How an iCal connection works
An iCal link (also called an ICS feed, calendar subscription or webcal link) is an address where your client’s system publishes your schedule as a calendar file. GigGuru fetches that file regularly and turns every event in it into a gig in your agenda.
One direction
Section titled “One direction”Traffic goes one way: GigGuru reads your client’s schedule but writes nothing back. A gig you change or delete in GigGuru, or a day you block, does not show up in your client’s system. If something in the schedule itself needs to change, sort it out with the planner as you always have.
How often GigGuru fetches
Section titled “How often GigGuru fetches”- Every connection is fetched about once an hour.
- If you don’t want to wait, use Sync now on the connection (web: Settings → Connectors; iPhone: Settings → Connected systems).
- If a fetch fails, the connection shows Error during last sync. GigGuru tries again on the next round.
Which links work
Section titled “Which links work”GigGuru accepts links starting with https://, http://, webcal:// or webcals://. If you paste an address without a scheme (calendar.google.com/…), GigGuru adds https:// itself. When you connect, GigGuru fetches the link once straight away: if no calendar file comes back you get an error immediately instead of an empty connection.
What comes out of the feed
Section titled “What comes out of the feed”| In the feed | In GigGuru |
|---|---|
| Event title | Gig title |
| Start and end time | Start and end time (no end time: one hour after the start) |
| Location | Location, also used for the travel distance |
| Description | Notes |
| Organiser (name) | Client, when that name belongs to exactly one of your clients |
Status tentative (TENTATIVE) |
Gig with status Request |
Almost no feed carries rates. Those come from the client you attach the connection to, or from your default rate. That is why it is worth attaching the connection to a client.
When a gig changes or disappears
Section titled “When a gig changes or disappears”Each time GigGuru fetches the feed, it compares it with what is already in your agenda:
- Changed gig (different time, different address): updated. Even when your client’s system creates a new internal id for every edit, GigGuru recognises the gig by its start time, title and location, so you don’t end up with a duplicate.
- Gig that disappears from the feed: removed, but only if it has not started yet. A past gig stays, because it counts towards your earnings.
- Already sent to your accounting: always stays, even if it disappears from the feed, so no orphaned entry is left in Moneybird, Rompslomp or e-Boekhouden.
- Feed comes back empty: GigGuru removes nothing. An empty feed is more often an outage at the source than a genuinely empty schedule.
- A gig you entered by hand for the same client on the same day: if you entered exactly one gig by hand that day and it later arrives through the feed, GigGuru merges the two. What you filled in that the feed doesn’t know (rate, travel distance, notes) is kept.
The first sync
Section titled “The first sync”The first time, GigGuru fetches gigs going back up to two years. Past gigs imported this way are not sent to your accounting: you have probably invoiced them already. See Only new jobs are invoiced.
Add as blocked days
Section titled “Add as blocked days”On a connection on the web you can also switch on Add as blocked days (in the iPhone app only during onboarding, under Import private calendar). The events from that feed then don’t become gigs but days on which you are unavailable. Useful for your private calendar: a birthday or holiday in your own calendar blocks the day without counting as work. A day that already has a confirmed gig is not blocked, and one event blocks at most fourteen days.
Free and Pro
Section titled “Free and Pro”On the free plan you can connect up to two calendars. With Pro there is no limit. See Subscription.