Connect Google Calendar

Gearloom writes each appointment onto one Google Calendar of your choice, using a service account: a login that belongs to your shop's Google Cloud project rather than to a person, so it keeps working when staff change. About 15 minutes.

1. Create a Google Cloud project. Go to console.cloud.google.com, sign in with your shop's Google account, and create a project (any name, such as “Gearloom”).
2. Turn on the Calendar API. In that project, open APIs & Services > Library, search for Google Calendar API and press Enable.
3. Create the service account. IAM & Admin > Service Accounts > Create service account. Name it “gearloom-calendar”; it needs no roles. Copy its email address (it ends in .iam.gserviceaccount.com).
4. Make a key. Open the service account, Keys > Add key > Create new key > JSON. A file downloads. Open it in a text editor; you need the value of private_key (it starts with -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----). Keep the file private.
5. Share your calendar with it. In Google Calendar, open the calendar's Settings and sharing. Under Share with specific people, add the service account's email with Make changes to events. Further down, under Integrate calendar, copy the Calendar ID.
6. Paste it into Gearloom. Settings > Integrations > Calendar (Google): the Service account private key (the whole private_key value, quotes or not), the Service account email and the Calendar ID. Save.

Inviting customers to their appointment (optional, Google Workspace only). A service account can add events but can't send invitations on its own. If your shop uses Google Workspace, your Workspace admin can allow it to act as one of your users: in admin.google.com, Security > API controls > Domain-wide delegation > Add new, with the service account's client ID (in the JSON file as client_id) and the scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar. Then enter that user's email in Act as in Gearloom.

To check it: book a test appointment in Gearloom and look for it on the calendar.