How to See a Subcontractor's Availability Without Sharing Calendars

Why You Cannot Just Share Calendars

If you coordinate external people (freelancers, associate consultants, subcontracted trades, locum staff), you have probably tried every version of "can I just see their calendar?" and hit a wall each time.

The obvious routes all break down:

• Google Calendar sharing across organisations. Workspace admins commonly restrict external sharing to free/busy or turn it off entirely. Even when it is allowed, your subcontractor has to find and manage sharing settings on their side, and remember to revoke them later.
• Outlook calendar sharing outside your tenant. Sharing works smoothly inside one Microsoft 365 organisation. Across organisations, or with a personal account, permissions get inconsistent and often degrade to nothing useful.
• Public calendar links. Technically an option, practically a non-starter. You are asking someone to expose their calendar to anyone who obtains the URL. Most subcontractors will decline, and they should.
• Asking every time. Forwarded invites, "you free Tuesday?" messages, a WhatsApp thread per job. This is what most teams actually do. It works for one external person and collapses at three.

The root cause: calendar sharing in both Google and Outlook was designed for colleagues inside one organisation. A subcontractor is, by definition, outside it.

The Alternative: They Connect Their Calendar to Your Account

CalendarSync's invited connections work in the opposite direction from sharing. Instead of you requesting access to their calendar, you send an invite, and the subcontractor connects their own Google or Outlook calendar to your CalendarSync account. They do not create an account, do not set a password, and never hand you credentials of any kind. They authorise the connection once on Google's or Microsoft's own sign-in page, and from then on their busy times appear alongside your own calendars.

Two design decisions make this acceptable to the person on the other end:

• Busy-only is the default. You see when they are busy and when they are free. You never see event titles, attendees, or details unless they explicitly choose to show you full details.
• They stay in control. They can change what you see, or disconnect entirely, at any time, without asking you. More on this below, because it is the part your subcontractor will care about most.

Your Side: Sending the Invite

You need a Pro account (invited connections are a Pro feature). From there:

1. Create an invite and enter the person's email address. Each invite covers exactly one person.
2. CalendarSync emails them a link. The link works once and expires in 7 days, so a forwarded or stale invite cannot be reused.
3. Once they connect, their calendar appears alongside your own. Until they do, nothing is charged.

That is the whole owner-side flow. The work happens on their side, and it is deliberately short.

Their Side: About a Minute

Here is what your subcontractor sees, in order:

1. Open the emailed link. No login prompt, because there is no account to log in to.
2. Choose what you will see. "Busy only" is pre-selected: you get busy and free blocks, never titles. They can pick "Full details" if your working relationship warrants it.
3. Click Connect Google or Connect Outlook.
4. Sign in on Google's or Microsoft's own page. The authorisation happens entirely on the provider's site. Their password never touches CalendarSync, and it is certainly never visible to you.

Afterwards they receive a private manage link by email. That link is their control panel: they can switch between busy-only and full details, or disconnect completely, whenever they want. You cannot override their choice, and if they disconnect, you are notified by email rather than left looking at stale data. You can also remove the connection from your side if the engagement ends.

One honest limitation: invitees can connect Google and Outlook calendars only, for now. Your own calendars can be Google, Outlook, or CalDAV providers like Apple, Yahoo, Fastmail, and Zoho, but the invite flow requires the subcontractor to be on Google or Outlook. If they live entirely in Apple Calendar, this will not work for them yet.

What You Can Do Once They Are Connected

See real availability at a glance

Their busy blocks sit alongside your own calendars. Sync on Pro is near-instant: provider webhooks push changes as they happen, with a one-minute poll as a safety net. When a client asks about Thursday afternoon, you look, you answer. No message, no four-hour wait for a reply.

Let clients book them directly

This is where it compounds. Create a scheduling link, tick the invited person plus one of your own calendars, and turn on "This link books [name]". The link now only offers times that person is actually free. Make one per person ("Book Sam", "Book Priya") and hand each to the relevant clients.

Bookings are independent per person: a booking for Sam does not block Priya at the same time, because each person's bookings only block that person. If a job needs several people at once, tick them all on one link and it will only offer times everyone can make.

By default, every booking lands on your calendar, never the subcontractor's. If they would rather have their bookings on their own calendar, there is a single switch on their manage link ("Bookings made for me: put them on my calendar"). Flip it, and bookings for them go to their calendar with them as organiser. It is off by default and only they can turn it on. The full setup is covered in letting clients book your team without logins.

The Objections Your Subcontractor Will Raise

Expect questions when you send the invite. Here is what the design actually does about each concern:

Their concern	How it is handled
"You will see my other clients' meetings"	Busy-only is the default. You see busy and free blocks, never titles, attendees, or details. Showing full details is their choice, and reversible.
"I do not want another account or password"	No account is created. They sign in on Google's or Microsoft's own page; no password is ever shared with you or typed into CalendarSync.
"What if I want out later?"	Their private manage link disconnects the calendar instantly, no permission needed. You are notified by email and cannot reverse it.
"Can you see more than I agreed to?"	No. You cannot override their visibility choice from your side.
"Will I see your calendar, or the other subcontractors?"	Visibility is one-way. Nothing of your calendar is shown to them, and invitees cannot see each other at all.
"Will bookings pile up on my calendar?"	Not unless they opt in. Bookings land on your calendar by default; theirs only if they flip the switch themselves.

What It Costs

The add-on is SGD 2 per connected person per month, billed monthly regardless of whether your Pro plan is monthly or annual. The billing rules favour you:

• You are charged only once a person actually connects. Unopened and expired invites cost nothing.
• The charge is prorated from the day they connect.
• It stops when they disconnect, or when you remove them.

Your own calendars remain free and unlimited under Pro, which is SGD 7 per month or SGD 60 per year. So an agency coordinating five regular subcontractors pays SGD 10 per month on top of Pro, and only while all five stay connected. Full details are on the pricing page.

Is This the Right Approach for You?

Invited connections fit best when you work with the same external people repeatedly and they are on Google or Outlook. If a subcontractor is a one-off, a plain scheduling link where they pick a slot may be all you need. And if you are still weighing this against domain sharing, public links, and the other workarounds, we compare every option in calendar access for external contractors: your options.

To try it: start a Pro trial (7 days, no card required), send one invite to your most-scheduled subcontractor, and see whether next week's "you free Tuesday?" thread simply does not happen. The invited connections section on the features page has the full feature rundown.