Microsoft 365 covers such a large suite of products that it is often easy to be unaware of some of the productivity tools and time-saving functionality that it can offer. Hence, Eitex is now producing a Feature of the Month, which will highlight some of the features that you may be missing out on. This month we are covering Microsoft FindTime.

Microsoft FindTime

Microsoft FindTimes is a wonderful Outlook Add-in which allows you to efficiently find mutually convenient dates and times by looking at Free and Busy data between all attendees. It is the easiest way to schedule across companies. We have had glowing feedback from the appointments that we at Eitex have scheduled and recipients – now that they are aware of this feature – have started using FindTime to find meeting times themselves.

What does FindTime look like?

When writing an email to one or more recipients you can click on the taskbar icon which reads ‘New Meeting Poll’ (Required attendees go on the To line, optional go on the Cc line):

Doing this displays a sidebar with a few options. In this sidebar you can select one or multiple times which would be suitable for you. If the person or people you are arranging the meeting with are a part of your organisation you can see when everyone is busy at the bottom; if not you can just select a time and click next.

After that you choose a location (which is optional) and click ‘Insert to email’

When you do that, it puts a template into your email, so you can then insert texts into the message itself.

What does the recipient see?

The recipient will receive an email with the invitation to the meeting, a meeting invite. Clicking ‘Select Options’ will then take them to a webpage where they can choose the times best for them. This is a findtime poll.

If auto scheduling is enabled the appointment will also be confirmed automatically. So whether this is for online meetings, Teams Meetings or anything else, FindTime is a great solution.

If you would like to learn more about FindTime and other Office 365 products sign up to one of our free Office 365 taster sessions.