How to set up a leave policy

Step by step

1. 1

   Choose how time is earned

   Six presets rather than a rules builder: granted up front, each pay period, monthly, per hours worked, unlimited, or set by an admin. Each is either clearly right for your policy or clearly wrong.

2. 2

   Start from a state statute if one applies

   Twenty one states mandate paid sick leave on four different accrual rates. Pick the state and PTODesk fills the form from its own rule table — the same table that renders the public state pages.

3. 3

   Check what was loaded

   California, for example, loads as 1 hour per 30 worked, an 80-hour accrual cap, a 40-hour use cap and a 90-day wait, with the statute and the date it was last verified alongside.

4. 4

   Edit it if you are more generous

   A statute is a floor, never a ceiling. Every value stays editable and the policy keeps its link to the rule, so we can flag it if the law changes.

5. 5

   Set the three caps

   They do different jobs: the annual cap stops earning, the use cap limits what can be taken in a year, and the balance cap is the most anyone may ever hold.

6. 6

   Decide what happens at year end

   What carries over, whether it is capped, and whether carried time expires. Carryover that expires after 90 days — the California pattern — is a setting, not a workaround.

7. 7

   Save

   The policy applies from the next accrual run. Entries already on the ledger are never rewritten, so changing a policy today cannot silently change what somebody earned last year.