Getting Started with Bookings
Get License(s)
Follow NUIT's Quick Reference Guide for Faculty and Staff to learn how to log in (the service is not available to Feinberg School of Medicine staff and faculty.). If you do NOT already have administrative access to MS Bookings, consider the following:
- Get a license. Users that manage a Bookings service or calendar (staff with admin rights) must have, or request, a license from NUIT. Email consultant@northwestern.edu to request free licenses. Be sure to include every name, NU email address, and NetID in the email of anyone who needs a license. Indicate “MS Bookings license” in the subject. Weinberg IT will update this page with a link to a request form when NUIT creates the new form.
- "Viewers" and "guests" in Bookings that need to only view the Bookings pages or services do NOT need a license to be added to the Bookings staff list. Note that these users, such as student workers and faculty, must have Office365 accounts. However, if faculty need to make changes to their own calendars or services, they need a license and administrator privileges within Bookings.
- If you intend to manage Bookings as a Department--and set up a department-wide Bookings system--in your request to consultant@northwestern.edu also ask for a license for your department using a department Northwestern email address.
- Once granted a license, go to https://office365.northwestern.edu and log in with your NetID and password and click on the Bookings icon and click “new” or "open" to get started. Faculty or staff will also access bookings in the same way, not just department administrators.
View NUIT's KnowledgeBase article about Bookings to consider important settings, such as removing pricing from your Bookings page.
Set-Up as an Individual or a Department
It is possible to set up Bookings for either an individual or an entire department. There are two ways to set up Bookings:
- Each faculty or staff member has their own separate Bookings system (and so each user must request a license); OR
- A department administrator manages a single Bookings system with all department faculty and staff calendars visible together.
Individual users in scenario A all have different calendars that cannot be viewed collectively. In scenario B, only the department admin must request a license. The department can use a department email address as the account holder that is managed by multiple admins. One or more admins can view all the calendars of staff and faculty in the department.
Benefits of setting up Bookings as a Department include:
- Visibility into the volume of student appointments across the department
- Ability to manage TA's, tutors, or temporary advisers' calendars together in one place
- Ease in allowing one adviser to temporarily take over the appointments of another adviser
- Ability to create appointment types that include the calendar availability of multiple faculty
- Ability to create department events and gather RSVP's
For more details about recommended settings when managing a department at Northwestern, consult the information in Department Setup.