MN EARNED SAFE AND SICK TIME

I'm glad you were able to connect with us here in the Community, slknutson2. Allow me to share details to address your inquiries about tracking sick accrual in QuickBooks. 

I can see that Minnesota's earned sick and safe time (ESST) law goes into effect on January 1, 2024. Employers must provide each employee in Minnesota at least one hour of paid sick and safe time for every 30 hours worked, up to at least 48 hours of accrued ESST a year.

At the moment, QuickBooks Desktop does not have a specific feature to track Minnesota's earned sick and safe time. We will provide further information on this matter once updates from our compliance team become available.

In the meantime, you can use the existing feature to track the employee's sick accrual. I'd be glad to share the steps with you:

1. Open the employee's profile and proceed to the Payroll Info tab.
2. Click Sick/Vacation.
3. Under the Sick section, select Every hour on paycheck in the drop-down list for Accrual period. 
4. Type in 0:02:00 or 2 minutes accrual for every hour worked. This will give the employee a 1-hour accrual for every 30 hours worked.
5. Type in the limit in the Maximum number of hours to accrue section. This will make the program stop accruing as soon as the limit is reached.
6. Click OK.

You can also read more details about this here: 

• Understand Sick Pay Accrual Limits in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll
• Set Up and Track Time Off in Payroll

For additional resources, I also want to share these links from the MN state website about this new regulation:

• https://www.dli.mn.gov/sick-leave
• FAQS: EARNED SICK AND SAFE TIME (ESST)

Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional inquiries related to payroll, slknutson2. I am here to ensure that you have all the necessary guidance and resources to effectively use this feature and adhere to new state regulations.

This benefit accrues based on total hours worked, not hours per paycheck.  In other words, if an employees works 22 hrs in week 1, 2024 and 38 hrs in week 2, 2024, they should accrue 2 hrs (running total of 60 work hrs).  Under the setup suggested, they'd only accrue 1 (0 in week 1, 1 in week 2).  Is there a solution in the works to comply with this law change?

1. Go to the Help menu.
2. Select the Send Feedback Online option.
3. Choose Product Suggestion.
4. Type in your comments.
5. Click the Send Feedback button.

This isn't a preference issue, it's a state law compliance issue.  A few pages back, someone asked a similar question and was told that Quickbooks Compliance Team is reviewing this and will update.  Is that not happening now?  I'm trying to get a concrete answer.  My firm has a team of payroll people that won't be able to use Quickbooks anymore if we're unable to comply with MN state law.

Since this accrual under the new law is for hours WORKED, how do we set the accrual not to calculate on Holiday hours or Bereavement hours (which are "UNWORKED" hours according to the State)?  Using Desktop Payroll.

Hello there, Dana. I'm here to help you accomplish your goal, which is to set up the holiday or bereavement hours, not to calculate.

Before anything else, please know that there's no direct option not to calculate holiday or bereavement hours. As a workaround, you need to create a separate holiday/bereavement paycheck aside from the regular one and then put a checkmark in the Do not accrue sick/vac option.

I've included a screenshot for reference.
 

Furthermore, you can run a payroll report in QuickBooks Desktop to get information about your employees' time balance, time used, and maximum hours. 

You can use the reply button below for further clarification regarding holidays and bereavement hours. I'm always here to back you up, Dana. 

This is not a great option for a work around permanent.  Is Quickbooks working on an update to fix this?  If not, we will be looking for another payroll solution as this takes more time input on our end to run two payrolls every time there is a holiday.

I have the same question for QBO.   I need it to stop at 48 per year and not ever allow more than 80 at a time.  

Also do not want it calculating on any Vacation/Holiday hours used.

Run a separate check for Holiday/Bereavement/other?   Seriously?

There was a good work around for Desktop that might be helpful in another thread.

(1) Re: New MN Sick and Safe Time law as of 1/1/24 (intuit.com)

Having to cut another check with holiday pay/bereavement is a ridiculious suggestion. Get your $hit together QB!!! There has been plenty of time since this info was released to come up with something. We pay thousands of dollars each year to use this software....it NEEDS to be up to date with the laws!!!!

I’m in Minnesota and trying to set up sick time - In the screenshots you provide in this thread for setting up sick leave- I’m wondering if I should select ‘Reset hours each new year’? Thanks.

Hello there, Crystal Cleven. Let me share some details about setting up sick time in QuickBooks.

Whether to select Reset hours each new year depends on your company's policy and Minnesota's sick leave regulations. If your company policy allows sick time to reset at the beginning of each year, then you should pick this option. However, if it carries over from year to year, you may want to leave this option unchecked.

I recommend reviewing your company's sick leave policy and consulting with a human resources representative to ensure an accurate setup.

Additionally, I've added this link about setting up accrual limits in QuickBooks: Understand sick pay accrual limits.

After setting up sick leave accruals, you can start paying your employees by creating a paycheck.

I'd be happy to help if you need more help setting sick time in QuickBooks. Wishing you continued success.

Accruing doesn't work because it's one hour for every 30 worked. We don't need the link showing us how accrual works. 

If someone works 10 hours a week, I need one hour to show up on that 3rd paycheck I create. This shouldn't be hard for you guys to create that capability considering it is now the law. Keep up, QuickBooks. 

The Quickbooks reply is not correct in the calculation. I worked with a Quickbooks agent for 21/2 hrs to get this Sick Time to show on the paystub. Minnesota is allowing a Year Total of 48 hours of Sick Time per Year. 1 hour for every 30 hours worked. Here is what worked for us in Quickbooks Desktop.

Go to Employee's Profile. Click Sick Time, Type in, the box Max 48. Above in the calculation box you need to type 0:01:48. You have to do this for EVERY employee in their profile page.

Hoping QuickBooks gets this fixed because who would know this calculation? I have used Quickbooks for 25 years and never encountered this problem, nor did QuickBooks give these instructions when they sent out the updated Minnesota Sick Time Law.

I am trying to set this up in QB Online.  How do I do that.  Does not look the same as in QB Desktop.

It's nice to see you here in the Community, @sdanks.

Currently, the option to set up accruals in QuickBooks Online (QBO) is unavailable. 

I understand the importance of having this feature in QuickBooks Online (QBO). In the meantime, you can manually track your employee's profile every time the paycheck update accrued hours are created or you can look for a third-party application.

While this option is unavailable, I recommend sending feedback about it. Your feedback will help us improve your QBO experience.

Here's how:

1. At the upper right corner, click the Gear icon.
2. Under the Profile, select Feedback.
3. Enter your comments or product suggestions.
4. Then, select Next to submit a feedback.

I will also include a helpful article that guides you on how to set up and track your time off, vacation, and sick pay for your employees: Set up and track time off.

Feel free to get back to this thread if you have additional questions about setting up accruals or other QBO-related concerns. I'll be here to assist you.