivity.

Moreover, in this blog, we taught users everything about the MS Bookings app, how it can be accessed from Outlook or Teams. How to set up a Personal or Scheduled booking. Plus, we gave a checklist for admins to figure out whether their license supports MS Bookings or not. If it does, they can use the steps described here to enable this feature for their users using the admin center or PowerShell commands.