Many practices keep their schedule in another system that writes to a Google calendar. Connecting that calendar to FrontDesk brings the events in so the AI never books over them. Set up imports goes one step further: it ties each event to the right client, provider and service, so imported visits look and behave like your own.
Before you start
- Connect the calendar first: see Connect Google Calendar.
- The Direction must be Two-way or From Google only. With To Google only nothing is imported, so the Imported events section doesn't appear.
Without any setup, each event comes in with its whole title as the name, the service General, no provider and no client record. Those visits hold the time, but they get no reminders and don't appear on anyone's chart.
Open Set up imports
- Open Settings → Integrations and open the Google Calendar card.
- Under Imported events, click Set up imports.
FrontDesk reads the next 60 days of events on the chosen calendar and shows how it would import them. Nothing changes until you click Save and sync.
Choose how titles are read
Event titles look like has two formats, and FrontDesk picks the one most of your titles use ("Detected from your events"):
- Last, First … (with DOB), for example
Smith, Jane - Dr Lee - Follow up - [ DOB: 04/12/1985 Chart #: 1 ]. A middle initial after the first name is ignored. - First Last, for example
Jane Smith - Follow up.
Up to five sample titles show what was read from each ("Read as Jane Smith · DOB found · Follow up") and whether it would link. Titles that don't fit the format, and time blocks with "not available", "unavailable" or "out of office" in them, are counted as not a client (blocks, meetings). They are still imported and still hold the time; they just never link to a client.
Link events to clients
Turn on Link events to clients ("Same first and last name, and the same date of birth when the title has one"). It is off until you turn it on.
- Require a date of birth (ticked by default): a title without a date of birth doesn't link. Untick it and such a title links only when exactly one client has that name.
- The counts show how many visits would link and how many wouldn't, by reason.
- Below them, everyone who wouldn't link is grouped by reason, with the fix: Date of birth differs, More than one client, No client yet ("Add them as a client and they link on the next sync") and No date of birth in the title. Click +N more to see the whole group.
A client you add later links on the next sync, and the AI can find a visit for a caller it has verified even before then.
Choose the provider and services
- Appointments are with: the one provider set on every imported event from this calendar. Leave it on No provider if the calendar mixes providers. The connection is one calendar per location, so it is one provider per calendar.
- Visit types → your services: each visit type found in the titles (the last part, such as "Follow up") is listed with how many visits use it and their length. Pick one of your services, leave it as General, or choose + Create "Follow up" (N min) to add it to your services with that length. FrontDesk suggests a service where it can: the same name, a new-patient service for new-patient visits, or one with the same length.
Linked visits whose service is left as General aren't one of your services, so their clients are listed on Tasks under Visits to sort out. Mapping every visit type keeps that list clear. See Repeating visits for sorting them out.
Turn on reminders (optional)
Send FrontDesk reminders for linked events sends your normal reminders for imported visits that are linked to a client. It needs Link events to clients on, and it is off by default. Leave it off if your scheduling software already sends reminders. Unlinked visits never get FrontDesk reminders.
Save and sync
Click Save and sync. FrontDesk saves the settings, applies them to every visit already imported from this calendar (past ones too), and runs a sync. The message says how many visits it updated, for example "Import settings saved; 42 imported visits updated. Syncing now…". From then on every sync applies the same settings to new and changed events.
To change anything later, click Set up imports again; it opens with your saved choices.
When an event changes or is deleted in Google
Imported visits belong to the Google calendar:
- Moved, renamed or resized in Google: the next sync updates the visit's date, time, length and title. A real move starts reminders and confirmation over for the new time; making the event longer or shorter with the same start keeps them.
- Deleted or cancelled in Google: the next sync cancels the imported visit with the reason "Cancelled or deleted in Google Calendar". It is never deleted. Nobody is texted, and the freed time isn't offered to the waitlist.
- Kept on purpose: a visit FrontDesk already has a charge, a clinical or psychotherapy note, or a missed-visit fee on stays as it is for you to handle, and so does one already completed, a no-show or cancelled.
- Undone in Google: when the event comes back, the next sync restores the visit, still confirmed if it was confirmed.
- Changed in FrontDesk: nothing is written back to Google, and the next sync sets the date and time back to match the event. Make changes in your own calendar.
Only visits that came from Google are affected. Appointments booked in FrontDesk and copied to Google are never cancelled from Google.
If you switch the Calendar the connection reads from, FrontDesk asks "Sync with new calendar instead?". Visits already imported from the old calendar stay on your schedule, but they stop syncing.
What the AI receptionist and clients can do with imported visits
- The AI receptionist reads imported visits: it can tell a caller when their visit is, and it never offers that time to anyone else. It can't cancel, move or change one. It takes a message for the office with what the caller wants (which visit, and any new day or time they prefer) and tells them the office will confirm.
- A text reply asking to cancel doesn't cancel an imported visit. The visit is marked declined with a note asking you to cancel it in your scheduling calendar; the next sync then updates FrontDesk.
- In the client portal, an imported visit has no Cancel or Reschedule button.