Free PTO Accrual Calculator

Our PTO accrual calculator gives you a quick and easy way to calculate how much paid time off will be earned over a specified period of time.

You can use this PTO calculator to calculate vacation, annual leave, sick time or any other kind of paid time off accrued in your business. Calculate PTO in hours or days, customize your PTO accrual rate and accrual period and add a starting balance or max accrual number to fit your company’s leave policy to the letter.

How to Use Flamingo’s Paid Time Off Calculator

1. Choose whether you’re calculating PTO in hours or days.
2. Start by choosing your PTO accrual period (set to the current calendar year by default).
3. If applicable, set the employee’s starting PTO balance. This is necessary if the employee has unused PTO days or hours that are carried over from the previous period.
4. Enter your PTO accrual rate.
   • The PTO accrual rate is how much PTO an employee earns over a given period.
   • You can choose to enter the accrual rate per week, month, or year.
   • Alter the accrual rate depending on the period selected. For example, an accrual rate of 12 days per year would be equal to 1 day per month.
5. Set a maximum number of accrued PTO days or hours (if applicable). If you don’t have a maximum amount, set this to zero (0).
6. View how many days or hours will be accrued at the end of the given period underneath where it says Total.

PTO Accrual FAQs

What is Accrued PTO/Accrued Leave?

Accrued PTO is when employees earn more days/hours of PTO relative to how much they work. For example, employees might earn 4 hours of PTO per week, or 2 days of PTO each month.

How Many Hours/Days of PTO is Normal?

The normal amount of PTO varies from business to business. Most full-time US employees get between 10-20 days of PTO per year. International averages are generally higher, and may have a minimum amount based on local leave laws.

Check out this post for the latest data on the average amount of PTO and vacation time in the US.

How Often Should PTO Accrue?

Vacation time usually accrues with each pay period. If employees are paid monthly, it’s normal that their monthly payslip will include the amount of PTO accrued during that time as well.

What Types of Leave Have Accruals?

Accruals usually work for vacation time/annual leave. A business may choose other types of leave to accrue as well, however it’s less common. Leave types such as sick leave, personal days, maternity leave and paternity leave are usually given as a standard amount, and don’t accrue over time.

How Do Accruals Work for Part-Time Employees?

Accruals for part-time employees work essentially the same as for full-time/salaried employees.

The only difference may be the accrual rate. If one employee works a regular schedule of 2 days per week, while full-time employees work 5 days per week, the employee who works 2 days will accrue 2/5ths as much PTO per week as a full-time worker.

Do Accruals Work Differently for Hourly Employees?

Accruals work the same for hourly workers, with the only difference being calculating accruals per hour, rather than days.

For hourly employees, you generally calculate how many vacation hours the employee earns per hour worked. At the end of the pay period, they will have accrued hours of PTO relative to the hours they worked during that period.

Learn more about PTO accrual, including all the pros, cons and alternative ways to manage PTO, in this article.

How to Set Up and Manage Automatic PTO Accruals in Your Business

With Flamingo’s PTO tracker, navigating a leave policy with accruals has never been easier. Flamingo automatically calculates how much vacation time your employees should accrue for each period and updates their leave balance accordingly.

When employees take leave, Flamingo deducts this amount from their leave balance and keeps your records correct and up-to-date.

You can easily spend hours trying to calculate vacation pay and accruals manually, or you can use Flamingo, automate everything, and take back your time for more important things.

Learn more about the powerful features of Flamingo’s Vacation Tracker here. If you’re ready to build a more efficient leave management system, sign up for free today and see how Flamingo makes your life easier.