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.
Key terms
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Time off policy | A set of allowances assigned to a group of employees. Each employee is assigned to one policy from an effective date. |
| Default policy | The policy new employees are assigned to automatically when they join the company. |
| Effective date | The date from which an employee’s assignment to a policy applies. When an employee moves to a new policy, its rules apply from this date. |
| Allowance | The rules for one kind of time off in a policy (for example, vacation or birthday): how much time employees get and how, in which period, how they can use it and what happens to unused time. It has four parts: Basic setup, Accruing time off, Using time off and Carry-over. |
| Basic setup | The first part of the allowance: its name, the absence types it covers, the type of balance and the cycle. |
| Accruing time off | The part of the allowance that holds the accrual rule. It is the only part you set up with One. |
| Using time off | The part of the allowance that defines how employees can use their balance. For example, whether they can request more days than they have. |
| Carry-over | The part of the allowance that defines what happens to unused balance at the end of the cycle: how much moves to the next cycle and when it expires. For example, 5 days that expire after 3 months. |
| Absence type | The kind of absence employees request, such as vacation, birthday or work from home. Each allowance is linked to one or more absence types, which use its balance. |
| Counter | How an employee’s time off balance is shown on the Time Off page. |
| One | Factorial’s AI assistant. You use it to set up Accruing time off by describing the rule in your own words. |
| Flexible accrual rules | The way to define how employees earn time off by describing the rule to One, so you can set up rules from the law, your collective agreement or your company policy. |
| Fixed balance allowance | An allowance that gives a set amount of time per cycle, in days or in hours. Flexible accrual rules work with this type of allowance. |
| Entitlement | The amount of time off an employee is given for a period. For example, 24 days a year. |
| Accrual | How employees earn time off over time. For example, 24 days a year granted on 1 January, or 2 days per month worked. |
| Cycle | The period in which an employee is granted a certain amount of time off. For example, January to December. It is set with the same options as before. |
| Accrual frequency | How often the employee receives the time within the cycle. For example, an employee can be entitled to 24 days in a 12-month cycle and receive them month by month, 2 days at a time. |
| Proration | Giving a proportional part of the entitlement when the employee is not there for the whole cycle or does not work full time. For example, joining or leaving mid-year, part-time contracts or contract changes. |
| Rounding | How decimal amounts are rounded. For example, always up, to the nearest whole day, to half days or to 2 decimals. |
| Simulation | A view that shows what an accrual rule produces, month by month, on real employees or on made-up examples, compared with the previous rule. |
| Balance transfer | Moving an employee’s remaining balance from one counter to another. For example, when you move the employee to a new policy. |
| Manual adjustment | A correction you add by hand to an employee’s counter, to add or remove time. |
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
- Rounding to the nearest whole day instead of always rounding up
- Proportional extra days when an employee reaches a seniority milestone in the middle of the cycle
- Proration based on contract hours for part-time employees. For example, an employee working 50% gets 50% of the full-time entitlement
- All entitled days granted at once on the last day of the cycle
- Extra days linked to seniority. For example, 2 days a month, plus 1 day on the 5th work anniversary
- Different rules for the first year and the following years in a single policy
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
- On your sidebar, go to Settings and open your time off policy
- Select the allowance on the left-hand side
- Click Edit at the top of the allowance page. One opens with tips and example requests
- Describe the rule you need. For example: “It is 24 working days a year, not 23”
- Answer One’s follow-up questions, if any. Simple changes may need none
- 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
- Apply the rule. The Accruing time off section shows the updated rule
- Click Save at the top of the page
Nothing applies until you click Save. When you save, balances are recalculated with the new rule for the whole current cycle. Past cycles don’t change. Read Before you change an existing allowance below first.
Create a new allowance
- In your time off policy, click + next to the allowances on the left-hand side
- 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
- Review the Basic setup One proposes and confirm it
- Adjust the Accruing time off rule One proposes. For example: “1 working day on 1 January of each calendar year”
- Complete Using time off and Carry-over
- Click Save at the top of the page
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. If you don’t want that, we recommend creating a new policy instead:
- Create a new policy with the new rules
- Move the employees to the new policy. The new rules apply from each employee’s assignment date
- Transfer each employee’s remaining balance to the new policy
- If everyone should be on this policy, set it as the default policy, so new employees are assigned to it automatically
If you prefer to edit the existing allowance but keep the current balances, export the balances 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 to correct a calculation that the new rule now does by itself, those adjustments still apply, so the correction counts twice. In that case, create a new policy and move your employees to it instead of editing the existing allowance.
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
- Start a new conversation with One before you click Edit
- 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
-
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. -
Will editing an allowance change past cycles?
No. Only the current cycle is recalculated. -
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. -
Does it consume One credits?
No. Setting up accrual rules with One is free.