Schedule a meeting with Scheduling Poll

Microsoft's Scheduling Poll is an easy way to schedule across companies. This tool is available for cloud-based clients. 

Install Scheduling Poll

This is user-installable. No administrator credentials needed!

1. In your Outlook desktop app under the Home tab of the home ribbon, click Get Add-ins.
   
   
   
2. Search for "FindTime" in the search bar at the top right. That's not a typo. As of July 2023, searching for Scheduling Poll won't show any results. Click on the icon as shown below.
   
   
   
3. Click Add.
   
   
4. Once installed, you can find the Scheduling Poll / Find Time button when replying to or composing new messages. Just look for this icon:
   
   
   

Scheduling with Scheduling Poll

1. Compose a new email or Reply to an existing chain that includes all the people with whom you want to coordinate a meeting.
   1. If composing a new email, go ahead and add the emails of the people you want to send to first.
      
      
      
2. Then click the Scheduling Poll button.
   
   
   You'll see a window appear on the right-side of your email.
   
   Note: The default view is sorted by Availability. When "Availability" is selected from the dropdown, once you select a date, it will only show you times when your calendar and your attendees' calendars are Free. Scheduling Poll can only see the availability of other staff in your organization.
   
   
3. Adjust the Duration of your meeting, then click on time slots to select which ones you'd like to propose. 
   
   
   
4. Adjust the next few settings* as necessary, then click Create Poll. 
   *Here's a link to a more detailed guide on all the settings >>
   
   Note: If you leave the poll setting for "Schedule when attendees reach consensus" checked, then meetings will automatically be scheduled based on the attendees' preferences. If you'd like more control, simply uncheck the box for that poll setting. 
   

Once you create the poll, you'll see it appear at the bottom of your email:

Managing your Scheduling Poll Invitations

When an attendee responds to your meeting, you will get an email notification that includes a link to view the statuses of all your Scheduling Poll invites:

In the above example, shortly after receiving this notification, Scheduling Poll automatically scheduled the meeting for 10:30 AM PST. Why? Because A) I checked the box to enable "Schedule when attendees reach consensus" and B) both attendees submitted preferences and 10:30 AM PT was the option that worked for everyone.

After the Scheduling Poll is complete, you will see a HOLD calendar invite on your calendar. You can edit all the details of this calendar invite, such as inviting attendees, adding a room or other resource account, converting the meeting invite into a Teams meeting, etc. Once you are done, it's time to send out the invite and you're all set!