This guide covers: create a PTO policy, set accrual rules, set carryover and cap, and assign policies to employees.
Create a PTO policy
What it does: Defines a new time-off policy that you can later assign to one or more employees.
Where: Accountant dashboard → Time Off Policies.
Steps:
- Click Add Policy in the top-right corner.
- Enter a Policy Name (e.g., "Standard Vacation").
- Pick a Policy Type: Vacation · Sick · Holiday · Other.
- Set the Waiting Period (days) — the number of days a new hire must wait before they can use the policy. Defaults to 0.
- Add an optional Description.
- Configure accrual, carryover, and reset (see sections below).
- Click Create Policy.
Who: Accountant or SMB owner.
Notes: The page also surfaces a State Sick-Leave Compliance card at the top, reminding you that state mandates (PSL) are tracked separately by the engine.
Set accrual rules
What it does: Controls how the policy balance grows over time.
Where: Accountant dashboard → Time Off Policies → Add Policy / edit existing → Accrual Settings.
Steps:
- Pick an Accrual Method:
- Accrue each paycheck — accrues a share of the annual total on each paycheck.
- Grant once a year — grants a fixed amount at the start of each year.
- Per hour worked — accrues based on hours worked (rate is per 40 hours).
- Manual only — balances adjusted by hand.
- If you choose anything other than Manual only, enter the accrual amount. The field label updates per method — Total hours per year for the annual methods, or Hours accrued per 40 hrs worked for Per hour worked.
- Set an optional Max Accrual Cap — leave blank for no cap.
- Optional: check Unlimited PTO — no balance tracked to skip accrual entirely.
Who: Accountant or SMB owner.
Notes: Unlimited PTO disables accrual and usage tracking — the policy still appears on time-off requests but no balance changes.
Set carryover and cap
What it does: Controls how much unused time rolls into the next policy year and when it expires.
Where: Accountant dashboard → Time Off Policies → edit policy → Carryover Settings and Policy Year Reset.
Steps:
- Tick Allow unused hours to carry over to the next year.
- Enter a Carryover Cap in hours (blank means no cap).
- Enter an Expiration (months) value so carried-over hours expire after that many months. Blank means they never expire.
- Scroll to Policy Year Reset and pick the Reset Month and Reset Day that anchor the policy year (defaults to January 1).
Who: Accountant or SMB owner.
Notes: The Carryover Cap and Max Accrual Cap interact — the cap that hits first wins for any given employee.
Assign policies to employees
What it does: Makes a policy visible to specific employees so they can request hours and accrue balances.
Where: Accountant dashboard → Time Off Policies → policy card.
Steps:
- Each policy card shows the number of employees currently assigned: N employees.
- Open an employee's profile to add or remove their policy assignment.
- Employees with the policy assigned immediately see it on the employee portal under Your Time Off Balances and can request against it.
Who: Accountant or SMB owner.
Notes: Deleting a policy removes it from every assigned employee. The confirmation modal warns: "This will remove it from all assigned employees. This action cannot be undone." A policy card shows an Inactive badge when a policy is inactive, but there is no toggle in the policy editor to change that state.
Related: Request and approve time off · Timesheets.