Minnesota Sick & Safe Leave

Welcome to the Community, @JanetLS. Allow me to share the details about the new law for Minnesota Sick & Safe Leave in QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

I understand the importance of being compliant with the requirements for Minnesota Sick & Safe Leave. Currently, we're unable to provide a specific time frame for when it will take effect in QBO. Rest assured that we comply with the state law, and we'll roll out updates before the effective date. 

Moreover, here's an article with a list of payroll reports you can run to get insights about employees' wages, taxes, and deductions: Run payroll reports in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

Let me know when you have clarifications about payroll compliance. The Community is here to help anytime. Take care and have a good one.

I have the same question. QB cannot determine the MN ESST accurately. How does Intuit QB believe the employers in MN should address this? 

Additionally,

QB (desktop) does not allow for the printing of a paystub that is more than 1 page long. The information required by MN law is not all being shown. This is a violation of Minnesota state LAW

Additionally, QB does not allow for the resizing or deleting of columns on a timesheet, resulting in extra time (I.E. MONEY) because Admin has to figure out how to complete the job that QB cannot. 

Hi, LeahC.

Thanks for joining this conversation. Allow me to chime in and share an update about the integration of Minnesota's 2024 Earned Sick and Safe Time Policy in QuickBooks.

Starting on January 1, 2024, Minnesota's earned sick and safe time law mandates that employers offer paid leave to employees working in the state. The existing sick and safe leave law in Minnesota will continue to be in force until December 31, 2023, and will be substituted by the new earned sick and safe time law on January 1, 2024.

According to the new law, employees will accrue one hour of sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked. They can accumulate up to 48 hours per year unless the employer consents to a greater amount. To qualify for sick and safe time, employees must work a minimum of 80 hours per year for an employer in Minnesota and not be classified as an independent contractor.

Before setting up or adjusting your time off plans in QuickBooks, visit the agency website for detailed information on the new policy and answers to FAQs. Visit the agency website.

The only change you need to handle in QuickBooks is ensuring you have paid time off policies that match the agency's minimum requirements. To add or update your sick or paid time off policies for 2024 in QuickBooks, follow the detailed steps outlined in our help article.

You can also check out this article for more information: Compliance Blog: Information on new taxes, state rate issues, and more!

Regarding your other inquiries, I understand that the ability to print multi-page paystubs and resize or delete columns on a timesheet would be beneficial for you and your business. I recommend providing this feedback directly to our product engineers. They are constantly seeking input on ways to enhance QuickBooks.

Refer to this article for the detailed steps on how to submit feedback: How do I submit feedback?

In addition, this article provides additional information on tax forms, withholdings, unemployment, and other tax, e-file, and pay-related topics:

• Understand payroll tax wage bases and limits. 
• Access state agency websites for payroll.

Feel free to get in touch if you have any further queries about QuickBooks or payroll tax management, LeahC. I'm happy to respond to your inquiries. Be safe always.

I am so tired of people jumping on here to get their little badges rather than acually answering a question. 

I do not need information on the rules and regulations set forth by the state of MN. I find it extremely RUDE that you assume my stupidity and so believe you have to hold my hand and show me all the rules MN is implementing the first of the year and what I need to know. 

I do not need information on the rules and regulation set forth by the state and federal governments. Do you not think I know how to run payroll? Do you honestly believe that giving me links to help me understand PAYROLL TAXES is the answer to the MN ESST? AGAIN I FIND IT RUDE AND INSULTING. 

And: I have put in sugggestion after suggestion. Probably 100 over the last 8 years. NOT ONCE has anything been resolved IN EIGHT YEARS.

QB is STILL in violation of MN state LAW and your fix is to "leave a suggestion". Well that's just a dandy response. 

QB cannot accurately track the ESST requirements because the system does not roll the time over from paycheck to paycheck. If an employee works 31 hours one week, and 29 the next, QB will only show the employee has gained 1 hr of ESST the first week, and nothing the second.

IF you or anyone over there cannot actually ANSWER a question, do us all a favor and DO NOT REPLY. 

THIS IS SUCH A WASTE OF TIME.

Your statement of "Let me know when you have clarifications about payroll compliance." is generic and cookie-cutter in nature, telling me that you never read my post, nor do you/QB care about ensuring its clients are following the rules.  My post actually provided the verbiage, DIRECTLY FROM THE STATE, with what the requirements will be. When I "have clarifications about payroll compliance"??  Really???

You say that you will roll out updates to comply with the new requirements. Adding a phone number (which, by the way has been a requirement for a while now; see MN Statute  Section 181.032 : https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/181.032) is STILL is not an option. 

Based upon what I have read, the system still isn't where is should be (tracking cumulative hours worked - NOT per payroll period and reset - in order to achieve the 1hr provided for 30 hours worked). And since this notice has been out since at least October for MN (not to mention all of the other states that already have have had something in place), I can only imagine that there is a lack of leadership within the Intuit company and knowledge about your own systems to be able to make these updates. Or maybe you have only one Milton sitting in a basement that can actually do the job but he is more worried about his red stapler than doing the work (which at this point I can see why!).

Does anyone else have another payroll provider that they have found that is actually able to comply with the state regulations? Maybe time to jump ship.

So glad to see Im not the only one ticked off over how intuit handles their client's issues! 

Hopefully Milton can get his act together - this is a multi-billion dollar company that cannot be compliant with states rules and regulations. 

Please - when you find a REAL accounting software let me know. 

This may or may not be helpful: do with it what you will and please correct me if I'm wrong.

I selected an employee, went to "Pay types", scrolled to "Time off pay policies" and, because the employer doesn't currently have a Sick pay policy, I chose the option to "Add new sick pay policy".

In the 'Create sick pay policy" window, I entered the following:

"Description" = ESST.

"Hours are accrued" = I selected "Per Hour Worked"

"Hours per hour worked" = 0.033333 (due to rounding, it'll be off a little: don't know how to correct that)

"Maximum allowed (optional)" = 48

Since the law doesn't go into effect until January 1, 2024, I haven't assigned it to any employees and will be unable to verify its effectiveness until the first pay period of the new year.

Yes, that will work - until you have 31 hours one week (and it gives 1 hr ESST), then the next week you have 29 hours one week - and the system will not generate that 2nd hour ESST because it can only do per week. 

Also, it needs to be showing on the paystubs. 

If we had all salaried employees, it would be perfect. 

This is as close to an answer as I've received,  and I thank you. I fear intuit will say they're working on it until the cows come home. They cannot even figure out how to print a paystub that is more than a page long. 

Thanks again

Could you assign it to yourself and see if it works? That way no other employees would be affected. 

I may try it this weekend myself to see if the next pay period works with your thought process. Since QB isn't any help.... and relying on those of us who use the system to figure out how to accomplish something that they should be doing.

Salaried or not I don't think it matters. We work a 37.5 hour work week salaried and have hourly.

Part of this (the main issue, actually) problem is the government putting out ridiculous rules, too. 

Hi yeah, I agree with you 100%

I am going to see how it works on myself through the next few paychecks. 

In the meantime, I guess we'll have to resort to a spreadsheet and writing the stuff on ourselves to be compliant. I'm already having to screenshot the portion needed in the Employee Payroll Summary because the second page won't print. 

If nothing else, like you said - we'll figure it out amongst ourselves. 

Honestly, I am flabbergasted and very frustrated that QBO cannot seem to figure this out in their payroll.  I think what the "badge" lady was trying to say is that we will have to figure the ESST MANUALLY and then input the amount of ESST time they have used and what their balance is.  

Pretty bad when a software program can't do what an excel spreadsheet is capable of.

We had tried to set up the ESST in the 12/15 payroll run. The system wouldn't allow the payroll to run until we undid it all. There are a couple of things that are pretty bad: 1. Software company can't figure out how to work their own system, and 2. Government setting ridiculous rules. We have yet another case of "punish all those that are treating their employees correctly vs. dealing with the companies that don't". What a wonderful state we live in ("wannabe California"). 

You can choose how time accrues:

• at beginning of year
• each pay period
• per hour worked
• on anniversary date
• unlimited

Since it's paid time off, it SHOULD appear on the pay stub. Since I'm not an employee, I can't test it on myself.

Since the max is 48 hours, it may be easier to front load the 48 hours. Maybe?

I do not know for sure yet how it is set up, but in previous posts individuals were having issues with accrual going from paycheck to paycheck. Since we just tried it on the last pay period (2/month for us), I have yet to see if it is correct on how they calculate.

Example: Work 29 hours this pay period, no credit earned (which would make sense since it didn't hit 30). Work 31 hours next pay period, you should be credited with 2 hours (the extra hour from this pay period+the 29 from last pay period PLUS the additional hour for the 30 hours included on this week). It was still only giving 1 hour of time.

Yes, you can front-load. From our testing, it was ADDING additional money to the employee's already paid time (since they are salary), rather than keeping it at the level salaried amount. It should basically cancel each other out (salary amount/ESST) just deduct the time from the earned/available ESST bucket as used hours.

We'll keep playing with it to see if we can get it work correctly. I've been searching other states that have similar situations - I can't believe there isn't a more clear post or notification from QB regarding this.   Oh wait...actually I can believe it!

DO NOT TRY TO ADJUST FOR THE MN ESST. your system will hate you.

Wait......Are you actually suggesting that we just load up the hours because intuit cannot do the job that they're paid to do? Just GIVE all the employees that 48 hr cap and let it go?

Then how do you suppose we should TRACK the hours used? SMH

No, thanks. 

It's bad enough I have to manipulate their system in an attempt to be compliant with MN laws regarding paystubs. intuit cannot even figure out how to allow for the adjustments/removal of columns in their timesheets!

Honestely, intuit is a freakin' JOKE. If I had my way, they'd all be jobless. Unfortunately they have a decade of info so changing to another company is daunting to say the least. 

 NC.

I am having the same problem with the payroll and  also getting a run around. Did any one help you get to the bottom of this. 

NC1939

Thanks, for your comment. I also have been running to the same but its not helping me to run the sick & safe time on my payroll. Did any one get to the bottom of what we should due. I've ask the same questions

I haven't found anything just yet that worked. We are running payroll tomorrow (late afternoon) with another test and will update if we found a solution. Luckily my company is small (5 people), so a manual workaround won't kill us, but hopefully QB will get their act together.

Hello there, @NC1939.

I'd love to help you with your concern about running your payroll.

But can you please provide more information about it? Can you provide more details and the exact error upon running your payroll.

This way, we'll be able to define the root cause of the issues you've experienced and fix them

Please know that the Community is always open to help you with any concerns you may have with QuickBooks. Have a good one!

This is a snapshot of the way I set it up in QuickBooks.  Instead of the 1 hour per 30 hours worked, I'm using 2 minutes per one hour worked.  I haven't been able to try it yet.  Most of the employees are laid off for the winter so I only have 6 employees to correct if I'm wrong.  Wish me luck!

I don't see any reason why Quickbooks Desktop wouldn't work to calculate the ESST. HOWEVER, I am interested if anyone knows a way to get the ESST to accrue ONLY on hours worked, not on-call hours.  The ESST accrual doesn't apply to on-call hours, but QB wants to apply the sick time rate that I enter to all payroll line items.  Is there a way to specify that it only accrue the ESST hours on specific payroll line items (i.e. - hours worked line items, not on-call line items)?

Jeanie: I viewed your your snapshot and it is NOT correct. It took a Quickbooks agent and I to set-up the Minnesota Sick Time to show on the paystub accurately. Here is the correct calculation. 

Go to Employee Profile, Under Payroll. click Sick and Vacation, When the box pops up use this calculation;

Accural period; Every hour on paycheck, Hours accrued per hour,type in: 0:01:48

Max number of hours to accrue:48:00 (MN says they can accrue 1hr.per every 30 hours worked, to a max of 48 per year)

You can do a "test" check. Pick an employee, calculate some hours in this year, save it but DO NOT PRINT. Go to file, click on paystub and view the check you just made. Then go back and just delete the "test' check. Hope this helps.

Intuit is NOT calculating the maximum hours of 48 hours of MN ESST correct.  The 48 hours maximum is the MOST an employee should accrue.  QuickBooks is allowing more than 48 hours to accrue.  It should NOT take into account the hours of MN ESST used by the Employee.  The accrual maximum is 48 hours PERIOD.  

Here is what QB is doing for example but there are many other scenarios:  An employee reaches 48 hours of MN ESST (sick time).  Then the employee uses 8 hours of MN ESST.  QuickBooks starts accruing MN ESST AGAIN until it reaches 48 hours AGAIN.  That is incorrect!!  The maximum accrual is 48 hours and it has NOTHING to do with the employees USING MN ESST which then restarts the accrual.

PLEASE CHANGE THIS IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE WRONG BALANCES OF MN ESST ARE BEING REPORTED ON THE PAYSTUBS AND EMPLOYEES ARE ANGRY WHEN YOU TELL THEM THAT THEY REALLY DON'T HAVE THE HOURS TO USE!!!!!!