What's new in 4.50?
Welcome to EBS 4.50, our first release of 2026. This release continues to support our continued movement towards functionality being moved from EBS Central to our web products. 4.50 brings us the addition of bulk functionality within correspondence manager which we really hope will be of value to our users, it also brings us web functionality for room bookings, interview management and absence reporting authorisation. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their feedback following our last release / webinar around the adoption of Fund Manager concerns, we as a team have analysed this and now have a follow on stream of work that will be coming in a future release; we really value your feedback so thank you.
As with the previous release, users of EBS: central will be prompted to view the release notes post-upgrade. All changes are documented in the release notes, which we recommend all customers read; they contain key information on product updates and how you can make use of them. Recordings of release webinars including a solution demo are available on Tribal Communities for all releases.
Correspondence manager
Continuing on from generating correspondence for single learners being added in 4.49, this release has seen bulk and course correspondence added to Ontrack. A new bulk correspondence grid will allow you to generate a list of learners to send email, letter or phone correspondence in one go. The generate correspondence wizard will allow you to amend the list of users, update one or all templates in one go and provides on-screen validation for sending correspondence. Generating course correspondence for one or more learners is brand new functionality that we have added to the enrolments, applications and interviews course context screens. Users can simply click the generate correspondence to send a communication to those learners without needing to draft a custom body of an email or SMS.
Room booking
Many of our customers have already been using our Professional Service built room booking screens; we have now productised them and made them part of our base room search screens in Ontrack Hub. With the Room Bookings role permission, staff will be able to book a room and manage the bookings in a dedicated screen. Email notifications for adding staff to the booking, removing them and deleting the booking will also be available.
Interview management
Interview Management is another of our client modules that has seen a move to web in this release. A new screen and grid has been added along with a create interview wizard, that makes it easier than ever to create interviews. Part of the wizard is the ability to create recurring interviews, a new feature we have added as part of this move. You can now create multiple interviews – same day, different times or same times, different days using the wizard without needing to duplicate each time.
Absence reporting
Absence Reporting has been enhanced to support an approval process. A new status feature provides clearer visibility of each request’s progress, from submission through to approval or rejection. In addition, each absence type can now be configured with specific requirements—such as whether approval is needed, whether supporting evidence must be uploaded, or whether additional notes are required—ensuring greater control and consistency across the process.
Group management
We have migrated Group Management from the EBS Shape client to the web. This release delivers feature parity with the existing client version, including the bulk management capabilities. Users can now efficiently add learners to groups and move learners between groups directly within the web interface and create new groups for courses.
AFD integration
4.50 sees the completion of the work started in 4.49 to be able to use updated authentication mechanisms for all AFD integration. This now includes all address searching, giving benefits of increased security and simplification of setup. For email and phone validation, we now support more granular control of when data is validated, with API options and the ability to configure validation widgets onto Ontrack pages.
Engage integration
With the release of our new Engage Flutter app imminent, a few changes to the integration between EBS and Engage has been added in 4.50. Quick links can now include a custom icon and summary to help contextualise your links and make them stand out for users. A new Attendance and Punctuality screen in the app has meant we have added new screens and workflows for syncing data to the app.
Future plans
For those who attended the Empower session or the user group in New Zealand; you will be pleased to know EBS is continuing its efforts to develop a future platform to aid with web migration into the future. We know that any solution that promises to replace our Ontrack and client platforms will need to be functional, accessible and performant. Additionally, we aim to build EBS5 as a joint venture between Tribal and our customers, as we shape the next generation product. As discussed in the above events, our focus is currently on Shape and complementary functionality to support users within the timetable and registers space, and we are well on our journey with this, and we’re excited to share more, later this year.
As we move into 2026, this first release demonstrates our continued dedication to delivering meaningful progress towards our EBS re-imagined goals with more functions being moved to our web-based offering. With this milestone, we’re not only improving today’s experience but also laying the groundwork for the next wave of enhancements planned throughout the year. In the coming releases, we’ll keep accelerating development, strengthening collaboration across teams, and focusing on the capabilities that bring the greatest value to our customers, ensuring we address the needs and challenges that matter most to you.
Please remember we have lots of ways to engage with us whether this be via our monthly Coffee Call, using our communities' platform or through our Advisory and Account Management service. We are always open to feedback and listening to our community.
Sam Ellis Hughes
Senior Product Manager, EBS and Engage