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How to sync your Surfboard schedule to your calendar via iCal
How to sync your Surfboard schedule to your calendar via iCal

How to get an iCal link to sync your Surfboard schedule to your calendar

Updated over 3 months ago

Please note: This feature is only available for agents, not admins.

You can add your Surfboard schedule to your own calendar by copying and pasting your personal iCal link.

You can add this to your work calendar, giving your colleagues full visibility over your schedule, or you can even add it to your personal calendar - making it easier to plan your personal life around your schedule.

If you use Google Calendar, we recommend integrating Surfboard directly.
Read our guide to find out how


How do I add my Surfboard schedule to my calendar?

Adding your Surfboard schedule to your calendar is simple and easy

In Surfboard

  1. Log into your Surfboard account

  2. Click the 'copy calendar link' button in the top toolbar. Your personal iCal calendar link will now be added to your clipboard.

You now need to add this to your own calendar.
View steps for popular calendar clients below:

Apple calendar

On a Mac

  1. In the Calendar app on your Mac, choose File > New Calendar Subscription.

  2. Paste in the calendar link you copied from Surfboard, then click Subscribe.

  3. Enter a name for the calendar in the Name field, then click the adjacent pop-up menu and choose a colour.

  4. Click the Location pop-up menu, then choose an account for the subscription.

    1. If you choose your iCloud account, the calendar is available on all your computers and devices that are set up with iCloud.

    2. If you choose On My Mac, the calendar is saved on your computer.

  5. To get the calendar’s event attachments or alerts, deselect the appropriate Remove tickboxes.

  6. Click the Auto-refresh pop-up menu, then choose how often to update the calendar.

  7. To prevent alerts from appearing for this calendar, select “Ignore alerts”.

  8. Click OK.

  9. If you want your team to be able to see your schedule make sure to tick box "Make this calendar publicly accessible"

On an iPhone or iPad

  1. Open your Calendar app

  2. Tap Calendars at the bottom of the screen, then tap Add Calendar.

  3. Select 'Subscribe to an external, read-only calendar':

  4. Tap ''Add Subscription Calendar' then paste in the calendar link you copied from Surfboard

  5. Tap Subscribe.

You can also subscribe to an iCalendar (.ics) calendar by tapping a link to it.

Google calendar

On desktop

  1. Go to your google calendar or visit calendar.google.com.

  2. On the left side go to "Other Calendars" and click on the dropdown.

  3. Choose "Add by URL".

  4. Paste in the calendar link you copied from Surfboard.

  5. Click on "Add Calendar" and wait for Google to import your events.

Outlook calendar

On desktop

  1. Open your Outlook calendar

  2. Select Add > From Internet.

  3. Paste in the calendar link you copied from Surfboard and select OK.

  4. Outlook asks if you would like to add this calendar and subscribe to updates. Select Yes.

Your calendar items appear and will synchronise. Any calendar can be turned on/off in the Folder Pane. Select the arrow to overlay the calendar if you want.


FAQs

How can I share my calendar with my team?

If you want the rest of your team to see your calendar you will need to share your iCal with them. They can then add the calendar by follow the same steps outlined above.

What will be added to my calendar?

Surfboard will sync any published shifts and activities to your calendar.

As shifts and activities can be published independently, it is likely your manager may publish your shifts before they publish your activities. Your calendar will update when your Surfboard schedule does.

💡 Surfboard only syncs data up to 6 months into the future. If you want to see further into the future than that, then check your online Surfboard account.

How often will my calendar update?

The speed at which your synced schedule will update is dependent on the calendar you added it to (e.g. Google Calendar, Outlook calendar, Apple calendar). Therefore, you may see delays between Surfboard and the iCal feed.

  • Apple updates when you open the app, then every 1-3 hours

  • Google normally updates once every 24 hours

  • Outlook updates when you open the app, then every 1-3 hours

  • Outlook.com updates every 3 hours

  • Yahoo updates every 8-12 hours

💡 You can always refer to your online Surfboard account for your most up-to-date schedule. You can also install the Surfboard Slack App to get regular updates throughout your shift.

How to make this faster

Apple calendar

Apple Calendar updates every 1-3 hours by default. You can adjust this yourself to make it update faster from the settings on your iPhone or iPad:

  1. Open the Settings app.

  2. Tap Calendar.

  3. Tap Accounts.

  4. Select 'Fetch New Data'.

  5. Find your Surfboard iCal feed on your list of calendars. Tap it and set it to 'Fetch'.

  6. At the bottom of the page, set your Fetch time to your desired frequency.

  7. Your settings will be automatically saved.

Google calendar

Google Calendar, refreshes every 24 hours. You cannot change this setting, but if you use the Google Calendar mobile app, you can manually refresh your calendar feed in on your device:

  1. Open your Google Calendar app.

  2. Tap the Menu button (3 lines icon).

  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap 'Sync now'

Can I edit events?

Events that are added to your calendar via an iCal feed, like Surfboard, are read-only.

This means you can view them but you cannot delete or edit them.

If you need to change your schedule, we recommend speaking to your manager.

🚀 Don't forget, you can sync your calendar events like 1:1s and meetings to your Surfboard schedule to avoid being 'double-booked'.

How can I hide my Surfboard from my calendar?

You can remove iCals or subscribed calendars from your own calendar.

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