SOURCE: Vacation Tracker TITLE: Can My Users Earn Their Accrued Amount at the Beginning of the Accrual Period? URL: https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/can-my-users-earn-their-accrued-amount-at-the-beginning-of-the-accrual-period/ LANG: en PUBLISHED: 2023-09-22 UPDATED: 2025-10-10 READING: 2 min SUMMARY: As you may already know you can configure the accrual settings within the Locations section of the online dashboard. This feature will allow Admins to choose the frequency of the days accrued based on the number of days entered in the Yearly Leave Quota section. # Can My Users Earn Their Accrued Amount at the Beginning of the Accrual Period? # Can My Users Earn Their Accrued Amount at the Beginning of the Accrual Period? Yes. The trick isn't a separate toggle — it's the date you pick for Next Accrual Awarded On. Set it to the first day of the current accrual period and employees earn their share before working the period, rather than after. ## Three Common Timing Choices Take a Monthly accrual with the current period running April 1 → April 30. Here's how Next Accrual Awarded On changes the behavior: #### April 30 — End of the current period Days are awarded on the last day of the month the employee just worked. Classic "earn as you go" — the full chunk lands once the period finishes. #### May 1 — Start of the next period (default) Days are awarded on the first day of the following period. Behaviorally similar to End of current period but technically dated one day later. This is what the system picks by default when you first set an accrual. #### April 1 — Start of the current period ← earn ahead of time Days are awarded at the very beginning of the period, before the employee has "earned" them through time worked. This is the configuration described in this article — front-loading the period's accrued amount. ## How to Set It Up The mechanism lives inside the Accruals section of each leave policy. Accruals must be enabled first (Accrual Type ≠ None) — see How Do I Set Up and Configure Accruals (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-accruals/) if you haven't set them up yet. - Sign in at app.vacationtracker.io (https://app.vacationtracker.io/signin). - In the left-hand menu, expand Leave Setup and click Locations. - On the Location you want to configure, click Edit Leave Policies. - Find the leave policy you want to update and click the edit (pencil) icon on its row. - Scroll to the Accruals section. Make sure Accrual Type is set to Monthly, Semimonthly, Biweekly, or Weekly — the timing fields only appear once a type is picked. - Note the dates shown in Current Accrual Period — this is a read-only range (e.g., April 1 → April 30). - Click into Next Accrual Awarded On and pick the first day of the current period (in the example above, April 1). This is the "earn ahead" setup. - Click Update at the bottom of the page to save. ![Accruals section with Current Accrual Period shown (April 1 – April 30, read-only) and Next Accrual Awarded On set to April 1](https://cms.vacationtracker.io/uploads/helpdesk_artikal_can_my_users_earn_their_accrued_amount_at_the_beginning_of_the_accrual_period_first_image_place_d57b122b16.png) Check the Leave Quota Accruals only calculate correctly if the Yearly Leave Quota has a value set. The system uses the quota to figure out how many days belong to each accrual period. Without a quota, the period math has nothing to divide. ## Common Questions What happens to the accrued days if an employee leaves mid-period after earning ahead? Vacation Tracker tracks the days as accrued once the award date passes, regardless of how much of the period the person actually worked. Settlement of any "unearned" time off after an employee departs is a policy decision you'd make outside the app. Does this apply across all leave types at once? No — Next Accrual Awarded On is per leave policy, which means per Leave Type per Location. You can front-load Vacation while keeping Sick Day on end-of-period awarding. Each policy's timing is independent. What's the difference between this and "Allow Requesting Accrual-based Leave In Advance"? Different problems. Earning at the beginning of the period changes when the days actually land in someone's accrued balance. Allow Requesting Accrual-based Leave In Advance lets people submit requests for leave that uses days they haven't yet accrued, based on future projected accrual. You can use either, both, or neither. See Can Users Request Their Accrued Leave in Advance? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/can-users-request-their-accrued-leave-in-advance/) for the sibling feature. ### What's Next? How Do I Set Up and Configure Accruals (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-accruals/) Can Users Request Their Accrued Leave in Advance? (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/can-users-request-their-accrued-leave-in-advance/) How Do I Set Up an Accrual Cap (https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/how-do-i-set-an-accrual-cap/) Need help? Contact our Support team via email (mailto:hello@vacationtracker.io) or chat (#), Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 5 PM EST.