Blackbaud + Outlook Onboarding

Step 1: Set up your Microsoft environment (5 minutes)

• Create a user account in Microsoft for SchoolCal (schoolcal@yourdomain)

• This account will be used as the default "calendar owner" (if none other is specified) for events that get created in general or resource calendars

Step 2: Set up your Blackbaud environment (5 min)

• Install the SchoolCal application from the Blackbaud Marketplace

• Create a new Blackbaud user with a Blackbaud Connect ID - connecting it with one of the Google accounts created in step 1.

  • Name: SchoolCal

  • Email: schoolcal@{yourdomain}

  • Permissions:

    • Academic Group Manager

    • Activity Group Manager

    • Advisory Group Manager

    • Athletic Group Manager

    • Content Manager

    • SKY API Data Sync

    • SKY API Reporting

    • SKY API Basic

    • Teacher (mark "effective immediately" with a start date of yesterday)

Step 3: Connect Microsoft to SchoolCal (5 min)

• Sign in to SchoolCal with the Outlook SchoolCal User you created earlier

• Click “Settings” from the left-hand menu

• Under “Administrators”, add someone from your Outlook domain who is a super admin (has access to your tenant ID)

• In a new window, go to app.schoolcal.com, this time logging in with Outlook and the super admin that you just added.

• Click the “Connections” tab, then “Manage Connection” for the “Microsoft” connection type.

• Enter your Directory Tenant ID, and click “Update Connection”

• Refresh the page, and click the new “Authorize” button

• Click “Test Connection”

Step 4: Connect Blackbaud to SchoolCal (10 min)

• Open an incognito browser window for these steps

• Login to Blackbaud with your new SchoolCal user (schoolcal@yourdomain). Keep this browser tab open.

• In a new browser tab, login to SchoolCal with the Blackbaud you created (schoolcal@{yourdomain})

• Click “Connections” from the left-hand menu

• Find “Blackbaud” > click “Manage Connection” > click “Authorize”

• On the Blackbaud screen, click "Authorize"

• On the SchoolCal screen, click “Data” from the left-hand menu

• Click “Load SIS Data” 

• Click the “Settings” tab on the left, and add as an admin someone who is a “Global Tenant Admin” with the ediscovery manager role for your Microsoft account.

• In a new window, login to SchoolCal using the global tenant admin account you just added to SchoolCal

• Go to the "Connections" tab and click "Manage Connection" for Microsoft

• Click "Edit", then enter your Tenant ID from Microsoft (the school will likely have to find the Tenant ID value in Microsoft Entra) 

• Navigate back to Connection detail, and click “Authorize” (you may also have to press "Test Connection")

Step 5: Run a Test Sync (10 min)

• Navigate to “Flows” in the left-hand menu

• Click “Add New Flow”

• Select Flow Type: “Class Schedules to User Calendars”

• Input Flow Name, e.g. “Schedules Test Sync”

• Find your new Flow under all Flows, and click View Details

• Click Filters and apply desired filters for this Flow

• Click Template and customize how the events are displayed

  • Select an event type from the “Available Fields” panel on the right

  • This will display all metadata available to add to the template

  • To input metadata, wrap metadata names in brackets {{ }}, and use periods to indicate nested or “child” schema

  • Example: to include a Class Schedule’s course name, you’d write: {{Section.Course.Name}}

• Enable the Pilot Mode toggle at the top of the Flow page

• Click the Pilot Users link below the toggle, and input the users you want to run a test sync with

• Click Sync Flow Now to initiate a sync