The Accruals tab controls how the accrual basis formula is evaluated for intra-plan year crediting periods, including some rare options as to how the interest credit is applied to the accruals.

If the Accruals only occur on interest crediting dates, decrement, benefit commencements, and dates associated with this field option is selected (which is the default), all accruals (including interest accruals and the accruals defined by the Accrual Basis Formula) will only occur on interest crediting dates, decrement, all benefit commencement dates, and the calculation dates associated with the optional scalar date or array field. (Note, not all dates associated with this field will be used, but rather, only the dates that are already in the set of calculation dates). This parameter can help when extra dates in the set of calculation dates affect the cash balance calculation. In the Detailed Results, the values for any other dates will be the values for the previous relevant date. This option is not available for daily crediting since all dates are relevant in that case.

The crediting period accrual basis is determined by parameter controls whether the Accrual Basis Formula requires adjustment for crediting periods during the plan year. For example, if interest is credited quarterly and the accrual basis formula is #SALARY, should that salary be used directly, which would mean using cumulative plan year salary at each crediting date, or should the formula results be “parsed”, which would yield the salary earned in each crediting period?

Parsing the accrual basis formula to the change between, the default option, takes the result from the Accrual Basis Formula (which is assumed to be the cumulative plan year values to date, such as salary) and breaks it into the amount earned (the change) during each crediting period. There are two options for determining the appropriate change amount:  either Interest crediting periods or Recognized accruals in the current plan year. For example, if the plan credits interest monthly, the accrual basis formula is #SALARY, service changes only at month ends, but no service accrues in a particular plan year until August, the August accrual will be based on:

• Just the August salary if Interest crediting periods is selected, or 
• All salary earned through the end of August if Recognized accruals in the current plan year is selected.

Regardless of how the change is determined, a benefit accrual is recorded for each calculation date on which service differs from the prior calculation date, and once a basis amount (salary in our example) is reflected for a benefit accrual, if parsing applies, it is not recognized again (i.e., there is no double counting).  For example, if there was an extra calculation date at 8/15 and service differed from the 7/31 and 8/30 values, there would be a benefit accrual at 8/15 (in our example, based on either total salary accrued through 8/15, or August salary accrued through 8/15), and another benefit accrual at 8/31, with the 8/31 accrual reflecting only salary earned between 8/15 and 8/31.  (Note that the Service Definition Set option to "Change service only at decrement and end of ..." is recommended to ensure that cash balance benefit accruals are only recorded when appropriate for the plan.)

Using the accrual basis formula directly assumes that the result of the Accrual Basis Formula equals the correct incremental value for each crediting period, so no adjustment (i.e., parsing) is applied. The default option is to parse the accrual basis formula, and that is typically what is desired.  If "manual parsing" is required for some reason, such as to build in a condition as to whether or not 1,000 hours was worked, it will also be necessary to coordinate the parameters of the Cash Balance Crediting topic of any #SALARY-type custom operators referenced in the accrual basis formula.

Discount current plan year accruals from end of crediting period indicates that current plan year accruals will be discounted from the end of the crediting period to the calculation date at the current crediting rate. This option is only available for annual crediting (as specified on the Structure tab). It can be thought of as mathematically equivalent to simply crediting the accrual at the end of the plan year.

Credit interest to ½ or all of current period accrual gives interest during the crediting period to half (or all, if selected) of the current period accrual. For annual crediting, crediting interest on half of the current period accrual can be thought of as assuming that the annual accrual is earned equally throughout the year and so is entitled to ½ year of interest. Credit interest to all of current period accrual gives interest during the crediting period to the entire current period accrual. This might be appropriate, for example, for variable annuity pension plans. Please note that this parameter is only available for monthly or less frequent crediting periods.

Reflect active rate change prorated per partial crediting period potentially adjusts the interest rate for current period accruals when there is a rate change specified on the Active Rate Change tab.  By default, the crediting rate for the current period accrual is the full crediting period rate in effect at the time interest is credited on the accrual.  This can appear confusing when there is a partial crediting period (i.e., the "Or, if less, crediting period through completed . . . " parameter is checked on the Structure tab) because the date of an active rate change is automatically a calculation date for the component, so interest on any balance is credited through the appropriate partial crediting period prior to the rate change and the new rate is effective as of the beginning of the partial crediting period during which the rate change occurs. Thus, for a calendar year plan, if the crediting period is annual but interest is credited for completed quarters in a partial year and the interest rate changes from 0% to 4% on May 1, the balance will get interest at 0% through March 31 and 3% from April 1 through the end of the year.  However, if the box to Credit interest to xx of current plan accrual is checked, and this Reflect active rate change prorated per partial crediting period box is not checked, the accrual (or 1/2 of the accrual as appropriate) will get interest at the full 4% for the year.  If this box is checked, the accrual will get interest at 3%, prorating 0% for the first partial period in the crediting period and 3% for the balance of the crediting period. The prorated rate will be determined arithmetically or geometrically depending on the For crediting periods less than one year, adjust crediting rate parameter on the Structure tab.

Do not credit interest on accruals or balance when service earned in the crediting period is zero indicates that no interest should be credited during crediting periods where the Based on Service Definition Set service accrual evaluates to zero. For example, this option might be used to only credit interest to participants still employed at the end of the plan year.