Frequently asked questions

Do the people I invite need an account?

No. Only the organiser signs in. Each participant receives an email with a private voting link, opens it, ranks the slots and is done. There is nothing to install and no password to make up. The link is theirs alone: it identifies them within that one poll, so they should not forward it to someone else.

What is the organiser's Google sign-in used for?

To know who you are and keep your polls together. Signing in with Google gives FINDaTIME your name, your email address and your Google account identifier, and nothing more. Your name and address appear as the sender of the invitation emails so that replies reach you. Sign-in on its own grants no access to your calendar.

What calendar access is requested, and what is read?

Calendar access is optional and separate from sign-in. You are asked for it only when you first use a calendar feature. Two permissions are involved. The first is free/busy: while you are creating a poll, and only when you press the button to check, FINDaTIME asks Google for the busy periods on your primary calendar for the dates you picked. It receives the start and end of each busy period and nothing else: no titles, descriptions, guests or locations. Those periods are shown on screen and not stored.

The second is permission to create and manage events you own, used for one thing: creating the meeting event when you book the winning slot. FINDaTIME does not read, change or delete your other events. You can disconnect your calendar inside FINDaTIME, or revoke the grant at any time from your Google account's permissions page.

Does it create a Google Meet link?

Yes, if you choose Google Meet as the meeting location. When you book the slot, FINDaTIME creates the calendar event with a Meet link attached and the link goes to every participant in their invitation. You can instead give a physical address, a link to another video service, or say it is a phone call, and that appears in the event's location field.

How are time zones handled?

A poll is set in one time zone, chosen by the organiser; it defaults to the zone the organiser's browser reports. Voters see the slots in the poll's zone when they open their link, and can switch the display to their own zone with one control; the conversion is done for them. Deadlines are also set and shown in the poll's zone. The time zone guide has practical advice for groups spread across several countries.

Can I set a deadline for voting?

Yes. Give the poll a voting deadline when you create it, or add or change one later from the dashboard. The voting page shows a countdown, the deadline is quoted in the invitation email, and when the moment arrives the poll closes by itself. Any ballot submitted after the deadline is refused, and you receive an email with the outcome.

Can a voter change their answers?

Yes, as long as the poll is open. Opening the same voting link again shows the answers already given. Change any of them and submit, and the new set replaces the old one. The confirmation page after voting also has a "Change my answers" link straight back to the ballot.

What are the voting rules?

Each voter can mark at most one slot as 1st choice, one as 2nd and one as 3rd, and any number of slots as Also ok (meaning "I can make it, it is just not in my top three") or Unavailable. A slot left blank means the voter said nothing about it. A 1st choice scores three points, a 2nd two, a 3rd one and Also ok one; Unavailable scores nothing. Slots are ranked by fewest people unavailable first, then by score, then by how many people are available, then by the earliest start. The reasoning is in the guide on why ranked voting beats a yes/no grid.

How do I close a poll?

A poll closes when you book a slot or when its voting deadline passes. There is no separate close button, so if you want voting to stop at a set time, set a deadline. Once a poll is closed it no longer accepts votes or changes to votes. If a poll is no longer needed at all, delete it from the dashboard; that removes its slots, participants and votes permanently.

Who gets the calendar invitation?

Everyone on the poll, including people who marked the chosen slot unavailable and people who never voted. The invitation is how they learn which time was chosen, and they can decline it in their calendar as usual. As with any calendar event, attendees can see one another's email addresses on it, so only add people who may be invited together.

What can voters see about each other?

A voter sees the poll, their own answers and the running counts for each slot (how many people chose it first, second or third, said it was also ok, or marked it unavailable). They do not see other participants' names, email addresses or voting links. The organiser sees everything on their own poll.

What happens to my data, and how do I have it deleted?

Poll data (slots, participants and votes) is kept for as long as the poll exists, and the organiser can delete a poll at any time from the dashboard. Free/busy results are never stored. If you connect Google Calendar, an encrypted refresh token is kept so booking keeps working; disconnecting your calendar deletes it.

There is no self-service account deletion yet. To delete your account and everything associated with it, email help@findatime.group from the address you signed in with. If you were added to someone else's poll and want your name, email address and votes removed, email the same address with the poll title or your voting link. Requests are completed within 30 days. The Privacy Statement is the full account of what is collected and why.

What does it cost?

Nothing. FINDaTIME is free to use for organisers and voters. It is supported by advertising shown on three pages: the voting page, the create page and the organiser's dashboard. When you are signed in, the home address shows your dashboard, so the dashboard advertisement appears there too. The pages you see signed out carry no advertisements: the home page, How it works, the guides, this FAQ, privacy, terms, sign-in and the confirmation page after voting. Nor do the results pages. No poll data, participant data or Google data is given to the advertising system.

Are there limits?

A poll can have up to 60 time slots and up to 50 participants. Meetings can be 15, 30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes long. An organiser can send up to 20 invitation emails per day, and the same person cannot be emailed again within 10 minutes. There is no limit on the number of polls you can create.

Who built FINDaTIME?

FINDaTIME is a service by FINDaTIME.group, a small, focused tool for one job: finding a time a group can actually meet. It is hosted on Amazon Web Services in the European Union (Paris). Questions, bug reports and suggestions go to help@findatime.group.

How do I start?

Read how it works if you want the full picture, or just create a poll.