An absence administrator is configuring a new time off plan.

A period schedule establishes the recurring processing periods used by the time off plan and therefore determines its default accrual frequency. For example, a monthly period schedule normally causes Workday to process periodic accruals monthly, while a weekly schedule provides weekly processing periods. This behavior can be modified through an accrual frequency override, custom frequency, or front-loaded configuration, but the period schedule supplies the standard framework.

The schedule also defines period start and end dates used to retrieve and process time off, organize balance reporting, evaluate period-based eligibility criteria, and determine which effective dates are available for time off plan components. Every time off plan must therefore reference a valid period schedule.

Public holidays are defined through holiday calendars rather than period schedules. The maximum number of consecutive absence days is controlled by a Consecutive Day Maximum validation. The types of time off available to workers are determined through time off types, underlying time offs, eligibility, and security configuration. These functions do not belong to the period schedule. Among the available choices, determining the plan’s default accrual frequency is the defining period-schedule characteristic.