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Shared calendar synchronization in absentify enables seamless integration of leave and absence data into Microsoft Outlook group calendars or Teams group calendars. This guide covers everything from creating and sharing calendars to syncing absences with absentify’s powerful features.
This feature is available from the Mini plan. The Mini plan includes 1 synced calendar (extendable with the Calendar Sync add-on), the Essentials plan includes up to 5 synced calendars, and the Plus plan includes unlimited calendars. Compare the limits in the plan feature matrix. For current prices, open Settings > Upgrade or visit the pricing page.

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Benefits of shared calendar sync

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Enhanced visibility and flexibility

By default, absentify synchronizes absences directly to each user’s personal calendar and provides a team overview within the app. However, shared calendar synchronization offers:
  • The ability to sync absences to shared Outlook calendars or Teams group calendars.
  • An option to display absences on shared screens in offices, such as lobby displays or common area monitors.

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Tailored for familiar workflows

Perfect for organizations that prefer traditional shared calendars alongside absentify’s app-based features:
  • Maintain centralized visibility of team absences.
  • Simplify absence tracking across departments or projects.

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Automated and configurable

Automate absence updates to shared calendars with configurable options, such as syncing only approved absences or selecting specific leave types.

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Setting up shared calendar sync

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Step 1: Enable the required permissions

The permissions you need depend on which synchronization type you plan to use in Step 3:

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Step 2: Configure shared calendars

  1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Calendar sync.
  2. Select Add new calendar synchronization.
  3. Name the calendar, provide a description, and proceed by selecting Next.

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Step 3: Select synchronization type

Select one of the following options:
  • Outlook Group Calendar: Select from available Microsoft Entra ID groups and sync absences to the corresponding group calendar.
  • Outlook Shared Calendar: Automatically sync absences directly to a shared Outlook calendar.
  • iCal: Absences are sent as email invitations to one recipient address. The recipient can accept or add each invitation in their calendar app; this is not a subscribed calendar feed.
If absentify cannot access your Microsoft group calendars, the wizard indicates that a Microsoft 365 administrator may be required:
  1. Select Grant permission. Microsoft consent opens in a new browser tab.
  2. Complete the consent flow. The result page confirms success or explains the failure and asks you to close the tab.
  3. Return to the Calendar Sync wizard. It displays a status message and, after successful consent, refreshes the group calendar list automatically without reloading the page.
Calendar type cannot be changed later. Choose carefully before proceeding.

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Add a central Microsoft 365 mailbox by address

For Outlook Shared Calendar, you can use a shared, room, equipment, service, or another central mailbox in your Microsoft 365 tenant. The administrator configuring the synchronization needs direct edit permission for the target calendar folder. During verification, absentify may not recognize Full Access or group-based grants, so assign Editor directly to the configuring administrator on the calendar you select.
  1. Go to Settings > Integrations > Calendar sync, select Add new calendar synchronization, then select Outlook Shared Calendar.
  2. If the calendar is not listed, select Calendar missing? Add by mailbox address.
  3. In Mailbox address, enter the mailbox’s Microsoft 365 user principal name (UPN), then select Load calendars.
  4. Select the target calendar. If the mailbox has only one editable calendar, absentify selects it automatically. If it has more than one, use Calendar in this mailbox; the mailbox’s default calendar is marked Default calendar.
  5. Review Availability in the target calendar. The setting explains: Show synced absences as free. This keeps a central, room, or equipment calendar available for bookings. It is enabled by default for central mailboxes.
Use the mailbox’s Microsoft 365 UPN, not a display name or email alias. The UPN, primary SMTP address, and aliases can be different. Cross-tenant mailboxes cannot be used as Outlook shared calendar targets.
If you do not know the UPN, ask a Microsoft 365 administrator to retrieve it in Exchange Online PowerShell. Replace the example identity with an address or alias that identifies the mailbox:
Calendar folder names and paths can be localized, and a mailbox can have more than one calendar. First identify the actual path of the calendar you plan to select:
Use the target folder’s actual path in -Identity. Get-MailboxFolderStatistics reports FolderPath with forward slashes, for example /Calendar/Absences. Replace those separators with backslashes and retain the complete nested path after the mailbox UPN: room@contoso.com:\Calendar\Absences. For a default calendar, this is typically :\Calendar in English or :\Kalender in German. Then grant the configuring administrator Editor directly on that folder:
Replace the example mailbox, folder path, and administrator. If that administrator already has a permission entry on the target folder, use Set-MailboxFolderPermission to change it to Editor instead.

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Step 4: Assign departments

  1. Select which department(s) you want to sync to the shared calendar.
  2. Remove any departments by selecting the X next to their name if needed.
Absences of invisible managers are not synced into department shared calendars, consistent with their hidden status within the department. If a selected department is set to Only managers and approvers, absentify shows a warning: the absences are still published to the shared calendar. Remove the department from the sync if they must not appear there. See Absence privacy.

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Step 5: Configure absence types

  1. Select which leave types will appear in the shared calendar.
  2. Use the Approved Only toggle to sync only approved absences.
  3. Customize the name of the absence event in the calendar. For extra privacy, you can enter “absent” as the event name.
When an absence has a reason, the reason appears in the event description only if Restrict reason visibility and Leave type privacy are both disabled for that leave type. Restricting reason visibility or making the leave type private keeps the reason out of shared Outlook, group, and Teams group calendars.

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Step 6: Review the impact, save, and view the calendar

  1. Select Save.
  2. For an iCal sync that may send mail, review the confirmation. It shows up to how many absences are affected and up to how many notifications may be sent. Select Save and send only after checking the recipient, departments, leave types, and approval filters. If absentify cannot calculate the preview, saving stays unavailable until you retry successfully.
  3. Navigate to your Outlook calendar to see the synchronized absences.
Creating a shared iCal sync is an explicit import of matching current and future absences. It does not send first-time invitations for absences that have already ended. Editing the recipient or filters may send invitations for newly matching absences, updates for retained entries, and cancellations for entries that no longer match. Deleting an iCal sync can send cancellations for its existing entries, so deletion also shows an impact estimate and requires confirmation. Direct Outlook and group-calendar connections also mirror their filters: changing departments or leave types removes entries that no longer match, date and detail changes update retained entries, and deleting the connection removes its entries. The email impact confirmation applies to iCal connections. The calendar type cannot be changed after creation. The leave type Calendar tab controls personal Outlook and iCal only; it does not remove entries from this shared calendar.
Outlook and group-calendar changes usually appear after processing. iCal mail is deliberately gradual: absentify sends no more than 10 calendar emails per minute to the same recipient, and delivery can be slower. Necessary updates and cancellations are processed before batches of new invitations. Refresh Outlook or check the synchronization settings if a direct calendar entry does not appear. For details about individual operations, refer to the Microsoft sync logs.

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Troubleshooting

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Calendar sync failed in the absence details

When Outlook or iCal cannot add an absence to a calendar, absentify shows a yellow warning at the top of the absence details dialog. Open the request from My calendar, Overview, or another view that opens those details. The warning appears only after absentify stops retrying the calendar update, not while a sync is still in progress. Admins see This absence was not added to these calendars: followed by each destination and a reason. Named destinations use the calendar sync name. Otherwise the destination is Personal Outlook calendar, iCal, or Connected calendar. If the person who submitted the request is not an admin, they see only This absence could not be added to a connected calendar. Please tell your administrator. Colleagues who are not the requester and not a workspace administrator do not see the warning.

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Outlook shared calendar setup errors

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Check an Application Access Policy

The absentify Calendars Permission app (App ID 3dbcb38b-8d2f-4e97-9bd1-975fb770b31c) requires the Calendars.ReadWrite application permission. During setup, absentify accesses the target mailbox and reads the configuring administrator’s calendar to verify their identity before checking direct edit permission. If your organization uses an Exchange Online Application Access Policy, its scope must therefore include both mailboxes. A Microsoft 365 administrator can test both identities in Exchange Online PowerShell:
Replace the examples with the target mailbox UPN and the configuring administrator’s UPN. If either result is Denied, update the policy scope to include that mailbox, then retry Load calendars after the change has propagated. An Application Access Policy only restricts where an already consented application can operate; it does not replace the app’s Calendars.ReadWrite consent. See Microsoft’s Application Access Policy guidance.

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Re-authorization required

If a group calendar sync’s Microsoft connection expires or is revoked, absentify pauses the sync and displays a Re-authorization required badge next to it under Settings > Integrations > Calendar sync. A shared Outlook calendar can show the same badge when absentify can no longer write to it. Open that sync, select the calendar again, and save. Workspace administrators receive an email when the sync pauses.
  1. Select the Re-authorization required badge to open the affected sync.
  2. If you see the Re-authorization required banner (Outlook Group Calendar only), follow it:
    • If you connected the sync, select Grant permission and complete the Microsoft consent flow.
    • If another administrator connected it, that administrator has to reconnect it. Alternatively, select the group calendar again below to take the connection over yourself.
    • If the sync is no longer connected to an administrator’s Microsoft account, select the group calendar again below to connect it to yours.
  3. If there is no banner, open the sync, select the calendar again, and select Save.
  4. After a successful reconnection, absentify resumes the sync and adds eligible absences booked while it was paused. Entries that were already in the calendar stay during the pause.
If you permanently delete the user whose Microsoft account connected a group calendar, absentify pauses that sync and emails the workspace administrators. Restore it by selecting the group calendar again. You can verify individual operations in the Microsoft sync logs.

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Creating, sharing, and adding calendars in Outlook

Adding and sharing calendars in Outlook helps you manage and display your team’s absences clearly and transparently.

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Creating a calendar

Creating your own calendar is helpful to display your team’s absences separately from your personal appointments.
  1. Sign in to your Outlook calendar and select Add calendar from the left-hand menu.
  2. Select Create blank calendar and provide details, such as:
    • Calendar name (e.g., “Team Absences”).
    • Color and Charm (optional) for easy identification.
    • Add to group selection.
  3. Select Save to add the calendar, which will appear under My Calendars.

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Sharing an Outlook calendar

Sharing your calendar is helpful so that colleagues or your team can keep track of current absences.
  1. Locate the calendar you want to share, select the three dots, and select Share Calendar.
  2. Enter the recipient’s email address and select permissions (for example, “Can view all details”).
  3. Select Send. The recipient will receive an invitation to accept the calendar, which will then appear in their Outlook view.

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Adding a shared calendar

Add a shared calendar to display the absences of other teams or departments in your own calendar.
If a coworker shares their calendar, you can add it to your account:
  1. Sign in to Outlook Exchange and select Add calendar > From directory.
  2. Search for the user’s calendar and specify the calendar group (e.g., “My calendars”).
  3. Select Add to save it to your view.

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Displaying shared calendars in Microsoft Teams

With the new Unified M365 Calendar App, you can now seamlessly integrate shared calendars directly into Microsoft Teams. This feature is ideal for displaying absences in shared calendars alongside absentify’s app-based team overview, offering flexibility for teams accustomed to managing schedules via shared calendars.

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Adding a shared calendar using the Unified M365 Calendar App

  1. Open Microsoft Teams: Launch the Teams application on your device.
  2. Navigate to the calendar section: In the left-hand navigation menu, locate and open the Calendar section.
  3. Access the Unified M365 Calendar App:
    • Use the search bar or the app catalog to find the Unified M365 Calendar App.
    • If it’s not installed, follow the prompts to add it to your Teams environment.
  4. Add shared calendars:
    • Within the Unified M365 Calendar App, select the option to add or display shared calendars.
    • Select the specific calendar you want to display (for example, a department absence calendar or team calendar).
  5. View and interact:
    • The shared calendar will now appear within Teams, accessible alongside your personal calendar.
This functionality works with both shared Outlook calendars and Teams group calendars, making it easier to consolidate and view absence data in your preferred environment.

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Example use cases for Teams integration

  • Display on shared screens: Use the Teams app to showcase absences on shared screens in common areas, such as lobbies or breakrooms.
  • Improved collaboration: Allow team members to view department-wide absences directly in Teams, simplifying scheduling and coordination.
By leveraging the Unified M365 Calendar App, your organization can streamline absence visibility and ensure seamless collaboration across platforms.