With flexible accrual rules, you describe in your own words how employees earn time off in an allowance, and Factorial calculates the balances for you. This lets you set up rules that come from the law, your collective agreement or your company policy, without manual adjustments every cycle.

Overview

Each allowance in a time off policy is now shown as text, in four parts:

• Basic setup: the name of the allowance, the absence types it covers, the type of balance and the cycle
• Accruing time off: how employees earn time off. For example, 24 days a year granted on 1 January, or 2 days per month worked
• Using time off: how employees can use their balance. For example, whether they can request more days than they have
• Carry-over: what happens to unused balance at the end of the cycle

Accruing time off is set up with One. Basic setup, Using time off and Carry-over keep the same options as before, and you change them with the dropdowns in each section.

Setting up accrual rules with One is free and does not consume One credits.

You can find the definitions of the terms used in this article in Key terms, at the end.

What you can set up

Flexible accrual rules work with fixed balance allowances, in days or in hours. Some examples of rules you can set up:

• Accrual based on the hire date. For example, employees hired on or before the 15th earn the full month, and employees hired later earn nothing for that month
• Different rules for different years in the company, in a single policy. For example, in the first year employees accrue monthly up to 20 days, and on 1 January of their second year they get 22 days at once
• Seniority rules, separate from the general accrual rule. For example, employees accrue 2 days a month as usual and, from their 5th work anniversary, get 1 extra day every year
• How many decimals to keep and how to round. For example, keep two decimals, round up to one decimal, or round to the closest whole number
• Proration for part-time employees. For example, an employee working 50% gets 50% of the full-time entitlement, based on their contract information
• All entitled days granted at once on the last day of the cycle

Rules can only use data that exists in Factorial, such as the hire date, contract hours or termination date.

Edit the accrual rule of an allowance

1. On your sidebar, go to Settings and open your time off policy
2. Select the allowance on the left-hand side
3. Reload the page or click Start new chat, so One starts from a clean conversation
4. Click Edit at the top of the allowance page. One opens with tips and example requests
5. Describe the rule you need. For example: “It is 24 working days a year, not 23”
6. Answer One’s follow-up questions, if any. Simple changes may need none
7. Review One’s explanation of the new rule and its examples. You can ask One to test the rule on a real employee or on made-up examples
8. Apply the rule. The Accruing time off section shows the updated rule
9. Click Save at the top of the page. When the Save button turns grey again, the change is saved

Create a new allowance

1. In your time off policy, click + next to the allowances on the left-hand side
2. Select the absence types the allowance should cover, or continue without selecting any. Factorial suggests absence types that are not yet in any allowance of this policy
3. Review the Basic setup One proposes and confirm it
4. Adjust the Accruing time off rule One proposes. For example: “1 working day on 1 January of each calendar year”
5. Complete Using time off and Carry-over
6. Click Save at the top of the page

If the setup stops half-way, click Continue with One to pick it up where it stopped.

Check a rule with the simulation

The simulation shows, month by month, how much time employees earn with a rule, compared with the previous rule. For example, an employee who works the full year gets 24 days, while one who leaves on 30 June gets 12.

To open it, ask One or click the ⋯ menu at the top of the allowance page. You can run it on real employees or on made-up examples.

Before you change an existing allowance

When you save a change to an allowance, balances are recalculated for the whole current cycle. Choose the option that fits you best.

Option 1 (recommended): create a new policy and move your employees to it

1. Create a new policy with the new rules
2. Move the employees to the new policy. Balances are calculated with the old policy up to each employee’s assignment date, and with the new policy from that date
3. Transfer each employee’s remaining balance to the new policy
4. If everyone should be on this policy, set it as the default policy, so new employees are assigned to it automatically

Option 2: apply the new policy from the start of the next cycle

If your cycle runs from January to December, you can create the new policy now and move your employees to it with the first day of the next cycle (for example, 1 January) as the assignment date. The current cycle is not recalculated, the remaining balance moves as carry-over, and you have time to set up and simulate the rules before anything changes.

Option 3: edit the existing allowance

The change applies to the whole current cycle of all employees in the policy. If you want to keep the current balances, export them before you edit, save the change, and then add manual adjustments so the balances match.

Check your previous manual adjustments. If you used manual adjustments in the current cycle to correct a calculation that the new rule now does by itself, those adjustments still apply, so the correction counts twice. This can happen with options 1 and 3. In that case, apply the new policy from the start of the next cycle (option 2), or review the adjustments employee by employee.

Do’s and don’ts

• Do reload the page or click Start new chat before clicking Edit. Otherwise, One may continue an earlier conversation and reuse old requests
• Do save before leaving the page. If in doubt, ask One: “Is this saved?”
• Don’t reload or leave the page with unsaved changes. They are lost
• Don’t edit the same allowance in two tabs, or with two people at once. The last save replaces the other change
• Don’t ask One to create an allowance from the Home page. Go to the policy and click +

What you can’t set up yet

• A flexible cycle length. The cycle keeps the same options as before
• Allowances based on time worked
• Overtime allowances
• Rules based on data that doesn’t exist in Factorial

Tips and best practices

• Have a clear idea of the rule before you start. The clearer your explanation, the fewer questions One needs to ask
• You can explain the whole rule, paste the text from your collective agreement or policy, or go step by step
• If something isn’t clear, ask One: “Explain this” or “What does this mean?”
• Run the simulation before you save

FAQ

1. Why don’t my changes show on employees’ balances?
   Check that you clicked Save at the top of the allowance page. Nothing applies until you save.
2. A change I made has disappeared. Why?
   It was not saved before you reloaded or left the page, or someone saved the same allowance in another tab. Make the change again and save.
3. One says it could not answer. What do I do?
   Don’t click Save. Reload the page to discard the draft and make the change again in a new chat.
4. Will editing an allowance change past cycles?
   No. Only the current cycle is recalculated.
5. Can One change the cycle, usage or carry-over settings?
   No. If your text includes them, One applies the accrual part and explains what it can’t change. Change those settings with the dropdowns in each section.
6. Does it consume One credits?
   No. Setting up accrual rules with One is free.

Key terms