Guide: What Is an Accrual Cap?

Accrual Cap is the setting that limits how high a leave balance can grow. You set it as a multiple of the annual accrual rate, and once a User's balance reaches that ceiling, accruals pause until they take some leave. Nothing already earned is taken away. It's how you keep unused leave from stacking up year after year without forcing anyone to forfeit days.

What the Accrual Cap Does

• Limits the balance, not the yearly quota: the cap governs how many days a User can hold at once, which is a separate question from how many they earn in a year.
• Pauses accruals instead of removing days: accruals stop landing while the balance sits at the ceiling, and that's all that changes.
• Uses a multiplier, not a fixed number: the cap scales with each User's quota instead of being one hard-coded figure for the whole team.
• Applies per leave policy: each policy is tied to a Leave Type and a Location, so PTO can be capped while Sick Leave isn't.
• Complete plan only: the cap is available on the Complete plan, and only on policies that already have accruals turned on.

How the Multiplier Works

• In the leave policy editor, the field reads Cap earned days to [ ] times the annual accrual rate.
• It defaults to 2.00 and accepts values from 0.10 to 10.00, in steps of 0.01.
• A User with a 12-day quota accruing 1 day a month, capped at 1.50, can hold at most 18 days (12 × 1.5 = 18).
• Because it's a multiplier, the same setting gives a 12-day quota an 18-day ceiling and a 20-day quota a 30-day ceiling.

What Happens at the Ceiling

• Below the cap: a User carrying 2 days into the year accrues all 12, because 2 + 12 = 14 never reaches 18. Accruals run untouched all year.
• Reaching the cap: a User carrying all 12 unused days can accrue only 6 more. If they take no leave, accruals stop in July.
• Dropping back below it: capped out in July, then two days taken in August brings the balance to 16, and accruals restart from there.
• Partial accrual: sitting at 18 and taking a half-day leaves 17.5. The next accrual awards 0.5 days rather than the usual 1, because the balance can't pass the cap.
• Skipped accruals don't come back: a User who caps out in July and takes nothing until October loses the August and September accruals for good.

Why Use It

• Limits financial exposure: unused leave is a liability on the books, and where unused days are paid out on departure, a cap puts a known ceiling on that number.
• Encourages regular use: a balance that has stopped growing is a visible nudge to book time off rather than bank it indefinitely.
• An alternative to use-it-or-lose-it: some jurisdictions prohibit forfeiting accrued leave at year-end. A cap manages balances without taking earned days away.

What This Means for Each Role

• Administrator: turns the cap on per leave policy and sets the multiplier. Owns the number and can change it later.
• Approver: doesn't configure it, but knowing the cap exists explains why a team member's balance has stopped moving.
• User: sees their balance stop growing once it reaches the ceiling. Taking leave restarts accruals.

Common Patterns

• A year and a half of headroom: a 1.50 cap, generous enough to plan a long trip, tight enough to keep balances honest.
• Two years, the default: a 2.00 cap, the usual starting point when there's no specific rule to hit.
• Capped PTO, uncapped sick leave: the cap on the PTO policy only, since banked sick days aren't a reward to protect.

Common Questions