Free tool
PTO and leave accrual calculator
An annual entitlement and how it accrues, in, and the balance accrued so far out, in days or hours. Your policy, your units, and no statutory minimum assumed.
The link carries your figures in the address itself. Nothing is stored on our side.
The working
| Measure | Value | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| The working appears here once your figures are in. | ||
How the answer is worked out
Every step, in the open, so you can rebuild it in a few spreadsheet cells and disagree with it if you want to. A calculator you cannot check is an ad.
Accrual per period
For the period methods, the accrual per period is the annual entitlement divided by the number of periods in a year: 20 days accruing monthly is 1.67 days a month. What has accrued so far is that per-period figure multiplied by the number of periods that have passed. Nothing is rounded on the way, so the running figure is exact rather than a payslip approximation.
Accrual per hour worked
If leave accrues per hour worked, the annual entitlement is spread across the full-year hours you enter, giving an accrual rate per hour, and what has accrued is that rate multiplied by the hours actually worked. This is how many hourly and shift arrangements grant leave, and it is why the balance moves with hours rather than with the calendar.
The current balance
The current balance is the starting balance you carried in, plus what has accrued so far, minus what has been taken. If the result is negative, more has been booked than has been earned plus the opening balance, which the tool flags rather than hides. Caps, carry-over limits and waiting periods are your policy and are not applied unless you account for them yourself.
What this tool does not know
What the law requires. Statutory leave minimums, mandatory accrual, carry-over floors and the treatment of part-year joiners differ by country and sometimes by region, and this tool asserts none of them: the entitlement and the method are figures you enter from your own policy. It states no minimum anywhere and applies no carry-over cap you did not build in.
It counts leave, not pay. To turn a part month into payable and unpaid days, use the payable days calculator, and to write the policy the balance sits under, use the leave policy generator. For the wider context, see the guide to building a leave policy.
Questions with complete answers
How is the accrued figure worked out?
For a period method, the annual entitlement is divided by the number of periods in a year to give the accrual per period, and that is multiplied by the periods elapsed. For per-hour accrual, the entitlement is spread across the full-year hours you enter and earned per hour worked. The current balance is the starting balance plus what has accrued minus what has been taken, and every line is shown in the working.
Days or hours, which should I use?
Whichever your policy is written in. The tool does not care: it works the same arithmetic on either, and the units label follows through into the result and the working. If your handbook grants leave in hours for hourly staff and days for salaried staff, run it once each way.
Does it know my country's minimum leave?
No, deliberately. Statutory leave minimums differ by country and sometimes by region, they change, and a free page asserting one as fact would be worse than no page. The annual entitlement is your policy figure. Enter the number your handbook or your local rules give you, and confirm any legal minimum with a professional in the country concerned.
What about carry-over caps and waiting periods?
They are not applied unless you account for them. The tool computes a straight-line accrual and balance, which is the part almost every policy shares. Caps on carry-over, waiting periods before leave can be taken, and rounding rules are policy choices that differ everywhere, so they stay in your hands rather than being invented here.
Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?
No. It computes in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. There is no email wall, no account and no storage. The link button carries your figures in the address itself if you want to send them to someone.
An accrual is a policy until someone keeps the running balance.