PTO Balance vs. Available PTO
Your PTO balance is the time you have today, after time off that has already been taken. Available PTO is that balance minus approved time off that has not happened yet, so it is what you can still request. Your projected balance looks ahead: it is what the balance is expected to be on a future date, after future accruals and planned time off.
Five numbers, five questions
Each number answers a different question. Mixing them up is the most common source of PTO disagreements.
| Number | Question it answers | Changes when |
|---|---|---|
| Balance | How many hours do I have today? | PTO accrues, an adjustment is recorded, or approved time off is taken |
| Reserved | How many hours are already promised to approved future time off? | A future request is approved, canceled, or its first day arrives |
| Pending | How many hours are waiting for a decision? | A request is submitted, approved, rejected, or withdrawn |
| Available | How many hours can I still request? | Balance or reserved changes |
| Projected | What will my balance be on a future date? | Future accruals or approved future time off change |
The PTO glossary gives short definitions of the available balance, reserved, pending, and projected balance.
A worked example
Synthetic example. An employee starts the year with 40 hours. Today is 2026-03-01 unless a step says otherwise.
| Step | What happens | Balance | Reserved | Pending | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Starting balance of 40 hours | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| 2 | Request for 8 hours on 2026-04-20 submitted, pending | 40 | 0 | 8 | 40 |
| 3 | Request for 16 hours from 2026-04-06 approved | 40 | 16 | 8 | 24 |
| 4 | 2026-04-06 passes (today is 2026-04-10) | 24 | 0 | 8 | 24 |
| 5 | The pending request is canceled | 24 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
Notice what does not happen. The pending request in step 2 never changes the balance or the available hours. Approving the 16-hour request in step 3 lowers available hours right away, but the balance only drops in step 4, when the time off actually starts. And the 16 hours are deducted once, not at approval and again when taken.
Why time off should be deducted only once
A common spreadsheet mistake is to subtract a request when it is approved and then subtract it again when the employee is out. The balance ends up 16 hours too low, and nobody can tell why. Keeping approved future time off in a separate reserved column avoids this: the hours move from reserved to taken on the first day off, and the balance changes only then.
The same idea explains why available PTO can be lower than the balance. If you have 40 hours and 16 are reserved, you still have 40 hours today, but only 24 are free to request.
Projected balance and future accruals
Projected balance adds what you expect to earn and subtracts what is already approved. If you accrue 4 hours every two weeks, your projected balance for the end of the year can be much higher than today's balance. That is useful for planning a long trip, but those hours are not available until they are earned. To estimate future accruals from your policy, use the PTO accrual calculator.
Try it
Open the PTO tracker and enter:
- Start date 2026-01-01 and starting balance 40.
- A time off entry for 2026-04-20, 8 hours, status Pending.
- A time off entry for 2026-04-06, 16 hours, status Approved.
The tracker uses today's date, so depending on when you try it, the April requests may already be in the past. Use dates a few weeks from today to see the reservation.
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Reviewed by José Luis Pérez on