Hourly accrual allows employees to earn paid time off (PTO) based on the hours they work. While it’s commonly used for hourly workers, it’s also a great option for salaried employees, as long as their worked hours are tracked. If salaried employees don’t punch in, their time cards may show zero hours, and they won’t accrue PTO.
To avoid this, you can set up a schedule policy that automatically adds standard work hours (like 8 per day) to their time cards. This guide walks you through setting up the accrual and linking it to salaried employees so they earn PTO consistently.
Why choose hourly accrual?
Fairness: Employees earn time off in proportion to hours worked.
Compliance: Aligns with state/local sick leave laws that often require hourly accrual.
Flexibility: Supports mixed workforces with both hourly and salaried roles.
If your company has salaried employees who don’t punch in, you’ll need a way to simulate worked hours for PTO to accrue properly. That’s where schedule policies with auto-added hours come in.
Set Up the Accrual Policy
Go to Setup > Policies > Accrual Policies.
Click Add to open the Accrual Wizard.
You will see a list of state and local templates with mandated PTO policies.
If you don’t see your state or area listed, then continue with the custom accrual policy setup.
Go through the steps of setting up the accrual policy
In the Accruals section, choose Hourly Accrual.
6. Select the calculation method.
*Using the timecard is the recommended method for the most accurate accruals.
7. Select the earning codes from the list.
8. Enter how much PTO the employee earns per hour worked (e.g., 0.0333 hours per hour = ~1 day/month).
9. Complete the rest of the setup (eligibility, caps, carryover, etc.) and save the policy.
Go to the Employee Profile.
Click Edit.
Under the Accrual Policy section, select the hourly policy you created.
Save your changes.
Salaried employees who don’t punch: Auto-add hours with a schedule policy
If your salaried employees don’t clock in, their time cards will show zero hours unless you add hours another way. The best method is using a schedule policy with auto-added hours.
Follow the steps below after you’ve applied the hourly accrual policy to make sure PTO accrues correctly.
Go to Setup > Policies > Schedule Policies.
Click Add.
Name the policy (e.g., Salary Auto-Hours).
Edit one of the days (e.g., Monday)
Under Auto Add Hours, enter:
8 hours for each weekday (or your standard schedule).
Click Copy to copy this rule to every other day of the week.
Optional: Delete days that your employees typically don’t work (e.g., Saturday or Sunday)
Save the policy.
**The scheduled task (AUMP) must be enabled to apply these auto-hours to time cards. Make sure this is covered in your schedule task setup.**
Go to Setup > System > Master Profiles.
Click Add (or edit an existing one).
In the Schedule Policy field, choose the auto-hours policy you created.
Check Use Scheduled.
Save the master profile.
Go to the Employee Profile.
Click Edit.
In the Master Profile field, select the new salaried profile.
Save your changes.
Fingercheck will now automatically add hours to their time card (e.g., 8 hours/day), which will be used to calculate their hourly PTO accrual, even though they aren’t punching in.
Additional tips
Dual roles (salary + hourly): Treat the employee as hourly and use bonus or scheduled earnings to reflect salary pay.
Hourly employees: No schedule policy is needed. They accrue based on actual hours worked.
Ready-made templates: Use built-in templates for state/local sick leave laws to stay compliant.