Purpose tags on mail and calendars: bookings vs personal, and the clash check

When you add a mail account or calendar to Booked Solid OS, you tag it with a purpose. This article explains what each tag means and how the tags let Otto warn you before you promise a date you already have plans for.

The four purpose tags

Mail and calendars support multiple accounts, and each one carries a purpose tag:

• bookings - the inbox or calendar where gig inquiries and confirmed dates live
• personal - your own life: family events, vacations, the weekend you blocked off
• support - an account you keep for help and admin traffic
• business - a general business account that is not the booking pipeline itself

The tag is not just a label. It tells Otto what each account is for, so a booking question is checked against the right calendars.

How to add accounts with the right tags

1. Add each account under Connections > Mail & calendars and pick its purpose tag.
2. Email comes in two ways: Any email (IMAP) - the default, and the right choice for Gmail too, with a Google App Password (see the Gmail step-by-step) - or Mail app on this computer.
3. Calendars come in three ways: Calendar feed (ICS link) - the right choice for Google Calendar - a private calendar sign-in (CalDAV) for iCloud, or Calendar app on this Mac.
4. Tag your gig calendar bookings and your own calendar personal. The bookings tag is what powers the clash check.

The clash check: 'Heads up - dates that collide'

Once you have a bookings calendar plus at least one calendar with a different tag, Otto can spot a clash before a date is promised. When an event on a bookings calendar overlaps an event on any calendar with a different purpose, you get a warning titled Heads up - dates that collide showing the overlapping events across your accounts. Two holds on the bookings calendar itself are not flagged - overlaps on the same calendar are your call. But a client asking about the Saturday of your daughter's recital gets caught before you say yes, not after.

Good to know

• A calendar that cannot be read is named as skipped in the check. Nothing is silently ignored, so you always know which calendars were actually consulted.
• A Google account linked elsewhere is not a background calendar feed. For automatic conflict checks, add the calendar's private ICS link under Connections > Mail & calendars.
• Use Check it on an account to test it. For a calendar feed, 'That address did not return a calendar. Use the private ICS link.' means you pasted the public calendar page instead of the private ICS link.

If it does not work

If a calendar keeps showing as skipped, run Check it on it and read the message. A feed that answers with an error status means the link itself is wrong or expired - grab a fresh private ICS link from your calendar service and add it again.

Still stuck? Email bookedsolid@kivimedia.freshdesk.com and a person will help.