Lexidesk uses Calendly as one of the scheduling layers behind your AI intake.
Once connected, the AI qualifies each caller or chat visitor, sends them a booking link by text and email, and your team sees the consult appear on the right lawyer's calendar with the full intake summary attached.
This guide walks you through the full setup from a fresh Calendly account, including the one question that lets Lexidesk track which conversation produced each booking.
Plan for about 30 minutes.
How the booking flow works
Before you start clicking, it helps to know what you're building.
Here's what happens end to end once the integration is live:
The caller or chat visitor talks to your Lexidesk AI.
Once they're qualified, the AI sends a personalized SMS and email with your Calendly booking link. The booking page comes pre-filled with the details the AI already gathered (name, phone, email, county, opposing party, case description) so the client doesn't retype anything.
The client picks a time and, if you charge for consults, pays through Stripe on the booking page.
Calendly writes the appointment to the assigned lawyer's calendar.
The Booking reference passes from Calendly back to Lexidesk.
Lexidesk marks the conversation as converted, drops the full intake summary onto the calendar event, and stops any remaining follow-up texts or emails to that client.
The Booking reference question (Step 4 in this guide) is what makes the last two bullets work. Skip it and bookings still happen, but Lexidesk loses conversion tracking and follow-up messages keep going out to clients who already booked.
What you'll need
A Calendly account on the Standard plan or higher. Custom intake questions are not available on the free plan.
A Stripe account, if you want to collect payment at the time of booking. This is optional.
Access to your Lexidesk account.
Roughly 30 minutes.
Step 1. Create your Calendly account
If you don't already have one, sign up at calendly.com. The Standard plan or higher is required for the custom Booking reference question that Lexidesk relies on.
On first login, set your account timezone and connect at least one external calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud). This controls every booking that follows.
Step 2. Connect Calendly to Lexidesk
Do this connection first, before building your event types in Calendly. The OAuth handshake takes 30 seconds, and getting it out of the way means the rest of your setup is ready to use as soon as you build it.
Log in to Lexidesk.
Go to Agents in the left sidebar.
Click Configure on the agent that should use Calendly.
Find the Appointments section and click Connect with Calendly.
5.Log in to Calendly and grant the permissions Lexidesk requests.
6.You'll see the status change to Connected, with the message "Calendly account connected".
That's all you need to do on the Lexidesk side for the connection itself. The field mapping (which Calendly question prefills which Lexidesk data point) is handled by the Lexidesk team during onboarding. You don't need to configure it yourself.
Step 3. Create an event type for each consultation you offer
In Calendly, an event type is what the client actually books. Set up one event type for every consult you want the AI to be able to offer.
How you split them up is a business decision. A single "Initial Consultation" for every matter works. So does one event type per practice area, one per lawyer, or one Round Robin across a group of lawyers. Whatever matches how your firm actually runs intake.
In Calendly, go to Event Types and click + Create.
Choose One-on-One, Round Robin, or Collective. One-on-One is the right starting point for most firms. Use Round Robin if you want Calendly to distribute consults evenly across a group of lawyers. Use Collective for consults that need multiple lawyers on the same call.
Give the event a clear, client-facing name, for example "Initial Family Law Consultation" or "Consultation with Hanna Smith".
Set the duration (60 minutes is common for a first consult).
Set the host (or hosts, for Round Robin).
Set the availability that lawyer is available for consultations.
Repeat for every consult type you want the AI to offer.
Tip: Make sure each event type has as much availability as possible. In our research, prospects are about 15% more likely to book when they're shown a wider window of options.
Step 4. Add the Booking reference question to every event type
This is the single most commonly missed step. Skip it and bookings will still happen, but Lexidesk won't know which conversation produced the booking, conversion tracking will break, and follow-up texts will keep going out to clients who already booked.
For every event type you created in Step 3:
Open the event type and click More options.
Find the Invitee Form.
Click + Add new question.
Set the question type to One Line.
Name the question:
Booking reference (do not edit)Leave it marked as Optional. Required also works, but optional avoids edge cases where someone with a direct booking link gets blocked.
Position this question last in your question order. The client will see it on the booking page, but they have no reason to interact with it. Putting it at the bottom keeps the booking form clean.
Step 5. Add other intake questions (optional)
You can also add other questions to your event types if there's information you want the client to confirm or fill in at booking. Lexidesk can prefill most of these with information the AI already gathered on the call or chat, so the client isn't retyping anything.
Lexidesk can prefill these fields:
Name and email, using Calendly's built-in fields (no setup required)
Phone
County
Opposing party
Case description
Useful additional questions to include:
Opposing party name, for running a conflict check before the consult
A required disclaimer checkbox, for example "By booking, I acknowledge this consultation does not create a lawyer-client relationship"
To add one:
Open the event type.
In Invitee Questions, click + Add new question.
Choose the question type that matches (One Line for short answers, Multiple Lines for longer ones).
Name the question in whatever wording makes sense for your firm.
Note: Mapping between these Lexidesk fields and your Calendly questions is configured by the Lexidesk team during onboarding. Just build the questions you want with the names that make sense for your firm and we'll map them for you.
Clients can edit any prefilled field before confirming, which is useful for catching spelling mistakes the AI may have picked up from a noisy phone call.
Step 6. Connect Stripe to take payments (optional)
Skip this step if you don't charge for consultations.
If you do charge, connect Stripe so payment is collected on the Calendly booking page itself:
In Calendly, go to Account → Integrations → Stripe.
Click Connect to Stripe and authorize the connection.
Open each paid event type, scroll to Payment options, and set the price and whether you want full payment or a deposit at booking.
Funds go directly to your Stripe account. Calendly doesn't hold them.
Step 7. Add your Calendly links as Appointment Offers in Lexidesk
Lexidesk doesn't automatically sync your event types from Calendly. You need to copy each event type's booking link out of Calendly and add it to Lexidesk as an Appointment Offer.
Appointment Offers are what tell your AI which consultations it can actually offer to callers and chat visitors.
You can do this during onboarding or any time later from inside your Lexidesk account.
Step 7.1. Copy your Calendly event links
For every event type you created in Step 3 that you want the AI to offer:
In Calendly, go to Event Types.
Find the event type in the list.
Click Copy link on the event type card.
Step 7.2. Download the CSV template and fill it in
In your onboarding form, find the Provide appointment offers template section.
2. Click Download CSV template to download the template.
3. Open it in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.
4. Add one row per event type, using the Calendly links you copied in Step 7.1
5. Save it as a CSV.
Step 7.3. Upload the CSV in your onboarding form
Back in the onboarding form, click Add Offers From CSV
Select the CSV file you just saved.
Wait for the green Imported confirmation.
Once the green confirmation shows, the AI has every consult it can offer and the exact booking link for each.
For a full breakdown of every CSV column and what makes a good description (the AI reads this on every call to decide which offer to send), see How to add and edit Appointment Offers in Lexidesk.
Tip: The description column is the single most important one. Write it in plain English describing exactly who this consultation is for, for example: "Consultation for new family law matters". Vague descriptions lead to the AI offering the wrong consult.
Note: You can still edit, activate, or deactivate these offers any time later from inside Lexidesk under Agents → Configure → Appointments. You're not locked into whatever you upload now.
Troubleshooting
Bookings are landing in Calendly but Lexidesk is not tracking them
If bookings show up in Calendly but Lexidesk doesn't recognize them as converted, this almost always means that the Booking reference question is missing on the event type that was booked. Open that event type in Calendly, check the Invitee Questions section, and confirm the question exists. If not, add it back per Step 4.
The AI is offering times that are already booked
Calendly reads availability from whichever external calendar you connected (Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCloud). Calendly doesn't always refresh in real time. In Calendly, go to Account → Calendar Connection and confirm the calendar sync is active. Reconnect if needed.
The "Connect with Calendly" button does nothing or shows an error
Sign out of Calendly in your browser, sign back in, then retry the connection from Lexidesk. If it still fails, email [email protected] with your firm name and a screenshot of the error.
FAQs
Do I need Stripe to use Calendly with Lexidesk?
No, Stripe is only required if you want clients to pay at the time of booking. The rest of the integration works the same whether you charge or not.
Can I offer different consultation types for different practice areas or lawyers?
Yes. Create one event type per practice area or lawyer, add the Booking reference question to each, then add each as an Appointment Offer in Lexidesk. The AI will offer whichever type matches the client's matter and the lawyer's availability.
Should I use One-on-One, Round Robin, or Collective event types?
Whichever matches how your firm runs consults. One-on-One works when a specific lawyer takes a specific matter type. Round Robin is best when any of several lawyers can take a consult and you want the load distributed evenly. Collective is for consults that need multiple lawyers on the same call. You can mix all three across different event types.
Can clients edit their details on the booking form?
Yes, anything Lexidesk prefills can still be edited by the client before they confirm the booking. This is useful for catching spelling mistakes the AI may have picked up from a noisy phone call.
Do I need to build a phone menu for current clients versus new leads?
No, your AI detects new leads versus existing clients from what the caller says and routes accordingly. No phone menu required.
Will my team get notified when a consult is booked?
Yes. Calendly emails the host of the event type every time a booking is made on their calendar. If you want additional notifications (Slack, email to other team members, Microsoft Teams), configure those in Calendly under each event type's Notifications and Cancellation Policy section.
Still stuck?
If you've worked through the steps and something isn't behaving the way you expect, email [email protected] with your firm name, the event type you're testing with, and a screenshot of the issue. The fastest diagnosis is a short Calendly account invite to our team (in Calendly: Admin Center → Users) so we can see the exact setup.