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Guides

PTO guides

Reviewed by José Luis Pérez on

Plain-language answers about paid time off in the United States, with worked examples you can reproduce in the free tools. Every calculation follows the policy you enter, and none of these pages is legal advice.

Guides

  • PTO Accrual by Pay Period: Biweekly vs. Semimonthly. Why 24 and 26 pay periods give different PTO accrual rates, how rounding and the final-period adjustment work, and what changes in a 27-period year.
  • A Simple Time-Off Approval Workflow for Small Teams. How an office manager can track time-off requests and balances for a small team: request states, approvals, reserved hours, and what to record.
  • PTO Balance vs. Available PTO. The difference between PTO balance, reserved, pending, available, and projected hours, with a worked example you can reproduce in the tracker.
  • How to Calculate PTO Accrual. How to calculate PTO accrual per pay period or per hour worked, with the balance formula, a worked example, caps and rounding explained.
  • PTO Accrual Rate Chart. PTO accrual rates for 40 to 200 hours a year: hours per weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly paycheck, and per hour worked.
  • Time Off Request Email Templates. How to write a time off request email, with ready-to-copy templates for vacation, one day, partial days, short notice, date changes and approval.
  • What Are PTO Hours?. What PTO hours are, how you earn and use them, how many days 40 PTO hours is, and the difference between balance, available and pending hours.
  • Unlimited PTO vs. Accrued PTO. How unlimited PTO and accrued PTO differ for a small team: what you track, fairness, unused time, payout questions and how to switch.

Calculators and tools

  • PTO Accrual Calculator. Calculate a PTO balance from your own accrual policy: biweekly or semimonthly pay periods, caps, time off used, and a full ledger you can export.
  • Time Off Request Form. Fill in a time-off request in your browser, then print it or save it as a PDF. No sign-up, nothing stored, and no medical details asked.
  • PTO Tracker. Track one person's PTO balance, approved and pending requests, and accruals in your browser, with reserved, available, and projected hours.
  • PTO Hours to Days Calculator. Convert PTO hours to days and weeks using your own workday length. 40 hours is 5 days at 8 hours a day, with a table of common conversions.
  • Prorated PTO Calculator. Calculate prorated PTO for someone who starts during the policy year, by calendar days or full months, with formulas and worked examples.
  • PTO Calculator for Hourly Employees. Calculate the PTO an hourly employee earns from hours worked and an accrual rate, or work out the rate from a yearly amount such as 80 hours.

Templates for managers

  • PTO Policy Template for Small Businesses. A PTO policy worksheet and an example policy for small businesses: eligibility, accrual, caps, carryover, requests and payout decisions.
  • PTO Tracker Excel Template. Download a free PTO tracker template for Excel or Google Sheets, with columns, running-balance formulas and the mistakes to avoid.

Reference

  • Methodology. The formula, units, rounding, pay period schedules, accrual cap, and limits behind the LeaveTools PTO accrual calculator, with reproducible examples.
  • Sources and References. Official sources behind the statements on LeaveTools pages, what each one supports, the date it was checked, and what the sources do not cover.
  • PTO Glossary. Short, consistent definitions of PTO terms used across LeaveTools: accrual, accrual cap, pay period, biweekly, semimonthly, and balance types.