The Inspection Calendar is a new feature developed by GovWell that allows you to seamlessly manage your inspections and sync them with your personal calendar, helping you coordinate daily tasks with your teammates.
In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about this feature – how to set it up, configure it at the organization level, and adjust your personal preferences.
Let’s get to it!
💡 If your organization doesn’t have the Inspection Calendar yet and you’d like to use it, please reach out to your Deployment Strategist to have it activated!
📆 Inspection Calendar Overview
👀 The Main View
When the Inspection Calendar is active in your organization, it will appear as an option in the sidebar on the left. You can also access it directly via https://app.govwell.com/calendar.
On this page, you’ll find an intuitive calendar view that allows you to perform various actions related to scheduling and managing inspections across your organization.
By default, the Inspection Calendar displays the current date when you open it. Click on the selected date to choose a different day, and use the arrows next to it to navigate to the previous or next day.
To the right, you’ll see a list of inspectors whose calendars are currently displayed. Click the bar with their names to open the inspector list and select which calendars to show or hide. This is especially useful for viewing inspectors’ availability side by side and seeing what’s on the schedule for the day.
You can also remove inspectors from your calendar view by clicking the "×" icon next to their name at the top of each column.
This is where all scheduled inspections will appear – just like in Outlook or Google Calendar, inspections are shown as time blocks representing their duration.
Lastly, at the bottom of the page, you will find an indicator of the number of inspections ready to be scheduled and the button to start scheduling them.
The 'Inspections to Schedule' indicator tracks the number of inspections that are unassigned or are assigned to the inspectors selected in the calendar view
📝 Scheduling Inspections
When you’re ready to start scheduling inspections, click the Start Scheduling button. A sidebar containing all inspections ready to be scheduled will appear.
To schedule an inspection, simply drag the inspection you want from the sidebar onto the calendar in your desired time slot.
To edit an inspection’s details, click on it and a pop-up window will appear. Once you’ve made your changes, click Apply Changes – your updates will be reflected immediately on the calendar.
When all the inspections you want to schedule are in place, click Review & Save to open the confirmation page. On this page, you’ll see a summary of all the inspections you’re about to schedule, along with any edits you made to the default settings. Click Schedule Inspections to confirm.
✨ Configuring the Inspection Calendar
Another feature of the Inspection Calendar is the ability to sync it with your external calendar, such as Gmail or Outlook! Setting this up is simple and provides flexible options, allowing you to manage your inspections seamlessly between your GovWell portal and your personal calendar.
‼️ The calendar integration is bidirectional, meaning any changes made in your external calendar are also reflected in your GovWell calendar. This lets you manage your scheduled inspections directly from your personal calendar!
To sync your Inspection Calendar with your External Calendar, visit the Calendar Integration page in your personal Settings page.
Click Connect your calendar - you will be directed to a third-party service called Cronofy, which GovWell uses to securely access and sync your calendar.
Select the calendar service you use and follow the prompts to complete the setup. This includes confirming the account you want to connect and choosing which calendar you want to sync. This process typically takes 1–2 minutes.
🛠️ Troubleshooting
Depending on your calendar provider, you may encounter different kinds of issues. In some cases, you may need to ask your IT administrator to perform a one-time setup task.
1. Office365 “Need admin approval” Error Message
If you receive this error message, an IT administrator needs to authorize Cronofy to access your Microsoft organization. Ask your IT administrator to open this link:
If your IT administrator would like to learn more about this before proceeding, here are some articles on Cronofy’s website explaining the necessary permissions:
Your IT administrator can also reach out to our Support Team if they have any concerns or questions. Our team will be happy to assist!
2. “AADSTS50020” Error Message
If you receive this error message, Cronofy’s documentation says that you should go back and select the calendar provider Outlook.com instead of Office 365.
3. Errors syncing with iCloud
If you encounter errors syncing with iCloud, it may be due to extra verification that Apple requires on your account. Double-check that your calendar is visible via the iCloud website: https://www.icloud.com/
Once you complete this setup, your Calendar Integration should look like this:
In this page you can sync any already scheduled inspections with your external calendar, change the Event Visibility of your external non-inspection events to other staff members in GovWell or disconnect your calendar if you no longer want it synced.
The Event Visibility option lets you choose how events synced from your external calendar appear in the Inspection Calendar. You can have them show simply as “Busy”, or display the event title from your external calendar. Be sure to select your preferred option when you sync your external calendar with GovWell.
Now, with your external calendar synced to the Inspection Calendar, you and your teammates can see any busy timeslots in your external calendar through GovWell!
Teammates with an external calendar will also have a label signaling which calendar service they are using in the main view.
You can also sync any scheduled inspections with your external calendar using the Sync Inspections feature in your Calendar Integration page.
Syncing your scheduled inspections not only lets you view them from your external calendar but also allows you to edit inspections directly from your external calendar. Any changes made through your personal calendar will be reflected on the Inspection Calendar shortly afterward.
💡 Any new inspections scheduled after you integrate your external calendar will automatically sync between both calendars! You’ll only need to manually sync inspections that were scheduled before the integration.
🕐 Setting Up Inspection Hours
The Inspection Calendar also allows you to define your organization’s inspection hours – setting when inspectors are available to perform inspections.
You can set up your organization's Inspection Hours by first going to your Settings page and selecting Inspection Calendars
In the Inspection Calendars section, you’ll find two tabs:
Calendar Connections – shows which team members have synced their external calendars with GovWell.
Inspection Hours – where you can manage your organization’s availability.
Click Inspection Hours. By default, inspection hours are set from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Monday through Friday.
Setting inspection hours is simple! Click on the time slots to toggle availability. Blue slots indicate available hours for inspections, while empty slots mean those times are unavailable.
🌴 Holidays
You can set Holidays to block specific days – such as federal holidays – in your organization’s calendar. To set this up, go to the Holidays section in your Settings page
By default, your Holidays page comes pre-configured with federal holidays through 2030. You can add, edit, or remove holidays using the + Create Holiday button, or by using the menu on the right side of each existing holiday.
😌 Personal Inspection Hours
Many organizations have inspectors who work part-time or have hours that differ from the organization’s typical schedule. With this in mind, GovWell allows you to set up custom hours that better fit your personal schedule instead of the organization’s default hours.
To do this, go to your Personal Settings by clicking your name in the bottom-left corner of your GovWell page, then select the Personal Inspection Hours tab.
Toggle Personal Inspection Hours on to enable your custom schedule. Click on the time slots to add or remove them from your availability. A comparison of your personal hours with the organization’s default hours will be displayed above the calendar to help you plan effectively.
Unavailable time slots – blocked by either Personal or Organization hours – are clearly highlighted and labeled in the Inspection Calendar, allowing you to schedule inspections around them.
💯 Direct Calendar Booking for Applicants
The Inspection Calendar now allows applicants to book inspections directly from connected inspector calendars through a clean and intuitive interface. This gives applicants the autonomy to choose the times that work best for them, while saving your inspectors valuable time that would otherwise be spent coordinating schedules.
🚥 How to enable Direct Calendar Booking for Applicants
You can enable Direct Calendar Booking for Applicants on a per-module basis. Just head to the module’s Settings page, select Inspections, and choose the Applicants book from live inspector availability scheduling mode.
👀 From the applicant's perspective
For applicants, booking an inspection is incredibly easy!
Whenever an application reaches the Inspections stage, applicants will see a Schedule button next to each available inspection that’s already assigned to an inspector. When they click Schedule, GovWell displays that inspector’s real-time availability based on their connected personal calendar.
Applicants can then simply choose the most convenient time, fill out the intake form, and click Book Inspection – it’s that simple!
And that’s the Inspection Calendar! We hope this guide helps you schedule and manage your inspections more efficiently.