USER STORY — Two-Way Outlook Calendar Sync for JobNimbus

Two-Way Microsoft Outlook Calendar Sync for JobNimbus

User Story
As a roofing and home services contractor using JobNimbus as our CRM and Microsoft Outlook as our corporate email and calendar system, I want all calendar events created in Outlook (including meeting invites, client appointments, and internal scheduling) to automatically sync into JobNimbus, and vice versa, so that our team has a single, accurate, real-time source of scheduling truth that prevents missed appointments, lost leads, and operational breakdowns.

Business Context / Problem Statement
Most professional contractors operate on Microsoft 365 / Outlook as their primary communication system.

Currently:
• JobNimbus supports 2-way sync with Google Calendar
• JobNimbus supports 1-way sync (subscription feed) with Outlook

This creates a major operational gap:
Current Pain Points
1. Invites sent to Outlook do NOT sync into JobNimbus
o Leads schedule meetings via email
o Insurance adjusters send inspection invites
o HOAs schedule site visits
o Vendors schedule deliveries or walkthroughs

These never appear in JobNimbus automatically

2. Manual data entry is required
o Users must manually recreate events in JobNimbus
o This creates duplicate work and increases admin time
o This introduces human error and missed entries

3. Missed appointments & lost revenue risk
o If an Outlook event is not copied into JobNimbus:
 Sales reps may not see the appointment
 Production may not know about site visits
 Leads can be missed entirely

This directly impacts:
• Close rates
• Customer experience
• Company reputation
• Revenue

4. Inconsistent systems across teams
• Some users sync Gmail (2-way)
• Others use Outlook (1-way)
• Teams operate on different calendar truths

This breaks operational alignment

Impact on Roofing & Contracting Companies

For companies like JACK Contracting:
• Sales reps receive inspection requests via Outlook
• Insurance adjusters send meeting invites via Outlook
• HOAs and property managers use Outlook scheduling
• Vendors coordinate installs via Outlook invites

Without 2-way sync:

These events never make it into JobNimbus workflows
Which means:
• Jobs aren’t tracked properly
• Production planning is incomplete
• Follow-ups are missed
• Pipeline visibility is broken

Value of Implementing 2-Way Outlook Sync
Implementing true Outlook 2-way sync would:
• Eliminate manual data entry
• Prevent missed appointments and lost leads
• Create a single source of truth for scheduling
• Improve team communication between sales and production
• Increase close rates and operational efficiency
• Align JobNimbus with how most contractors actually operate (Microsoft ecosystem)

Acceptance Criteria

A successful implementation would include:
1. Bi-directional sync between Outlook and JobNimbus
o Create event in JobNimbus → appears in Outlook
o Create event in Outlook → appears in JobNimbus
2. Automatic syncing of Outlook meeting invites
o Including external attendees (clients, adjusters, vendors)
3. Real-time or near-real-time updates
o Edits, reschedules, cancellations sync both ways
4. Contact matching
o If email matches an existing JobNimbus contact, link automatically
5. Address & job linking
o Location fields map to JobNimbus job addresses
6. User-level permission controls
o Allow companies to control which calendars sync

Priority Justification

This feature is mission-critical for companies operating in Microsoft environments.
Given that:
• The majority of professional businesses use Microsoft 365
• Roofing & construction rely heavily on email-based scheduling
• JobNimbus positions itself as the operational hub
The lack of Outlook 2-way sync creates a gap in the core workflow
This is not a “nice to have” — this is a core operational requirement.

Closing Statement

For companies like ours that are actively scaling, hiring, and building structured processes, the inability to maintain calendar parity between Outlook and JobNimbus creates unnecessary risk, inefficiency, and revenue loss.

Implementing true 2-way Outlook sync would immediately improve operational alignment, reduce administrative burden, and ensure JobNimbus remains the central system of record for scheduling and customer interactions.

This has a huge impact on our scheduling. It's making it hard to synch calendars with other apps as well. We are having to set up google calendars and it's a huge hassle. I understand that this is still not on the roadmap. Why?

Can't believe this is not a more popular request since being posted in 2021. We are new Nimbus users, on Outlook, and this has a huge impact on scheduling. Honestly, I'm not sure how anyone with more than 2 employees gets anything scheduled in nob nimbus if on outlook or using a canvassing team to book appointments around company meetings, etc.

Absolutely agreed!!! We nearly missed an appointment made with Outlook because it didn't synch to the Nimbus Calendar. And the functionality of the nimbus events on outlook isn't very good either. you can't see a preview of the meeting, such as a customer name. And you can't click on an address to pull up maps either. Disappointing. Are improvements in the works?