Keeping it all Together: Syncing Project Tasks to your Personal Calendar

Keeping it all Together: Syncing Project Tasks to your Personal Calendar

Megan Sullivan

CoConstruct's built-in calendar feed integration lets you view your schedules, tasks, and lead activities in the calendar of your choice!

Calendar integration overview

Calendar integration in CoConstruct makes use of the widely supported iCal format, meaning your CoConstruct tasks can be accessible from the following calendar systems, to name a few:

  • Google Calendar
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • macOS/iOS Calendar
  • Yahoo Calendar
  • Many more! If you don't see your specific calendar service listed here, just check to see if it supports adding iCal calendars from a URL.

CoConstruct will sync a read-only copy of your tasks to your personal calendar. Calendar integration setup is unique to each and every user, so each employee in your company can set up their own unique calendar that feeds to their own personal calendars.

You can choose to sync all schedules across all projects with Outlook, for example, while a field employee may choose to sync just their personal assignments with Google Calendar.

In your personal calendar program, you will be able to view all of your CoConstruct details.

To modify, change, delete, or mark things complete, you can use the link from your personal calendar to jump directly into CoConstruct.

What are the different feeds I can sync to my personal calendar?

First, you will want to decide the scope of details that you want to sync from CoConstruct to your personal calendar.

CoConstruct lets you choose from up to three options for tasks to sync to your personal calendar:

Schedule - All schedule tasks across all active and warranty projects to which you have access. Projects that you do not have permission to view will not be visible on your calendar feed. Events on your calendar will be titled to include the task name and project name, and with details about public notes, private notes, and assignees in the description. Tasks will show up on your calendar as all-day events.

Leads - All lead activities that are assigned to you. These will show up as 1-hour appointments on your personal calendar at the specific date and time that you scheduled. If no time was set, these will show up on your calendar as all-day events.

My Tasks - All open project-related tasks (schedule, to-do, and warranty) that are assigned to you. Tasks are visible on prospect, active, and warranty projects. Only incomplete tasks will be visible on your calendar feed and all tasks will show up as all-day events covering the scheduled day(s).

In all calendar feeds, tasks or activities that are either due in the next 60 days or in the past 30 days will be visible. Older tasks or tasks that are farther into the future will not be included within the calendar feed.

How do I sync a calendar feed to my personal calendar?

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After you have decided which details you want to sync from CoConstruct to your personal calendar, you can set up the integration by doing the following:

  1. Head to your Personal Settings (under your name)
  2. Scroll down to the "Calendar Integration" section
  3. Click "Create Feed" next to the feed type that you want to sync
  4. Click "Copy Link" to copy the URL to your clipboard
  5. Open your personal calendar and paste the URL into the calendar subscription area

Google Calendar:

Add Calendar > From URL > paste the URL from CoConstruct > Add Calendar
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Microsoft Outlook:

Open your calendar and use the top Ribbon > Home > "+ Add" > "From Internet" > paste the URL from CoConstruct > OK
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Outlook in Office 365:

Open your Office 365 Outlook Calendar > "Add calendar" > "Subscribe from web" > "Import" > paste the URL from CoConstruct
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macOS Calendar:

Go to File > New Calendar Subscription > paste the URL from CoConstruct > Subscribe > Give it a name
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iOS Calendar:

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad > Accounts & Passwords > Add Account > Other > Add Subscribed Calendar > paste the URL from CoConstruct > Next > Save.

Yahoo Calendar:

Open your Yahoo Calendar > expand the left panel if it is hidden > press the manage icon next to "Others" > Follow Other Calendars > paste the URL from CoConstruct and give it a name > Continue
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Time Zones

If items on your calendar are not showing up at the expected times, make sure to check the following:

  1. Your CoConstruct account time zone settings by heading to your Personal Settings located under your name. If your location observes US Daylight Saving Time, make sure that option is selected as well.
  2. Check the settings for your personal calendar to make sure your personal calendar's time zone is correct. Some calendar services may default your time zone to GMT or UTC unless you have specifically selected your own time zone.

Update Frequency

Once set up, your personal calendar will refresh periodically to update with any changes that have been made in CoConstruct.

The iCalendar feed hosted by CoConstruct is always up-to-date, but most calendar services will only check for updates from CoConstruct every so often, meaning that there may be a delay up to 8-24 hours from the time you make a change in CoConstruct to the time when your personal calendar reflects the changes.

Also, be aware that you will need to have an active network connection for your personal calendar to download the latest updates onto your device. If you do not have a data connection, the old, unsynced data may continue to show up in your personal calendar.

Deactivating a Calendar Link

Deactivate any synced calendar from your Personal Settings.

Doing that will prevent any additional information for that feed from syncing with your personal calendar. You may still see the custom calendar feed on your personal calendar, but it will not update after the connection is deactivated. We suggest completely removing the custom calendar from your personal calendar after you deactivate it in CoConstruct.

Also, be aware that if you deactivate a calendar link and later decide to turn it back on, a new and unique link will be created. You will need to set up this new link in your personal calendar, as it will not match the original link.

Notifications in your calendar

While CoConstruct offers built-in notification emails and texts for upcoming work, you have another great notification option at your disposal when you leverage the calendar syncing.

With CoConstruct connected to your personal calendar, you can use your personal calendar's notification options, just like you would with other events or appointments on your calendar.

Options may vary depending on your specific calendar service, but most systems will offer an option to configure pop-up notifications before or after a task starts.

In Google Calendar, for example, you can configure this across the entire synced calendar, like in the screenshot below, and even change those defaults for individual events.

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