How to gift a few PTO hours to an employee

SarahCO · ‎December 17, 2025

Is there a way to give an employee a few hours of paid time off without creating a whole new PTO policy that I will never use again? I want to give him 16 hours for a couple days off that he took this pay period, but his official PTO won't start until January 1.

SashaMC · ‎December 17, 2025

Hello SarahCO,

Love to see you here in the QuickBooks Community! Yes, you could do it manually by updating the employee's balance while not affecting the PTO policy.

Navigate to the Payroll menu, then select Employees.
Select the relevant employee's name.
In the Pay types section, select Start or Edit.
Scroll to the Time off policies section.
If a PTO policy is already assigned, select the Edit (pencil) icon next to it. If not, select Add new paid time off policy from the dropdown menu, then complete the details for a standard PTO policy. You can set the accrual to minimal or zero since this is a one-time grant.
In the Current balance field (or "Hours available as of..." field), manually enter the 16 hours you want to grant to the employee.
Select Save, and then Save again to confirm the changes.

Please let me know if I can assist you further! My team and I will be here to help. Happy holidays!

View solution in original post

Irene R · ‎December 17, 2025

You're welcome, SarahCO.

Yes, you can definitely do the same thing for your employee's vacation pay. By manually adjusting the current balance, you'll be able to add the extra hours or credits.

Let us know if you have additional concerns with setting up your employee's time off.

View solution in original post

SashaMC · ‎December 17, 2025

Hello SarahCO,

Love to see you here in the QuickBooks Community! Yes, you could do it manually by updating the employee's balance while not affecting the PTO policy.

Navigate to the Payroll menu, then select Employees.
Select the relevant employee's name.
In the Pay types section, select Start or Edit.
Scroll to the Time off policies section.
If a PTO policy is already assigned, select the Edit (pencil) icon next to it. If not, select Add new paid time off policy from the dropdown menu, then complete the details for a standard PTO policy. You can set the accrual to minimal or zero since this is a one-time grant.
In the Current balance field (or "Hours available as of..." field), manually enter the 16 hours you want to grant to the employee.
Select Save, and then Save again to confirm the changes.

Please let me know if I can assist you further! My team and I will be here to help. Happy holidays!

SarahCO · ‎December 17, 2025

Awesome! Thanks so much for your quick reply. Just for future reference, if I wanted to do something similar for an employee who had vacation time available, but I wanted to give him extra for something specific, could I do the same thing you described above, but just add the "gift" PTO to the hours he has remaining for the year?

Irene R · ‎December 17, 2025

You're welcome, SarahCO.

Yes, you can definitely do the same thing for your employee's vacation pay. By manually adjusting the current balance, you'll be able to add the extra hours or credits.

Let us know if you have additional concerns with setting up your employee's time off.

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How to gift a few PTO hours to an employee