diff --git a/doc/components/job-usage-calculation.rst b/doc/components/job-usage-calculation.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ede6ca2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/components/job-usage-calculation.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+.. _job-usage-calculation:
+
+#####################
+Job Usage Calculation
+#####################
+
+The raw job usage factor for an association is defined as the sum of products
+of number of nodes used (``nnodes``) and time elapsed (``t_elapsed``). To
+calculate the raw usage for a given association *U*:
+
+
+:math:`U = sum(nnodes \times t\_elapsed)`
+
+flux-accounting keeps track of job usage in a table according to two properties
+that are set when the database is first created: **PriorityDecayHalfLife** and
+**PriorityUsageResetPeriod**. Each of these parameters represent a number of
+weeks by which to hold usage factors up to the time period where jobs no longer
+play a factor in calculating a usage factor. If these options aren't specified,
+the table defaults to 4 usage columns, each which represent one week's worth of
+jobs.
+
+The **job usage factor** table stores past job usage factors per association.
+When an association is first added to the **association** table, they are also
+added to to **job usage factor** table.
+
+The value of **PriorityDecayHalfLife** determines the amount of time that
+represents one "usage period" of jobs. flux-accounting filters out its ``jobs``
+table and retrieves an association's jobs that have completed in the usage
+period.
+
+As time goes on and usage periods get older, their raw usage value has a decay
+factor :math:`D` (0.5) applied to them before they are added to the user's
+current raw usage factor.
+
+:math:`U_{past} = (D \times U_{last\_period}) + (D \times D \times U_{period-2}) + ...`
+
+After the current usage factor is calculated, it is written to the first usage
+bin in the **job usage factor** table along with the other, older factors. The
+oldest factor then gets removed from the table since it is no longer needed.
+
+An example
+==========
+
+Let's say an association has the following job records from the most recent
+**PriorityDecayHalfLife**:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+    UserID Username  JobID         T_Submit            T_Run       T_Inactive  Nodes                                                                               R
+ 0    1002     1002    102 1605633403.22141 1605635403.22141 1605637403.22141      2  {"version":1,"execution": {"R_lite":[{"rank":"0","children": {"core": "0"}}]}}
+ 1    1002     1002    103 1605633403.22206 1605635403.22206 1605637403.22206      2  {"version":1,"execution": {"R_lite":[{"rank":"0","children": {"core": "0"}}]}}
+ 2    1002     1002    104 1605633403.22285 1605635403.22286 1605637403.22286      2  {"version":1,"execution": {"R_lite":[{"rank":"0","children": {"core": "0"}}]}}
+ 3    1002     1002    105 1605633403.22347 1605635403.22348 1605637403.22348      1  {"version":1,"execution": {"R_lite":[{"rank":"0","children": {"core": "0"}}]}}
+ 4    1002     1002    106 1605633403.22416 1605635403.22416 1605637403.22416      1  {"version":1,"execution": {"R_lite":[{"rank":"0","children": {"core": "0"}}]}}
+
+**total nodes used**:  8
+
+**total time elapsed**:  10000.0
+
+:math:`U_{user1002\_current}` is calculated as:
+
+:math:`U_{user1002\_current} = (2 \times 2000) + (2 \times 2000) + (2 \times 2000) + (1 \times 2000) + (1 \times 2000)`
+
+:math:`U_{user1002\_current} = 4000 + 4000 + 4000 + 2000 + 2000`
+
+:math:`U_{user1002\_current} = 16000`
+
+And the association's past job usage factors (each one represents a
+**PriorityDecayHalfLife** period up to the **PriorityUsageResetPeriod**)
+consists of the following:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+    username bank  usage_factor_period_0  usage_factor_period_1  usage_factor_period_2  usage_factor_period_3
+ 0  user1002    C               128.0000               64.00000               64.0000               16.00000
+
+The past usage factors have the decay factor applied to them:
+``[64.0, 16.0, 8.0, 1.0]``
+
+:math:`U_{user1002\_past} = 64.0 + 16.0 + 8.0 + 1.0 = 89`
+
+:math:`U_{user1002\_historical} = U_{user1002\_current} + U_{user1002\_past} = 16000.0 + 89.0 = 16089.0`
+
+:math:`U_{user1002}`'s job usage value now becomes :math:`16089.0`, which takes
+into account both their most recent *and* historical job usage.
diff --git a/doc/index.rst b/doc/index.rst
index 5eb357b4..6e91728b 100644
--- a/doc/index.rst
+++ b/doc/index.rst
@@ -14,4 +14,5 @@ Table of Contents
    guide/accounting-guide
    components/database-administration
    components/fair-share
+   components/job-usage-calculation
    index_man