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May 13, 2026

new

Campaigns

Now Available

AI Chat Receptionist

AI Voice Receptionist

Meetings & Appointments

Control how far ahead meetings and services can be booked

Cap how far into the future customers can book a meeting on your public scheduling links with My Meetings. Set a rolling window (e.g., "4 weeks out") or a fixed date range, and any date outside that window is automatically disabled on the public booking calendar.

A booking window for every event type

Businesses can now control exactly how far ahead customers can book with the new "Limit future meetings" setting in My Meetings. No more far-future bookings cluttering your calendar, or customers scheduling outside the availability window of a particular offering.

Rolling window
— enter a number and choose Days, Weeks, or Months into the future. The window advances each day, so the event type always stays a fixed distance ahead of today.
Fixed date range
— pick a specific start and end date, ideal for promotions, seasonal services, or limited-availability events.

If no limit is set, the event type continues to allow bookings with no future date restriction, matching the previous default behavior.

Why this matters

Whether a business offers services specific to a season or year round, there are many reasons to prevent customers from booking many months or even years in advance.

Here are some reasons a business might limit how far into the future they'll accept bookings:

Seasonal services:
Businesses with a genuine operating window (landscaping, snow removal, tax prep, holiday portrait sessions, ski/golf lessons) can't deliver outside their season. Without a cap, customers book appointments the business will have to cancel and reschedule, which costs trust.
Promotional offers:
Time-boxed campaigns (a Mother's Day special, a grand-opening discount, a "book by Friday" lead magnet) only make sense within the campaign's start and end dates. A fixed date range keeps the booking page in sync with the offer instead of relying on someone remembering to take the link down.
Staff scheduling limitations:
Most service businesses only finalize rosters and PTO a few weeks out. Bookings made beyond that horizon are essentially promises against a calendar that doesn't exist yet, leading to last-minute reschedules when the schedule firms up.
Customer commitment rates:
The further out a booking, the higher the no-show and cancellation rate. Tightening the window improves show rates and reduces ghost slots that block real demand from closer-in customers who would actually show.
Pricing and service-menu changes:
If a business is planning a rate change, a new service mix, or a contract renewal, accepting bookings far in advance locks in stale pricing or commits the business to services it may not offer the same way in six months.
Resource and inventory planning:
Restaurants ordering food, salons stocking product, medical practices ordering supplies, equipment-rental businesses confirming specific gear — all need to plan within a forecast horizon. Far-future bookings introduce uncertainty about whether the resource will actually be there.
Lead-time-sensitive services
Custom orders, event services (cakes, florists, photographers), and project work need a minimum lead time but also have a practical max.
Calendar realism for solo operators:
Independent providers (consultants, trainers, therapists, contractors) can't accommodate family obligations or plan vacations with out capping their booking window. Setting a limit keeps the public calendar honest and prevents the awkward "I'll have to move this" conversation later.
Pilot programs or new-service ramp-up:
When a business launches a new service or onboards new staff, limiting the booking window lets them control the ramp instead of getting committed to volume they can't yet deliver.

Full flexibility is available to accommodate event types where it's common to book a year in advance and appointments usually made just weeks or days before.

How to access

This feature works for both personal event types and team event types, in both Partner Center and Business App.

Navigate to
CRM > My Meetings
Open "Settings" for any event type (or open settings while creating a new event)
Scroll to "Limit future meetings"
Choose one of two options: 1) Rolling window:
Enter a number > select Days / Weeks / Months > into the future
or 2) Fixed booking range: Select a "start date" and "end date
Click "Update event type" to save

Tip: Use the rolling window for ongoing event types where you always want a fixed look-ahead. Use the fixed date range for one-time campaigns or events with a hard end date.

May 13, 2026

new

Automations

Now Available

CRM AI

Route automation notifications to the right user, dynamically

Roll out account templates at scale with confidence that notifications will reach the correct contact for each workflow, from each account.
Application at scale, notification in detail
The "Notify a User" automation action (previously "Notify an Admin") now accepts a dynamic user ID from a previous automation step. Account templates rolled out at scale can finally route notifications to the right owner, instead of being hard-coded to a specific admin.
Pull the account owner, the assigned salesperson, or any user reference from earlier in the workflow, and the notification routes to that user automatically.
Why this matters
Account templates are how partners deploy fully configured accounts at scale across their client base. Notifications inside those templates were the one place the template still had to be customized per account, negating some of the value. With dynamic user IDs, notifications follow ownership the same way the rest of the template does—configure once, deploy everywhere.
Who it's for
Partners running account templates across enterprise rollouts, reseller channels, or SMB self-signup
Anyone running automations that should notify the user who actually owns the account, not a fixed admin
Teams managing notifications across many accounts where ownership varies
How to access
In Partner Center or Business App, go to Automations > [create or select an automation] > Add "Notify a User" action after the relevant preceding step > Insert dynamic user ID.
The dynamic user ID field accepts references from any preceding step that returns a user.

May 8, 2026

new

Conversations AI

APIs & Integrations

Now Available

AI Chat Receptionist

AI Voice Receptionist

AI Receptionists can update and cancel OctoTable reservations

Restaurant guests can now update and cancel OctoTable reservations through a business' AI Voice or Chat Receptionist. Restaurants get peace of mind that their customers are getting great service before they even arrive, and that their reservations are accurate.
End to end reservation management
Customers can already book a table with OctoTable through the AI Receptionist. Now they can also change a reservation - move the time, adjust the party size, or cancel it outright - immediately, at any time. The flow works the same on AI Voice Receptionist and AI Chat Receptionist, so a guest can call in and reschedule, or message the web chat to cancel, and the AI Receptionist will close the loop in OctoTable.
Why this matters
Restaurants miss reservation changes when no one's free to answer the phone. Even with AI handling first-touch booking, every update and cancellation request required intervention from human staff, pulling them away from the dining room or leaving customers waiting for confirmation. Now, AI Receptionists can manage the full reservation lifecycle. Customers get immediate service, and restaurant staff can focus on the guests currently seated.
How to access
Navigate to Business App > AI > AI Workforce > Configure [AI Chat or Voice Receptionist]
Add capability "Manage reservations on OctoTable"
Connect OctoTable account

May 8, 2026

new

Automations

Now Available

Pull exact data from automations to inform subsequent steps in the workflow

Grab the specific piece of data you need from a previous automation step with the new "Extract value" field. Pull a contact name, an email address, an item count, etc. and pass it cleanly into the next step. 
Clean data in, clean data out
When you add dynamic content from a previous step, you'll now see an optional "Extract value" field. Enter a path expression to pull out exactly the value you want from that step's output, and use it directly downstream.
What you can do with expressions:
Extract nested fields:
.data.results[0].name
Count items:
.items | length
Combine fields:
"\(.first_name) \(.last_name)"
Filter arrays:
.items | map(select(.active == true))
Example:
 A third-party booking app sends a webhook with nested contact details. Use expressions like .data.contact.first_name
 and .data.contact.email
 to extract just the fields you need and automatically create a contact—no manual data entry, no raw JSON to untangle.
Why this matters
Automations frequently need to hand data from one step to the next, but until now, that meant passing along the full output of the previous step, often as nested raw JSON. Downstream steps had to work around extra fields, or you had to manually parse the payload before it could be used. 
The result: automations that were harder to build, harder to read, and harder to maintain when upstream data shapes changed. Now, you can pull out exactly the field you need in one step; no developers required.
Who it's for
Partners building automations that consume webhook payloads, API responses, or nested data
Any team that's been working around raw JSON in downstream steps
Partners who've needed a developer to parse payloads before they could be used in an automation
Learn more

May 7, 2026

new

Campaigns

Now Available

SMS

Send Pictures in SMS Campaigns

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Send pictures in SMS campaigns to capture recipients' attention with eye-catching visuals.

Add Images to SMS Campaigns

SMS campaigns now support images. Add, edit, delete, and preview visuals on the campaign step and on the recipient preview.

Add an image
to a campaign step, edit or delete it, and preview how it will look to the recipient—both on the step configuration and the recipient preview
Keep the campaign in one flow
so promotions, product announcements, and visual calls-to-action live inside the same SMS step the rest of the campaign uses

Why this matters

SMS campaigns, are an important part of business' toolkit, helping them keep customers informed and engaged. With this update, images can be added directly during creation, right alongside text..

How to access

Go to
Business App > Campaigns Pro > [create or open a campaign]
Create or open an SMS message.
Add title and text.
Upload image and save.

May 6, 2026

new

Now Available

Companies & Contacts

CRM AI

AI Sales Assistant

Get the Latest AI Insights on any Company in your CRM, Immediately

See AI insights the moment you open a company record in your CRM to get a quick overview of any prospect or customer.

AI brought to where you already work

AI Summaries in Associations

AI summaries now show up directly in the Associations panel on company profiles instead of hiding behind a button, right where your team and your clients are already looking when they open a company record.

More AI Available to More Partners

Get more out of Vendasta's CRM with AI summaries, AI Sales Assistants, custom fields, and custom objects now available to

every

partner on

any

paid subscription tier. Ready to dig in? Learn more about these powerful components:

Why this matters

Every time someone opens a company record—a partner's sales rep prepping for a call, or an SMB team checking in on a customer—they need fast context to act. Surfacing AI summaries directly in the Associations panel puts that context in plain sight, so you and your clients spend less time piecing together history and more time having informed, productive conversations with prospects and customers. Value that used to depend on knowing the feature existed and clicking to find it now shows up automatically.

Add in the AI Sales Assistant, custom fields, and custom objects empowers Vendasta partners to move faster on deals, shape the CRM around how their teams actually sell, all without changing their paid subscription tier. Want to pass these advantages onto your clients? Get them set up with CRM AI Pro in Business App.

Who it's for

Partners using the CRM in Partner Center
SMB teams working in company records inside Business App
Any paid-tier partner not previously seeing AI Assistant features

How to access

Partner Center

CRM AI is automatically included for all partners on a paid subscription plan.

To view AI summaries, go to
Partner Center > CRM > Companies > [select a company].
The AI summary will be in the column on the right side of your screen.
To activate the AI Sales Assistant, go to
Partner Center > AI > Workforce > AI Sales Assistant > Configure.
To add Custom Fields, go to
Partner Center > Administration > CRM Objects > [select object type] > Create field.
To add Custom Fields, go to
Partner Center > Administration > CRM Objects > Add custom object.

Business App

Available to all businesses with CRM AI Pro active.

To view AI summaries, go to
Business App > CRM > Companies > [select a company].
The AI-generated Profile summary will be in the column on the right side of your screen.
To activate the AI Sales Assistant, go to
Business App > AI > Workforce > AI Sales Assistant > Configure.
To add Custom Fields, go to
Business App > Administration > CRM Objects > [select object type] > Create field.
To add Custom Fields, go to
Business App > Administration > CRM Objects > Add custom object.

May 5, 2026

new

Automations

CRM

APIs & Integrations

Now Available

AI Workforce

Companies & Contacts

Integrate Salesforce with Vendasta CRMs and AI Employees

Stop reconciling data by hand and always work from the same, up-to-date information with two-way Salesforce sync for Contacts and Companies, now available in Business App and Partner Center. The integration includes AI capabilities so that AI agents employed by your and your clients in Vendasta can read from and act on Salesforce tools and data directly.
A single source of truth, across Salesforce and Vendasta
Connect Salesforce for your agency in Partner Center, or your clients in Business App, and pick what to sync. From there, the integration keeps Contacts and Companies synced across both platforms automatically. Updates made in Salesforce appear in Vendasta within minutes, and updates made in Partner Center or Business App flow back to Salesforce the same way.
Note: Deletions in one system do not automatically delete records in the other.
AI Employees can work across both platforms
AI employees operating from Business App and Partner Center can now interact with Salesforce tools and data directly to further reduce the time your teams spend on admin, giving them more time for revenue-generating efforts. As soon as the connection is made, it automatically discovers what's available in Salesforce and registers the corresponding AI functions, prompts, and capabilities. 
Salesforce as an MCP endpoint
 - AI assistants employed in Business App and Partner Center can directly interact with Salesforce tools and data. 
Auto-registered AI functions
 - Salesforce tools, creates AI functions, prompts, and capabilities are automatically discovered upon connection.
Re-running it won't create duplicates, so updates flow through cleanly. There's no extra setup; connect Salesforce, and your AI workflows can use it right away! 
Why it matters
Many teams rely on Salesforce and Vendasta side by side to manage customer relationships, and without automation, keeping the two aligned takes manual work and creates room for error. This integration removes that friction by:
Eliminating manual data entry across systems
Keeping Contact and Company information accurate and up to date
Reducing duplicate and conflicting records
Giving sales, marketing, and fulfillment teams a consistent source of truth
Letting AI assistants act on Salesforce tools and data without custom integration work
Who it's for
Partners whose agency or clients use Salesforce
SMBs using Salesforce who want their CRM data aligned with their Vendasta tools
How to access
Connect Salesforce
Navigate to Administration > Connections > Browse
 in Business App or Partner Center.
Select "Salesforce" and click "Connect Salesforce."
In the pre-connect form, choose the desired sync options and click "Continue."
Authorize the connection using "Salesforce OAuth."
Confirm that sync is enabled for "Companies" and "Contacts" on the Connection's configuration page.
Verify sync
Create or update Company or Contact in Salesforce, and confirm it appears in Business App or Partner Center.
Create or update a Contact or Company in Business App or Partner Center, and confirm it appears in Salesforce
Changes should sync within minutes.
FAQs
What does the Salesforce integration do?
It enables two-way sync of Contact and Company information between Salesforce, Partner Center, and Business App, keeping data consistent across platforms.
Who can use this integration?
Both Partners and their SMB clients. Partners manage it in Partner Center, while SMBs benefit from synced data inside Business App.
What data is included in the sync?
Currently, Contacts and Companies. Future updates may expand to additional data types.
Do AI tools in Vendasta work with Salesforce automatically after I connect?
Yes. As soon as the integration runs, Salesforce becomes available to AI assistants in Vendasta—no extra setup needed.

May 1, 2026

new

Vendasta Services

AI Workforce

AI Chat Receptionist

AI Voice Receptionist

AI Reputation Specialist

Custom AI Employees

AI Receptionist

AI Sales Assistant

Introducing the AI Workforce Optimization Plan: Expert-Managed Care for AI Employees

👉 Start selling in Marketplace

We are excited to announce a brand new AI employee service offering. To reflect our commitment to your clients' long-term success, we are launching the AI Workforce Optimization Plan. A proactive, managed service designed to keep every AI Employee in your client's workforce operating at peak performance.

What is the AI Workforce Optimization Plan?

The

AI Workforce Optimization Plan

is a monthly managed service from Vendasta that ensures AI Employees stay accurate, responsive, and deeply integrated into a client’s evolving business. Think of it as hiring our expert team as a "manager" for their digital workforce.

Key Features:

Expert Setup:
Our team handles the technical configuration and brand alignment for your chosen AI Employee.
Monthly Proactive Check-ins:
To ensure performance, we’ll reach out each month to gather any recent or upcoming business updates that may affect AI employee workflows.
Unlimited Adjustments:
Ongoing refinements as needed to prompt, automation, and employee settings to ensure the AI is working as intended to fit specific business needs.
Expert Access:
Email access to the team that builds the AI employees, so you can rest assured you’ll always be taken care of.

Choosing the Right Path

We’ve simplified the buying process into two distinct paths to help you capture every opportunity:

AI Workforce Optimization Plan ($29 USD/monthly): Partners looking for a "set it and forget it" solution with ongoing expert management and performance reporting.
AI Employee Setup ($199 USD one-time): Partners who prefer to manage the AI prompting and knowledge base updates themselves after the initial build.

Important Details for Partners

Universal Compatibility:
Just like the AI Employee Setup, the Optimization Plan covers any current AI employees, including the AI Receptionist, Reputation Specialist, Sales Assistant, and more.
Premium Experience:
We recommend the Optimization Plan as the default choice for partners who want to provide a premium, white-glove experience to their clients without increasing their own internal workload.
Important Note:
Each AI Employee requires a corresponding foundational product to be active (e.g., AI Receptionist requires any edition of the Conversations AI product). Our team will continue to assist with activation if the product is not live at the time the service is ordered.

Ready to optimize?

Head over to the Marketplace to explore the new AI Workforce Optimization Plan and start building a smarter, managed workforce for your clients.

May 1, 2026

new

Automations

Now Available

Companies & Contacts

Build smarter automations with two new actions: Categorize with AI and Find company

Two new actions are available in Automations simply previously complex workflows. "Categorize with AI" branches your automation based on what a piece of text actually says, and" Find company" pulls an existing CRM company record into any workflow so that a contact, webhook, API call, or schedule can drive company-scoped steps without needing a company-scoped trigger.

Two new building blocks for richer automations

Categorize with AI

Drop "Categorize with AI" into any automation to classify unstructured text and automatically branch to the right next step: no keyword rules, no custom code. Give it text (a chat summary, a form submission, a webhook payload), define your categories, and the AI picks the best match. Each category becomes its own branch, so every outcome can route to a different action.

Example:

An AI employee finishes a conversation → Sort the conversation summary into

Resolved

Needs follow-up

Escalation required

→ Each outcome routes automatically—close the ticket, queue a follow-up task, or notify a team member.

Find company

"Find company" searches the CRM for an existing company record by field criteria (name, salesperson, custom fields, and more) and brings it into scope for the rest of the automation. Any step that runs further down the workflow can now act on that company.

Example:

A contact is created → Find the company with the same salesperson → Start a campaign if a match is found, notify an admin if not.

Why this matters

Automations are only as useful as the data they can reach and the decisions they can make. Two long-standing gaps held them back:

Branching on the
meaning
of a piece of text meant building fragile keyword rules or calling out to custom code—approaches that miss nuance in natural language and break when phrasing changes.
Running company-scoped steps required a company-scoped trigger or an existing link between records, so an automation that started from a contact, webhook, API call, or schedule couldn't reliably pull the right company into the workflow.

These two new actions close both gaps. Partners can now build automations that read text intelligently and that reach across the CRM for the company they need—without developer help.

Who it's for

Partners building automations that act on free-form text from chat, forms, webhooks, or AI employee conversations
Partners whose workflows start from a contact, webhook, or schedule and still need company context
Any team looking to replace keyword logic or custom code with a configurable, no-code step

How to access

Categorize with AI

Go to
Business App or Partner Center > Automations > [open or create an automation.
Below a trigger, select
Add step > Categorize with AI
Provide the text input, define your categories, and connect each category to its corresponding downstream branch

Find company

Go to
Business App or Partner Center > Automations > [open or create an automation.
Below a trigger, select
Add step > Find company
Configure the search criteria (name, salesperson, custom fields, etc.) to match the company you want to bring into scope
Use the found company in any downstream step

Learn more

April 30, 2026

new

Conversations AI

APIs & Integrations

Now Available

AI Workforce

AI Chat Receptionist

AI Voice Receptionist

AI Receptionist

Book restaurant tables through AI Receptionists with OctoTable

Restaurants using OctoTable can now let their AI Receptionist look up availability and create reservations - over the phone or in chat - so bookings get completed even when no staff is free to pick up.

Increase restaurant reservations with 24/7 coverage

AI Voice Receptionist and AI Chat Receptionist now integrate with OctoTable, empowering them to check open tables and create new reservations for customers at any time, day or night. A restaurant can take a reservation however the customer reaches out. If they call in, the AI Voice Receptionist picks up. If they message the web chat, the AI Chat Receptionist is ready to take the booking.

Available now

Guests can book reservations through AI Voice and Chat Receptionists.

Coming soon

Guests can update or cancel reservations through AI Voice and Chat Receptionists.

Why this matters

Restaurants lose reservations when no one's free to answer the phone or respond to a chat, and taking reservations pulls staff away from the guests already seated. For restaurants on OctoTable, the AI Receptionist could previously take a message but couldn't actually book the table—leaving the customer to wait for a callback or give up. Now, the AI Receptionist can complete the booking the moment the customer asks for it.

How to access

Navigate to
Business App > AI > AI Workforce > Configure [AI Chat or Voice Receptionist]
Add capability "Manage reservations on OctoTable"
Connect OctoTable account

→