Internal Tools · Automation · Slack Integration
A Holiday Manager That
Automates Time Off
We built an internal Holiday Manager that automates the entire time-off process, from checking your balance to generating the paperwork. It works as a standalone tool, but by integrating it with Slack, the tool the team already uses every day, requesting holiday became effortless for every employee.
The problem: time off was slower than it should be
Requesting holiday used to mean asking someone, waiting for a reply, and chasing the paperwork afterwards. Simple questions like "how many days do I have left?" needed a person to look it up. It worked, but it added friction to something that should be effortless.
We wanted to remove that friction completely, and to make the tool easy to reach from wherever people already spend their working day.
A standalone tool, made effortless through Slack
The Holiday Manager runs as a standalone application, so it does not depend on any single platform. To make it as easy as possible to use, we integrated it with Slack, our internal communication tool. That integration meant employees could handle their time off without leaving the app they already had open all day, with no separate login and nothing new to learn.
From Slack, an employee can:
- Ask how many holiday days they still have and get an instant answer
- Place a holiday request in a few seconds
When a request is submitted, the relevant team lead receives a notification straight away, with the option to approve or decline it. Once a decision is made, the employee is notified automatically, so no one is left waiting or wondering.
The paperwork takes care of itself
When a request is approved, the formal holiday request document is generated automatically and saved in the right location. What used to be a manual, error-prone step now happens on its own, with no one having to remember it.
Built for small teams, ready to scale
The Holiday Manager was designed for small teams, where a lightweight, no-overhead tool fits best. The architecture, however, was kept simple and modular, so it can be scaled up to support larger organisations and more complex approval flows without a rebuild.
“The best part is the instant answer. Any employee can ask how many free days they have and know straight away, with no need to wait for anyone.”