Connect Google Calendar

Connect Google Calendar

FlowCaptain reads and writes to your Google Calendar via a service account. You need to share your calendar with this account so FlowCaptain can check availability and create/modify events.

Step-by-Step

1. Open Google Calendar in your browser
2. Find the calendar you want to connect in the left sidebar
3. Click the three dots next to the calendar name and select Settings and sharing
4. Scroll down to Share with specific people or groups
5. Click Add people and groups
6. Enter the FlowCaptain service account email (shown in FlowCaptain during onboarding)
7. Set the permission to Make changes to events
8. Click Send

Required Permission Level

FlowCaptain needs "Make changes to events" permission. This allows the API to:

• Read your calendar to check availability (FreeBusy)
• Create new events when appointments are booked
• Modify events when appointments are rescheduled
• Mark events as cancelled

"See all event details" is not sufficient — FlowCaptain needs write access to manage appointments.

Which Calendar to Share

Share the calendar where you want appointments to appear. This is usually your primary calendar, but you can use a dedicated "Appointments" calendar if you prefer to keep things separate.

Finding Your Calendar ID

The Calendar ID is shown in Google Calendar under Settings and sharing → Integrate calendar. For your primary calendar it's usually your email address. For additional calendars it looks like abc123@group.calendar.google.com.

Troubleshooting

Everything shows as "available" and booking fails The most common issue. If you entered the Calendar ID but didn't share the calendar with the service account, Google's FreeBusy API returns no busy times — so FlowCaptain thinks every slot is free. Booking then fails because the service account has no permission to create events. Make sure you've done both steps: enter the Calendar ID and share the calendar with the service account.

Wrong calendar shared If you have multiple Google Calendars (e.g. personal + work), make sure you shared the one matching the Calendar ID you entered in FlowCaptain. Sharing a different calendar has no effect.

Appointments show at wrong times FlowCaptain uses the timezone from your country setting in the calendar settings (e.g. Germany → Europe/Berlin), not the timezone configured in Google Calendar. Changing the timezone in Google Calendar has no effect on how FlowCaptain books appointments. If appointments appear at unexpected times, check your country setting under calendar settings in FlowCaptain. Google Calendar always converts events to the viewer's local timezone for display — a 14:00 CET appointment will show as 16:00 for someone viewing from UTC+3. The booked time is correct, it just looks different depending on where you view it from.

Service account email The email address is always shown on the calendar settings page in FlowCaptain. You can copy it with one click.