With the launch of the Availability overview feature, you can now:
- Make better decisions about taking on new projects vs. hiring more people
- Ensure optimal utilization by preventing under or overbooking of team resources
But to do that, you must calculate your team’s availability accurately.
The new Google Calendar integration syncs events from Google Calendar to Toggl Plan. As a result, you get a more accurate picture of your team members’ schedules.
Why is accurate availability calculation a challenge?
Availability isn’t just the difference between available time and booked time. You must also consider time off and time for administrative tasks such as training, meetings, reporting, etc.
For example, imagine you’re a web design agency.
A favorite client sends an urgent request to design a landing page for their upcoming event, two weeks away. You estimate it’ll take around 16 hours to get it done.
You fire up a web design team’s timeline. In the availability overview, you see Tim, your superstar designer, has 17 hours available next week.
Perfect!
You can hand over the landing page design to Tim and deliver the landing page well before the event date.
But there’s a problem.
Other than regular work, Tim also has seven hours for training and meetings next week. Most teams don’t capture these engagements on the project timeline. As a result, the calculated availability isn’t accurate.
To deliver the landing page, Tim will have to work overtime.
Consistent overtime work is stressful. Stress often leads to burnout. And that’s how companies end up losing their star employees.
The Google Calendar integration helps you avoid stress and burnout.
How does the Google Calendar integration work?
To import Google Calendar events into Toggl Plan:
First, turn on the Google Calendar import from the Apps & integrations settings page. Note that each team member has to turn this on to import their calendar events.
Once the import is enabled, Toggl Plan imports each of your calendars into a new project. You can group these projects under a single client to organize your sidebar better.
Next, we import all confirmed calendar events (“Yes” and “Maybe) as project tasks. Here’s how we map the event and task properties:
| Google Calendar event property | Toggl Plan task property |
|---|---|
| Event name | Task name |
| Event dates | Task dates (from and to) |
| Event description | Task description |
| Event duration | Task time estimate* |
| You—the person enabling the integration | Task assignee |
*Time estimate is not set for all-day and multi-day events.
All imported projects and tasks have the same Google Calendar blue color. As a result, it’s easy to recognize meetings on your team’s schedule.
Note: The Google Calendar integration feature is available only to Business plan subscribers.
Get an accurate overview of your team’s availability
Do you want to be among the first to try the new Google Calendar integration?
Sign up for a free 14-day Toggl Plan trial or upgrade your subscription to the Business plan.
And don’t forget to share your feedback about what you love and what we can improve. Let us know at support@plan.toggl.com.
Jitesh is an SEO and content specialist. He manages content projects at Toggl and loves sharing actionable tips to deliver projects profitably.
