How Do I Set Up an Accrual Cap?

An accrual cap sets the maximum leave balance an employee can hold. Once they hit the cap, accruals pause until they use some leave — preventing balances from growing indefinitely.

Before You Begin: Accruals Are a Prerequisite

Accrual Cap is a setting on top of an existing accrual schedule — it doesn't enable accruals on its own. Before turning the cap on, the leave policy needs an Accrual Type other than "None" (Monthly, Semimonthly, Biweekly, or Weekly). The cap option simply doesn't appear in the policy editor until accruals are active.

If accruals aren't set up yet on this leave policy, configure them first: How Do I Set Up and Configure Accruals? Then come back here to add the cap.

How to Set Up an Accrual Cap

1. Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io.
2. In the left-hand menu, expand Leave Setup and click Locations.
3. Click Edit Leave Policies on the Location you want to configure.
4. Click the edit icon next to the leave policy you want to update.
5. Scroll down to the Accruals section and make sure an Accrual Type other than "None" is selected — the cap option only appears when accruals are active.
6. Next to Enable Accrual Cap, click Yes.
7. In the Cap earned days to field, enter your multiplier (e.g., 1.50). This is applied to the annual accrual rate to calculate the maximum balance. The default is 2.00.

The cap applies to the User's total balance — that includes both current-year accrued days and any days carried over from the previous year via Brought Forward. If a User has additional days from role-based or seniority entitlements, those are included in the calculation too.

1. Click Update to save your changes.

How the Cap Works in Practice

Let's say an employee has a yearly quota of 12 days, accruing monthly at 1 day/month, with the cap set to 1.5x (= 18 days max).