Paid time off setup

Hi chantelsoutham. 

I'm happy to help you set up the PTO for your client. Follow these steps below:

1. Select Lists, then Payroll Item List.
2. Select Payroll Item ▼ dropdown, then New.
3. Select Custom Setup, then Next.
4. Select Wage, then Next.
5. Select Annual Salary or Hourly Wages, then Next.
6. Select Sick or Vacation Pay, then Next.
7. Enter a name for the item, then Next.
   Note: If you use time off you can rename this item to TO.
8. Choose the expense account you want for the item, then Finish.

If you have any other questions, feel free to post below. Thank you and have a nice afternoon. 

I have done the steps listed.  However, where do I tell the program at what rate to accrue the PTO?

I have additional steps to ensure you can accrue this Paid Time Off (PTO), @chantelsoutham.

First, you'll need to ensure the Do not accrue sick/vacation pay box is unchecked on the Preferences page. This way, you can tell QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) to accrue your PTO later on. Here's how:

1. Go to the Edit menu at the top, and then select Preferences.
2. Choose Payroll & Employees, and then tap the Company Preferences tab.
3. Click Sick and Vacation, and then verify if the Sick and vacation hours paid under Sick and Vacation Accrual is unchecked. If not, you'll have to uncheck it.
4. Hit OK when you're ready.
   
   

To tell QBDT at what rate to accrue the PTO, you'll just have to go to the Employees menu. Let me guide you how:

1. Click the Employees menu at the top, and then select Employee Center.
2. Choose the employee name, and then double click it.
3. Pick Payroll Info, and then select Sick/Vacation.
4. Enter the number of hours that are currently available for the employee in the Hours available as of mm/dd/yyyy field. Note: This is the total amount of hours available as of the date you add sick or vacation to the employee profile.
5. Pick the Accrual period drop-down menu and then choose one of the three accrual periods for sick time.
6. In the Hours Accrued field, enter the number of hours that will be accrued (based on your selection in step 4).
7. You may also enter the maximum balance of sick hours that the employee can have in the Maximum number of hours field.
8. If you don't allow hours to roll over to the next year, choose “Reset hours each new year?”.
9. Enter the start date of the accrual year. Note: Use January 1 for a calendar year or hire date if accrual happens on an employee's anniversary date.
10. Input the date that sick time should begin accruing.
11. To specify accrual information for vacation hours, repeat steps 4 through 10 for the Vacation section of the window.
12. Hit OK to record your changes.
    
    

For more info, please read through this resource: Set up and track time off in payroll.

I'll be adding this article as well in case your sick and vacation time off won't accrue: What to do if time off won't accrue.

To keep track of your time offs, you can run the Paid Time Off List report. Just go to the Reports menu, choose Employees & Payroll, and then select the report from there.

Please let me know in the comment section if you have more questions. Have a good one.

Very useful information, thank you Nick. I have further questions on this - segregating the PTO. I'm attaching a screenshot to hopefully explain things.

Until now, we didn't pay for vacation time, but as of last summer we are. Our payroll setup includes PTO Sick and PTO "Vacation." I did that on the fly because I didn't have time to research it, and ended up never changing it. In the past I used the "Vacation" slot for PTO Holiday - and somehow I was able to set it to "Print as:Holiday" under the vacation item, but for the life of me I can't find where I did that. Anyway ...

I've been messing around with the accounts. In my Payroll Item List I have been using PTO Sick

and PTO Vacation (with the vacation one paying employees for Holiday). Sick leave is mandated by the State of Washington so there is a formula for that. But we don't have a set policy of holidays, we give all the usual ones but sometimes (4th of July, for instance) depending on what date the holiday is we'll pay for another day - so I can't enter an accrual for that item.

So far we've paid ONE employee for a week's vacation. I used the payroll item that says vacation (but prints as "holiday). But now, as you can see on the attached screenshot, his record has a lot of negative hours under vacation/holiday pay. Out of the -40:57 hours under vacation, 37:45 of that was his vacation pay.

My questions:

    - Today I added PTO Vacation but from the looks of it, QB payroll will only track TWO PTO items.

Is that correct? If so, since vacation should be tracked (not so much holidays), how to I disentangle the two?

   - Where can I change the "Print as" back to vacation. I have no idea where I set that up.

   - Is it even necessary to track paid holidays? It appears QB doesn't think so.

I'm baffled by (and terrified of) QuickBooks payroll setup and would really appreciate any guidance on it. Thank you!

I appreciate you giving more details of your concern, @AmericanRV. 

Tracking and setting up time off, vacation, sick pay, and holiday for your employees are used to determine their total hours of work and their non-working hours. For more info, check this article: Set up and track time off in payroll. 

Then, changing the Print As: section back to Vacation is a breeze. Follow along below to get this done right away:

1. Go to the Edit menu and click Preferences.
2. Select Payroll & Employees.
3. Tap the Pay Stub & Voucher Printing option.
4. From the On paycheck vouchers and vacation available field, enter Vacation under the Vacation used and vacation available field.
5. Hit OK when done and OK again to save the changes. 

Also, to know more about tracking holiday pay for your employees, please see this link: Pay a salaried employee holiday pay in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

QuickBooks also has several Excel-based payroll reports so you can view your business and employee information. To get started, please open this article: Excel-based payroll reports. 

If you have further questions about setting up time off in QuickBooks, feel free to leave a reply below. I'm always here to help. Have a good one. 

There is no"payroll items list" in my "All Lists", so I am stumped!

Hello there, The Happy Booker. I can see the importance of utilizing this option.

When using payroll, the Payroll Item Lists should be available under the Lists menu. We can run the verify rebuild to fix data-related issues on a company file. The steps below will guide you through the process.

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select Utilities.
3. Click Verify Data then select OK to close all windows.
4. Then, go back to the File menu.
5. Select Rebuild Data under Utilities.
6. QuickBooks will ask to make a backup before rebuilding your company file, select OK.
7. Once the rebuild is done, click OK.
   

. For more details about handling payroll items, check these articles:

• Edit a payroll item. 
• Create a payroll summary report.

I'm always here whenever you need help with QuickBooks Desktop. Stay safe and take care always.

So, by doing this QB will now accural PTO??? how do you tell it how much?

I'm confused on the holiday pay and vacation pay.  On the tracking on each employee's pay stub it is combining the holiday pay and vacation pay.  So if the employee has zero days left of vacation and then they are paid for a holiday the next pay stub shows -8 of vacation available.  I originally had them under the same expense account in the payroll item list and thought that was the reason it was doing it.  I then changed each item to a different expense account but it still did it the same after I did that.

I'm not sure what else to check for.

Dave

Hello there, Dave. 

It's nice to see you in the Community. I can share some information and steps in setting up holiday pay and adding it to your employee's paycheck.

In QuickBooks Desktop, you'll need to track the holiday pay separately from sick or vacation pay. Let's set this up first by adding a new payroll item.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Lists menu, then choose Payroll Item List.
2. Select the Payroll Item drop-down and click New.
3. Choose Custom Setup, and select Next.
4. Choose Wage, select Next, then select Annual Salary, and select Next.
5. Choose Regular Pay, and select Next.
6. In the Name used in paychecks and payroll reports field, enter Holiday Pay, and select Next.
7. The default account for the expense is Payroll Expenses, then select Finish.

To track the accruals, you'll need to add this item to your employee's setting. Here's how:

1. Go to the Employees menu and select the Employee Center.
2. Double-click the employee's name to edit the payroll information.
3. Select the Payroll Info folder.
4. Add the Holiday Pay Item below the Earnings section.
5. Once done, click OK.

Adding this item will track the YTD amount once you created paychecks with holiday pay.

To create a paycheck, you can add this together with your Regular Salary or you can create a separate paycheck for holiday pay only. Here's how:

1. In the Earnings section of the paycheck, add the Holiday Pay item.
2. For Regular Salary and Holiday Pay, enter the hours worked. For example, on a biweekly payroll, enter 72 hours for the regular salary and 8 hours for holiday pay. QuickBooks Desktop automatically adjusts the pay for each item. Please see attached screenshot below for your reference.

It'll now automatically track the YTD amount on the next paycheck.

I've added this resource to further guide you in tracking time off, vacation, and sick pay for your employees in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) Payroll

• Sick and vacation time is incorrect or not accruing on paychecks.
• Set up and track time off in the payroll.

Let me know if you have other questions about tracking holiday pay for your employees. I'll be here to help.