A PTO tracker is the system of record for paid time off: how many hours each employee has earned, how many they have used, what is left, and the request and approval trail behind every day away. ClockOut’s tracker runs on accrual policies you define (hours per month, per two weeks, or per year, with an optional cap and a year-end carryover limit), tops balances up automatically, deducts approved leave at eight hours per business day, and blocks anyone from being scheduled on time off that is already approved. It sits inside the same app your team uses to clock in and read the schedule, so there is no second HR system to sign into.
How PTO tracking works in ClockOut
Five things happen, in this order. Steps one and two are set up once. Steps three to five repeat every time somebody wants a day off.
- 01
Create a time off policy
A policy has a name, a type (vacation, sick, personal or other), an accrual rate in hours, an accrual period of monthly, biweekly or yearly, a maximum balance, a carryover limit, and whether a negative balance is allowed. You can create as many policies as your handbook needs.
- 02
Assign the policy and enter opening balances
Assign a policy to each employee and give them the hours they already have banked. The accrual clock starts the day you assign it, so nobody is granted a back-dated accrual for time before they were in the system.
- 03
The employee requests time off
They pick a start date, an end date, a type and an optional note. Requests that overlap a blackout period are refused at submission, and a request that already ended in the past cannot be filed. A request covering today is fine, which is what sick days need.
- 04
A manager approves or denies
Admins, owners and managers see pending requests in the inbox and approve or deny with an optional note that goes back to the employee. The employee gets an email, plus an in-app and push notification on Starter and Pro.
- 05
The balance and the schedule update themselves
Approval deducts the hours, clears the employee’s assigned shifts across those dates, and cancels any pending shift swap that pointed at one of them. If the request is later cancelled, exactly the hours that were deducted come back.
Accrual rules for hourly employees
An accrual rule answers one question: how many hours of paid time off does someone earn, and how often. In ClockOut a policy grants a flat number of hours per period, and a nightly job tops up every balance that is due.
What you can configure
- Accrual rate. Hours granted each period, for example 8 hours a month or 3.08 hours every two weeks.
- Accrual period. Monthly, biweekly or yearly. Monthly accrues once when the calendar month rolls over, so a 28-day month is not treated as a whole extra period.
- Maximum balance. A cap in hours. Accruals stop adding once the balance reaches it. Set it to 0 for no cap.
- Carryover limit. On January 1, in your company’s timezone, any balance above the limit is trimmed to it and the change is written to the audit log. A limit of 0 is use it or lose it.
- Negative balances. Off by default. Turn it on and set how far below zero a balance may go, and approvals will still go through for someone who has run out.
- Manual adjustments. An admin can add or remove hours from any balance with a required reason, and the adjustment is recorded in the audit log with who made it.
What is not configurable, and how teams handle it
ClockOut does not accrue by hours worked, so there is no “one hour of PTO per 30 hours on the clock” rule and no waiting period before a new hire starts earning. Teams that accrue by hours worked pick the per-period rate that matches a normal schedule, then true up with a manual balance adjustment when someone works well over or under their usual hours. Waiting periods are handled by assigning the policy on the day eligibility starts, because the accrual clock begins at assignment.
Deductions are whole business days at eight hours each. There is no half-day request, so a half day is usually approved as a full day and adjusted back by four hours, with the reason on the adjustment. For the accounting side of all this, read how to track PTO accruals for hourly employees.
Balances every employee can check
The most common PTO question, “how many days do I have left,” should not need a manager to answer it. Each employee has a time off page showing available hours, hours used, and anything still pending, then a row per policy with available, accrued, used and carryover hours. Admins see the same numbers for the whole company in one table.
Balances change from three things only: the nightly accrual, an approved request, and a manual adjustment by an admin. That makes a balance easy to explain, which is the part a spreadsheet never gets right after the third correction.
Requests and approvals from the phone
ClockOut runs in the phone browser and can be added to the home screen, so an employee files a request from wherever they are: dates, type, and a note if they want to explain. Managers get a notification and an email, open the requests inbox, and approve or deny. The decision goes straight back to the employee with the manager’s note attached.
Approval is the moment everything is checked at once. If the balance is short and the policy does not allow going negative, the approval fails with the exact numbers and the request stays pending, so nobody ends up owing days they were told they had. If a blackout period was added after the request was filed, approval is blocked too.
Who is out: PTO on the schedule
Tracking time off is only half the job. The other half is not scheduling somebody who is at the beach. In ClockOut the admin schedule grid marks each employee’s approved time off on the days it covers, so coverage gaps show up while you are building the week rather than on the morning of the shift.
The block is enforced, not advisory: assigning a shift on a date covered by approved leave is refused, on a single shift and on a bulk repeat. Approving leave also removes shifts that were already assigned in that range, leaving open shifts alone for someone else to claim. See how the rest of it works on employee scheduling.
Vacation, sick leave and other time-off types
Every policy and every request carries a type: vacation, sick, personal or other. That is what makes ClockOut usable as a vacation tracker and a sick leave tracker at the same time, with separate balances that do not borrow from each other. A deduction only ever comes out of a policy of the matching type, so an approved sick day cannot quietly spend vacation hours.
Give each type its own policy with its own accrual rate, cap and carryover limit, for example vacation accruing monthly with a carryover limit, and sick time accruing per pay period with none. Companies outside the US see local wording automatically, so a UK team reads “annual leave” where a US team reads “vacation.”
Paid sick leave rules differ by state and city, and ClockOut does not encode any of them. Your policy decides what people earn; ClockOut records the accruals, the balance, and every request and approval, which is the evidence trail an audit actually asks for.
Blackout dates and paid holidays
Two company-wide lists shape requests. Blackout dates are ranges when leave cannot be taken, with an optional reason, checked both when a request is filed and again when it is approved. Paid holidays are days the company is closed, and they are skipped when approved leave is costed, so a holiday inside somebody’s vacation does not consume their hours.
PTO on timesheets and payroll exports
Be precise about this one, because most PTO pages are not. In ClockOut, time off lives with balances and requests, not on the timesheet: the timesheet records hours actually clocked, and payroll exports carry worked hours, overtime, double time and pay. Approved leave shows on the schedule and in the PTO balances, and the hours you owe for it come from the balance record.
Pro adds payroll runs and provider-formatted CSV exports for ADP, Gusto and QuickBooks, plus Xero and Sage earnings-line formats. PTO hours are not written into those files today, so paid leave is entered on the payroll side from the ClockOut balance report. The step by step is in exporting payroll to ADP, Gusto and QuickBooks.
PTO tracker vs spreadsheet
Most small businesses start with a shared sheet, and it works until the second manager edits it. Here is the honest comparison.
| Spreadsheet | ClockOut | |
|---|---|---|
| Accruals added | By hand, when someone remembers | Nightly, per policy |
| Balance an employee can see | Ask a manager | Their own time off page |
| Requests | Text, email or a paper form | In the app, with dates and type |
| Approval trail | ✗ | ✓ |
| Overdrawn balance caught | ✗ | ✓ |
| Holidays skipped in the deduction | Manual | ✓ |
| Year-end carryover cap applied | Manual | ✓ |
| Schedule blocked on approved leave | ✗ | ✓ |
| Cost | Free, plus the corrections | $19 / month for up to 5 people |
Pricing: which plan includes PTO tracking
ClockOut is free for up to 2 active employees. Starter is $19 a month for up to 5 people, then $3 per extra person, and Pro is $39 a month for up to 5, then $6 each, both for unlimited employees, both with a 14-day free trial. PTO management sits on Starter and Pro. Requesting and approving time off is not gated at all, so a two-person business on Free can still run the request and approval flow; what Starter adds is the accrual policies, balances and blackout dates behind it.
| Free | Starter | Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 forever | $19/mo for up to 5, then $3 per person | $39/mo for up to 5, then $6 per person |
| Active employees | Up to 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Time off requests and approvals | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| PTO policies and accruals | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Employee PTO balances | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blackout dates | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Push and in-app alerts | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Employee availability | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payroll runs | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Payroll-provider export formats | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Full plan detail is on the pricing page, the exact Free plan limits are on the free time clock page, and every claim on this page is restated with its numbers in the product facts.
Set up PTO tracking in 10 minutes
- 01
Write down the policy first
Hours earned, how often, whether there is a cap, and what happens on December 31. Ten minutes of writing saves an argument later. If the handbook is vague, this is the moment to fix it.
- 02
Create the policy in ClockOut
Time off, then policies. Name it, pick the type, enter the accrual rate and period, the maximum balance and the carryover limit. Repeat for sick time if it is separate.
- 03
Assign it with today's balances
Assign each employee to a policy and type in the hours they have banked right now, straight off your old sheet. This is the last time you will move numbers by hand.
- 04
Add holidays and blackout dates
Enter the paid holidays so they stop consuming PTO, and any blackout ranges such as inventory week or your busiest month, so requests never land there.
- 05
Tell the team where to request
Send one message: requests go in ClockOut, not in texts. Employees see their own balance the moment they open the app, which is usually enough to stop the questions.
PTO tracker FAQ
What is the best free PTO tracker for small business?
For a team of one or two people, ClockOut’s Free plan is genuinely free forever and already handles time off requests and approvals alongside the time clock and schedule. Accrual policies and balances are the part that needs Starter, at $19 a month for up to 5 people, then $3 per extra person. Free spreadsheet templates are the other honest answer, and they work until two managers edit the same cell.
How do I track PTO for hourly employees?
Decide the accrual rate and period, record everyone’s opening balance, then let the software add hours and subtract approved days. In ClockOut you create a policy (for example 3.08 hours every two weeks, capped at 80 hours), assign it with opening balances, and each approved request deducts eight hours per business day. ClockOut accrues per period rather than per hour worked, so teams that earn by hours worked pick the closest per-period rate and true it up with a manual adjustment.
Does ClockOut track vacation and sick time separately?
Yes. Policies and requests both carry a type: vacation, sick, personal or other. Each type has its own balance with its own accrual rate, cap and carryover limit, and a deduction only comes out of a policy of the matching type, so sick days never spend vacation hours.
Can employees see their PTO balance?
Yes. Every employee has a time off page showing available hours, used hours and pending requests, plus a row for each policy with available, accrued, used and carryover hours. They do not need to ask a manager, and admins see the same table for the whole company.
Can employees request time off from their phone?
Yes. ClockOut runs in any phone browser and can be added to the home screen, so there is nothing to install unless your team wants the iPhone or Android app. An employee picks the dates, the type and an optional note, and managers get an email and a notification. The decision comes back the same way, with the manager’s note.
Does PTO show up on the schedule?
Yes. The admin schedule grid marks approved time off on the days it covers, and ClockOut refuses to assign a shift to somebody on approved leave. Approving a request also removes shifts already assigned in that range and cancels pending swaps that pointed at them.
Does PTO export to payroll?
Not as a column in the export files. ClockOut Pro exports payroll-formatted CSVs for ADP, Gusto and QuickBooks, plus Xero and Sage, and those files carry worked hours, overtime, double time and pay. Paid leave hours come from the PTO balance report and are entered on the payroll side.
Is there a PTO accrual calculator?
There is no standalone calculator page. Accruals are calculated for you once a policy exists: the rate and period you set are applied automatically to every assigned balance, capped at the maximum you chose, and trimmed to the carryover limit on January 1. To work out the rate before you set it, the arithmetic is laid out in how to track PTO accruals for hourly employees.
Is this a leave management system?
It is leave management for hourly and shift-based teams: policies, accruals, balances, requests, approvals, blackout dates and holidays, tied to the schedule and the time clock. It is not a full HRIS, so there is no benefits administration, no FMLA case management and no leave law library. Your written policy stays the source of truth for what people earn.
How much does a PTO tracker cost?
ClockOut is $0 for up to 2 active employees, $19 a month for up to 5 people on Starter (then $3 per extra person), and $39 a month for up to 5 on Pro (then $6 each), with a 14-day free trial on paid plans. PTO policies, accruals and balances are included from Starter. A ten-person team pays $34 a month for PTO tracking, time clock and scheduling together.
Related pages
- Employee scheduling: building the week around approved leave and availability.
- GPS time clock: how the punches behind the timesheet are recorded.
- Free time clock plan: what the $0 plan for 2 employees does and does not include.
- How to track PTO accruals for hourly employees: writing the policy and picking the rate.
- Exporting payroll to ADP, Gusto and QuickBooks: what each export file contains.
- Product facts: every plan limit and feature, stated plainly.
- Pricing: current plans and checkout.