Can Users Request Their Accrued Leave in Advance?

Yes — Vacation Tracker has a setting that lets employees request leave using days they'll earn later in the year, not just what they've accrued so far. Flip one toggle on the leave policy and you're done.

How to Turn It On

The toggle sits inside the Accruals block of each leave policy. It only appears when an accrual type is set — if Accrual Type is None, the toggle isn't shown because there's nothing to request in advance.

1. Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io.
2. In the left-hand menu, expand Leave Setup and click Locations.
3. On the Location you want to configure, click Edit Leave Policies.
4. Find the leave policy you want to update and click the edit (pencil) icon on its row.
5. Scroll to the Accruals section. If Accrual Type is None, switch it to Monthly, Semimonthly, Biweekly, or Weekly first — see How Do I Set Up and Configure Accruals if you haven't set accruals yet.
6. Find Allow Requesting Accrual-based Leave In Advance and toggle it to Yes.
7. Click Update at the bottom of the page to save.

What Changes for Users

Once the toggle is on, the leave request form stops blocking a request just because the employee doesn't have the balance today. Instead, the system projects how many days they'll have accrued by the leave's end date and accepts the request if that projected total is enough.

• If they'll have enough accrued by then → request goes through the normal approval flow.
• If even the projection falls short → the request is still blocked. The feature doesn't let people take leave they won't earn; it only lets them book ahead of their current-day balance.
• Approvers see the request like any other — they can approve or reject normally. The system does the balance math behind the scenes.

Common Questions