How Patrona Align works

I received a link — what do I do?

Open it. You'll see the board with your name on it — the link is personal, so there is nothing to sign into. What you can do depends on the board type:

Availability calendar — a month grid. Every day has two halves: top = morning, bottom = afternoon. Click a half to cycle through available (lilac) → blocked (black) → no answer (white). Mark a whole day by clicking both halves. The small dots are the other participants; hover over a day to see who is available or blocked.

Date poll — a table of proposed dates (sometimes with times). Click the cells in your row to cycle yes ✓ → if need be (✓) → no ✕ → blank. The totals row counts the votes and the current best option is starred. When the organizer picks the final date, a banner appears at the top with an Add to calendar (.ics) link — click it to put the event in Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.

Everything saves the moment you click. You can come back and change your answers any time using the same link.

Treat your link like a password. Anyone who has it can answer as you. If you lose it, ask the organizer to send it again or to re-add you.

Creating a board (Patrona team)

1. Go to align.patrona.ai and sign in with your Microsoft (patrona.ai) account.

2. Give the board a title, an optional description, and pick the type:

Availability calendar — choose a first and last day. Use this for a rolling picture over a project period: vacations, blackout weeks, who's around when.

Date poll — propose specific dates, each with an optional time such as 14:00-15:00. Use this to pick one slot for a meeting or workshop, Doodle-style.

3. Click Create board. You get your admin link — store it somewhere safe and don't share it: anyone with it can manage the board.

Inviting people

Open your admin link and add each participant by name in the Participants panel. Every person gets their own private link — use Copy link and send it however you like (email, Teams, WhatsApp). External people work exactly like colleagues: the link is all they need.

Removing a participant deletes their link and all their answers. To delete a whole board, use Delete this board at the bottom of the admin view (type DELETE to confirm) — all links stop working immediately.

Setting the meeting date on a calendar board

Once the availability picture is clear, use the Meeting date card below the calendar (clicking a day fills the date in), add an optional time, and press Set date. Everyone then sees a banner with the date and an Add to calendar (.ics) link.

Email invite to participants on the banner sends the date to every participant with an email address — with the calendar invite attached, from noreply@patrona.ai. This works the same on finalized date polls.

Running a date poll

As the organizer you can add options later (form below the table) or remove one with the × in its column header — removing an option deletes its votes too.

When the votes are in, press Pick under the winning column. Everyone then sees the final date banner and can download the .ics calendar invite. Press Clear if plans change.

Time labels that look like times (14:00 or 14:00-15:00) become timed calendar events (one hour if no end is given); anything else (Morning, All day) becomes an all-day event.

Administration

Align administrators can open align.patrona.ai/admin after signing in to see every board: title, dates, creator, participant count, and a copy-able admin link for each. Other patrona.ai colleagues can create and run their own boards but don't see this overview.