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Accruals (Calculation Rule)

There are many ways for businesses to Accrue benefit hours. Time Advantage has a very flexible setup screen to cover virtually all possible scenarios. The main screen on the Accrual tab shows a list of current Accrual Rules. To add a new accrual click the Add button at the bottom of the screen. The Accrual/General tab will appear.

The Accrual General tab is for basic information for the benefit accrual.

Code- Enter a user defined code for the accrual you are setting up. In this example it is PTO for Paid Time Off
Description- Enter the full name or description of the accrual
Accrual Reset- Select Fiscal or Anniversary Date. If Fiscal is selected then, in the Start Date window, enter the start of your current fiscal year. If Anniversary is selected then each employee's accrual will be updated based on their hire date
Earning Code to Subtract from the Balance- Check the Earning Code (or codes) that will subtract from the accrual balance when taken
Earning Codes Count Towards Accrual- Typically most Earning Codes will count. For instance if you are accruing monthly and an employee takes 2 weeks of PTO during a certain month they will usually continue to accrue new time during those two weeks. It is possible some company policies may be different. If this weren't the case then long term employees who accrue more time off a year would have less time to accrue new hours. Another example is when a company is accruing based on a percentage of the number of hours worked. In this case they may include any Earning Codes that count towards the normal 40 hours work week (regular, vacation, Holiday, etc.) but not include overtime hours. When an accrual is based on a period such as yearly, quarterly, monthly it may not, in most cases, consider hours worked or Earning Codes. An employee may get 80 hours a year or 20 hours a quarter regardless of how many hours they work or what Earning Codes they are paid by. In this case just select all Earning Codes

Once the accrual is defined on the General tab you will go to the Accrual Level tab. Here you set up hours to accrue based on each level of employment. To create a level, click the "Add" button at the bottom of this screen and it will take you to a setup screen. Meanwhile, if an existing level needs to be edited, you can select the level from the Months Employed column.

On the Accrual Level setup screen set up the accrual as follows:

Months Employed- Select the number of months of employment required for this accrual level. In this example 12 was selected. It shows "thru 59" because another level has been set up for 60 months. There is also a level set up for 0 to 11 months.
Accrue During Probation- Check if employees accrue during probation periods
Description- Enter a description of this accrual level
Year- Select Current Year or Next Year. Current Year is generally for benefit time that accrues continuously such as weekly, monthly, quarterly. These types of accruals can also be done for Next Year but it isn't common. A Yearly accrual (select 12 months for Accrual period) can only be done for Next Year
Accrual Method- Select All, None, or Prorated. Assume you are accruing weekly. An employee is scheduled for 5 days, 40 hours but only worked 4 days and a total number of hours of 32 for the week. Selecting "All" will give the full accrual for the week. Selecting "None" will give no accrual for the week since minimum hours were not met. "Prorate" will give a prorated accrual based on the percentage of hours worked
Accrue By- Enter the amount of the accrual for the update period. If an employee accrues 80 hours at this level and has an update period of 12 months then enter 80.00, for quarterly enter 20.00, etc. In the example below the update period is weekly (selected as 7 Days in Accrual Period) so the "Accrue By" is 1.5385 Hours. You can also select a percentage instead of hours if you accrue based on a percentage of hours worked
Accrual Period- this can be Hours, Days, or Months. For a week select 7 Days as below. A year would be selected as 12 months, quarterly as 3 months etc.
Start Accrual From- This applies to a monthly accrual. Select the day of the month each month's accrual will begin
Max Accrual by Year- In the example below Accrue By is set to 1.5385 hours each day. This will not necessarily come out exactly to 80.00 hours for the year. It is recommended, that when using decimals, that you select an amount that will be slightly higher by a fraction of an hour to prevent an employee from being short changed. Since Max Accrual by Year is set to 80.00 the employee will not accrue more than that
Max Accumulation per Year (Including Carry Forward)- Enter the maximum hours an employee can have accrued based on a total of current year accruals and carry forwards from previous year. Assume an employee has carried forward 80.00 hours and can accrue for the current year a maximum of 80.00 hours (accruing 1.5385 hours per week). If the employee has a Max Accumulation per Year (Including Carry Forward) of 120 hours then, assuming he doesn't take any time, he will stop accruing for the current year once his total accrual reaches 120.00 hours. As soon as the employee takes some time he will start accruing again
Include Adjustment Amounts?- Accrual balances can be adjusted if incorrect. If the adjusted amounts entered are to be included in Max Accumulation per Year, then check this box
Maximum Carryover- Enter the maximum number of unused hours an employee can carry forward from the previous accrual year
Expires After- If Carry Forward days must be taken within a certain amount of time enter the number of days here
Maximum Negative Accrual- When accruing on an ongoing basis, as in weekly in the example below, it takes a certain amount of time to accrue enough time to take a day, week, etc. As a result companies typically allow employees to take days in advance based on expected accruals for the year. In this field enter the maximum number of negative hours an employee can have
Min. Worked Days- Enter the minimum number of days an employee must work in an accrual period to get an accrual. If the number of days doesn't apply, leave blank
Min. Hours in a Day- Enter the minimum hours needed to be considered a Worked Day. If the number of hours doesn't apply, leave blank
Payout- Check if you payout unused hours at the end of an accrual year
Amount Value- Select Hours or Dollars. In the box to the right enter the maximum hours or dollars that can be paid out
Earning Code- Select the earning Code that will be used to pay out the unused hours. Typically it is the one associated with the Accrual Rule

On the next screen is an example of a Yearly Accrual for Next Year. Since the entire number of days accrued become available on the first day of the next fiscal year, there is no need for negative accruals.

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