Purpose: To understand the purpose of the accrual level start date and when you may need to change it.

Table of Contents

• Time Off Policy Settings
• Accrual level start date on the employee profile
• Edit the accrual level start date
• Assigning the policy
• Verifying the accrual schedule

There are some instances when an employee may need to skip to a different time off milestone. You might use this tool when a new employee negotiates a higher amount of time off. You can easily adjust the accrual level start date to push an employee to a milestone without adjusting their hire date.

When it comes to the time off accrual start date, we want to pay attention to four parts of the time off policy settings.

In the example above, the employee:

1. Earns four hours on the 1st and the 15th of each month.
2. They begin accruing these hours immediately upon hire as there is no waiting period before they become eligible for accruals.
3. An employee moves to the 1st milestone when they reach their 2-year anniversary.
4. Upon moving to the 1st milestone, they receive six hours on the 1st and the 15th of each month.

If a new hire negotiates a higher accrual rate in their contract, we can use the accrual level start date to start their accruals at six hours upon hire rather than the traditional four hours.

Once you have assigned an employee to their first time off policy, you will see the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the Time Off tab. By default, the accrual level start date will be the same as the employee's hire date.* If an employee should accrue time on the regular timeline (in this example, four hours each accrual period and six hours each accrual period after their second anniversary), the accrual level start date should remain their hire date.

*Note: Each employee has a record of their hire date on the Job tab and in the left-hand column on their profile.

On the employee's Time Off tab, navigate to the gear icon and select Accrual Level Start Date. If this is the first policy you are assigning to an employee, you will not see the gear icon until you have assigned at least one policy. We recommend first assigning a policy that does not offer milestones, such as a Birthday time off policy, or Service Hours.

Adjusting the accrual level start date will not update the employee's hire date in the system, but it will show the accrual level start date as the Hire Date when assigning a time off policy. Please be aware, the accrual level start date will apply to all time off categories. If a new hire has only negotiated a higher time off accrual for one time off category, and you have multiple policies that offer milestones, you will need to create a new time off policy to accommodate to this employee. If you need help with this, contact our support team.

If we need to adjust Charlotte's time off accrual amount to six hours upon hire rather than the traditional four hours, we need to adjust her time off accrual start date to be two years before her actual start date. This is because the time off policy above says that a regular employee will begin to earn six hours of time off two years after their hire date. Since Charlotte was hired on January 1, 2025, we will set her accrual level start date to January 1, 2023. This manipulates the time off accrual system into awarding Charlotte her accrual at a higher milestone.

After saving, Charlotte's actual hire date on the left remains correct. The accrual level start date on the right shows two years prior to her actual hire date.

To assign a time off policy, navigate to the gear icon on the employee's Time Off tab, and select Add Time Off Policy.

When assigning the time off policy, you will need to determine the policy, and the effective date. The effective date is when the employee should start earning accruals. This should almost always be the employee's actual hire date. Since the Hire Date above is showing two years earlier than Charlotte's actual hire date, as determined by the accrual level start date we assigned, we will use the Specific Date option to ensure Charlotte begins earning time off on her actual hire date.

The Accrual Preview table allows you to see how the accrual level start date has manipulated her accrual amount. On January 1, 2025, the Milestone achieved! action signifies that she has reached that secondary milestone where she will earn six hours per accrual period. The list of dates below the milestone allow you to verify that she is earning the correct amount for each accrual period.

To ensure the employee is accruing as you would like, we will verify the future accrual schedule using the calculator icon on the Vacation time off tile.

Using this tool, you will enter a future date to see exactly how the employee will accrue time. Since Charlotte is accruing six hours twice a month, we know that we have determined the accrual level start date and assigned the policy correctly.