Give your Robin booking account permission to edit Google calendar events. This setup often fixes permission issues with Google Calendar, such as problems booking from the plugin or on the room display (unable to check in, end or extend meetings). These use separate user permissions.
Why the booking account needs edit permissions
By default, only events booked through Robin can auto-extend and end early. To turn on these features for any event booked on your domain's calendars (including employees' events), give your booking account (for example, booking@yourdomain.com) some extra permissions.
Think of a new employee. You can see their calendar and invite them to meetings. You cannot change their schedule unless they give you permission to edit their calendar (or you have admin rights). Here, the "employee" is a room.
After you connect the booking user to Robin, no user needs to sign in to the booking account. Robin connects to the account through OAuth. OAuth creates an app token that is limited to calendar permissions and does not know about any other permissions the connected account has. Robin strongly recommends that you do not share these credentials inside your company.
How Robin manages calendars
For most events, Robin tries to update the event organizer's calendar when meetings end early, are extended, and so on. This has benefits over an update to only the room resource's copy. For example:
Alice schedules a 60 minute meeting on her calendar and invites the conference room. The meeting ends 30 minutes early. On her way out, she presses "End Meeting" on the room display. Robin changes her calendar event to end at the current time. This updates everyone's schedule, including the conference room's.
Robin changes the organizer's event, not only the room's copy, so everyone invited gets the update. Alice's calendar always shows her real availability to coworkers. The same applies when Robin clears everyone's schedule after a meeting is canceled for no-shows.
For events booked through Robin (room displays, web and mobile apps), the booking user is the organizer on your behalf, and has these permissions by default. If Robin cannot edit the organizer's event, it updates the room calendar's copy instead.
Set up permissions for the booking user
You can give the booking user the correct permissions in 2 ways:
- Option 1 (recommended): Give your booking user Super Admin privileges.
- Option 2: Share your calendar resources with the booking user.
Watch the video, or follow the steps below for each option.
Option 1: Give the booking user super admin privileges
You do not need to give your booking user super admin privileges to use Robin, but it makes permissions much easier to manage.
Give your booking user "Super Admin" privileges in G Suite. The booking user can then edit all resources and user calendars in your Google account, and each one does not need to grant permissions. To do this:
- Log in to your Google admin account.
- In the menu on the left, select Account > Admin roles.
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Hover next to Super Admin and select Assign Admin.
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Select your booking user in the list, or select Assign users at the top to search for your booking user. Assign the Super Admin role.
Heads up
According to Google, the super administrator permissions can take up to 2 weeks to take effect after you assign the role.
Option 2: Share managed calendars with the booking user
- Open Google Calendar. In My Calendars on the left, find the resource calendar that Robin users can edit. If it is not there, add the resource to your "My Calendars" list.
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Select "Settings and sharing" next to the calendar to manage in Robin.
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In the "Share with specific people" section, add your organization's booking account by email. In the permissions drop-down, select "Make changes and manage sharing".
- Repeat for all of your resource calendars.
Robin can then edit events automatically on the calendar's behalf.
Frequently asked questions
These answers explain what the booking user can do and why Robin recommends the super admin role.
What permissions does Robin have through the booking user?
The app token that Google gives Robin through OAuth is limited to calendar permissions. Robin cannot use that token for anything other than calendar operations. See the exact list of permissions.
The super admin role is the easiest route. You can assign permissions one by one, but only Super Admins can edit all calendars without user-level setup.
Can I assign global edit permissions instead?
Custom roles can have global read rights, but Google has no equivalent option to edit calendars. By default, you must set edit rights for each calendar by hand. The exception is the super admin role, which can edit everything.
In Google, only the people listed in the "Share this calendar" section with "Manage sharing and edit events" permissions can update that calendar's events. If the booking user adds a new meeting room calendar, the booking user does not automatically get permission to edit that room's events (unless it is the organizer).
What happens if I do not use a super admin?
Without edit permissions, your booking user may not be able to update some events or end them early.
Events still show up and update as expected, and you can keep using the app as before. You can also use the more manual delegation approach in the next section.