SOURCE:    Vacation Tracker
TITLE:     Can Users Request Their Accrued Leave in Advance?
URL:       https://vacationtracker.io/knowledge-base/can-users-request-their-accrued-leave-in-advance/
LANG:      en
PUBLISHED: 2023-09-22
UPDATED:   2026-01-27
READING:   2 min
SUMMARY:   If you are using our Accrual feature, you may want to allow your users to apply for their upcoming accrued leave in advance.

Can Users Request Their Accrued Leave in Advance?

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Last updated on January 27, 2026

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.

Zendaya's Vacation policy gives her 15 days a year, accrued monthly at 1.25 days/month. It's September and she's accrued 10 days so far — but she wants to request 11 days off for a December trip. With Allow Requesting Accrual-based Leave In Advance set to Yes, she can submit the request now, because by December she'll have accrued enough to cover it.

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.
Accruals section with the option for allowing accrual-based leave to be requested in advance set to Yes and highlighted
Direct from the app
The in-app tooltip reads: "Allow employees to request leave based on their projected accrual of days off, rather than only what they have accumulated at the time of the request. This means that if an employee knows they will have enough accrued days by the time the requested leave occurs, they can submit the request in advance, even if they don't have enough days at the time of making the request."

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

No — the toggle lives on a single leave policy (one Leave Type at one Location). You can allow it on Vacation and not on Sick Day, for example. Each policy's toggle is independent.

Check the Accrual Type dropdown at the top of the Accruals section. If it's set to None, the advance toggle is hidden — switch it to Monthly, Semimonthly, Biweekly, or Weekly and the toggle will appear below.

That's a policy call on your end — the app lets them book against projected accruals, but the real-world settlement (payback via paycheck, forgiven, etc.) is handled outside Vacation Tracker. Most teams only enable this for leave types where they trust the forecast, like Vacation under a stable accrual schedule.

What's Next?

How Do I Set Up and Configure Accruals How Do I Set Up an Accrual Cap Can My Users Earn Their Accrued Amount at the Beginning of the Accrual Period?
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