The firm calendar and Outlook
How meetings in Achekam and staff's Outlook, Google or Apple calendars fit together, which direction each link runs, and what stays private.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Every firm that adopts a practice system has the same diary argument within a month. The partners live in Outlook and will not give it up. The system wants meetings recorded against clients and engagements. Staff end up keeping two diaries, entering some meetings in one, some in the other, and a few in neither.
The way out is not to pick a winner, but to understand exactly how the two calendars connect: which direction information flows, what each side can see, and what never crosses. Once that is clear, the firm can set a simple rule about where each kind of meeting is created.
Meetings linked to clients and engagements
In Achekam, staff can create meetings linked to a client or an engagement, and invite colleagues. That link is what Outlook cannot provide. A meeting linked to a client becomes part of that client's history in the practice system, visible to colleagues who work on the client, rather than buried in one person's mailbox.
Meetings are cancelled with a reason, never deleted. If a client cancels the planning meeting twice, the record shows it, which is useful when the year-end later runs late and someone asks why.
A practical rule many firms adopt: any meeting about a client or an engagement is created in Achekam. Internal admin, personal appointments and external commitments not tied to a client can stay in Outlook.
Restricted clients show only as busy
Some clients are restricted. Partners and administrators can restrict a client, or one engagement, to named people with a reason.
The calendar respects that. A meeting about a restricted client shows only as "busy" to people who are not on that client's access list. A colleague looking for a free slot sees that the partner is occupied, but not with whom or about what. That matters more than it might seem: in a small firm, the mere fact that a partner is meeting a particular company can be confidential, for example during a transaction or a dispute.
Confidentiality is one of the fundamental principles in the IESBA International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, which introduces the five principles and the conceptual framework for addressing threats to them. A calendar that leaks who is meeting whom is a small but real threat to that principle, and the busy-only display closes it.
From Achekam into Outlook, Google or Apple Calendar
Each person can subscribe Outlook, Google or Apple Calendar to a private feed of their Achekam meetings. Once subscribed, their Achekam meetings appear in the calendar program they already use, on their computer and phone.
This is the direction that solves most of the diary argument. Staff create client meetings in Achekam, where they belong, and still see them in Outlook beside everything else. The feed is private to each person, so treat its address as private too, and do not paste it into shared calendars or e-mails.
From Outlook into Achekam, through Microsoft 365
The other direction is a firm-level choice. A firm can read members' Outlook calendars in through Microsoft 365. That requires an administrator to consent to the Calendars.Read permission for the firm.
When it is switched on, Outlook appointments become visible in Achekam, so that colleagues and features relying on availability can see when someone is genuinely busy. Private Outlook items arrive as "busy" only, so a doctor's appointment marked private in Outlook does not reveal itself in the practice system.
This matters especially for booking links. Each staff member can set up a booking page where a lead picks a free time from the host's calendar; if the host's real commitments live in Outlook, the firm should make sure Achekam can see them before links go out. The booking feature is covered in letting prospects book a meeting themselves.
Nothing is written back to Outlook
Achekam does not write meetings back to Outlook. The subscription feed lets Outlook display Achekam meetings, and the Microsoft 365 connection lets Achekam read Outlook, but Achekam never creates, changes or deletes anything in a person's Outlook calendar.
Two practical consequences:
| If you... | Then... |
|---|---|
| Create a client meeting in Outlook | It is not linked to the client in Achekam; create it in Achekam instead |
| Cancel a client meeting | Cancel it in Achekam, with a reason, so the record is right |
| Change the time of an Achekam meeting | Change it in Achekam; Outlook shows the change when it next refreshes the feed |
Setting up the two links
The two directions are set up by different people, so agree who does what:
- An administrator decides on the Microsoft 365 read. It needs consent to Calendars.Read for the firm, so it is a firm-level decision, normally taken with whoever manages the firm's Microsoft 365 tenancy.
- Each person subscribes to their own feed. The feed is personal, so nobody can do this on a colleague's behalf. Send a short instruction with the steps for Outlook, Google and Apple Calendar.
- Each person checks their private appointments. Items marked private in Outlook arrive as busy only; items that are not marked private do not get that protection. A partner who keeps sensitive personal or client appointments in Outlook should mark them private before the read is switched on.
- Managers explain the rule about where client meetings are created, and correct it gently the first few times someone books a client meeting in Outlook instead.
After setting both links up, spend a week checking that each meeting appears where expected, and once only, before relying on the arrangement for capacity planning; see capacity planning by weeks.
Write the firm's diary rule in one sentence, for example that client meetings are made in Achekam and everything else in Outlook, and send it to everyone with instructions for subscribing to their private feed.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
