PTO calculator. Accrued, used, and what is left.

How to calculate PTO accrual

Every accrual policy answers the same question in a different unit. Find your unit, then multiply.

• Per hour worked. Accrued hours = accrual rate x hours worked. Common in hourly and part-time work, because someone who works fewer hours earns proportionally less PTO.
• Per pay period. Accrued hours = accrual rate x completed pay periods. Simplest to run alongside payroll, and the most common setup for a small salaried or steady-hours team.
• Annual lump sum. The full year lands at once, usually on January 1 or the hire anniversary. No running math, but a heavier liability on day one.

Then take the balance down to what is actually spendable: available = carryover + accrued (capped) - hours used.

Accrual rate reference table

These rates assume a full-time year of 2,080 hours (40 hours a week for 52 weeks). Divide the annual hours by the number of units in a year to get any rate not listed.

A worked example

Per hour worked, six months in

A cook accrues 0.0385 hours of PTO for every hour worked, which is the standard two-weeks-a-year rate. She has worked 1,040 hours so far this year (40 hours a week for 26 weeks). She started the year with no carryover, the policy has no cap, and she has already taken one 8-hour day.

• Accrued: 0.0385 x 1,040 = 40.04 hours
• Used: 8.00 hours
• Available: 40.04 - 8.00 = 32.04 hours, which is 4.0 days at 8 hours a day

Sanity check on the rate itself: 0.0385 x 2,080 hours = 80.08 hours, so a full year at 40 hours a week lands on two weeks of PTO, as intended.

Per pay period, with a cap

A shift lead accrues 3.08 hours per biweekly pay period and has completed 13 periods. He carried over 24 hours and the policy caps the balance at 60 hours.

• Accrued: 3.08 x 13 = 40.04 hours
• Carryover + accrued: 24 + 40.04 = 64.04 hours
• Cap of 60 applies, so 4.04 hours were lost and the banked balance is 60.00 hours

How this calculator works

• Accrued. The rate you enter times the units you enter: hours worked, completed pay periods, or one annual grant.
• Banked. Carryover plus accrued, then held at the cap if you set one. Anything above the cap shows as hours lost.
• Available now. Banked minus hours already used. The day figure divides by 8, the usual full shift.
• Projection. The monthly accrual is worked out once (rate x hours per week x 52 / 12 for the per-hour method, rate x periods per year / 12 for the per-period method) and then added month by month, stopping at the cap.

Caps, carryover, and the numbers behind them

• Balance cap. A hard ceiling on hours held at once. It caps your liability, and it also quietly pushes people to take time off, because accrual stops when they do not.
• Carryover limit. A separate ceiling applied at year end. A 40-hour carryover limit with an 80-hour cap means someone can hold 80 hours in November but starts January with 40.
• Waiting periods. Many policies accrue from day one but block use for the first 90 days. That changes what is spendable, not what is accrued, so enter the accrued hours here and track the eligibility date separately.
• State rules. Several states treat accrued vacation as earned wages that cannot be forfeited, and paid sick leave laws often set their own minimum accrual rate. Check your state before you set a cap or a use-it-or-lose-it rule.

For the day-to-day version of this, see how to track PTO accruals for hourly employees.

What ClockOut does with this

ClockOut’s PTO tracker runs accrual policies on a schedule: you set an accrual rate in hours, an accrual period of monthly, biweekly or yearly, an optional maximum balance, and a year-end carryover limit. Balances top up on their own overnight, requests deduct on approval, and the schedule refuses to put anyone on a shift during approved leave.

One honest limit: ClockOut accrues per period, not per hour worked. If your policy is written per hour worked, pick the per-period rate that matches it over a year, which is the middle columns of the table above. Policies, accruals, balances and blackout dates are on the Starter plan and up; requests and approvals work on every plan. See pricing.

PTO calculator FAQ