Connect rooms from Google Workspace

A resource calendar in Google Workspace becomes a bookable resource in Offision, and from then on the two calendars stay in step in both directions.

Rooms arrive one calendar address at a time. There is no room browser and no sweep that imports the whole directory — Offision reads the delegated account’s own calendar list, so the work is mostly done on the Google side before you ever open Offision.

What to have ready

• The Google Workspace integration already connected
• Your resource calendars created in Google Workspace
• A Google account to be the delegated account, subscribed to those calendars
• A second Google account to act as the booking agent — ideally a new one created for this, not a real person’s

1. Prepare the calendars in Google

Do this first. Every failure later in this article traces back to a step skipped here.

In Google Calendar, signed in as the account that will be the delegated account:

1. Open Settings, then Add calendar → Browse resources, and subscribe to every resource you intend to connect.
2. Open each resource and set its Time zone. A resource with the wrong time zone produces bookings an hour or several out, and it is not obvious from the Offision side which end is wrong.
3. On each resource, set Auto-accept invitations to Automatically add all invitations to this calendar. Without this, Offision’s bookings sit as unanswered invitations and the room looks free when it is not.

2. Add the delegated account

Open the Google Workspace tile, then on the integration card choose the Connected resources row. Everything else in this article is on that screen.

If no delegated account is connected yet, the screen offers Add delegated account. Choose it, sign in as the account you subscribed the calendars to, and allow the access Google asks about.

Once connected, the account is shown as the Managed account, with Renew beside it. Renew when its access lapses — a password change or a revoked grant in Google both end it, and the symptom is that syncing stops rather than that anything reports an error.

3. Add each room by address

Choose Add Google Workspace resource, then Room, Desk or Equipment, and type the resource calendar’s email address.

The address is the one Google gives the resource calendar, not a person’s mailbox and not the room’s display name. If Offision refuses to add it, the delegated account is almost always not subscribed to that calendar — go back to step 1 rather than retyping the address.

4. Set the booking agent account

This step is skipped more than any other, and it is the one that generates the complaint “only some people can book the room”.

Google Workspace does not let an account outside your organisation book a resource. Any Offision user who is not a Google account is exactly that. The booking agent account is the Google account those bookings are made on behalf of.

Open the Booking agent account row on the integration card and sign in with the account. Use a new Google Workspace account created for this purpose — bookings will be made in its name, and it must outlive whoever set the integration up.

Until one is set, the card shows No account with a warning, and only the accounts already connected can book these rooms.

5. Check it worked both ways

For one connected room:

1. Book it in Offision and confirm it appears in Google Calendar
2. Book it from Google Calendar and confirm it appears in Offision
3. Have someone who is not a Google account book it, to prove the booking agent account is doing its job
4. If the room has a panel, check the booking shows there

When it goes wrong