Last updated on October 13, 2026
Vacation Tracker Q3 2026 Update With 72 Changes
Every quarter I sit down to sum up what our product team shipped, and every quarter I swear it will be short. This time we landed 72 changes. I tried to cover them in under 100 seconds on video (spoiler: I'm not sure I made it). This post walks through the same list with a bit more room to breathe.
Watch the Vacation Tracker Q3 2026 Update
Want the fast version? Watch the full 100-second rundown here:
What Changed in the Q3 Update
The 72 changes range from tiny fixes to big shifts in how the app works. Most of them went well. A few didn't go exactly as planned, and I'll get to that below. Here's the short list of the headline items:
- 34 bug fixes and smaller UI fixes
- AI agents for Slack and Microsoft Teams, plus Vee inside the app
- A revamped seniority-based entitlement system
- A rebuilt users table
- A new onboarding flow
Why 34 of the 72 Changes Were Bug Fixes
Almost half of this quarter's work was cleanup. We found a lot of these bugs ourselves. Customers pointed out plenty of the rest, and we're really grateful for that (you know who you are).
Here's one example. If your company had TOIL (time off in lieu) switched off, your employees could still see a request TOIL button. It didn't work when they clicked it. Annoying, and now fixed.
Every bug fix is listed in our Vacation Tracker changelog, so you can check the full list whenever you like.
How the Slack and Teams AI Agents Work
Our Slack AI agent went live in July. Two weeks later, the Microsoft Teams agent followed. You talk to either one in plain English. Ask it to book your leave for next Friday. Ask how much leave you have left. Done.
That means you stop pinging a coworker or an HR person for answers you could get yourself. Well, you can still ping them. You just don't have to.
Visual idea: a screenshot of a Slack message asking the agent to book leave for next Friday.
How Vee Works Inside the App
In September we launched Vee, our AI assistant that lives inside the Vacation Tracker app. It handles the same kind of plain English requests as the Slack and Teams agents. So whether you spend your day in chat or in the app, you've got an assistant nearby.
Visual idea: a short screen recording of Vee answering a leave balance question.
How Seniority-Based Entitlement Works Now
Some companies give people more time off the longer they stay. You can build that as
a rule in Vacation Tracker. We had this feature before, but we revamped it this quarter.
The big change is the preview. You can see what a rule will do before you set it into effect. No more crossing your fingers and hoping the numbers come out right. I think a lot of you will like it.
What's New in the Users Table
We rebuilt the users table from scratch. Here's what you get now:
- A customizable table, so you pick what you see
- Separate views for balances
- Export of the entire table
We like how it turned out, and we hope you do too.
Visual idea: before and after screenshots of the users table.
How the New Onboarding Flow Helps
The new onboarding flow makes life easier for new users. If you already have an account, you may not care much. Fair enough. The bigger point is that we're working hard to make the app easy to use, whether you're on day one or you've used us for years. Leave management is a complex topic, and we keep trying to make it feel lighter.
What the In-App Calendar Reversal Taught Us
Not everything landed. Our in-app calendar change didn't work the way we thought it would. Once enough customers told us it wasn't great for them, we listened and reverted to what we had before. Then we kept iterating until it was right, and only then did we ship again.
I'd rather admit a miss than defend it. Your feedback shapes what we build, and this is a clear example.
What's Coming Next Quarter With MCP
Here's the sneak peek I promised. As we head toward the end of 2026, we're focused on read and write permissions for our API and our MCP server.
We released the MCP server earlier this year. It lets you use an AI assistant such as Claude or ChatGPT to pull information out of Vacation Tracker. You can then use it for things like planning future events or checking project timelines against who's out and when.
Write access changes what's possible. You'll be able to request leave and change policy settings through your AI assistant. As an admin, you'll be able to use it to act on behalf of users and actually change things. Plenty of companies say they're tech forward. We're pushing hard on what integrating with tools like these can really do.
Visual idea: a mock chat showing an admin asking an AI assistant to update a leave policy.
Try Vacation Tracker Free
That's the Q3 2026 update. If you haven't tried the app yet, you can try Vacation Tracker free. If you want the full list of what shipped, check the changelog. We'll be back next quarter with another round-up.
Nicholas Lydon
Nick is the Content Marketing Manager at Vacation Tracker, where he turns leave management, HR headaches, and the occasional oddly specific PTO question into content people can watch. He spends most of his time creating videos, articles, campaigns, and creative experiments that make HR a little less boring.
