Vacation Tracker Buyer’s Guide

Make the case for better time off management.

Everything you need to feel sure about making the switch, whether you’re weighing it up yourself or winning over the room.

★★★★★ 4.7 Capterra ★★★★★ 4.4 G2 3,500+ companies
Why Vacation Tracker

Make time off the easy part.

Vacation Tracker plugs into Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace (or even regular old email), so requesting and approving time off is a message, not another portal to log into. Balances, accruals, and the team calendar keep themselves up to date, which is exactly why teams retire their shared spreadsheets and ditch expensive, clunky HRIS leave modules.

1
Connect your tools
Slack Slack
Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams
Google Workspace Google Workspace
or

No new logins to manage, and secure SSO sign-in.

2
Set your policies
Paid Time Off Spain
Days per year25
Carryover5 days
AccruesMonthly
Approval required

Customize every rule to fit how your company actually works.

3
Let it run
Jack
Jack · Paid Time Off
Jun 25 → Jun 26
Balance 8 left
12 accrued · 2 used · updates live
No one else is away those days.

Requests go straight from employees to managers, not you.

Objections

Straight answers to the hard questions.

Whether you’re still weighing Vacation Tracker or already convinced and need to bring the rest of your team along, the same questions tend to surface. We’ve collected the ones that come up most, from the buying committee to finance to IT, each with a straight, honest answer you can use or pass along. Hover any card to see the response.

The concern
“We already track it in a spreadsheet.”
Hover for the answer
The answer
Spreadsheets break the moment two people edit at once, and they never remind anyone of anything. Vacation Tracker keeps track of current balances, requests, and reminders on its own.
The concern
“Our HRIS already has a leave module.”
Hover for the answer
The answer
Most are an afterthought, clunky forms buried in a portal no one opens. Vacation Tracker handles whatever complex policies you run and meets your team where they already are, in Teams, Slack, Google, email, or even on mobile.
The concern
“We don’t have budget for another tool.”
Hover for the answer
The answer
Between the admin hours saved and the mis-tracked leave avoided, most teams come out ahead in the first month. Plus there’s a 14-day free trial, extendable to 28 days, to get you started.
The concern
“Setup sounds like a project.”
Hover for the answer
The answer
Import your users, set your policies once, and go live, often the same day. And if your needs are more complex, we offer a free setup call.
The concern
“Who’s going to manage this internally?”
Hover for the answer
The answer
It runs as autonomously as you want. Set up automations so requests, approvals, accruals, and reminders handle themselves, with you stepping in only where you choose.
The concern
“What about our payroll?”
Hover for the answer
The answer
You’ve got options. Sync time-off data directly, connect through Zapier or our MCP integration, or schedule and export clean reports whenever you run payroll, whatever fits your process.
The concern
“How do we stay compliant across countries?”
Hover for the answer
The answer
As you set up each location, we suggest policies based on its local leave laws for you to fine-tune. Holidays import automatically from your locations, so every region stays compliant without the manual work.
The concern
“If we switch, do we lose our balances?”
Hover for the answer
The answer
Switching doesn’t mean starting over. Bulk upload your employee and leave data up front, so everything’s there from day one.
The concern
“How is this different from what we’re looking at?”
Hover for the answer
The answer
Leave management is all we do, so we cover the edge cases other tools miss. You get every feature you could need, with new ones rolling out all the time, shaped by you and other companies’ pain points.
Comparison

Built for time off, not just an afterthought.

A spreadsheet and the leave feature in your HRIS can both handle time off, but the limits show up fast: manual updates, clunky approvals, and no clear view of who’s away. Vacation Tracker does every one of those, exactly what the name promises. Here’s how all three compare.

Functionality
Spreadsheet
HRIS module
Vacation Tracker Vacation Tracker
Team energy
None
None
Yes
Request from Slack / Teams / Google
None
Limited
Yes
Balances & accruals on autopilot
None
Limited
Yes
One-tap approvals
None
Clunky
Yes
Multiple policies & local holidays
None
Limited
Yes
Shared calendar + two-way sync
Manual
Limited
Yes
Reports & exports in a click
Manual
Limited
Yes
Time to get going
Ongoing
Weeks
Same day
Security

Audited, encrypted, and accounted for.

Time-off data is personal, and it should be treated that way. Vacation Tracker is checked by independent auditors, keeps your data encrypted, and is monitored around the clock. However your team vets new tools, the review should be a formality, not a roadblock.

AICPA SOC 2

SOC 2 Type II

An independent auditor verifies our controls on an ongoing basis, objectively certifying that your data stays secure, available, and confidential.

GDPR compliant

GDPR compliant

Built around data minimization, consent, and privacy by design, with regular audits that keep personal data protected and your team’s trust intact.

Encryption in transit & at rest
Role-based access control
AWS hosting in NA & EU
Annual penetration tests
Secure development lifecycle
Continuous monitoring with Drata

Need the full breakdown for your security team? Read the security overview →

Roles

Clear roles for each employee.

Vacation Tracker gives each employee exactly the access they need, and nothing more. Admins set the rules, Approvers handle requests, and everyone else just books their time off. Each role gets a setup shaped around what they actually do, so there’s nothing to train, and no one gets lost in settings that don’t apply to them.

Admin
Complete customization over your team’s time off
Add, import and sync users
Edit profiles and adjust leave quotas
Create leave types and assign policies
Set holidays and export reports
Location admin
Manage your office, not the whole company
See and manage users in their locations
Approve and edit leave for their team
Edit policies, departments and holidays
Set notifications for their locations
Approver
Ready to approve from day one, wherever you work
Respond to leave requests
Add or edit leave for their team
Set notifications for their users
Review scheduled leave on the wallchart
User
Take time off, no extra steps required
Request, edit and delete their leave
View their balance and leave history
See who’s away and local holidays
Set an OOO message and sync calendars
Timeline

Set it up yourself or with our help.

There’s no single way to get started, so you pick the path that fits your team. Simpler setups can be live the same day, while more complex rollouts get hands-on guidance over a few days. Whichever you choose, you set the pace, and help is there whenever you need it.

Simple leave policies
Set it up yourself, live the same day.
Within minutes
Admins set up
Workspace, leave types, policies.
Within hours
Approvers ready
One-tap approvals in minutes.
Within a day
Employees booking
Get started in Slack, Teams, Google, or email.
Complex leave policies
We guide your setup, live in days.
Within 1–3 days*
Demo and/or free trial
Take a demo, start a free trial, or do both.
Free setup call
We turn your leave policies into automations, often same day.
Bulk data import
Balances and history brought over at once.
Within 3–5 days
Team onboarding
Roll out to approvers and employees.
Employees booking
Get started in Slack, Teams, Google, or email.
* Dependent on availability.
Pricing

Build your own quote, no sales call needed.

Pricing is simple: you pay per user, with no setup fee and no lock-in. Pick the plan that fits, go yearly to save a little, or stay monthly, and you only ever pay for the people you add. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll prepare an official quote for you to use internally.

Team size
seats
Plan
Billing
Get started

Try Vacation Tracker with your team.

You’ve seen what we have to say, but the best test is going to be your own team and your own policies.

1 Try it yourself Start a free trial. It takes minutes, no credit card. 2 Get help from us Talk to our team and we’ll walk you and the committee through it.