# Vacation Tracker — Absence Management

Vacation Tracker by Vacation Tracker Technologies Inc. holds a panel rating of 1.5/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 1.5/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: Rest of world; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Vacation Tracker Technologies Inc. (https://vacationtracker.io)
- Category: [Absence Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): Rest of world
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/vacation-tracker
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/vacation-tracker/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/vacation-tracker/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-21 · evaluated 2026-10-15 · oldest source captured 2026-10-01

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Vacation Tracker Technologies Inc.
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Default not stated; pages mention Germany and United States [S4]
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

Vacation Tracker is absence management from Vacation Tracker Technologies Inc. of Westmount (Montreal), Canada, for distributed teams in Slack and Teams. Its strongest area is the everyday request-and-approval flow, scored 7-8: two sequential approval levels, substitute approvers, blackout periods, a maximum-users-away limit, and a report logging who approved what. The documented API — webhooks, key rotation, published rate limits — included at no extra cost on Core and Complete, earned credit. Weakest are sick leave and pricing: sick leave and the eAU scored 0-1, sickness is just another leave type, and pricing transparency scored 0-2 — Core and Complete are named, but the pages give no price figure, pricing basis, minimum users or term. Leave policies sat at a flat 4, payroll handover at 4-5 with ADP Workforce Now the only named payroll system, absence data protection at 3-4, and sovereignty at a flat 3: a Canadian contracting entity, servers in Frankfurt and North Virginia, European accounts' data said to "reside and remain in Europe at all times", and no public information on subprocessors. No criterion ranged wider than two points.

**Speaks for it:**
- Two sequential approval levels with substitute approvers, blackout periods and a maximum-users-away limit, handled from the dashboard, Slack, Teams or email.
- A documented API with permission templates, published rate limits, webhooks and key rotation, included at no extra cost on the Core or Complete plan.
- Leave policies set per location with day or hour quotas, up to nine custom leave types, seniority- and role-based entitlements, and carry-over with caps or expiry dates.
- Leave Request, Leave Balance and Monthly Leave Balance reports export to CSV or Excel with Employee ID, Department and Location fields for payroll cross-referencing.
- Approved leave syncs straight into ADP Workforce Now.

**Held against it:**
- Sickness appears in the captured pages only as an ordinary leave type, with no public information on eAU retrieval, certificate handling, six-week continued-pay counting or child sick days.
- The pricing pages name the Core and Complete tiers and their features but give no price figure, pricing basis, minimum users or term, so no annual invoice can be computed.
- ADP Workforce Now is the only named payroll system; we found no public information on DATEV or any other German payroll system, payroll-code mapping or monthly period locks.
- We found no public information on automatic proration for joiners, leavers or part-time working days, or on public holidays per German federal state rather than per location.
- We found no public information on who may see a sickness reason or certificate, on access logging for health-related records, on retention beyond the privacy-policy reference, or on documentation for a works council.

**Best for:**
- Your team already lives in Slack or Teams and you want requests and approvals — two levels, substitutes, blackout windows — handled where they already work.
- You want to build your own integration, with a documented API and webhooks included at no extra cost on the Core or Complete plan.
- Your payroll runs on ADP Workforce Now, into which approved leave syncs directly.

**Avoid if:**
- You must run regulated German sick leave — the captured sick-leave pages show sickness only as a trackable leave type, and we found no public information on the eAU, certificates or six-week continued-pay counting.
- Your payroll runs on DATEV or another German payroll system, for which we found no public information on a connector or leave-type-to-payroll-code mapping.
- You must compute an annual cost from public pages — we found no price figures, and the call to action is booking a free demo.
- You need to hide the reason behind an absence from colleagues — the documented visibility control is hiding a leave type, not a per-role reason setting.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price.

| Criterion | The Team Lead | The Managing Director | The Payroll Accountant | The Data Protection Officer | The HR IT Integrator | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Entitlements & German leave rules | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Requests, approvals & team calendar | 4/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 |
| Sick leave, eAU & continued pay | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 | 0/5 |
| Payroll handover, time tracking & API | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 2/5 | 2.5/5 |
| Health data, access & works council | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 |
| European sovereignty | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 0.5/5 | 1/5 | 0.5/5 | 0/5 | 0.5/5 | 0.5/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **2/5** | **1.5/5** |

### The judges

- **The Team Lead** (v1.0): Approves leave for twelve people across two shifts and finds out about clashes too late. Wants requests and approvals on the phone, a named substitute on every request, minimum-staffing warnings before approval, and a team calendar that shows who is away without showing why.
- **The Managing Director** (v1.0): Runs a forty-person company in two federal states without an HR department and is liable when leave is calculated wrong. Wants part-time entitlements prorated correctly, the right public holidays per site, carry-over that lapses only after employees were told, and the eAU handled without a phone call to every health insurer.
- **The Payroll Accountant** (v1.0): Closes payroll in DATEV every month and corrects whatever arrived late. Wants absences exported with the right payroll codes, the eAU result attached to the sick day, the six-week continued-pay limit counted per illness, and past months locked once they are paid.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Treats every sick day as special-category data, because the law does. Asks who can see a reason or a certificate, how long absence records are kept and deleted, whether access is logged, where the data is hosted, and which subprocessors send the push notification that says someone is ill.
- **The HR IT Integrator** (v1.0): Wires the absence tool to payroll, time tracking, the identity provider and the calendar. Wants a documented API and webhooks, maintained connectors for the named German payroll systems rather than a CSV, SSO, and balances that agree with the time-tracking system on both sides.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Knows "eAU supported" can mean a photo upload, "DATEV integration" can mean a CSV, and "GDPR-compliant" can mean every manager sees every diagnosis-adjacent note. Reads for who actually retrieves the certificate, which leave rules are computed rather than typed in, and whether the carry-over expiry notice exists at all.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Ownership | Not determined | — | — |
| Data residency | Not determined | — | — |
| Subprocessors | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Certified: yes · no [S2]
- Coppa: yes [S5]
- DPA available: yes [S10]
- GDPR: Canadian · yes [S5]
- GDPR intent: yes [S4]
- GDPR representative: Rickert Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, Colmantstraße 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany [S4]
- Sccs: yes [S4]
- Security commitments: authorized access only · data at rest and in transit protection · regular security assessments · incident remediation · regular system updates [S5]
- Standards: logical access · physical access · provisioning/deprovisioning · access reviews · encryption · intrusion detection and prevention · risk and vulnerability management [S5]

**Data**
- Export: CSV · Excel · Leave Request Report · Leave Balance Report · Monthly Leave Balance Report [S5]
- Export fees: no [S5]
- Minors: yes [S4]
- Portability format: yes [S4]
- Retention: only as long as necessary for stated purposes [S4]
- Retention: yes [S5]
- Self service deletion: yes [S4]
- Switching support: yes [S5]
- Usages: email · first name and last name · usage data · phone number (account owners only) · job title (account owners only) · date of birth (optional birthday tracking) [S4]

**Hosting**
- Regions: Frankfurt, Germany · North Virginia, USA · yes [S4]
- Server locations: United States · Germany [S4]

**Integrations**
- Adp workforce now: ADP Workforce Now sync of approved leave [S3]
- API base URL: bearer token in Authorization header · https://api.vacationtracker.io/v2 [S12]
- API error codes: 401 · 403 INSUFFICIENT_SCOPE [S12]
- API key expiration options: 30 days · 90 days · 1 year (recommended) · never [S12]
- API key expiry notice: 14 [S12]
- API key rotation: 24 hours (recommended) · 7 days · immediate [S12]
- API key scoped to user permissions: yes [S12]
- API pagination: nextToken [S12]
- API permission templates: Read only · Leave management · Workspace setup · Custom [S12]
- API rate limits: 50 · per API key · 30000 · 10 [S12]
- Core integrations: ADP · Zapier · OpenAPI · MCP [S2]
- CSV export: administrator · yes [S10]
- Developer docs: yes [S12]
- Google workspace: Google Workspace email leave requests and reminders [S3]
- Microsoft teams: Microsoft Teams bot and custom tabs [S3]
- Microsoft teams: Leave requests via bot, custom tabs [S6]
- Open API available: yes [S12]
- Open API base URL: https://api.vacationtracker.io/v1 · x-api-key [S12]
- Open API endpoints: /v1/users · /v1/leaves · /v1/leave-types · /v1/locations · /v1/departments · /v1/labels [S12]
- Open API pagination: nextToken + limit · /v1/users · /v1/leaves [S12]
- Open API rate limit: api key · 50 · 30000 · 10 [S12]
- Open API read only: yes [S12]
- Slack: Import users from directory, handle requests in Slack [S6]
- Webhooks: yes · Leave decisions · All time off activity · Keep a full copy in sync · Custom · yes [S12]

**Legal**
- Address: 4455 Sherbrooke Street West 1st Floor Westmount, Quebec, H3Z 1E7 Canada [S5]
- CCPA covered: yes [S4]
- DPA available: yes · yes [S1]
- Entity: Vacation Tracker Technologies · 4455 Sherbrooke Street West, Westmount, H3Z 1E7, Quebec, Canada · Canada [S4]
- Entity: Vacation Tracker Technologies Inc. [S5]
- Facebook joint controller: yes [S4]
- GDPR role: Data Controller [S4]
- Jurisdiction: Quebec, Canada [S4]
- Jurisdiction: Province of Quebec, Canada [S5]
- Marketing consent: yes [S5]
- Policy updated: 2026-05-22 [S4]
- Terms updated: 2025-11-13 [S5]

**Pricing**
- Cancellation: end of current paid term · yes [S5]
- Complete price: per user · 4 · 100 · monthly [S2]
- Core price: per user · 2 · 50 · monthly [S2]
- Currency: USD [S5]
- Demo available: yes [S2]
- Free trial: 14 · no [S3]
- Free trial: yes · free plan forever or paid subscription · 14 [S5]
- Multi level plan gating: Complete · Free · Core [S8]
- No credit card: yes · no [S2]
- Open API included: Core · Complete · no [S12]
- Payment methods: Visa · Mastercard · American Express [S5]
- Price changes: yes [S5]
- Pricing page: yes [S1]
- Recurring billing: yes [S5]
- Refund policy: www.vacationtracker.io/refund-policy/ [S5]
- Tax treatment: yes [S5]
- Trial: 14 · free trial · yes [S2]
- Trial: 14 · no · yes [S10]
- Trial: no · 14 · no [S6]
- Trial days: 14 · yes [S11]
- Yearly discount: yearly · ~10 [S2]

**Product**
- Accruals: monthly · biweekly · weekly · yes [S7]
- Admin required: Admin-level · online dashboard [S9]
- Admin role required: app.vacationtracker.io · yes [S13]
- Admin substitute approver: Admin can set a Substitute Approver on an Approver's scheduled leave via the Users page [S9]
- Administrator dashboard: approve/deny leaves, overview of statuses, create teams, appoint Approvers, set notifications, customize Leave Types, export reports [S11]
- Age requirement: 18 [S5]
- Allocation modes: lump_sum_upfront · accrued_over_time [S6]
- Any approver per level: yes · yes [S8]
- API addon: Open API add-on reads/changes data and notifies on changes [S12]
- Approver action channels: dashboard · Slack · Microsoft Teams · email [S8]
- Automatic approvals: yes [S3]
- Birthday tracking: yes · yes [S4]
- Blackout period: yes [S3]
- Blackout periods: Blackout periods when leave requests are not allowed [S6]
- Brought forward: carry all over · cap rollover · reset to zero · expiry date · negative balance carry-forward [S7]
- Complete advanced policies: Accruals · Hourly tracking · TOIL [S2]
- Complete approvals: multi-level approvals · substitute approvals [S2]
- Complete automations: 7 [S2]
- Complete reports: scheduled leave reports [S2]
- Core leave policies: unlimited · unlimited [S2]
- Core reports: leave balance & leave request reports [S2]
- Custom leave types: Vacations and Days Off · 9 [S10]
- Customer count: 3,500+ [S1]
- Demo available: yes [S1]
- DPA available: yes [S5]
- Employee edit leave: yes [S3]
- Entitlements by role: Leave entitlements assigned by employee role [S6]
- Export leave report: yes [S12]
- First level behavior: Only First Level Approvers are notified on submission; any one can approve or deny [S8]
- First level denial final: yes [S8]
- Free demo: yes [S3]
- Hourly leave tracking: Leave quotas can be set in hours instead of days [S6]
- Hris required: no [S1]
- Insights alerts: Insights & alerts: real-time updates, automatic alerts, reports [S1]
- Leave approval automation: Automatic approvals and multiple approver levels [S6]
- Leave approval workflow: Automated leave approval workflow from request to final approval [S3]
- Leave balance automation: Accruals, rollovers and TOIL handled automatically [S6]
- Leave balance balance units: Days · Hours [S13]
- Leave balance edit columns: yes [S13]
- Leave balance export formats: CSV · Excel [S13]
- Leave balance file fields: entitlement · taken (days/hours) · scheduled · brought-forward · remaining balance · Department · Location · Employee ID [S13]
- Leave balance filter scope: active-only by default · yes [S13]
- Leave balance filters: Current Year · Last Month · Previous Year · Next Year [S13]
- Leave balance report: Leave Balance Report exports entitled, taken, and remaining balance per Leave Type per User for a chosen period [S13]
- Leave features: Auto Approval · Daily and Weekly Notifications · Birthday Notifications · Self-Service Dashboard · Approval Reminders · Team Availability Overview · Leave Request Status Updates [S2]
- Leave policies: Customizable leave policies [S3]
- Leave policies: accruals, TOIL, carryovers, seniority-based rules [S1]
- Leave policies customization: Customizable leave policies per location with approvals, yearly quotas, accruals, TOIL and carryover [S6]
- Leave policy controls: Policy controls quota, approval, rollover per leave type per location [S7]
- Leave policy scope: Leave policies are configured per Location [S7]
- Leave reminders: yes [S3]
- Leave request notice period automation: yes [S2]
- Leave request report: Leave Request Report provides log of leave requests and approver [S13]
- Leave request types: full day, half day, or hourly leave requests [S3]
- Leave types half days: vacations · days off · half-days [S10]
- Leave types tracked: sick leaves, vacations, days off [S11]
- Location control: Location-based leave policies and holidays [S6]
- Location specific policies: yes [S2]
- Locations: Location-based policies and holidays [S1]
- Login URL: app.vacationtracker.io [S9]
- Max users away: yes [S3]
- Mobile apps: iOS · Android [S1]
- Multi level approval: yes [S3]
- Multi level approval exists: 2 · yes [S8]
- Multi location: yes [S10]
- Negative balance option: Admin can allow or restrict negative leave balance [S6]
- Notifications: yes [S11]
- Overlap visibility: Notifications include info about other scheduled leaves in same period [S3]
- Policy copy: yes [S7]
- Policy settings: allow_negative_balance · leave_duration_options · hide_leave_type · approval_required [S6]
- Ratings: 4.8 · 102 · 4.4 · 29 [S1]
- Recharge: Recharge monitors team energy and surfaces the right moments for time off [S2]
- Recharge: Recharge suggests dates respecting notice periods and blackout windows [S7]
- Reports alerts: Detailed leave reports and alerts [S3]
- Request command: /vacation command in any Slack channel or DM, 5 clicks to book [S11]
- Request via slack: Slack · /vacation [S10]
- Revert to single level: yes [S8]
- Scheduling: Scheduling: visibility of who is off and when [S1]
- Second level final approval effects: quota deduction · calendar update · watcher notification · user confirmation [S8]
- Second level notification context: yes [S8]
- Seniority entitlements: Additional leave based on length of service [S6]

**Support**
- Channels: Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST · email · chat [S12]
- Complete priority: yes [S2]
- Core support: email · chat [S2]
- Hours: Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST · email · chat [S8]
- Hours: Monday to Friday · 9 AM – 5 PM EST · email · chat [S12]

20 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/vacation-tracker

## Questions

### Is Vacation Tracker European?

No. whats-best.ai classifies Vacation Tracker as Rest of world.

### Where does Vacation Tracker store data?

The default storage location for customer data is not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026. The vendor’s pages mention Germany and United States as hosting locations, per [the vendor’s page captured 13 Oct 2026](https://whats-best.ai/evidence/5666).

### Does Vacation Tracker have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Vacation Tracker?

As of 15 Oct 2026, the panel rates [Kenjo (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/kenjo), [flair (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/flair-hr) and [HRlab (2.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/hrlab) highest among the other 16 Absence Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [Kenjo](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/kenjo) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Vacation Tracker alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/vacation-tracker/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 25 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 16 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 10 integrations facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 5 subprocessors facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 4 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 data facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 compliance fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 1 hosting fact could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and was left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown.
- 6 of the readings below were written against an earlier fact sheet — a fact has been corrected, added or pulled since. Until the panel next runs on this product you are reading the older judgement.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor homepage: https://vacationtracker.io/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Pricing page: https://vacationtracker.io/pricing/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Leave approval: https://vacationtracker.io/capability/leave-approval/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Privacy policy: https://vacationtracker.io/privacy-policy/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] Terms of service: https://vacationtracker.io/terms-of-service/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Entitlements & German leave rules — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/product/advanced-leave-policies/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Entitlements & German leave rules — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-create-and-configure-leave-policies/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Requests, approvals & team calendar — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-to-set-up-multi-level-approvals/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S9] Requests, approvals & team calendar — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-does-an-admin-assign-a-substitute-approver/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S10] Sick leave, eAU & continued pay — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/sick-leave-tracker/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S11] Sick leave, eAU & continued pay — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/sick-leave-tracking-software/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S12] Payroll handover, time tracking & API — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-use-the-open-api/ (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S13] Payroll handover, time tracking & API — found from sitemap: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-export-employee-leave-balances/ (checked 2026-10-13)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Vacation Tracker — Absence Management", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-21. https://whats-best.ai/software/absence-management/vacation-tracker

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/547?target=page