How To Sync I Cal And Google Calendar With Dubsado (and Avoid Double Booking)

hi friend 👋

If you’re juggling multiple calendars — personal events in iCal and work appointments in Google Calendar — you’re not alone. This is something I see all the time with my clients.

A really common setup looks like this:

• iCloud (iCal) for family, personal life, kid drop-offs, appointments
• Google Calendar for work because of Google Workspace
• Dubsado handling client scheduling

And the big fear?

👉 Double booking a client call during your afternoon school pickup.

The good news: you can make all of these calendars talk to each other so Dubsado knows when you’re actually available.

I’m Lauren from The Smarter Creative, and in this post I’ll walk you through exactly how to sync iCal and Google Calendar inside Dubsado so your scheduling stays clean, accurate, and stress-free.

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Why syncing calendars inside Dubsado matters

Dubsado relies on the calendars you connect to it to determine your availability.

If your personal iCal events aren’t showing up, Dubsado has no way of knowing you’re busy — which means clients could book over family time.

By syncing:

• iCal → Google Calendar → Dubsado

you ensure every commitment is accounted for before a client ever sees your availability.

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Step 1: Make your iCal calendar public

Start inside your iCloud calendar.

1. Select the calendar you want to sync (for example, your “iCloud Work” or family calendar)
2. Click the calendar settings
3. Toggle Public Calendar on
4. Copy the public calendar URL

This link is what allows other tools to read your iCal events.

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Step 2: Add your iCal calendar to Google Calendar

Now head over to Google Calendar.

1. On the left-hand side, find Other Calendars
2. Click the + icon
3. Choose From URL
4. Paste the public iCal link you copied
5. Click Add Calendar

Your iCal events should now appear under “Other Calendars” in Google Calendar.

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Step 3: Create a new Google calendar (important)

Here’s a key step many people miss.

Dubsado works best when calendars you import and calendars you export to are clearly separated.

1. In Google Calendar, create a new calendar (for example: “iCal Work – Synced”)
2. This calendar will live under My Calendars
3. Leave it empty for now

We’ll use automation to copy events into this calendar.

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Step 4: Use Zapier to copy iCal events to your new Google calendar

Now we’ll connect everything using Zapier — and yes, this works on a free Zapier account.

Zap setup:

Trigger:

• App: Google Calendar
• Event: New or Updated Event
• Calendar: Your original iCal-imported calendar

Action:

• App: Google Calendar
• Event: Find or Create Event
• Calendar: Your new synced Google calendar
• Map:
  • Start Time → Start Time
  • End Time → End Time
• Turn reminders off

Once you test and publish the Zap, any new iCal events will automatically copy into your new Google calendar.

💡 For existing events, you can manually copy them over or duplicate them if needed.

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Step 5: Sync Google Calendar with Dubsado

Now for the final step — connecting everything inside Dubsado.

1. In Dubsado, go to Settings → Calendar Settings
2. Connect your Google Calendar and approve permissions
3. Choose which calendars to:
   • Import (calendars Dubsado should check for conflicts)
   • Export to (where Dubsado-created events should live)

I recommend:

• Importing your synced iCal calendar
• Exporting Dubsado events to your main work calendar

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Step 6: Turn on date conflict settings in Dubsado

This step makes sure Dubsado actually respects your busy times.

1. Go to Settings → General Settings
2. Turn Date Conflicts ON
3. Make sure conflict checking is enabled for appointment schedulers

If you have multiple brands inside Dubsado, you can also choose whether availability should be checked across all brands.

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Final thoughts

Once this is set up, your calendars will work together instead of against you.

• No more double bookings
• No more manual blocking time
• No more stress when clients schedule calls

If this was helpful, let me know in the comments — I love sharing practical Dubsado tutorials like this.

And if you want even more support:
✨ Grab 30% off Dubsado using this link
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With systems (and a touch of magic) on your side ✨
Lauren