Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Google Calendar Exporting / Importing

Google to Google Calendar Migration


In some scenarios it is necessary to migrate Google Calendar data manually between two Google accounts.
Usually, this is very simple.

Exporting from Google Calendar

  1. Open Google Calendar on the source account
  2. Go to Calendar settings > Import & Export
  3. Click Export, and a ZIP file with all calendars will download to your computer
  4. Extract the ZIP file, noting there is a separate .ics file for each calendar

Importing to Google Calendar

  1. Open Google Calendar on the target account
  2. If they don't already exist, create an appropriate target calendar for each calendar you will import to this account. Note, often you may not want to bring the primary calendar of the source account into the primary calendar of the target account.
  3. Go to Calendar settings > Import & Export
  4. Select the .ics file you intend to import
  5. Select the appropriate target calendar
  6. Click Import


Dealing with large calendars that fail to import

In many cases, a larger calendar will fail to import. This is because of limitations in Google Calendar's import capabilities. The solution is to manually divide the .ics file into several files, importing each separately. Usually, if each file is under 2.5mb it will import without issues, but in some cases you will need to split the files smaller.
Notepad++ is used in the example below.
Open the .ics file in Notepad++ and identify the headers, events, and footers of the .ics file. The headers are every part of the file that come before the first event, and the footers are every part that come after the last event. Everything encapsulated within "BEGIN: VEVENT" and "END:VEVENT" is an individual event. See screenshot below for example of Header, Event, and Footer sections.
The concept of splitting the file is quite simple. We want to create multiple files with the Header and Footer sections intact, while splitting the event content across each of our multiple files, keeping each individual event intact. This is where Notepad++ comes in handy, since it gives you a line reference to the left of each line, so you can keep track of which events you are including in each file.
These example instructions assume you want to split a single .ics file into 2 files:
  1. Open the original .ics file and identify the headers.
  2. Create two new blank .ics files (name them appropriately to keep track of them) and paste the headers into each file. Headers.PNG (553×528)
  3. From the original .ics file, select roughly the first half of events by starting at the first line with "BEGIN:VEVENT" and choosing a line that contains "END:VEVENT" somewhere near the middle of the file. Copy-paste this into the first new .ics file.
  4. From the original .ics file, select the next half of events after the data you copied, which should be the next event beginning with "BEGIN:VEVENT" all the way to near the end of the file, the last line that contains "END:VEVENT". Copy-paste this into the second new .ics file.
  5. Open the original .ics file and identify the footers.
  6. Copy-paste the footers to the end of each of the new .ics files.
  7. Save both of your new files and proceed to import them one-by-one.
If you have questions or if you would like someone from our team to handle this for you, you can fill out this form.


Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Go paperless with the Google Drive App on your smartphone

Scan with the Google Drive App and go paperless



Is your wallet or purse stuffed with various receipts you need to later organize and expense or post into your accounting software? Have you lost important receipts? Do you put documents or receipts into an envelope or tray for your accountant?. With the Google Drive app, you can create a paperless electronic workflow and gain the peace of mind of never losing receipts or documents again.

After scanning a file, Google Drive will automatically index all text (and images), for easy searching. Google Drive is scary smart at searching your pdf file and image contents using machine learning and Optical character recognition (OCR). Google is a world leader in machine learning technology so Google Drive’s ability to recognize images that contain a dog or a brand of car for instant search results constantly improves.


Sunday, January 20, 2019

New pricing for G Suite Basic and Business FAQ for Canada and USA

Google G Suite prices have remained the same for more than a decade despite providing a continuous stream of customer focused innovation and adding over a dozen new services.

If you are buying G suite from Google directly or through another Google Cloud Partner please visit this blog post to learn how to lock in today's pricing for 1 more year for significant savings!

We've created this FAQ to help customers understand the pricing changes and will continue to update it as new information becomes available for Canadian and USA customers in CAD and USD.

On January 16th, 2019 Google Cloud Announced price increases that will take effect April 2nd, 2019.

The new prices in USD and CAD are below:


G Suite EditionUSD (per user/month)CAD (per user/month)
Basic$6$7.80
Business$12$15.60
Enterprise$25$34.00

Enterprise Edition prices remain the same.

You can find the current USD pricing and an overview of what's contained in each edition here: https://gsuite.google.com/pricing.html

A detailed comparison of the G Suite editions is here: https://gsuite.google.com/compare-editions/

The $50/user/year G Suite Basic Annual plan which was a 20% discount over the $5/user/month ($60/user/year) Flex plan has been eliminated. Annual and Monthly Flex plans now cost the same overall per year. There will no longer be a discount for locking into an Annual plan.
Customers purchasing G Suite in Canadian Dollars (CAD) on either Annual or Monthly Flex plans directly from Google or from a reseller (confirmed January 22nd) will receive a limited time regional discount for the first year below:

G Suite EditionEnds April 1st, 2020
   (per user/month)
Starts April 2nd, 2020
   (per user/month)
Basic$7.02 CAD
(10% discount)
$7.80 CAD
(regular price)
Business$13.26 CAD
(15% discount)
$15.60 CAD
(regular price)

For customers on Annual plans the discount will apply to the full first year of renewals occurring April 2nd, 2019 until December 31st, 2019. Renewals prior to April 2nd, 2019 will not see a price increase until renewal in 2020. Annual plan customers cannot renew early/reset their contract term unless they upgrade to Business or Enterprise. Annual CAD renewals after December 31st, 2019 will not receive the regional discount.

Upgrading from Basic to Business Edition is actually a great option to reset your contract term and lock in the $10/user/month pricing for 1 more year. G Suite Business with Team Drives and Unlimited Storage is giving our customers freedom from traditional Windows file shares and other non-integrated, non-cloud storage solutions.

Canadian and US customers paying in USD will not receive any regional or transition discounts either direct or through partners.

The good news is that our Interlockit.com customers currently on the monthly Flex plans have the additional option to switch to an annual plan before the April 2nd price increase and lock in today's Basic Edition for $50/user/year or Business Edition for $120/user/year for a full year.

Unlike Interlockit.com customers, those buying directly from Google on monthly Flex do not have the option to switch to an annual plan before the price increase and save as much as 62% for 1 year.

If you know of organizations buying G Suite from Google directly please refer them to us at Interlockit.com so we can also save them significant money for 1 more year!



How to save money and delay the G Suite price increase

On January 16th, 2019 Google Cloud Announced price increases that will take effect April 2nd, 2019.

Organizations currently purchasing G Suite Basic for $50 on an annual plan in USD are facing a 44% price increase effective April 2nd, 2019.

The new prices in U.S. Dollars (USD) and Canadian Dollars (CAD) are below:

G Suite EditionUSD (per user/month)CAD (per user/month)
Basic$6$7.80
Business$12$15.60
Enterprise$25$34.00

If your organization is currently buying G Suite Basic or Business Edition directly from Google on a monthly Flex plan you can switch to an Annual subscription through us at Interlockit.com before the price increase date and keep the old pricing for 1 whole year!

In addition, if your G Suite plan with Google direct is an annual commitment, switching to us at Interlockit.com as your partner will reset the annual contract start date to the date of the transfer letting you keep the old pricing for another year!


The potential savings of resetting your contract date are huge and there is zero interruption to your G Suite service. It's just a back end billing change. You are never locked in and can return to buying direct from Google after the 1 year is up but we expect you'll enjoy our excellent G Suite technical support team and stay on board with us.

Another great way to reset your contract date and lock in the savings is to upgrade to G Suite for Business Edition at the current $10/user/month or $120/user/year price on an annual contract. Your annual Basic contract gets terminated on the day of the upgrade effective resetting your term and locking in the old pricing for 1 year. Click here for the G Suite editions overview and a detailed comparison. G Suite Business with Team Drives and Unlimited Storage is giving our customers freedom from traditional Windows file shares and other non-integrated, non-cloud storage solutions.

Currently G Suite Basic on an annual plan is $50/user/year and G Suite Business is $120/user/year. These prices will increase to $72/user/year and $144/user/year respectively on April 2, 2019

Interlockit.com can save you $22 USD/user on Basic and $24 USD/user on Business Edition for 1 year. The savings on Canadian Dollar (CAD) G Suite plans can be even higher!

Contact us at Interlockit.com to learn more about what your cost savings could be.