Why External Calendar Events Aren't Blocking Patient Scheduling

When you connect a Google or Microsoft calendar to SigmaMD, your outside events sync in and appear on your calendar grid. Sometimes an event shows on the grid but patients can still book over it. Here's why that happens and how to fix it.

Only "Busy" events block booking

An external event blocks patient self-scheduling only when it is marked Busy in your source calendar. Events marked Free still appear on your SigmaMD grid, but they will not block those times — this is expected.

To check an event, open it in Google or Microsoft Calendar and look at the Busy / Free (or "Show as") setting. If you want it to block bookings, set it to Busy.

All-day events

All-day events are often marked Free by default, so they may not block your day. If you want an all-day block, either set the event to Busy in your source calendar, or add a Block directly in SigmaMD (New → Block, with "Block calendar" turned on).

The reverse: a Busy all-day event removes the entire day

An all-day event marked Busy makes the whole day unavailable for patient self-scheduling — not just the hours it appears to cover on the grid. Every working hour you have on that date disappears from the patient app, for every appointment type.

This one catches people out, because a personal all-day entry can quietly land on a clinic day: a birthday, a travel day, an out-of-office marker, a holiday, or an all-day invitation you accepted from someone else. On your Google or Microsoft calendar it looks like a harmless banner across the top of the day. In the patient app, that day shows no availability at all.

If patients tell you a specific day has no times available, check that date in your source calendar for an all-day event before anything else. To keep the event on your calendar but still let patients book around it, open it in Google or Microsoft Calendar and set it to Free.

A Busy event still isn't blocking?

If an event is set to Busy but bookings are still coming through, your calendar sync may be out of date. Refresh it by reconnecting:

1. Go to Personal Settings → External Calendars.
2. Disconnect your Google or Microsoft calendar.
3. Reconnect it and sign back in.

Reconnecting pulls a fresh copy of all your events and their Busy/Free status. After reconnecting, check whether the open slots are now blocked. If a Busy event still isn't blocking, contact support with the specific date and time.

Editing external events

Events that originate in Google or Microsoft Calendar are read-only inside SigmaMD. To change them, edit the event in the source calendar and the update will sync back over.