Paid time off sounds simple until you have employees on different accrual rates, mid-year hires, state-mandated sick leave running in parallel with company PTO, and a spreadsheet that hasn't been audited since it was built.
The three accrual models companies actually use
- Accrual per pay period. Employees earn a fraction of their annual allotment each pay cycle — the most common model, and the easiest to get wrong with mid-cycle rate changes.
- Lump-sum grants. The full year's balance is granted upfront, which simplifies tracking but can create payout liability if the employee leaves early in states that require payout of unused accrued PTO.
- Unlimited PTO. No accrual tracking at all, but it introduces its own risks — inconsistent usage across employees can itself become a discrimination or fairness issue if not managed.
Where spreadsheets fail
Manual trackers break down the moment someone changes employment status mid-year, transfers between accrual rates, or leaves the company — several states legally require unused accrued PTO to be paid out on termination, and a stale spreadsheet is a bad place to discover you owe someone money.
Automate the part that shouldn't be manual
AskHrAI's PTO / Leave Tracker calculates accruals automatically and keeps balances accurate as employment status changes — no formulas to maintain, no year-end reconciliation surprises.