To create a time off policy where individuals earn (accrue) time off according to the hours they work:

Click your company name at the top of the main navigation, then click Company Settings.

Click the Paid Time Off tab.

Click the Add PTO Policy button to add a new policy.

Choose Accrue by Hours Worked when selecting the type of policy you would like to create and click Next. 

Configure the appropriate settings, then click Save.

PTO Policy Name: This is the name by which the system will refer to each PTO policy. Examples names could be “Vacation”, “Sick”, “PTO”, etc.

Calendar Label: You may not want the calendar to show which type of time off a person is taking. This field allows you to give this policy a different name (or alias) for purposes of the calendar.

Employee Instructions: This field allows you to add a brief note or instruction that will be displayed to each person who has this policy. This is helpful if you need to remind people about a certain restriction or rule regarding the usage of this particular type of time off.

Do requests require approval?: Built can auto-approve time off requests if you change this setting to "No".

Who receives time off requests?: Choose whether a person’s manager (the person they report to) or an HR Admin will approve their PTO requests. Note that even if you choose the person's manager, all Company Admins, HR Admins, and HR Managers have access to approve or deny all PTO requests should the manager be unable to.

What time interval are time off requests submitted in? From this dropdown menu, you can select the minimum time interval that requests can be submitted for this specific policy. You can choose from 1-minute, 15-minute, 30-minute or half-day intervals.

Is there a waiting period?: If you require that a person is employed for a minimum number of days before taking time off, enter that value here. A common example is a 90-day waiting period. Accruals can still occur during this waiting period if you'd like, but the employee will only be able to request time for dates after the end of the waiting period.

When do account balances reset?: Most companies handle paid time off on a yearly basis, so at some point, all accounts are reset. This is typically on January 1 or on the employee’s hire date. Alternatively, you can choose an arbitrary date during the year if necessary. On the chosen reset date, each employee’s PTO account will be reset according to the policy’s settings which include any carryover rules.

How much time off is earned?: Enter the number of hours earned per hour worked. For example, if your employees earn .05 hours per hour worked, you will enter .05 in this box.

Add another tier (optional): If people earn time off at different rates based on hours worked, you can define one or more tiers by clicking Add another rate tier. For example, individuals might earn 0.05 hours per hour worked for their first 20 hours. For any hours beyond 20 hours worked, they might earn 0.075 hours per hour worked.

Do you allow negative account balances?: If you allow individuals to have a negative balance, you can enter that amount here as a fixed number of hours. Or, you may choose to not set a specific restriction and instead choose the "unlimited" option. If an employee tries to submit a PTO request that goes more negative than you allow, the system will prevent them from submitting that request.

Does unused time carry over to the next year?: Unless you change this setting, all unused time off will be lost as of the reset date. If you allow people to carry a portion of their remaining PTO balance from year to year, you can enter that here as a fixed number of hours. By default, carry-over hours are added to the same account during the reset process. You can, however, choose to add carry-over hours into another account if needed. For example, any leftover vacation hours are added to a medical savings account.

Do accounts have a max balance?: If you've chosen to allow carry-over hours from one year to the next, you may want to set a maximum account balance to prevent employees from stockpiling too many unused PTO hours year after year.

Do accounts have a max accrual amount for the year?: This maximum accrual amount is the total number of hours that can be earned with this specific policy before the next reset date. Note that this setting works in tandem with the previous setting. The difference is that this setting is concerned with how much has been earned in the current year, whereas the previous setting is concerned with the actual account balance. Accruals will stop if either of these maximums is reached.

Do accounts have a max usage amount for the year? Independent of how much a person earns or has in their account, you can limit how much they actually use within a year. For example, an individual may earn up to 40 hours of sick time but only be allowed to use 24 of those hours in one year. 

Save: Make sure you click the save button when you’re done configuring each PTO policy.