Accrual means paid time off is earned progressively rather than granted as a lump sum. With a 20-day annual quota accruing monthly, an employee has earned 10 days by the end of June — which is what they'd be paid out for if they left that day.
The design decisions every policy needs to make explicit:
- Accrual cadence — monthly is the CEE norm; per-pay-period is common in the US.
- Carryover — how many unused days roll into the next year, and whether they expire (a "use it or lose it" cap keeps liability bounded; unlimited carryover builds a payout time bomb).
- Negative balances — whether someone can take days they haven't accrued yet, and what happens if they leave in deficit.
- Country rules override policy. Statutory minimums, mandatory carryover windows and payout-on-termination rules differ across UA, PL, RO and EE — a single global policy that ignores this is non-compliant somewhere.
For a services business, accrual isn't just an HR nicety: unused PTO is a balance-sheet liability, and upcoming time off is a capacity-planning input — the two systems should see the same numbers.
In Helia, balances accrue per policy with per-country public-holiday calendars, approvals feed the team calendar, and approved leave automatically reduces available capacity in the matrix.