Track accrued leave and the year-end balance together Compare leave entitlement, carry-over, leave taken, booked time, and a proposed new request against a defined leave year so you can see what is accrued now, what will still be left at year-end, and whether unused days may be at risk under your carry-over cap.
Quick scenarios
Assumptions
Accrual is spread evenly across the leave year entered. Real policies can differ on carry-over limits, rounding, public holidays, part-year starters, and when leave may be taken ahead of accrual.
Result
18 days projected remaining
Total entitlement is 31 days, of which 7.22 days (54.14 hours) are accrued by the check date and 13 days are already taken or booked.
Available to book now
-0.78
Booked share
16.13%
Remaining working weeks
3.6
Average monthly headroom
1.96
Projected hours left
135
Days above carry-over cap
13
Taken leave is ahead of accrual Leave taken is 0.78 days ahead of accrued entitlement as of the date entered, so booking headroom depends on employer policy.Requested leave fits the year but is ahead of accrual 5 requested days fit inside the year-end balance, but are 5.78 days ahead of accrued headroom as of the check date.
Days off and PTO calculator guide: accrued leave, remaining balance
A days off calculator, PTO calculator, or annual leave calculator turns leave entitlement into a more practical balance view. It combines annual allowance, carry-over, leave already taken, future bookings, a proposed new request, carry-over limits, and an accrual date so you can see not only what is left in total but also what is reasonably available now.
What the calculator is measuring
The calculator starts with total entitlement for the leave year, which is annual allowance plus any carry-over. It then compares that entitlement with leave already taken and leave already booked so you can see the projected balance if the plan stays unchanged.
It also separates accrued entitlement from total entitlement. That distinction matters because some organisations let employees book against the whole year while others expect leave taking to broadly track accrual during the year.
The request check answers the common follow-up question behind PTO balance searches: can this next holiday, vacation, or annual leave request fit the balance? It compares the requested days with both accrued headroom and projected year-end headroom so the result is more useful than a single remaining-days number.
How the accrual and balance view works
The leave year creates the accrual window. The calculator measures how far through that window the accrual date sits and applies that same share to the total entitlement entered. That produces an accrued-to-date allowance that can be compared with leave already taken.
Projected year-end balance is then calculated by subtracting both leave taken and booked future leave from total entitlement. The result is helpful because it shows whether the current plan still fits inside the annual allowance even when leave has been booked well ahead of the accrual date.
Total entitlement = Annual allowance + Carry-over
The full leave pot available for the leave year entered.
Projected remaining leave = Total entitlement - Leave taken - Booked leave
The year-end balance if the current leave plan stays unchanged.
A planning estimate of unused leave that may need to be taken before year-end if the carry-over cap is strict.
PTO balance, request checks, and carry-over risk
PTO calculators and vacation accrual calculators often stop at the current balance. That is useful, but HR planning usually needs two extra checks: whether the next request can be approved now, and whether unused leave could sit above a carry-over cap at the end of the leave year.
The requested-days field checks the proposed booking against accrued leave first. If the request fits the projected year-end balance but not the accrued-to-date headroom, the calculator flags that the request may still depend on employer policy. That mirrors real leave workflows, where some employers allow taking leave ahead of accrual and others do not.
The carry-over cap is not a legal rule inside this tool. It is a policy input. If your handbook says only 5 days can be carried forward, the at-risk figure estimates how many days or hours may need to be used, paid out, or otherwise handled before the leave year closes.
Worked example: 28 days plus 3 days carried over
Suppose the leave year runs from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026, annual allowance is 28 days, carry-over is 3 days, 8 days have already been taken, and 5 more days are booked. Total entitlement is 31 days and the projected year-end balance is 18 days.
If a new 5-day request is being tested, the projected year-end balance still has room for it, but the accrued-to-date balance may not. If the carry-over cap is 5 days, the same 18-day projected balance also shows 13 days above the cap, which is a useful prompt to plan time off before the year closes.
If the accrual check date is 26 March 2026, only part of that entitlement has accrued so far. That means the year-end balance can still look healthy even while leave already taken is slightly ahead of the simple accrual curve on that date.
When hours matter more than days
Many annual leave policies track days for full-time employees but hours for part-time, compressed-hours, or variable-shift workers. A five-day week with equal days can often be understood in days, while a three-day schedule with long shifts may need hours to avoid understating the value of each leave day.
The hours-per-day field converts accrued and projected balances into hours without claiming to calculate statutory entitlement. Use it when your HR system deducts leave in hours or when you need to translate a days-off balance into a schedule with longer or shorter working days.
Why leave calculations still depend on policy
Holiday entitlement rules differ across employers and countries. Carry-over limits, treatment of public holidays, rounded half-days, part-year starters, part-time schedules, vacation payout rules, and whether leave may be taken ahead of accrual can all change the practical interpretation of the result.
That is why the calculator is best used as a planning baseline. It makes the arithmetic transparent, but policy decides what is actually bookable or payable in your situation.
OPM - Annual Leave — Official OPM leave reference covering accrual rates, balances, and annual-leave usage concepts.
Frequently asked questions
Why can the projected year-end balance be positive while available leave now is negative?
Because the year-end balance uses total entitlement for the full leave year, while available-to-book-now compares leave already taken with the portion that has accrued by the check date.
Does the calculator include public holidays?
No. It only uses the entitlement, carry-over, taken leave, and booked leave values you enter. Public-holiday treatment depends on employer policy and local law.
Can I use this for part-time workers?
Yes, if the entitlement and leave entries are already expressed on the same basis. The calculator does not derive part-time prorating on its own.
Why does the calculator ask for working days per week?
That lets it convert the remaining leave into an approximate working-weeks view so the year-end balance is easier to interpret operationally.
Is this the same as a PTO calculator?
Yes for balance planning. PTO, vacation, holiday, and annual leave are different policy terms, but this calculator handles the shared arithmetic: entitlement, carry-over, accrued leave, taken leave, booked leave, and projected remaining balance.
Can the calculator tell me whether a new leave request fits?
Yes. Enter the requested days in the new request field. The calculator compares that request with accrued headroom and projected year-end balance so you can see whether it fits now, fits the year but may be ahead of accrual, or exceeds the entered entitlement plan.
What does days above carry-over cap mean?
It is the projected year-end balance minus the carry-over cap you entered. If the result is positive, those days may need to be taken, paid out, approved as an exception, or otherwise handled according to the applicable policy.
Why might I calculate leave in hours instead of days?
Hours are often clearer for part-time, compressed-hours, or irregular-shift workers because one leave day may not always represent the same number of paid hours. The hours-per-day field translates the day balance into an hours estimate for planning.
