Riva Bookings Admin Guide

Prerequisite to get started

A Riva member will walk you through the configuration process to start using the Riva Bookings. Please ensure you meet the following prerequisites prior to configuration.

1. Enabled Auto-discover EWS URL OR provide EWS URL for manual discovery 

Riva Bookings uses a protocol called EWS (Exchange Web Services) to connect to Exchange servers. There are essentially two ways that you can ensure that your Riva Bookings system will properly connect to your Exchange system or Microsoft 365 tenant. 

The first is by using Auto-discovery. If you have properly setup the auto-discovery entry in your DNS zone, then Riva Bookings should find your system. Configuring the Auto-discover protocol is a fairly standard step in setting up Exchange services, including Microsoft Office 365, but if you need more information, you can find it here: Autodiscover service in Exchange Server. 

To make sure you have properly configured Auto-discover, you can use this Microsoft tool: https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/tests/Ola/input 

The second way to allow Riva Bookings to find your system is by manually providing the EWS URL in the configuration screen. If that is what you want to do, then there is nothing to prepare beforehand apart from knowing what the URL is for your system. 

2. Global Administrator Account 

In order to allow Riva Bookings access to Exchange mailboxes in Microsoft 365, you need to give consent to the Riva Bookings. Riva Bookings has a very simple mechanism to request you to give the consent required so your instance of Riva Bookings can access Exchange via EWS. 

Note: you do not need to make any changes in your Azure AD manually, the application takes care of this, when Microsoft asks you to grant the consent in a browser pop-up. Note that you will need to grant consent using an account with Global Administrator rights! 

4. Outgoing Email (Optional!) 

Whenever there are issues / notifications that Riva Bookings sends out via email, the sender of the email will be the Outgoing Email you set. If not set, it defaults to no-reply@byriva.com 

Step 1: Create your account

At this point, you should have talked to the Riva Success Team and purchased a subscription to use Riva Bookings.

1. Log in to Riva Cloud
2. Navigate to Insight -> Riva Bookings in the side menu
   1. Note: Ensure that you have an email connection created in Synchronization->Connections

Step 2: Configure Riva Bookings

Riva member will walk you through the configuration process.

1. Select your Exchange Version
   1. If you are using Office 365 or Exchange Online, select "Office 365"
   2. If you are on Exchange 2013 On Premise or Greater, select "Exchange 2016"
2. Authenticate with OAuth (only for Office 365)
   1. Click on "Grant Admin Consent": This will pop open a Microsoft Authentication window. If you see one, make sure you check off "consent on behalf of your organization". This will give the consent required so your instance of Riva Bookings can access Exchange via EWS. 
   2. IMPORTANT: You must log in with a Global Administrator account
3. Autodiscover EWS URL: Please refer to prerequisites. If you don't have Auto-discovery enabled, please toggle this off and manually enter in the URL.
4. Set "Administrator Emails". List out emails you would like to be given admin role with a comma (if multiple emails). For example, admin1@domain.com,admin2@domain.com,admin3@domain.com. They would be able to access "Admin Configuration" in settings and make changes.
5. Outgoing email. Please refer to prerequisites.
6. Allowed domains. For organization has multiple email domains under your exchange or office 365 tenant, list them out. Only domains listed will function correctly. For example, a company might have @domain1.com and @domain2.com. In this case, we would list domain1,domain2.
7. Session Expiry Time. If you are not using OAuth, you can set your session expiry time here.

At this stage, if everything went well, everyone should be able to log in to their Riva Bookings account and start using it!

As a next step, for a seamless user experience, enable Riva Bookings on Riva Insight so that you can send your availabilities directly from Outlook!