Book / edit via Outlook

To book rooms, request extra services and catering, or register visitors, you use Outlook together with the Gfacility add-in. You arrange everything quickly and easily in one place. Here is how it works.

Creating a meeting

Create a meeting in Outlook.

Want to invite only internal attendees and already know which room you want to use? Then add it directly in the Outlook invitation. Do you need more room information, want to register visitors, or add catering and services? Then click on Gfacility [1] and the Gfacility add-in opens [2]. This can be done directly while creating the meeting.

Using the add-in

You use the Gfacility add-in to add extra options to your appointment, such as services and catering, to register visitors, or to view details about the room. You can add what you need.

Sign in on first use | Click to expand

Are you using Gfacility for the first time? Then you need to sign in to the add-in once. Once you are signed in, click “Meeting details” to start and then go through the steps.

Click Sign in to sign in.

Give permission to open a new window.

You are now signed in to Gfacility with your Microsoft account.

Manage attendees and visitors | Click to expand

With Gfacility you can easily register visitors for a perfect welcome. You can also easily choose who the host is and who becomes the organiser of the appointment. Attendees you add in Outlook are automatically included in the add-in. The role of the attendee (such as organiser, host, internal, or external) is shown below the name.

Recommended approach

Adding attendees

Add all attendees via Outlook. (You can also do this via the add-in using the “Add” button, but it is easiest to do this directly in Outlook.)

Registering visitors

The Announce at reception button is automatically ticked for external attendees. You can adjust details of external attendees by clicking on the attendee.

For attendees announced at reception, the following details are mandatory:

First name
Last name
Email address
Company name

Optionally you can add extra information such as licence plate, telephone number, or other details.

Setting organiser and host (optional)

By default, the person whose calendar is being used is both organiser and host. If you want to adjust this, it is easy. This is only possible for internal attendees.

Organiser: The organiser is the person in whose calendar the appointment is created. Only internal attendees whose calendar you can manage can be marked as organiser. Click the internal attendee and choose Mark as organiser.
Host: The host is responsible for welcoming visitors. Click the internal attendee and choose Mark as host.

Increasing the visitor count (optional)

Don’t want to add names but only increase the number of attendees? Then enter the additional number. These nameless visitors ensure that system recommendations align with the total number of attendees.

Note: If details are missing, you get the message: “Information is missing.” Click on the visitor to fill in the missing details.

Adding rooms | Click to expand

With Gfacility you can easily search, add, and manage rooms. You can use quick search options or extensive filters to find the perfect room.

Recommended approach

Quick room search

Click the search icon to view recommended rooms or search by name.
Click Add for an extensive overview and to use filters.

Extended search

Use the buttons to search by type of meeting room.
Click the filter icon to apply additional filters, such as capacity or building, layout, or availability.
Click Clear filter to remove all active filters.

Adding a room

Click a room to add it.
With multiple available setups, a setup is selected by default. Adjust if needed via the dropdown.
Want to add a comment? Click on the room and add your comment.

Changing primary location (optional)

If you select multiple locations, you can set one location as the primary location.
The primary location is used to indicate where services should be delivered, such as catering, and where visitors are expected.
Change the primary location via the location indicator.
Note: a primary location cannot be removed.

Adding services | Click to expand

With Gfacility you can easily search and add services. You can use quick search options or extensive filters to find the perfect room.

What are services?

Services are items you use temporarily or forms of support. Examples of services are:

Rental items, such as laptops, beamers, microphones, service bikes, or cars.
Support or service delivery, such as help starting up audiovisual equipment or technical assistance during a meeting.

Recommended approach

Quick service search

Click the search icon to view recommended services or search by name.
Click Add for an extensive overview and to use filters.

Extended search

Use the buttons to search by type of service.
Click the filter icon to filter services by building.
Click Clear filter to remove all active filters.

Adding a service

Click a service to add it.
Want to add a comment? Click on the service and add your comment.

Adding products | Click to expand

With Gfacility you can easily search, add, and manage products. You can use quick search options or extensive filters to find the right products.

What are products?

Products are items you consume and do not return. Examples are:

Consumables, such as coffee, tea, lunch packages, or pastries.
Items, such as flowers, office supplies, etc.

Recommended approach

Quick product search

Click the search icon to view recommended products or search by name.
Click Add for an extensive overview and to use filters.

Extended search

Use the buttons to search by type of product.

Adding a product

Click a product to add it.
Once you add a product you can change the quantity.
Want to add a comment? Click on the service and add your comment.
Change delivery time. The default delivery time is the start time of your meeting. You can change it to another time within the meeting time. Click on the product to set a different delivery time.

Default quantity

The default quantity is aligned with the number of attendees in your meeting. If the minimum order quantity for a product is higher than the number of attendees, this minimum is held.

Order reason or additional information

Before you can add products, your company may have configured that you must first provide an order reason or additional information. This is to manage or check the order better. Fill in the requested information and click Next to continue.

General details | Click to expand

There are a number of general settings that influence your booking and order:

Meeting type: This is automatically determined based on the attendees and conditions. If multiple options are available, you can change the meeting type manually. The meeting type can influence the rooms, products, and services you can book.

Organisation: This can be used for charge-back. Sometimes a default value is automatically filled in based on the settings of your organisation.

Cost centres: You may need to fill in a cost centre depending on the items you have added. In that case you have to specify this before you can save the order.

Synced fields

Certain fields, such as the title field, attendee field, and room field, are synchronised between the add-in and the Outlook appointment. If you change something in one place, this is automatically updated in both places.

Saving the meeting

When you are done, you save the changes via the add-in by clicking Save. Then you save the whole booking with the Save button (or Send if you are inviting attendees) in Outlook.

Adding followers

After you have saved the meeting, you can add followers. To do this, open the meeting and the add-in. With the eye icon you can add followers.

Followers can view the booking in their Gfacility web environment. If they have the right rights, they can also change the booking. This is useful for secretariats and assistants who manage multiple meetings in groups.

Recurrence

Creating recurring bookings in Gfacility is straightforward. Here are the steps to correctly create a recurring booking and add services or products:

Create recurring appointment

First create the recurring appointment as desired and save the appointment.

Open the first occurrence

Click on the first occurrence in the series where you want to add services or products. Choose This event. Open the add-in and add the desired services and products, and click Save in the add-in. You have now added the services and products only for the first occurrence.

Repeat services and products

Once you have clicked Save in the add-in, the recurring meetings button becomes visible. Click on it and choose for which meetings you want to repeat the services and products.

Tick the occurrences where you want to copy the services and products.

You can now open each occurrence the same way with this event and edit the services and products for each occurrence.

Modify & Edit

You can edit the booking again at any time to make changes. If you move or cancel the Outlook meeting, the linked visitors, services, and catering are automatically removed or moved.

FAQ - Frequently asked questions

I can’t select the add-in

Are you in edit mode?

You can only use the add-in in the edit mode of your appointment. Simply opening your appointment is not enough. Click edit to edit the appointment and then select the add-in.

Still can’t select the add-in? Contact the administrator within your organisation.

It looks different to me than in the examples

Depending on how your organisation has configured Gfacility, you may see different fields. So what you see may be a bit different from what is in the manual. If you have questions about this, contact the person within your organisation responsible for Gfacility.

Can I use the add-in if no room has been added to my appointment?

Of course, you can do that! You can add services, visitors, and catering via the add-on, even if you have not selected a room. If you have not yet added a room to the invitation, you are asked to select a reception. That way we know where the service will take place.

I moved my meeting but the services don’t move with it

If you moved a meeting but the services did not go with it, it is probably because you moved an old appointment. Appointments that already took place in the past are not automatically moved to the future when you change them. This means you cannot endlessly push services forward without invoicing taking place. So it is not possible to move appointments from the past to the future. Make sure you always create a new booking.

What are the results I see for services and products based on?

Gfacility works with a freeflow format, which means you can easily add what you need.

Adding services:

If you only add a service, the location is derived from the service itself.

Adding a room:

If you add a room, the first added room automatically becomes the primary location. You recognise this by the yellow location indicator.

(When you add more than one room, you can change the primary location to another room.)

The primary location determines which services and products are available to add to your booking. This system offers flexibility and makes it possible to tailor the booking exactly to your needs.