The calendar sync feature automatically sends meeting invitations to a participant's email address when a meeting they are a participant of is created. Without calendar sync, creating or updating a meeting in Chronus will only update the calendar on the platform itself. Calendar sync enhances this functionality by making it easier for participants by automatically adding the meetings to their work or personal calendar once they accept the request.

Two-way calendar sync is currently only available for Gmail and Outlook and requires the Scheduling Assistant to be enabled.

Two-way calendar sync only works for users who have control over their own calendar permissions.

Two-way calendar sync allows participants who have connected their calendars to Chronus to schedule a meeting through Chronus and have a meeting invitation email that can apply itself to the calendar associated with the email address that receives the invitation. Should the meeting be updated by the host of the meeting either in or outside of Chronus, an email notification will be sent to everyone invited to the meeting and and the updated information will be applied to their calendar.

Two-way calendar sync should only be enabled if your participants are using either Gmail or Outlook services—the feature will not work as expected if a meeting participant is using a different calendar service. This is because Chronus requires both read and write permissions to a calendar to make these updates, which is limited through APIs that different calendar services make available to the public. We hope to add support for additional calendar services in the future.

With User-level Calendar Authorization enabled and configured, your program participants will have permission to connect their calendars to Chronus.

Pre-requisites for User level calendar:

Process:

Step 1 - Add the Global access account(Google/Outlook/Microsoft 365) user as an administrator(Global or Program level) in Chronus

Step 2 - Login to Chronus

Step 3 - Click the circle in the top right corner of the page (this circle will either contain the participant's profile picture or their initials). Select Edit Profile from there.

Step 4- Click Settings in the middle of the page.

Next, have them scroll down to the Calendar Settings section and click the button corresponding to the calendar type they wish to connect.

They will now have to login to their Global access account(Google/Outlook/Microsoft 365)

Step 6- Provide the consent to the Chronus Application. After successfully connecting, the following will always be shown under the Calendar Settings section for the participant: Your calendar is connected.

Users are now required to connect their Google or Microsoft account as a one time setup

This is saying that the person who is trying to connect their calendar does not have permission from your organization's IT team to grant Chronus access to see their calendar. You will need to get in touch with your IT team for assistance and ask them to grant the user permission to connect their calendar to Chronus.
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Note that when this message appears even once, it is extremely likely that you will see another user with the same issue in the future. We highly recommend asking your IT team to grant everyone at your organization permission to connect their calendars to Chronus so that no current or potential future participant runs into this blocker in the future.

What are the permissions Chronus acquires during this integration?

Google

Outlook/Microsoft 365

Can I work on behalf of a user and connect their calendar for them?
This cannot be done. For security reasons, the individual has to authorize permissions on their own.

A participant is saying that their mentoring partner's schedule is always completely open/never available.
​This typically means that the mentoring partner either has not connected their calendar or has "out of office" settings configured in a way that prevents them from being shown as available. The participant may need to reach out to the mentoring partner about this and ask them to make adjustments.

How do you disconnect or connect a new calendar?
​A participant can disconnect and/or connect a calendar through their profile's account settings. See the Connecting After Sign-up section above for instructions on how to get to this page.

Can a participant have multiple calendars connected at the same time?
​Only one calendar can be connected per account at a time. This means the same calendar availability shown to partners in one track will be shown to partners in other tracks as well, should the participant is engaged in more than one program.

Can the email address of the scheduling assistant be changed to something else?
​The email address for the scheduling assistant cannot be changed.

Can the sender name of the scheduling assistant be changed to something else?
​The sender name for the scheduling assistant cannot be changed.

Which specific (tech) permissions are being utilized by Chronus when looking at a calendar?
​"calendars.read" and "offline_access". iCal uses the app-specific password to look at the free/busy slots on the specified calendar.

Will Chronus need to store any user credentials to utilize the Scheduling Assistant? How exactly are the login and the calendar synchronization set up and maintained in the backend?
​For Google Calendar and Office 365 / Outlook, Chronus does not store user credentials with this integration; after a user successfully validates their login credentials, the authorization server returns an access token which the software saves instead. Chronus uses this access token to connect with the resource server (where Chronus pulls free/busy slot information from) to retrieve that data.

For iCal, Chronus does store the encrypted Apple ID and encrypted app-specific password, as Apple does not provide a backend framework similar to the other calendars to allow token authorization. Chronus does not store the Apple ID password.

Why can't participants schedule meetings on weekends or later/earlier in the day?
​By default, Chronus prevents meetings from being scheduled on weekends and during late/early hours in the day. A global administrator can change these settings under the General tab in the Program Settings tool at the global level, as can a single-track admin.

Can I limit which email services are available to participants?
​Global administrators/Single-track program administrators can toggle these under the General section of Program Settings:

Is there a way for my program's participants to have their calendars automatically connected when they first sign up?
​This is possible, but only for organizations where the program's participants are all using the same email service. This also requires the organization's IT team to create a "dummy" email address that utilizes the email service for Chronus as well. For more information, please reach out to a Customer Success team member.

Would program participants need to authorize their Google/Microsoft account?
Yes. Users need to do a one-time action of connecting their Google/Microsoft account once the Two-Way Calendar Sync feature is enabled in their program.

​Should a program participant be logged in to their Google account if they want to create a meeting?
The user does not need to be logged in to their Google account when they are creating the meeting.

​Can I extend Two-Way Calendar Sync capabilities to only one/a selected list of programs in my organization?
Yes, track-level administrators and global administrators can enable or disable the ability to create Two-Way Calendar Sync meetings in their specific program, under the Features tab in the Program Settings tool of each individual track.

​Can all the attendees edit a meeting from their personal calendars?
No, only the meeting owner has the ability to update the meeting details from the personal calendar. Other attendees can only RSVP to the meeting.

​What meeting details can be updated from the meeting owner personal calendar?
Title, Description, meeting start time and end time, RSVP.

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