Configuring Accruals and Beginning Balances for Time Follow

Enable Accruals

• Log in as an administrator.
• Click Settings.
• Click My Company.
• Check the Use Time Accrual box in the Time heading.
• Enter the Effective Date, which is usually the same year.
• Click Save.

Set Accrual Rates and Beginning Balances for Employees

• Log in as an administrator.
• Click Settings.
• Click People.
• Click Project Rates tab.
• In the Accruals section, click on Add Accrual.
• Select the Time Type to accrue (vacation, sick, etc.).
• Enter the number of hours to accrue each period.
• Select the Accrual Period (how often to accrue hours).
• Select the Start Date to begin accruing hours.
• Enter the number of hours accrued as of the start date in the Starting Balance field.
• Click Add.
• Repeat for various time types, as necessary (vacation, sick, etc.).
• Click Save.

Accrual Calculation Notes

• All accruals are based on the first day of the calendar year.
• Start date is either My Company's accrual effective date or user accrual start date, whichever is later. Weekly accruals must have a start date begin on a Monday.
• End date is today (not the pay period, timecard date of a past timecard, etc.).
• Length is start date to today, divided into whole periods (weeks, months, etc.). Partial year is divided into days.
• The total amount of accrued time is equal to starting balance + periods*accrue hours.
• For Yearly accrual periods, all time that is set to accrue becomes available at the start date. For Daily and Monthly periods, the time is accrued at the end of each period. 

Accrual Maintenance for a New Year

The following instructions will assume that your accruals are up to date for the previous year and that you will update all information at once. There is no partial way to do this (i.e. finishing later is an option if you are okay with people seeing wrong accrual information in the interim).

To reset accruals for the new year:

• Run the Time Accrual report for the previous year. Print this or save it.
• Each person's balance is their new Starting Balance (old balance + accrued – used = next year's balance).
• Edit each user and change the Starting Balance to the new value.
• You can leave user start dates as they are. Even if the person started mid-previous year, a historical start date doesn’t affect accrual calculations.
• When you are done updating all the users, change the accrual Effective Date in My Company to this year (1/1/20xx).

To use accruals in SpringAhead with manually calculated accruals:

• Input zero in the Accrue Hours field (accrual rate).
• Set the start date to a date that you know how many hours the person has accrued.
• Set the Starting Balance to be their earned amount.
• SpringAhead now correctly shows what they have, will show future use against that, and won’t calculate any new accrual amount.
• At the next period they accrue, update the user’s accrual by starting at step #2 again.

Disable Accruals

If you no longer wish to use accruals you can easily disable this feature with the following steps:

• Log in as an administrator.
• Click Settings.
• Click My Company.
• Uncheck the Use Time Accrual box in the Time heading.
• Click Save.