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February 28, 2023

Tech Tip: Accrual Rules Explained

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Accruals are used within TimeClock Plus to maintain a balance of time that an employee earns, typically for any type of leave (e.g. vacation, sick, or comp time). Accruals are handled in a two-part system: Accrual Banks store the accrued time and Accrual Rules automatically generate the accruals according to a rule that the user sets up.

Accrual Rules determine how the time is processed and added to the appropriate bank. There are several different types of rules. In this blog we help TimeClock Plus users understand how to properly set up Accrual Rules according to their organization’s policies.

Accrual Rule Types

At a basic level, there are two types of Accrual Rules: those NOT based on hours worked during a time period and those that ARE based on hours worked during a time period.

In TimeClock Plus, select Accrual Rule is NOT based on hours worked during a period for instances when your accruals aren’t based on hours worked or hours tracked under a certain code/hour type. For example, your policy may be that employees accrue eight hours per month or certain accruals may occur once a year.

Alternatively, select Accrual Rule IS based on hours from current period when the hours accrued are contingent or based on hours worked within a time period. This adds the configuration screens of Counted Job Codes and Counted Hours (Regular, Overtime 1, Overtime 2, etc.). From here, there are different ways to apply the organization’s policies to Accrual Rules in TimeClock Plus:

Use only hours from current period: Use this option if employees earn the accrual at the end of the period after meeting the counted hour threshold and/or have hours tracked in the required Job code and Hour type.
Carry over unused hours from previous periods: Use this option if employees accrue a certain number of hours based on hours worked, regardless of the period in which those hours were worked. For example, part time sick law in California dictates that an employee earns 1 hour of Sick time for every 30 Hours worked.
Use only hours from previous period: Use this option if employees earn the accrual if they have met the organization’s requirements and/or have hours tracked in the required Job code and Hour type after the period ends. The period can be Days, Weeks, Months, or Years. Your organization determines how long that period is.
Accrue based on counted hours only if contract threshold is met: Use this option if employees earn the accrual at the end of the period after meeting the specified percentage of their contract and/or have hours tracked in the required Job code and Hour type.
- Counted Hours – Job Codes: Select which jobs count towards the threshold and counted hours for the period.
- Counted Hours – Options: Configure which hour types count towards the threshold and counted hours. For a more specific count, you can apply the following rule:
Of the hours counted, use only the hours between X and Y: By default, this is between 0:00 and 100:00. If you are configuring this rule to earn accruals based on hours worked after a threshold, then you will want to change when you start using the hours. For example, if you earn an hour of accruals for every hour worked after 40 hours, you will want this set to between 40:00 and 100:00. If you are setting this rule up to work with comp time, you want to make sure that only the relevant comp time hour type is selected. Keep this set to between 0:00 and 100:00.

How To Apply Posting Period Rules

The posting period is when or how often an employee would earn the accruals. For organizations with period-based accrual types, you can set it to weekly, for example, and employees earn the accrual every week. For accruals based on hours worked in a period, this is where you define what that period is.

1. Period Options: This section where you define what your periods are, there are a plethora of options to accommodate most customers’ needs.

2. Start and Stop Options: This section where you define when an accrual rule starts and stops posting for an employee based on that employee’s Hire date or Seniority Date (if Seniority Date is configured, this will always be used instead of the Hire Date).

3. Accrual Expiration Options: This option is for setting hours to be removed from an employee’s bank if they don’t use them in a configured amount of time. For example, if you earn accruals once a year but you must use the accruals within 18 months of earning that time.

4. Repeated Post options: This option is for when you have a period-based rule that can only be earned once in a larger period. For example, if you work over 40 hours in a week you accrue five hours, but you can only earn these hours one time in a month.