Subscription Tier: Starter, Pro
Apex Rental Pro integrates with Google Calendar to give you a unified view of your schedule. Events you create in the app are synced to your Google Calendar, and events from your Google Calendar (including those created outside the app) appear on your dashboard calendar.
There are two ways to connect Google Calendar:
OAuth connects your personal Google account directly. It's the modern, user-friendly method:
- Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Google Calendar.
- Click Connect with Google.
- Sign in to your Google account and grant the requested permissions.
- Select which calendar to use (primary or a specific calendar).
- The integration is now active.
With OAuth:
- Events sync automatically when created, updated, or deleted in the app.
- Changes are picked up in the background.
- The connection is per-user (each admin can connect their own account).
The service account method uses a Google Cloud service account credential file. It's a more technical setup used for shared calendar access without individual sign-in. This is configured under Settings.
When you create an event in Apex Rental Pro:
- A corresponding event is created in your Google Calendar.
- The event includes the title, dates, times, address, contact, description, and a formatted list of equipment items.
When you edit an event:
- The Google Calendar event is updated to match.
When you delete an event:
- The Google Calendar event is deleted.
Note: Deleting from Google Calendar does NOT automatically delete from Apex Rental Pro.
Google Calendar events that were not created by Apex Rental Pro also appear on your dashboard calendar. These "external" events:
- Show on the calendar in a different visual style.
- Are filtered out from the availability calculations by default (unless parsed with item mappings).
- Can have employees assigned to them.
- Can have pickup status and reviews tracked via the Google event metadata system.
- Can be assigned to employees just like local events.
The availability calculator and analytics can parse equipment items from Google Calendar event descriptions using your Item Mappings.
For example, if a Google Calendar event description says:
40x80 tent
20 round tables
100 white padded chairs
The system uses your item mappings to recognize these and include them in availability calculations, so you don't accidentally double-book equipment.
This parsing runs automatically in the availability view and analytics.
To disconnect the OAuth integration:
- Navigate to Settings > Integrations > Google Calendar.
- Click Disconnect.
- The integration is revoked and sync stops.
On the dashboard calendar, you'll see:
- Local events (created in Apex Rental Pro) — shown in the primary calendar color.
- Google Calendar-only events (created externally) — shown in a different style, labeled as coming from Google.
Events that are synced from Apex Rental Pro to Google Calendar don't appear twice — the system tracks which Google event IDs correspond to local events and filters out duplicates.
- One-way delete warning: Deleting an event in Apex Rental Pro deletes it from Google Calendar. But deleting in Google Calendar does NOT delete it in Apex Rental Pro. If you remove an event from Google Calendar and it still shows in the app, you need to delete it in the app as well.
- 30-second refresh delay: Google Calendar events refresh every 30 seconds. If you just synced an event and don't see it in the calendar view immediately, wait 30 seconds and refresh.
- OAuth is per-user: Each admin user connects their own Google account. If you have multiple admin users, they can each connect their own accounts. The system will use the most recently connected account for shared operations.
- Google Calendar events are read-mostly: Events from Google Calendar that weren't created by the app are displayed for reference, but you can't edit them in Apex Rental Pro. Editing must be done in Google Calendar directly.
- Sync failures are non-blocking: If Google Calendar is unavailable when you create or update an event, your event is still saved successfully. With the modern Google sign-in connection, the sync is automatically retried in the background. Your account is always the source of truth.
- Service account requires setup: The legacy service account method requires a Google Cloud project, a service account credential file, and the calendar shared with the service account email. Contact your system administrator if you need to set this up.
- Event descriptions and privacy: When an event syncs to Google Calendar, the description includes all event details including contact info and pricing. Be mindful that anyone who can see your Google Calendar can see this information. The description visible to employees in the app has sensitive data stripped, but Google Calendar has no such filtering.
- Selected calendar persists: When you choose which Google Calendar to sync to during OAuth setup, that calendar is remembered. If you switch to a different calendar in Google, remember to update your selection in Apex Rental Pro.