HoneyBook helps you manage your schedule by letting you mark project dates on your calendar as either Free or Busy. This determines how your availability appears when clients try to book with you.
đź“š Tips
Keeping dates Free allows for more flexibility and visibility in your schedule
Setting dates to Busy is ideal if you want to avoid double-booking or ensure downtime
If you sync an external calendar such as Google or Outlook, make sure settings are aligned to avoid conflicts
Default availability setting
All new HoneyBook projects are set to Free by default on your calendar. This means they won't block your availability unless you adjust your preferences. Clients will always be able to schedule sessions with you during the project date or date range.
If you want booked project dates to automatically appear as Busy—blocking off that time on your calendar—you can enable this in your settings. You won’t show as available during the project date or date range once the project is booked, for example, when a contract is signed or a payment is made.
For tentative projects, even if they’re marked as Busy, availability will still show until the project is officially booked.
đź“Ł Note
The availability setting applies to all team members and collaborators assigned to the project.
Change your calendar availability setting
To have booked projects show as Busy by default:
From the navigation menu, select your profile photo > Company settings
Select Company > Preferences
Under “Other preferences” by “Project availability,” turn on Set calendar to busy for new projects once booked
Your availability will now be blocked when a client books a project by signing a contract or making a payment
Manually adjust a project’s availability
You can also update availability on a project-by-project basis:
Use the search bar, or select Projects from the navigation menu
When you get to the project workspace, select Details
Under Date & location, choose whether the project shows as Free or Busy on your calendar. You’ll also see the Hide from calendar checkbox.
If no date is set, the checkbox is disabled and shows the message: “This option becomes available once a date is set.”
Once you set a date, you can select the checkbox to remove the project date from your calendar entirely.
The availability and Hide from calendar controls appear in the same row.
Once you update the availability, the changes will take effect for your scheduling availability
If you also set up sessions for the project, those sessions still appear on your calendar. To avoid duplicate calendar entries, hide the project date from the calendar.
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