Booking Rules and Policies in Microsoft 365

Governance for every meeting

What are booking rules and policies?

Booking rules decide who can book a space, how far ahead, for how long and on which terms. Booking policies are the decisions behind them: the boardroom is for the leadership team, lunch needs a day's notice, a room nobody shows up for goes back to everyone, and reception knows which guests to expect.

When the policy lives in an email, nobody follows it. The boardroom is blocked by a weekly meeting that stopped happening months ago, the kitchen hears about lunch for 14 an hour before, and the facilities team rejects bookings by hand. In AskCody, the rules sit where people book, so the policy holds without anyone having to police it.

Who can book

Link rooms and desks to Entra ID groups, so people only see the spaces they are allowed to book.

When and for how long

The booking window, the longest meeting, working hours and repeating meetings, set on the room in Exchange.

What can be ordered

Deadlines, opening days, the rooms each provider serves and who can charge which cost center.

What happens at the door

Room displays release meetings nobody confirms, and reception knows who is coming.

Rules in Microsoft Exchange

Do booking rules still apply when people book in Outlook?

Yes. The core booking rules live on the room's own calendar in Microsoft Exchange, set by your IT team or the room's owner: how far in advance the room can be booked, the longest meeting it accepts, whether bookings must fall within working hours, whether repeating meetings are allowed and how many conflicts a series may have.

Exchange checks every request to the room against those rules, so they hold whether someone books with the AskCody Bookings add-in or straight in Outlook. AskCody does not keep a second rulebook that has to be kept in sync with Exchange.

For rooms that need a human decision, such as the boardroom, Exchange can let chosen people book automatically and send everyone else's request to a delegate, who approves or declines it from the email in Outlook.

See the scheduling options in Exchange

Resource groups

How do you control who can see and book each room or desk?

In Outlook and Exchange, everyone sees every room, and people find out a room was off limits when the rejection arrives. AskCody resource groups fix that. An administrator groups rooms and desks in the AskCody Management Portal and links the Entra ID security groups whose members may book them. In the AskCody Bookings add-in, people then only see the spaces they are allowed to book. We call it what-you-see-is-what-you-book.

Use it for the executive floor, a department's own desks, a client suite or a lab. Rooms and desks outside a resource group stay visible to everyone, and because membership comes from Entra ID, a new hire or a team move is handled by the groups you already maintain.

See how to set up resource groups

When plans change

What happens to the rules when a meeting moves?

A rule is not a one-time check at booking. When the organizer moves a meeting in Outlook, the new time goes to the room calendar in Exchange, which handles it by the same rules as any other request.

The catering order follows the meeting as long as the provider still has time to prepare. Once the provider's preparation deadline has passed, the order is detached from the meeting instead of quietly moving, because the kitchen may already have started, and both the organizer and the provider are told. Cancel the meeting, and the order is canceled and the provider is notified.

Rules for meeting services

How do you set rules for catering and meeting services?

Every service provider in AskCody, such as the canteen, the AV team or facilities, has its own rules in the AskCody Management Portal. Opening days say when the provider can deliver. A preparation deadline says how much notice it needs, such as 12:00 the day before. Items that take longer, like a buffet, can carry their own deadline, which overrules the provider's deadline but still respects its opening days.

You also decide which meeting rooms each provider serves, hide items that are out of season, add the fields a provider needs with every order, and choose who can charge which cost center: a cost center in a cost center group is only available to the people in that group. When services are ordered, buffer time can add minutes before and after the meeting for the team to set up and clear the room.

See how preparation deadlines work

Rules at the room door

How do you stop ghost meetings in booked rooms?

A display template in AskCody decides what people can do on the room display outside each meeting room: book the room on the spot, confirm a meeting, cancel it, end it early or extend it. Turn on Confirm, also known as auto-release, and attendees confirm the meeting on the display within the pending minutes you set before and after the start.

If nobody confirms, the meeting is ended in the room calendar and the room is free for others to book. A meeting can only be extended when it does not clash with the next booking.

Learn more about room displays

Rules in reception

Which rules apply to visitors?

Each reception in AskCody has its own rules. You choose the meeting rooms that visitors can be registered for, who can host guests, and when pre-registered visitors get their arrival details, from an hour to several days before the visit. At the check-in kiosk, you decide which details visitors must give, such as company, email or mobile, and you can show your own terms at check-in.

Hosts and reception members can be added from Entra ID groups, and reception members lose access when they leave the group. An automatic check-out time signs out anyone still marked as on site, and visitors' personal data is anonymized after the number of days you set, from 1 to 365, while the visit still counts in your statistics.

Learn more about visitor management

For IT and workplace teams

Who owns which booking rule?

Booking rules touch IT, facilities, catering and reception, so AskCody splits them along the lines your organization already works on. Nothing is configured twice, and each team changes what it owns.

Microsoft Exchange, owned by IT: the room and desk calendars and their scheduling rules, approval by delegates, and the minimum duration and capacity of workspaces.
The AskCody Management Portal, owned by the workplace team: resource groups, service providers and their deadlines, cost centers, display templates and reception settings.
Microsoft Entra ID, the groups you already have: who sees which spaces, who works in which reception and who can use which cost centers. Users and groups can be provisioned automatically with SCIM.

Owners configure the whole platform, administrators get full control of one module, such as Services or Visitors, and memberships scope coordinators to their own locations, receptions and service providers.

See the roles in the AskCody Management Portal

Made to empower you

Shayla MTraining Coordinator

A wonderful upgrade to our room reservation system

“I LOVE that AskCody is integrated with Outlook. It makes reserving, editing and canceling reservations so quick and easy. The interface is very easy to use and is so customizable to our needs. I love that we can make it our own and customize our rooms, vendors, and services from the Admin side.”

AnthonyIT Director

We needed a standardized system that was easy for people to use

“We needed a standardized system that was easy for people to use and that could automate the current processes. With AskCody, employees can now book rooms and request services themselves, and it gives them a kind of self-service aspect where they can take control of their own meetings.”

Luke SManager, Learning and Development

Quality room management system with quality people supporting it

“I give AskCody 10/10. It is a phenomenal solution. Easy to implement. It's easy to train on, and it is easy to use. We use AskCody to allow our population to easily and confidently book rooms across all our offices, giving them the ability to do it themselves. Kind of removing the middle person.”

Common questions about booking rules and policies

What are booking rules and policies in AskCody?

Booking rules decide who can book which rooms, desks, catering and visitors, where and when. In AskCody they combine the scheduling rules on your Exchange room calendars with AskCody's own rules for what people can see, meeting services, room displays and reception.

Do booking rules apply when people book directly in Outlook?

Yes, for the rules set on the room in Microsoft Exchange, such as the booking window, the maximum duration, working hours, repeating meetings and approval. Exchange checks every request to the room, whether it was made in Outlook or with the AskCody Bookings add-in. Resource groups, which decide what people see, apply in the AskCody Bookings add-in.

How do I restrict who can book a meeting room in Microsoft 365?

In Exchange, you choose which users or groups can book the room automatically and which must ask for approval. With AskCody resource groups you go a step further: link Entra ID security groups to rooms and desks, and people only see the spaces they are allowed to book in the AskCody Bookings add-in. See how to set up resource groups.

Exchange already has booking rules. What does AskCody add?

Exchange decides whether a request to a room is accepted. It does not hide the rooms people may not book, so they find out when the rejection arrives, and it does not cover catering, room displays or visitors. AskCody adds resource groups, rules for every service provider, display templates with auto-release and settings for every reception, managed in the AskCody Management Portal.

Can a room require approval, for example the boardroom?

Yes. In Exchange, a room can let chosen people book it automatically and send other requests to one or more delegates, who accept or decline from the approval email in Outlook. Services can still be requested for the meeting while the room waits for approval. See how to set up room approval.

How do I stop people booking rooms months ahead or for a whole day?

Set the maximum booking advance and the maximum meeting duration on the room in Exchange. The default booking window is 180 days, and requests outside the limits are declined automatically. See the scheduling options.

How do we prevent ghost meetings and no-shows?

Turn on Confirm in the AskCody display template. Attendees confirm the meeting on the room display within the pending minutes before and after the start, and a meeting nobody confirms is ended in the room calendar, so others can book the room. See how to configure room displays.

Can catering have order deadlines?

Yes. Every service provider has opening days and a preparation deadline, and single items can carry a longer deadline of their own. If a meeting moves after the deadline, the order is detached from the meeting, and the organizer and the provider are notified. See how preparation deadlines work.

Can rules differ by building, team or room?

Yes. Exchange rules are set per room or desk, a resource group can hold any mix of rooms and desks, each service provider serves the rooms you choose, and each reception has its own settings. Memberships scope coordinators to their own locations, receptions and service providers.

Do we need PowerShell to manage booking rules?

Not for most of them. A room's owner can set its scheduling options in Outlook on the web, and an Exchange administrator sets booking delegates in the Exchange admin center. Some workspace settings, such as enforcing capacity, use PowerShell. Resource groups, service rules, display templates and reception settings are managed in the AskCody Management Portal. See how to set up desks and workspaces.

How long is visitor data kept?

You decide for each reception. Visitors' personal data is anonymized after 1 to 365 days, 31 by default, and the visit still counts in your statistics. See the reception settings.

Booking rules that hold, even in plain Outlook