Small businesses that offer paid time off (PTO) must manage vacation accruals accurately—keeping track of how much PTO each employee has earned and when it was used—to avoid labor law violations. Our PTO accrual calculator lets you determine the appropriate accrual rate to use per pay period based on your business workdays, hours in a workweek, and annual vacation days.
There are three methods to calculate PTO:
- Calculator: the simplest way to calculate vacation accrual, but could lead to accuracy issues as the formula rounds to the nearest decimal.
- Equations: the most accurate way to calculate PTO, but also the most difficult and could lead to calculation errors.
- Software: the best way to have PTO accrual calculated for you; however, it comes at a cost.
Follow our step-by-step instructions for calculating vacation accruals in the following video:
We’ve outlined below the steps for calculating PTO using equations.
Step 1: Decide How Much PTO to Provide Employees Annually
The first step to calculating PTO accrual is to determine how many days or hours per year you want to grant your employees.
To simplify the math, we’ll use an example of two weeks (10 days of PTO per year).
To calculate PTO accrual, this number will be converted to hours by multiplying the number of days provided by the standard hours worked per day.
Here’s the math: 2 weeks = 10 days x 8 hours a day = 80 hours
According to SHRM, the average number of PTO days granted depends on longevity with the company and ranges from 13 to 26, which may or may not include sick leave, depending on the laws in your state. That number reflects the fact that many firms tier their PTO programs—for example, giving new hires less time off, such as only one week off per year while giving those with more years of service more time off, such as two or three weeks per year.
Below is an example of the number of PTO days you might give your employees based on a tiered PTO program and their tenure with your company.
Years of Tenure | # of PTO Days |
|---|---|
< 3 years | 5 days |
3 to < 5 years | 10 days |
5 to < 8 years | 15 days |
8 to < 10 years | 20 days |
10+ years | 25 days |
Step 2: Figure Out Your Standard Hours Worked Per Week
While a 40-hour workweek is pretty standard, not every company has employees who work 40 hours per week. Some companies consider employees who work as few as 25 hours per week to be full-time and grant them PTO and vacation. If you use our calculator above, you can input your business’s actual workweek hours to get a more accurate accrual rate before you process your payroll.
Some companies are adopting the new four-day workweek, wherein employees are only required to complete four eight-hour days. This is the equivalent of 32 hours worked per week. If you are going with this type of work schedule, you can adjust the number of PTO days available per year. For example, a two-week vacation allotment would equal out to eight days of PTO under this work schedule.
It’s important to be clear with the number of days you are allowing for PTO—if you offer 10 PTO days and your employees only work four days per week, then they would get two weeks and two days of PTO. We recommend having a flexible work schedule policy if your employees work less than 40 hours per week.
Step 3: Determine Total Annual Work Hours Available
You then have to determine how many weeks per year your business operates so that you can calculate how many work hours per year employees are eligible to accrue PTO annually. This “hours per year” number is used as the denominator when calculating your PTO accrual rate.
The standard available work hours per year used by human resources experts is 2,080. That’s equivalent to the number of weeks per year (52) multiplied by the number of hours the average employee works each week.
Example: ABC Company has a standard 40-hour workweek and is open 52 weeks a year.
Here’s the math: 40 hours x 52 weeks
= 2,080 hours per year
If you grant your employees two weeks of vacation and PTO each year, that would equal (in this example) 80 hours per year. That’s your numerator.
Here’s the math: 80 hours PTO / 2,080 hours per year
= 0.038 hourly PTO accrual rate
What that means is that for every hour worked, the employee in this example would accrue 0.038 hours of PTO. If they worked on average 40 hours a week, or eight hours a day, the accrual rate would be:
Hourly Accrual Rate | 0.038 hours of PTO for each hour worked |
|---|---|
Daily Accrual Rate | 0.307 hours of PTO for each day worked |
Weekly Accrual Rate | 1.538 hours of PTO for each week worked |
To calculate each employee’s PTO accrual rate correctly, you need to provide data for the variables described in the steps above. Your results may differ depending on rounding and how many decimal places are used in your calculation (we rounded to three digits in our examples). However, our calculator above only rounds up the result, not the interim calculations.
Subtract Paid Holidays
If your business provides paid holiday time off, you may want to subtract those days from the total so as not to allow employees to accrue paid time off on days they already are getting paid for as holidays. For example, if you give employees 15 paid holidays a year and consider each day to be worth eight hours, you’ll want to subtract those hours from the total work hours available each year.
Here’s the math: 2,080 work hours per year – (15 days x 8 hours a day = 120 hours)
= 1,960 available work hours per year
In this case, your numerator (PTO hours given) would be 80, while your denominator would be 1,960, resulting in a more accurate PTO accrual rate of 0.04 hours of PTO per hour worked.
Step 4: Identify Your Business’ Start Date for Accruals
Our calculator assumes a 365-day year beginning in January. However, not all businesses start the year at the same point in time. While most small businesses use a calendar year, some use a fiscal year, whereas others use the employee’s hire date. While you don’t need this information for our basic calculator above, you do need it if you want to determine how much PTO or vacation time an employee has earned or taken during a year.
Annual Accrual vs Lump Sum
Most small businesses calculate PTO on a calendar year basis. In fact, if you grant PTO as a lump sum at the start of the year, you wouldn’t need to manage accruals at all.
- Annual Accrual: Employees begin accruing their paid time off on the same date each year. As their time accrues, they can use their PTO and subtract it from their accrued balance. With this model, if they have not accrued the time, they cannot take the days off.
- Lump Sum: Employees would receive their lump sum balance to use throughout the year. You would then merely subtract hours for each day they take off until their PTO or vacation time is used up.
The three most common time frame options for granting and tracking PTO are:
- Calendar Year
- Fiscal Year
- Hire Date or Anniversary
A calendar year starts on Jan. 1 and ends on Dec. 31. However, not all businesses use the same calculations for a given year. For example, some businesses are open 52 weeks a year, while others may close during the holiday season and work only 50 weeks a year.
Therefore, in addition to determining what constitutes a vacation accrual year for your business, you’ll need to figure out how many weeks, days, or work hours are available to work in that time frame, using the examples provided in the third step above.
Some businesses set up their accounting year based on a fiscal start and end date used for accounting and tax purposes. For example, they may start their fiscal year on the first of September and end it on Aug. 31.
Other businesses grant employees a fixed amount of paid time off that starts on their hire date, or it may not start until they’ve been with the company for a specified amount of time, such as 30 or 90 days. In any case, each employee’s accruals would start on the date they were hired, and you’d need to manage how much each has earned and used based on their work anniversary date each year.
Step 5: Use the Correct Accrual Rate per Cycle
To ensure you calculate employee PTO balances correctly, you have to apply the right accrual rate to the actual payroll processing cycle you use to pay employees. In fact, in some states, the accrual rate information regarding how much PTO and sick leave employees have earned must be printed on each pay stub.
For help with pay stubs, read our free pay stub generator article. It includes regulations and our state payroll guide for legal compliance.
Click through the tabs below to learn more about weekly biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly pay cycles.
- Weekly
- Biweekly
- Semimonthly
- Monthly
In the examples above, we used a weekly pay cycle and a standard five-day, 40-hour workweek. That accrual rate would be 1.54 hours of PTO earned (accrued) for each week worked.
80 hours PTO / 2,080 hours per year = 0.038 hourly PTO accrual rate x 40 hour week
= 1.54 hours of PTO earned for each hour worked
This is the best rate to use when calculating PTO accruals for employees whose work hours vary. For instance, they may work 25 hours this week, 40 hours the next, and 32 hours the following week. It doesn’t matter what their actual work hours are each week, as the accrual rate will accurately determine how much PTO they’ve earned that pay period.
Calculating accruals for a biweekly pay cycle is just as easy as it is for a weekly pay cycle—it’s just the pay period lasts two weeks instead of one. The hourly accrual rate is the best to use for accuracy, but some businesses prefer to use a simpler calculation based on the fact that biweekly pay results in 26 payroll cycles per year. Using a biweekly accrual rate makes the most sense when your employees are salaried and get paid the same each pay period.
80 hours of PTO per year / 26 pay periods
= 3.08 hours of PTO earned every two weeks (biweekly period)
Semimonthly pay is provided two times a month, meaning that you’ll have 24 pay periods a year. That makes your PTO accrual just as easy, but it may not be accurate if, for example, an employee takes off unpaid leave, reduces to a part-time schedule, or is out for an extended period (such as for parental leave).
80 hours of PTO per year / 24 pay periods
= 3.33 hours of PTO earned twice per month (semimonthly pay period)
A monthly payroll cycle isn’t allowed in all states and is commonly reserved for upper-level management. However, if you manage your accruals monthly, the calculation is pretty basic.
80 hours of PTO per year / 12 pay periods
= 6.67 hours of PTO earned every month (monthly period)
Other Considerations When Calculating PTO & Vacation Accruals
Often, salaried employees are granted a fixed rate of paid time off based on their average workweek—it can be a number of hours or days a year, such as 40 hours a year, or five days off for vacation.
State Laws
Calculating PTO accruals and employee balances requires you to make sure that you consult federal and state labor laws. It also requires a few decisions, such as whether to include sick leave as part of PTO or not.
It’s best practice to track your sick leave accruals and balances separately from PTO available for vacation and other personal reasons. That’s because, in some states, sick leave must be paid out upon termination of an employee, while PTO doesn’t have to be.
Carry Over
While last year’s PTO balance doesn’t affect this year’s accrual rate, it does affect the starting balance at the beginning of the year (calendar, fiscal, or anniversary), and the total balance of PTO your employee has available. More than three-fourths of companies offering PTO allow employees to roll over some amount.
Did You Know? In states like California, if you offer PTO, you must allow employees to roll it over, or pay it out upon termination. There’s no “use it or lose it” option allowed. For more information on paying employees in California, check out our guide.
Part-time Employees vs Full-time Employees
Since hourly employees don’t work fixed or standard hours, you may want to determine their accrual rate per hour worked, rather than providing them a fixed number of hours per year, as an example. Or, you may want to set your accrual rate to match what full-time employees receive, which will end up being less, as they work fewer hours.
Negative Balances
Another consideration when managing PTO accruals is determining whether you’ll allow your employees to have a negative PTO balance. That can happen, for example, if you offer two weeks of PTO a year and an employee wants to use it all in February. You’d need to track the PTO used before it’s been earned, resulting in a negative PTO balance for that worker.
These considerations are important to document in your PTO policy, as well as in your employee handbook, to avoid confusion and potential litigation from workers who may feel their PTO isn’t being managed fairly.
If you don’t want to calculate accrued PTO and you want less management of used and remaining paid time off, consider an unlimited PTO policy. This type of policy puts no limit on the amount of PTO your employees can take in any given year.
How a PTO Vacation Accrual Calculator Works
Like any data tool, a PTO vacation accrual calculator is only as good as the data you key into it. That’s why we encourage you to consider all the variables described in the steps above, in addition to how much time you offer as PTO to your employees. And, consider whether full-time and part-time employees are eligible—and when. Once you determine your PTO accrual rate, you will need to plug that rate into your payroll software or provide it to your payroll service provider.
In fact, the PTO accrual rate serves only one small part in determining how much employees will be able to use. Also included in an employee’s PTO balance is the amount they’ve used, the amount they have (or can roll over), and any amounts you might grant to new hires as a condition of their employment agreement. Here are some examples:
- Negotiated PTO: Perhaps your new hire negotiated an extra week of vacation to accept the job offer. You may need to accrue three weeks of PTO for that employee as opposed to the two weeks everyone else gets.
- Returning employee: Let’s say a great employee moved out of state and then moved back seven months later. You may want to reinstate their unused PTO.
- Employee on leave: When an employee takes parental leave for four months, some companies will allow that employee to retain their employment benefits during the time away from work. This may include PTO accruals as well as health insurance.
Alternatives to Using a Vacation Accrual Calculator
Instead of manually calculating PTO balances, you may want to consider software that does it for you. Whether you choose time and attendance software that provides an accruals feature or a full-service HR/Payroll software, there are many affordable options.
Here are a few software we recommend that can help you manage your PTO accruals.
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Best for | Salaried employee payroll | Businesses ready to upgrade to an HR software suite | Companies with up to 100 employees | Restaurants and retailers |
Starting Price | $40 plus $6 per employee monthly | $10 per employee monthly | $2.50 per user monthly | Free for 1 location (up to 20 employees) |
Standout Features | Tracks PTO and sick leave requirements by state | PTO/vacation tracking included | Scheduling, time tracking, and leave management | Track time off and shift swaps for hourly workers |
Read our Gusto Review | Read our TriNet Zenefits Review | Read our When I Work Review | Read our Homebase Review | |
Tips for Managing PTO Accrual
Effective management of PTO accrual involves fostering a culture that values work-life balance and prioritizes employee well-being.
- Set clear guidelines: Detailed PTO policies help employees understand how PTO is earned and used.
- Encourage employees to take PTO: Instead of letting employees hold their PTO accruals indefinitely, encourage them to take regular time off. This can help prevent burnout and improve overall productivity.
- Automate the tracking process: Using HR software or a tracking spreadsheet, you can stay on top of accrued time off balances and facilitate easier scheduling.
- Set a cap on rollover PTO: To ensure employees take regular PTO, you can set an expiration date on any PTO the employee rolled over from the previous year. For example, you can mandate that a minimum of one week of rolled-over PTO must be used by June 1.
- Allow flexible options: This could include allowing employees to use their time off in four-hour or eight-hour increments or by the hour.
- Stay organized: By maintaining PTO data, you can better plan for staffing needs and budgeting while also promoting transparency within your company.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Based on a full-time 40-hour work week, an employee who receives 10 PTO days per year will accrue 1.54 hours of PTO per week of employment. To reach a full day of PTO will require five weeks. Based on this calculation, it will take about five to six months to accrue a full week (five days) of available PTO.
Accrued PTO is a formula that determines how much PTO is earned over a given period of time. Granted PTO is a set amount of PTO time that is given all at once (e.g., 10 days of PTO granted on Jan. 1 each year).
A paid time off calculator is simply to help you determine the accrual rate and amount of PTO for your employees. The calculator assists in making sure the amounts are correct, as human error could cause your employees to lose some of the PTO time owed.
Bottom Line
A PTO accrual calculator helps you do the complex math required to determine how much PTO and vacation time employees earn each pay period. The data you need to know is how many hours employees are eligible to work each year, how many hours they work on average each week, and how many days, hours, or weeks of vacation time you provide them.
