Calendly is a simple yet sophisticated tool that takes the guessing game out of scheduling meetings. Tell Calendly your available times, create a meeting slot, and share the link. Your recipients can then book a time that's convenient for them and one where you're actually available. It's a 30-second interaction instead of multiple messages or emails. 

But if you regularly forget to check your calendar or another team member schedules calls for you, just using Calendly might not be enough to ensure you know what's going on. With a Zap—our word for Zapier's automated workflows—you can get a Slack notification each time new Calendly events are scheduled so you stay on top of your calendar.

Send Slack notifications for new Calendly events

Zapier lets you create automated workflows called Zaps, which send your information from one app to another. You can create your own Zap from scratch without any coding knowledge, but we also offer quick templates to get you started. 

If you'd like to start with a template, click on the template below, and you'll be taken to the Zap editor. You'll need to create a Zapier account if you don't already have one. Then, follow the directions below to set up your Zap.

Set up your Calendly trigger

First, set up your trigger—the event that starts your Zap. If you're using the Zap template, the trigger app and event will already be selected for you. Otherwise, search for and select Calendly as the trigger app and Invitee Created as the trigger event. Click Continue.

Next, you'll need to link your Calendly account using an API key. To find your API key, log into your Calendly account, and click on the Integrations tab at the top of the page. 

Next, choose the Zapier option, and click Go to Setup. As long as you're using a Professional Calendly plan or higher, you'll see your API key. Click Copy to Clipboard.

Back in the Zap editor, sign in to your Calendly account.

Then, paste in the API key you just copied, and click Yes, Continue.

Now that your Calendly account is linked, click Continue. 

Next, click Test trigger. The Zap will pull in meeting info from one of your Calendly meetings to test your trigger. If you don't have a meeting in your account, we suggest you create a dummy invite to test your step.

If everything is set up correctly, you should see invitee details from one of your events, like the invitee name, email, and the time of the Calendly appointment. 

Once you've confirmed the details look right, click Continue.

Set up your Slack action

Now let's set up the action—the event your Zap will perform once it's triggered. If you're using the Zap template, the action app and event will already be selected for you. Otherwise, search for and select Slack for your action app and Send Channel Message for your action event. Then click Continue.

Connect your Slack account and click Continue.

Next, select the channel where you want to post your Slack message.

Now you'll need to customize your Slack message. To add details from your previous Calendly step, click in the Message Text field and select data from the Insert Data dropdown.

In addition to mapping data from your previous Calendly step, you can also add static text, which will show up the same way each time your Slack message is posted. 

Some simple text formatting will go a long way in making the data more readable. For example, we added "Name:" before the invitee name from Calendly and "Duration:" before the meeting time. 

Here's what our message formatting looks like.

Next, give the bot a recognizable name in the Bot Name field and add an emoji for your Bot Icon. You can also decide if you want to include a link to the Zap within the body of your message by selecting Yes or No for Include a link to this Zap?.

Once you're finished customizing your Slack message, click Continue.

Next, click Test Action to test your Zap. Confirm the details of the test to make sure it's set up the way you want it. 

If you open Slack, you should also see your test message, formatted the way you set it up.

Here's what it looks like for our test data.

Once you've confirmed everything looks the way you want it to, you're now ready to use your Zap.