Accruals for sick and vacation time not functioning properly

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, lara11.

If sick and vacation accruals are accruing incorrectly, you can fix them while editing an employee's profile.

Here's how:

1. In your top menu bar, go to Employees, then Employee Center.
2. Double-click an employee who's sick/vacation accruals are not accruing properly.
3. Access the Payroll Info tab.
4. Hit your Sick/Vacation button.
5. Correct the information in your Hours available as of [date] fields for both their Sick and Vacation sections.
6. In the Sick and Vacation window, click OK.
7. From your Edit Employee screen, select OK.

I've also included a detailed resource about fixing sick/vacation time which is accruing incorrectly: Sick & vacation time incorrect or not accruing on paychecks

Please feel welcome to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you for the reply but your insert is not for payroll, its for recurring transactions. I know how to manually edit the accruals for the employees, but that doesn't solve the problem. The only way the software will stop accruing is if the yearly max is met. Meaning, if my employee has accrued160 hours per calendar year max for vacation and they have used 60 of it, they should have 100 hours left and the system shouldn't accrue any more. QB is accruing based off the available hours and not accounting for the vacation used in the yearly max. Is there a way to make the software take both the available hours and the hours used into account for the yearly max?

Thanks for getting back to us, lara11.

We have two types of max limit options for sick and vacation time:

• Maximum hours at a time: The total hours someone can save up at once. They'll accrue hours as long as their balance is below the maximum. They might accrue more than the maximum in a single year if they use some.
  • Ex. You set your maximum number of hours to 40. Maria accrues 40 hours by August and uses 10 hours in October. She'll accrue more sick time on her next paycheck even though the new year hasn’t started.
• Maximum hours for the year: The total hours someone can save in one year. Once they accrue this maximum, they won't accrue anymore until the next year.
  • Ex. Let's say you set your maximum number of hours to 40. Joe accrues 40 hours by August and uses 10 hours in October. He won't accrue more sick time until the new year starts.

The option to account for both available and use hours isn't possible. However, you can choose to carry forward any balances to the following year by entering the number of hours in the Maximum hours to carry over field.

Also, QuickBooks software should stop accruing sick and vacation once the maximum limit is reached if the accrual limit is set to Maximum hours for the year in the Company Preferences section. Let us confirm that this is the time-off policy you've chosen.

Before we proceed, let's ensure your QuickBooks Desktop is updated to the latest release. This guarantees you have the most recent features and fixes. After that, you can follow the steps below to double-check the accrued limit.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Edit menu, then select Preferences.
2. Select Payroll and Employees, then go to the Company Preferences tab.
3. Click Sick and Vacation.
4. Select the Maximum hours for the year under the Maximum type.
5. You can enter any balance to carry forward in the Maximum hours to carry over box.
6. Once done, hit OK.

If the problem persists, you can also run the Verify and Rebuild data. Since issues with your company file can sometimes cause unexpected behavior on the software, running this ensures that your company file is free of any data damage.

You can refer to this article for more detailed instructions on changing the sick and vacation time default settings: Set up and track time off in payroll.

Do you want to create a personalized report for your employees' vacation and sick time? If so, check out this resource for a complete guide: Create a Sick and Vacation report for employees.

Please let us know if you have further payroll-related questions. We're always willing to assist.

I am having the same issue.  I have spent hours on the phone with customer support and still not resolved.  It sucks for me having to manually adjust for 10 employees, I can't imagine 40+.  

QB Team, we use QB Enterprise 2022, and when our employees reach the max amount they can accrue (120Hrs standard, more in some cases)  the system continues to accrue hours. Aside from having to track and change 30 employees, employees get upset any time we make these corrections as we are taking from their PTO hours they thought they had. They also stop trusting the system and the company to manage this as this is not the first time/year this happens. 

We have spent countless hours with QB support and this is not fixed. How can QB have a payroll system that does not track PTO correctly? please fixed this ASAP. 

Hey there, @Oscar73.

I'll help you find out why sick and vacation leave is accruing improperly in QuickBooks Desktop. 

Sometimes accruals leave pay may accrue erroneously from your employee paycheck if you have incorrect payroll items and setup. 

Furthermore, let's update our tax table to get the newest payroll tax table in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll to stay compliant with paycheck calculations. Find out if you have the latest tax table and download it.

Here's how:

1. Select Employees, then select Get Payroll Updates.
2. Select the Download Entire Update checkbox.
3. Select Download Latest Update. An informational window appears when the download is complete.

If it is already up-to-date, I recommend contacting our support team again to investigate this error you've encountered.

If you need to track where your business stands for employee expenses, check this article for your guide: Customize the payroll reports.

Let me know in the comment section if you have any other concerns or questions. It's always my pleasure to help.

I just had this happen to us on just ONE employee.  Her anniversary date hit in Setp, so she rec'd her annual accrual deposit in check dated 9/23/22, and then again the very next paycheck date of 10/07/22 she got another dump.  I cannot figure out why.  

I had the same issue in late Nov 2022 and called support 2 times, 1st time wasted 1.5hrs on the phone no solution offered stating will call u back (LOL never did)  and 2nd time wasted 1 hr after which time I said enough is enough u guys have a BUG IN A CODE (my formulas for each employee and the whole office is correct) which if they already knew about it, why waste my time when I called 2nd time. This has been a known problem 2nd time I called as the agent finally admitted and the agent still wasted 1 hr of my time knowing there is no solution other then to manually for each employee uncheck the box to keep counting the time. However, what happens in 2023 when UNUSED hours have to roll over?  I will have to manually tally each employee. FIX YOUR CODE and STOP HIRING MID LEVEL COMP SCI PPL to write your code Quick Books. For the money I pay to do all the work myself, you can at least check your math in the code and learn C++ languge before you realease a faulty code! 

same happened for me. Waiting on them to fix their code. They have a bug in their code- You need a simple IF STATMENT in a code: 

if  HOURS < threshold, ADD them, else don't. 

I have had the same issue since 2018.  Back then I was told to upgrade to 2019 and it would be fixed. NOPE. Same problem as described by numerous users in this thread (and several other threads) in the community.  Now I am using 2022 and it STILL DOESN'T WORK ACCURATELY.   Please stop posting generic "how to set up sick time" responses.  The set up is not the issue.  It is the actual software algorithms.  Simply stated, here are the issues we have experienced (same as others have stated):

1) The Maximum Hours For The Year does not work.   If my employee uses any time off (Sick/Vacation) during the year, QB will accrue past the Maximum we set.  

2) New in 2023:  Beginning of the Year Accrual was inaccurate for 5 out of 60 employees.  Completely unexplainable.  Spent hours with tech on phone and they were baffled.  Set up is accurate because it worked for 55 employees.  The other 5 either got 0 hours or a strange amount such as 38.90 or 37.72 hrs granted to them on Jan 1.  Makes absolutely no sense that the "Hours accrued at beginning of the year" which is set to 40 hrs would do anything other than accrue 40 hrs.  

Please update us on the priority/status of the fix.

Yes!  The vacation works properly but not the sick pay.  Very time consuming indeed to keep track by hand and paid time off report for almost 60 employees. 

We have the accrual on .03333 per every hour worked and that does accrue properly and the usage is correct but the sick time accrued won't max out at 48 hours as specified.   

Also, the YTD on the paycheck stubs was stopped after the first two paychecks when we implemented this sick pay.  It's been a year since and no resolution.  The information for the employee to look at is no longer on the stubs (as it was incorrect) so they need to call us to ask if they have anything available.

We have a PTO policy - a single policy that combines both Vacation and Sick time as allowed under state law.  The problem with using "Vacation" versus "Sick" in QB for our PTO program is that the Vacation setting DOES NOT ALLOW carryover hours. What? It is traditionally Vacation hours that are carried over under company and state law, not Sick time.

So we are into April 2023 ... 5 years after my initial posting about this issue and there is still no resolution.  Crazy.

Im also having the same issue! I have called numerous times and the only solution they come up is to manually click on each employee every time I print paychecks who have reached the 40 hr limit. This is so time consuming and prone to making mistakes. QB Please fix it!!

None of the "fixes" sent over actually fix the lack of functionality. I would expect better from a program that cost me over $2,000.00. 

Hello there, cavaso and lara11. This isn't the kind of service we want you to experience. I appreciate all the efforts that you exert to get this resolved. Allow me to step in for a moment and share some information about this.

It is recommended that you keep your QuickBooks Desktop software up to date with the latest release. This ensures that the program is running smoothly with all the latest fixes and patches.

 In case you want to do a manual update, here's how:

1. Close your company files and QuickBooks.
2. Open the Windows Start menu.
3. Search for QuickBooks Desktop. Right-click the icon and select Run as administrator.
4. While on the No Company Open screen, go to the Help menu and select Update QuickBooks Desktop. 
5. Go to the Options tab. Select Mark All and then select Save. 
6. Go to the Update Now tab and select the Reset Update checkbox.
7. When you're ready, select Get Updates. 

To know more about this, you can refer to this article: Update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release.

If the issue persists, I would suggest contacting our Customer Support Team. They can review the case number and offer further troubleshooting steps to fix the problem. To reach them click this article:  QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Support.

In case you want to create a custom report for your employee's vacation and sick time used, click this article: Report an employee's vacation and sick time used, available.

If there's anything else I can assist you with regarding your payroll, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm always available to help you out. Keep safe.

I have been having this issue since 2019.  I have spent hours on the phone and elevated it to all the levels possible.  I'm told to enter all employees over as new.  That is not a fix as the new employees that were entered had the same problem of incorrect calculations for sick time.  This is an issue that QB does not want to address.  I have also sent "bug" reports thru the program and that makes no difference either.  If there were another option for bookkeeping, I would not be using QB.

Read my post.  This is an issue QB does not want to fix and that's the bottom line.  I have done all the fixes and none work.  Even manually adjusting the accrued time and it still changes.  It is bad programming.

They just had an update and actually mentioned they had their engineers fix things the community has brought to their attention....... BUT NOT THIS ONE.....  sigh....  I don't really notice any difference.  

Just an update: the office of the president person had me enter the employees as new employees and had them merge with the existing employee and this was supposed to fix the issue.  IT DID NOT.  LOL

It is a known issue that the sick time does not accrue properly but I guess they don't care enough to fix it.  The person who tried to help was very nice and we did all we can.  Until QB fixes the issue, I will be stuck calculating myself.  We ended up paying one employee extra hours because he saw it on the pay stub.  I do not have it print on the pay stub anymore. 

This problem is not high on their priority list.  Owner of my company tried going to the president as well, no help.  We have told all our staff of the problem, so we have been able to make the changes without anyone needing to be paid extra.  It is a huge pain the butt at the end of the year!  

As of 7/29/24 this function is STILL not working. Sick accrual does not work and I have to manually fix it every time an employee uses sick time. Unbelievable that it is still not working after all of this time!

We love seeing new people come to the Community space, BGR1. I'll ensure your employees’ sick and accrual are managed accurately and efficiently in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT).

Before we proceed, let's ensure your QuickBooks Desktop is updated to its latest release. It guarantees you have the most recent features before setting up accruals for sick and vacation time.

Moreover, there are several possible reasons why sick/vacation time doesn't accrue on your employees' paychecks or isn’t being deducted from their total, it could be due to:

• Incorrect payroll items.
• The employee's sick/vacation setup is incorrect.
• The Do not accrue sick/vacation pay box is checked
• Your employee has reached the maximum number of hours.

To resolve this issue effectively, follow these steps:

• Determine how you set up the payroll item
• Double-check the employee profile
• Uncheck the Do not accrue sick/vacation checkbox

Additionally, you can check out this article detailing steps to fix time off not accruing in QBDT: Fix incorrect sick and vacation accruals in QBDT Payroll.

You might also want to check out this article about setting up vacation accruals in QBDT: Changing sick and vacation accruals on an employee profile.

Let us know in the comments if you have additional questions about sick and vacation accruals in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll. We're always ready to lend a hand again. Stay safe.

In case tech support does get the time to fix this issue of the accrual limit for the sick pay, I wanted to point out that if you use the option "Beginning of the Year" for your accrual period, the Set Accrual Limit will work. If you use the accrual period of "Every hour on the paycheck", it will not. Also, the accrual still grows beyond the Max Amount set even if they don't use any of it. 

In MN, effective Jan 1 of 2024, we have to accrue .0333 of sick time for each hour worked, up to 48 per year, and they can carry over a max of 80. I should be able to set accrual period to every hour on paycheck, max of 48, with an annual reset each new year, max carryover of 80. It looks like it should work, but it does not.

We have about 125 employers/clients that we do payroll for. I can't maually adjust 1000 employees! This is a major situation for us. I don't know what I am going to do and I know I am not the only one with this problem.

Thanks for contacting us about your concern with the maximum sick accrual hours in QuickBooks Desktop, BeckyB2.

I tested setting up an employee with similar accrual details, and QuickBooks correctly stopped accruing sick hours once the limit was reached. This behavior was consistent whether the accrual period was set to Beginning of the year or Every hour paycheck.

Please note that there are also two types of limits for sick accrual. The first one is the Maximum hours at a time, where the accrual will continue once the available time is used. The other is the Maximum hours for the year, where the accrual will stop once the limit is reached for the remainder of the year.

You can follow these steps on how to make sure you have the right settings:

1. Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences.
2. Click Payroll and Employees on the left-hand side.
3. Proceed to the Company Preferences tab and click Sick and Vacation.
4. Under the Sick section, go to the Set accrual limit section and select the right one.

Next, proceed to the employee profile where you can see the same sick leave accrual settings. Make sure to select the correct date in the Year begins on field, as this is the date that QuickBooks will use to reset or carry over the remaining available hours.

You also mentioned that you've previously taken steps to set the maximum hours for sick leave accrual.

In this case, I would recommend reaching out to our payroll support team. They can take a closer look at the specific details and determine why the hours are still accruing, even though you've already established a maximum accrual limit.

The support team will be better equipped to investigate this issue and provide guidance on how to properly configure the sick leave accrual settings to align with the Minnesota sick accrual guidelines. Here's how to reach out to them:

1. Go to the Help menu and select QuickBooks Desktop Help/.
2. Click Contact Us at the bottom of the screen.
3. Give a brief description of your issue, then select Continue.
4. Sign in to your Intuit account select Continue and then Continue with my account.
5. We'll email you a single-use code. Enter your code and select Continue. If you have more than one account, select the account you want to use, and then click Continue.
6. Choose between Chat or Callback.

Let me share these articles with you for additional details and resources when tracking accruals in QuickBooks:

• Understand Sick Pay Accrual Limits In QuickBooks Desktop Payroll
• Enter Sick Pay Or Vacation Pay Hours For Salaried Employees

The QuickBooks Community is also just around the corner if you have any other questions when paying employees and managing other payroll-related tasks in QuickBooks. Feel free to reach out there for further assistance.