How many days will you lose at year-end?
Most workers do not know how their company's PTO carryover policy works until December comes and the days are gone. This tracker takes 30 seconds and tells you the deadline, the days at risk, and what they are worth.
Works for use-it-or-lose-it, capped carryover, unlimited carryover, and cash-out policies.
8 days at risk of being forfeited
Value at risk if you do not use them: $2,400
Your deadline is
December 31, 2026
182 days until the deadline
How we got there
| Your policy | Use it or lose it (forfeit at year-end) |
| Days left | 8 |
| Days that will carry over | 0 |
| Days that would be forfeited | 8 |
| Value of forfeited days | $2,400 |
Local context
US PTO policies vary by employer and state. California, Montana, and Nebraska treat accrued PTO as wages — forfeiture is restricted there. Most other states allow use-it-or-lose-it.
Want a reminder before the deadline?
We will email you ~30 days before your leave year ends.
When carryover policies actually matter
Use-it-or-lose-it
Any PTO not used by the leave-year cutoff disappears. No payout, no rollover. This is the policy with the highest cost of inaction — if you are this far into the year and have days left, the deadline is your single most important calendar entry.
Worth noting: a few US states (California, Montana, Nebraska) treat accrued PTO as wages, which restricts true forfeiture. If your employer is headquartered in one of those states, your effective policy may be closer to a cash-out.
Capped carryover
You can roll a fixed number of days into the next year — commonly 5, sometimes 10. Anything above the cap is forfeited. The math here is simple but easy to miss: if you have 12 days left and a 5-day cap, the 7 above the cap are gone unless you use them.
Always check whether the cap applies on the year-end date (December 31) or on a separate “use by” date (e.g., March 31 of the following year). Those two policies look identical on paper but produce wildly different deadlines.
Unlimited carryover
Whatever you do not use, you keep. Often paired with a high accrual cap or a directed-leave clause where the employer can require you to take some days off once your balance crosses a threshold. The risk here is not forfeiture — it is balance creep that turns into a single, awkward, “use these eight weeks in the next quarter or we will direct it” conversation.
Cash-out
Unused days are paid out at year-end (or at separation). Common in countries where statutory leave cannot legally be forfeited (Korea's default, parts of the EU, California PTO). The trade-off: cash-out is paid at your current salary, not your future salary. If you are due for a raise, it is more economically valuable to use the leave than to cash it out.
What to actually do this week
- Confirm your policy in writing — your employee handbook or HRIS, not what someone said in standup.
- Know your exact deadline. December 31 is the most common, but not the only one.
- If days are at risk, block the leave on the calendar before you ask. Asking for “some time in November” is much easier when the dates are already in your manager's view.
- Use the email templates if the ask is awkward.
Have days you need to use? Plan them.
The optimizer ranks every PTO window in the rest of your year by leverage.
Open the optimizer