Using MS Outlook Delegated Calendars¶

Tip

Also see this article to learn how to process emails in Email Sidebar over Delegated access and this UVM article to learn how to configure and work with Delegated mailbox access

The Delegated calendars feature allows Delegates, Email Sidebar users with granted delegate access permissions in MS Outlook to view, manage, and sync in Salesforce calendar items of other users, calendar Organizers (Delegators), also viewing the contextual Salesforce data about associated records in RGES Sidebar.
When a meeting or appointment is created, modified, moved, or deleted in delegated access scenario, its associated Salesforce records and Salesforce calendar are updated correspondingly through RGES synchronization, so other concerned individuals in your Salesforce Org can see the changes in the records immediately and react to them.

Please refer to this article for detailed information on how calendar items are processed by Email Sidebar selectively or automatically.

Prerequisites and Permissions¶

Delegated Calendar access and Delegated Inbox access have the same prerequisites; either of these mailbox data access scenarios or both can be configured if the below prerequisites are met. Handling of MS Outlook Tasks or Contacts by Email Sidebar via delegated access is currently not supported

To carry out scenarios through delegated access both involved mail accounts should have RGES Add-In installed and Sync activated. Both accounts should have a dedicated RGES license
The two accounts should belong to the same MS Exchange instance and Salesforce Org
All RGES functions are only available if the mailbox Owner (Delegator) grants Calendar Editor permissions for the Delegate, so it is the recommended permissions level
For the feature to work, the Delegate must be using EWS connectivity, not MS Graph

Also see the section “Supported RGES Actions for Delegated Scenarios for Calendar Items” below for details on all available use cases.

Setting Up Delegated Calendar Access in MS Outlook¶

Please refer to the following Microsoft guides to learn how to set up delegated calendar permissions in MS Outlook and use this feature:

The following delegated access permission types are available:
Editor: has full calendar management permissions.
Author: has full calendar management permissions, apart from modifying or processing calendar items created by the Organizer.
Reviewer: this permissions type is insufficient for managing delegated calendars. It only allows viewing calendar entries; no item sharing in Salesforce or linking to Salesforce objects is possible with this permissions type.

Managing calendar entries using the delegated calendars feature with Email Sidebar Add-In requires Author or Editor permissions to be set up: File > Info tab > Account Settings > Delegate Access > Calendar picklist.

Delegated calendar permissions can be set up individually: {MS Outlook Calendar view} > Folder tab > Calendar Properties

The required permissions level for Email Sidebar delegated calendars management are Can edit or Delegate.

Note

The Delegate can see my private items or Can view private events setting allows a Delegate with Editor or Author permissions to view as well as modify items which the calendar Organizer marked as private. With this setting enabled a Delegate can also remove the private mark from calendar items.

Setting Up Shared Calendar Access in Salesforce¶

In order to allow Events in the Organizer’s Salesforce calendar to be created or modified by Email Sidebar via a Delegate’s Salesforce account the necessary shared calendar permissions should also be set up in Salesforce. Refer to the following Salesforce help articles to learn how to do that: article 1; article 2.

Delegated Calendar Items Syncing in Salesforce¶

To sync a delegated calendar item in Salesforce (initial sharing), you can either assign it the blue Salesforce category in MS Outlook or find and select a relevant existing record and then click the Save button at the top of Email Sidebar. If RGES insta-sync is enabled, an item shared this way will be saved in Salesforce instantly. Otherwise it will be saved on the following sync session.

Important

Regardless of who modifies/updates a calendar item, for the changes to be conveyed to Salesforce the item’s Organizer must have one’s Revenue Grid synchronization enabled

Supported RGES Actions for Delegated Scenarios for Calendar Items¶

	Granted permissions	Available actions	Salesforce Destination
Calendar access	Delegate + Calendar permissions Editor [the only scenario fully compatible with Email Sidebar]	Manage and process in RGES calendar items created by the Owner or the Delegate, as well as inbound meeting invites (on the Owner’s behalf) All saving scenarios in the Calendar using RGES Sidebar or custom category	Owner’s Salesforce account
Send a meeting invite (send on behalf of)	Configured as a Delegate with no special Calendar permissions set	Save created items in Compose mode using RGES Sidebar or custom category	Owner’s Salesforce account
	Delegate + Calendar permissions Author	View Calendar and respond to meeting invites, create meeting invites and process in RGES only items created by Delegate using RGES Sidebar or custom category	Owner’s Salesforce account
	Delegate + Calendar permissions Reviewer	No Email Sidebar actions available, can only view the Sidebar	n/a

Email Sidebar Delegated Calendars Access Troubleshooting¶

Delegated calendars sync issues may occur mainly on initial item sharing in Salesforce, caused by either one of the following issues: Revenue Grid sync errors, insufficient MS Outlook delegated calendar permissions, insufficient Salesforce permissions.

Since initial sharing (creation) of events in Salesforce is performed by Revenue Grid synchronization, the Organizer’s sync must be running for the calendar updates made by a Delegate to be applied In Salesforce. If sync is not running for the Organizer, Email Sidebar will not be able to save the item created or modified by the Delegate in Salesforce. The corresponding error notification will be displayed that sync is not enabled for the Organizer

Once the corresponding Salesforce event record has been created, its further updates and modifications can be performed directly from via the Organizer’s or Delegate’s Email Sidebar Add-In; the changes will be conveyed immediately and will not depend on the sync interval. This way, even if sync is not running for the calendar item Organizer, saving changes to an already existing Salesforce event object can be performed if the Delegate has the permissions to access this event in Salesforce
If the Delegate does not have the permissions to view the corresponding Salesforce event (however, the Add-In can still obtain the Salesforce event ID from MS Exchange), saving will not be allowed with an error notification that the user has insufficient Salesforce account permissions to save this event

Note

The same error message is displayed if the event was removed from Salesforce and Email Sidebar was unable to down-sync this change to MS Exchange

If the Delegate does not have the permissions to modify a corresponding Salesforce event, there will appear an error notification that user has insufficient Salesforce account permissions to update this event, suggesting to contact the Organizer to get the required permissions in Salesforce

Note

Delegated calendars also support using the Send calendar availability and Send meeting time slots features so the Delegate can generate these links for the Delegator’s calendar

Delegated Calendars and RGES Meeting Scheduler¶

Email Sidebar features Time Slots or Calendar Availability can be used for a Delegated access calendar. Generated meeting’s formal initiator gets auto-defined based on the content of the From field.

After RGES Autumn update 2108 (September 2021), the resulting meeting slots reservation page also includes an indicator showing if the meeting’s initiator.

Get back to us
We would love to hear from you