Google Workspace integration

Integrations · Google Workspace · 1.3

The connection between Gfacility and Google Workspace runs through one Google account in your organisation: the integration account. Gfacility uses that account’s permissions to read and update employees, rooms and room calendars. So the account needs exactly the permissions listed in this article. If one is missing, that part of the integration does not work.

Not sure yet which integrations you want, or in which order? Start with Integrating with Google, the approach.

How does it work?

The integration has three parts. You switch each one on separately in Gfacility, under Integrations & Login → Google Workspace.

User sync · every night

Brings your employees into Gfacility.

Location sync · every night

Brings your meeting rooms into Gfacility, with building and floor.

Calendar sync · real time

Keeps bookings in Gfacility and Google Calendar in step.

User sync

Every night Gfacility fetches your employees from Google Workspace.

New employee? They are created.
Details changed? Name and phone number are updated.
Left, or suspended? Anyone no longer in Google, or suspended there, is set to inactive in Gfacility.

Which fields are copied?

Field in Google	Field in Gfacility
Primary email address	Email address
First name	First name
Last name	Last name
Phone number of type Mobile	Phone number
Suspended	Active or inactive

A new employee gets your environment’s default organisation and default location; you can change those in Gfacility afterwards. The user sync does not handle signing in. It only makes sure Gfacility knows your employees. Signing in with Google works without extra settings, see Logging in to Gfacility.

Location sync

Every night Gfacility fetches the calendar resources from Google Workspace: the meeting rooms, with their building and floor. A building or floor that does not exist yet is created by Gfacility.

Field in Google	Field in Gfacility
Auto-generated resource name	Name
Resource email address	Email address (the link to the room calendar)
Capacity	Capacity
Building	Building (parent location)
Floor	Floor
Resource type	Room type

Tip: fill in the building, floor and capacity of every room in Google. Whatever is wrong in Google will be wrong in Gfacility too.

Note: when you change a room in Google, the next sync also resets its description in Gfacility and makes the room bookable again. If you want a room left alone, switch off the external sync for that room in Gfacility.

Calendar sync

The calendar sync works in both directions:

From Gfacility to Google Calendar. Create a booking in Gfacility and it also appears in the organiser’s calendar, with the room added. Change or cancel it, and that happens in Google Calendar too.
From Google Calendar to Gfacility. Move, change or cancel that meeting in Google Calendar, and Gfacility updates the booking straight away.
Room calendars. Gfacility also reads the meeting rooms’ calendars. The planning board and the room displays therefore also show meetings booked only in Google Calendar.

Two kinds of calendar, two kinds of permission:

Calendar	Whose permissions?
Room calendars	The integration account. That is why the account must be delegated on every room calendar (step 3).
An employee's calendar	The employee themselves. The first time someone creates a booking with calendar sync, Google asks for permission. After that, it does not ask again.

Good to know:

A meeting booked only in Google Calendar does not become a booking in Gfacility. The room is shown as occupied, though.
Every night Gfacility checks for changes it may have missed, and picks them up.

How do you set it up?

It takes five steps. The first three happen in Google, the last two in Gfacility.

In Google · steps 1 to 3

Done by your Google administrator.

1.Create an integration account.
2.Give the account an admin role.
3.Delegate the account on the room calendars.

In Gfacility · steps 4 and 5

Done by a Gfacility administrator.

4.Connect the account.
5.Switch on users, rooms and calendars.

1. In Google: create an integration account

In the Google Admin console (admin.google.com), create a separate account that is used for Gfacility only.

The name is up to you. Pick something that tells an administrator later what it is for, for example gfacility@yourcompany.com. Many organisations add a prefix that marks a system account, such as srv-gfacility@yourcompany.com.
Not a personal account. If that person leaves, the account is deleted and the integration stops.
With a licence. The account must be able to sign in and have its own calendar.
Manage the password centrally. Set up the password and two-step verification so that IT can always get in, even after whoever created the account has left.

2. In Google: give the account an admin role

Gfacility reads the employees and rooms from your Google directory. Only an administrator may do that. So in the Admin console, under Account → Admin roles, give the integration account a role with:

Read users

Needed for the user sync. Read access is enough; Gfacility changes nothing about your users.

Read buildings and resources

Needed for the location sync. Read access is enough; Gfacility does not create rooms in Google.

You can use an existing role or create a custom “Gfacility” role with only these privileges.

3. In Google: delegate the account on the room calendars

This is the step most often forgotten. Gfacility reads and writes the room calendars with the integration account’s permissions. If the account is not delegated on a room, that room does appear in Gfacility, but its meetings do not come through.

Give the account the permission Make changes to events on every room calendar. That lets it see, change and delete events.

Step	What to do
1	Open Google Calendar (calendar.google.com), signed in as a Google administrator.
2	Next to Other calendars, click + and choose Browse resources. Tick the room.
3	Open Settings and sharing for that room.
4	Under Share with specific people or groups, click Add people and groups.
5	Enter the integration account (or a group it belongs to) and choose Make changes to events.
6	Click Send. Repeat for every room.

4. In Gfacility: connect the account

Step	What to do
1	Make sure the integration account exists as a user in Gfacility and is an integration administrator. Only integration administrators can be picked in the next step. Not sure how? Ask us.
2	Go to Integrations & Login → Google Workspace.
3	Under User account, select the integration account.
4	Click the key icon Grant access. Google opens.
5	In the Google window that opens, sign in as the integration account, not with your own account, and allow access. You then return to Gfacility.
6	Click Test connection. Users, rooms and calendars should all show a tick.

Does your Google admin block unknown apps? Then step 5 shows a message that the app is blocked. Have the Google administrator allow Gfacility first under Security → Access and data control → API controls.

5. In Gfacility: switch the parts on

In Gfacility, go to Integrations & Login → Google Workspace (the same page as in step 4). Under Synchronisations, switch on the toggles in this order:

Users. First, because employees must exist before they can book.
Rooms. Already have buildings and floors in Gfacility? Make sure their names match the ones in Google, or they will come in twice.
Calendars. Last, because the calendar sync only works for rooms that are already in Gfacility.

Don’t want to wait for the night? Click the link next to users or rooms to sync manually right away.

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