Employee Vacation Time

Hi klingerson, 

I'm here to help you set up your employee's time off. 

If you're using QuickBooks Online, you can do so by following these steps: 

• Choose Employees on the left navigation panel, and click on the employee's name. 
• Go to the Pay section and click the Pencil icon to edit. 
• Locate Item 3, and click the Pencil icon next to Additional pay types. 
• Here you'll see both Sick Pay and Vacation Pay, where you can select policies from the drop down menu. If you need to, you can add New vacation/sick pay. 
• Once you've finished filling out the information, make sure you click Done. 

Next time you run payroll, you'll see the option to enter vacation/sick hours. This is typically done as you're running payroll, however you can edit a processed direct deposit paycheck from your most recent payroll. Any changes will be made with a payroll correction on the employee's next paycheck(s): https://community.intuit.com/articles/1436553. 

If you're using QuickBooks Desktop, the following article has information on vacation and sick time off: https://community.intuit.com/articles/1436940. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions. I'm always happy to lend a hand. 

I am in fact using Quickbooks Desktop, the time and everything has already been set up the system itself has been being used in our office since 2013, but like most offices there are no notes or direction as to where to or how to. I will look at everything you have sent me. I have two books for this as well as i have looked online and i still cannot find where time off is imput after a quickbooks is already established etc. 

So after re-reading your reply it looks like i must enter this per each payroll cycle. Something i noticed while playing with the system is that we have checked the boxes to show the vacation time used and accrud on their pay stubs, how ever when i looked yesterday after doing payroll i did not see this on there but i know that it used to be. I didnt adjust anything so i need to get the hours straightened out and then adjust these numbers. I will make sure i pay attention for the option to imput this each week on the pay roll. I havent seen it yet. Does it change if i do a scheduled payroll for all of our employees at the same time? 

Thanks for the prompt reply. 

You should see the option to input the time each week after following these steps on the paycheck: 

• When creating the check, open the Preview Paycheck window.
• Under Earnings, click the drop-down arrow in the Item Name column.
• Choose the sick or vacation item you created.

This information is under the  "To pay an employee for sick or vacation time" section of the article. You should still see the accrual/use on the paycheck even if it's scheduled, but I recommend going back into the company preferences to ensure those boxes are still checked. 

Thank you i will give that a try, i really appreciate it. 

My pleasure! 

Hi Alicia - Our company accrues vacation and sick time at the employees anniversary date.  ie:  after one year of employment they earn 5 days, etc.  How can I set up QB to track this?  I have used QB for many years but have never figured this out and I would really like for the vaction & sick time to show correctly on their pay stub.  Any advice would be appreciated!

Michelle,

As a follow up, I have set up the vacation tracking to appear on pay stubs.  

The earned column per period is correct.

The YTD used is mostly correct.

The vacation available appears to represent the vacation available at the beginning of the period and does not include the accrual during the period.  I would assume the vacation available on the check should be that available at the end of the period (the check date) which would include the current accrual.

Did I make a mistake?  Or are Quickbooks settings intending to show vacation available at the beginning of the period?

My question is, what do I put for "Begin Accruing Sick/Vacation time on:  ??"  Should this be the employee's date of hire or should it be changed every year to the next anniversary date?  Our company's situation is:  employees receive 40 hours of sick time every year on their anniversary date.  They are "use them or lose them" so they are not carried over to the next hire date anniversary year.  Vacation is different.  Employees receive 80 hours their 1st year, and an addition 8 hours of vacation each subsequent year until they earn a total of 120 hours/3 weeks vacation/year.  I have treated employees as if they earned their total hours of vacation on their hire date anniversary.  I have allowed employees to carry over vacation time they haven't used from previous years - hence my question about what do I put for Begin Accruing Vacation/Sick time - hire date year or current hire date anniversary.  Can Quickbooks track what I need it to do?  I would love to show employees their sick and vacation time on their paystubs but I've shut that off as I didn't know how to set up and show their vacation time correctly.

PS  I would like to send you employee vacation report files but I didn't know if they would be seen by the public.  I don't want our company name or employees names on this discussion for the public to see.

PS  I am on Premier Professional Services Edition 2018 desktop.

The attached is what I have for an employee who started with the company 11/28/2016. 

Sick:  he has 40 hours each hire date year; he has used 28.50 as of 9/15/18 and has 11.50 left until 11/27/18.

Vacation:  1st year of employment, 11/28/16 - 11/27/17, he had 80 hours of vacation available and used 56 so carried over 24 hours.  2nd year of employment, 11/28/17 - 11/27/18, he had 88 hours of vacation available + 24 from 1st year = 112 and by 9/15/18 he has used all 112 hours.

Will this be correct on his paystubs?  On his anniversary date on 11/28/18 should I change his vacation hours (Hours accrued at beginning of year) to 96?  Maximum hours 96 + any carry over hours if applicable?

Is there a way to display an employee's available vacation time on their pay stub in day format rather than hour format?

Where has the related article:  … 1436940

been moved?  

Each time I click it, the website returns an error.  … And each time I added that link to this message I received >>> "Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied."  <<< so I reduced the reference to the article number.

Hi there, @Kurt_qc9.

Thanks for joining this conversation. Allow me to chime in for a moment and share the help article that you've been looking for.

The reason why you're getting an error when clicking that specific article is that it was already archived since it is old. You can check out this link for the updated one: https://community.intuit.com/articles/1760285.

That should point you in the right direction. Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions or concerns in the comment section. I'll be here if you need further assistance. Cheers!

I know this is an older thread but found it while searching for an answer to a question I have.  I have a client, a new construction business, who wants to put their employee's accrued vacation and PTO into a savings account so that they have the funds available when the employees use their time (since their employee's time is usually billable).  When you create the vacation accrual does Quickbooks put that as a liability in the Chart of Accounts, or will the client need to track it on a regular basis and pull the funds aside?

Thanks for joining this thread, @LynneOO. 

I'm here to share some insights about your client's vacation time. 

QuickBooks is designed to post the vacation accrual item to the payroll expense account. If you want to change this account to a liability account, you can edit the payroll item. Here's how: 

1. Go to the Lists menu at the top. 
2. Find the vacation payroll item and double-click it. 
3. Click Next. 
4. Enter the appropriate account for your client's business. 
5. Click Finish. 

If you haven't created this payroll item, you can perform the steps provided by my peer above, @MichelleT. 

Since the program will automatically calculate the item when creating paychecks, there's no need to track it on a regular basis and pull the funds aside. 

In case you need to create reports showing your employee's used, available, accrued, and maximum vacation and sick time, here's a great article you can refer to: Sick and Vacation Time Reports. 

This will get you going, @LynneOO. I'm here anytime you have other payroll concerns. Have a good one. 

My QB seems to have a mind of its own.  I think I've done all the appropriate set up.  Looking at payroll report today though none of the used PTO is showing up.  Looks like everyone has lots of available PTO which I know is not the case.  Any suggestions?

Hello there, @nlamie.

The Paid Time Off List displays your employees sick and vacation time or paid time off balances. Let me walk you through in generating this list.

Here’s how:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Choose Employees and Payroll.
3. Select the Paid Time Off List.

You can also run the Payroll Item Detail report to see the used paid time off in a given time frame.

For further insights, you may check these articles:

• Report an employee’s vacation and sick time used, available, accrued, and limits
• Set up and pay sick and vacation time
• Create a payroll summary report

Keep in touch with me if you have other questions about managing your employee’s payroll information. I’m always here to help.

i set up employee vacation time and sick time per instructions, but now available time is showing up on employees paystubs that do not accrue this time? how do I keep it from doing this?

Hello there, @TRFFLLC.

Let me share some info on why sick and vacation time accrue incorrectly or does not accrue:

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

To fix this, you can follow the steps below:

1. Select Employees > Employee Center.
2. Double-click the employee name and in the Edit Employee screen, go to the Payroll Info tab.
3. Select Sick/Vacation, then verify and adjust the Sick and vacation hours, Maximum number of hours, Reset hours each year, Hours used in the year, etc. 
4. Once done, put a checkmark beside the employee's name then choose to Find Existing Paychecks. Select the right paycheck then Edit > Paycheck Detail.
5. In the Review Paycheck window, make sure the Do not accrue sick/vac box is unchecked.
6. Select Save & Next to continue creating paychecks or Save & Close.

If the sick or vacation time is incorrect, you can use this article to follow steps on how to fix it: Sick and vacation time incorrect.

I’ve added an article for your additional reading on how to set up time off in payroll.

This will get you going, @TRFFLLC. I'm here anytime you have other payroll concerns. Have a good one. 

I followed the instructions to include Sick & Vacation/Paid Time off on the pay summaries. However, for Paid Time Off, it only shows the amount of hours they received at the beginning of the year. It shows zero as the number of hours used. How can I set it up so that it shows the number of hours used? Thank you.

Hello clavoie!

Thanks for joining this thread. Allow me to share the steps on how to show the used PTO hours in the paystub.

It could be that you haven't used the PTO hours available when running the payroll. There are two ways how to fix this. The first one is to open and edit the check you created and make sure to use the PTO hours. 

Follow these steps:

1. Go to the Employees menu and select Employee Center.
2. Find and select the employee. Then, locate the check and double-click it.
3. Click the Paycheck Detail button.
4. Under the Earnings section, select the PTO (Vacation/Sick) item. Enter the hours used and rate.
5. Tap OK, then Save & Close.

Another option is to adjust the used hours used. From the Employee Center, double-click the employee's name. Click the Sick/Vacation from the Payroll info tab. Edit the Hours used in 2022 field, then OK to save it.

Also, I added this article if you need detailed steps on how to process backdated paychecks: Process Late Payroll Or Send Backdated Paychecks In QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

If you'd like to know more about running payroll, please let me know and I'll gladly lay down some details for you again. Need to finish a specific task in QuickBooks? Let me know and I'll work with you. 

how can get the hours used to be based on anniversary date.

thank you