Question

Paid time off setup

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
September 9, 2020
12 replies
182 views

I have a client who is going to begin paying PTO. It will start accruing on 10-1-20 for all employees, based on the number of hours worked. Where do I go to set up the rate at which it accrues? I set up a paid time off vacation category in Payroll Item Lists. Do I set up the accrual rate somewhere in employee setup?

QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

N

Nick_M

Level 4

Hi chantelsoutham.

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

Select Lists, then Payroll Item List.
Select Payroll Item ▼ dropdown, then New.
Select Custom Setup, then Next.
Select Wage, then Next.
Select Annual Salary or Hourly Wages, then Next.
Select Sick or Vacation Pay, then Next.
Enter a name for the item, then Next.
Note: If you use time off you can rename this item to TO.
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.

C

chantelsouthamAuthor

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

DivinaMercy_N

Moderator

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:

Go to the Edit menu and click Preferences.
Select Payroll & Employees.
Tap the Pay Stub & Voucher Printing option.
From the On paycheck vouchers and vacation available field, enter Vacation under the Vacation used and vacation available field.
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.

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