# Best Practices

## Recommended setup

<table data-card-size="large" data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Start with Bookings + Event types</strong></td><td>These two entities together give you the most actionable data. Join them on `event_type_id` to see not just what meetings happened, but which templates they came from — useful for spotting which meeting types are most in demand.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Use Append for multi-user setups</strong></td><td>Since Cal.com API keys are scoped per user, create one data flow per team member and use the Append transformation to merge all bookings into a single table. Add a custom column for each user's name before appending so you can filter by person later.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Send to BigQuery for team reporting</strong></td><td>If you're aggregating bookings across multiple users or time periods, BigQuery handles large volumes better than Google Sheets. Use Coupler.io's Aggregate transformation to pre-compute booking counts or durations before loading.</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Data refresh and scheduling

<table data-card-size="large" data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Daily refresh is usually enough</strong></td><td>Booking data doesn't change in real time for most reporting needs. A daily scheduled run keeps your dashboards fresh without hammering the Cal.com API. Run the data flow manually first to confirm it's working before setting a schedule.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Schedule staggered runs for multi-user flows</strong></td><td>If you have multiple data flows (one per team member), stagger their run times by a few minutes to avoid hitting Cal.com's rate limits simultaneously.</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Performance optimization

<table data-card-size="large" data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Only pull the entities you need</strong></td><td>Entities like Conferencings and My profiles rarely change — pull them once to reference, but don't include them in high-frequency scheduled flows. Focus recurring runs on Bookings where the data is actively updated.</td></tr><tr><td><strong>Use AI destinations for meeting summaries</strong></td><td>Pipe your Bookings data to ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini to generate weekly meeting summaries, flag unusual cancellation patterns, or draft follow-up templates based on attendee responses.</td></tr></tbody></table>

## Common pitfalls

{% hint style="danger" %}
Don't assume one API key covers your whole team. Cal.com API keys are tied to individual user accounts — using one person's key will silently exclude all other users' bookings from your reports.
{% endhint %}

{% columns %}
{% column %}
**Do**

* Join Bookings with Event types to add context to each meeting
* Add a `user` identifier column when appending data from multiple accounts
* Verify your timezone settings in Schedules match the timezone in your reporting tool
  {% endcolumn %}

{% column %}
**Don't**

* Rely on booking counts alone — always check the `status` field to exclude pending or cancelled records
* Pull Conferencings or Schedules on every refresh — these change infrequently and don't need daily syncing
* Ignore the `uid` field — use it as a stable unique key when setting up incremental loads or deduplication in your destination
  {% endcolumn %}
  {% endcolumns %}