Sick pay accrual - QBO payroll

Thank you for posting here on the Community page, @greg14. I can see you need to manage your sick actuals based on California. Let me share additional information about this topic in QuickBooks Online Payroll.

In QuickBooks Online, you can set up sick pay accrual based on hours worked for your employees. However, the system may not directly support specific carryover and accrual limits mandated by California law. To ensure compliance, you may need to manually monitor and adjust the sick pay accruals in QuickBooks Online to align with the legal requirements for sick leave in California.

Here's how:

1. Go to Payroll, then Employees.
2. Select your employee.
3. From Pay types, select Start or Edit.
4. Scroll down to the Time Off Policies section. From the Paid time off, Unpaid time off, Sick Pay, or Vacation Pay ▼ dropdown, select Add new [time off pay] policy.
5. Complete the on-screen fields to create your policy, then select Save.
6. When finished, select Save.

You can also view this page anytime if you need more guidance about the process of entering PTO for your employees: Set up and track time off in payroll.

Following the steps above will allow you to modify your maximum sick hours based on California regulations. If you have any more QuickBooks-related questions, feel free to share them here in the Community. We're always here and ready to help with your inquiries. Have a fantastic day!

thanks for your reply. 

This is not a good solution. It has taken me literally years to figure out that you don't support the carryover calculation. You should just post that as a warning right on the screen instead of trying to hide it.

I don't have time during busy season to try to figure out workarounds. This is not manageable with large workforces. I will be looking for other payroll solutions.

Today is Jan 27th, 2025. I am attempting to confirm whether or not Quickbooks is able to help employers comply with sick time accruals in California and not clear carry over balances from one year to the next. I have a client using quickbooks who is having issues with the balance on pay stubs getting mixed up every start of the year after end of previous year

You can manually add accruals from the previous year to another so they can be included in the current year, jubz727. I'll be happy to walk you through this process.

In QuickBooks Online (QBO), it's important to note that an employee's sick hours balance will carry over once you have added the remaining accrual from the previous year to the Current Balance field.

This will continue to accrue until the designated maximum limit is reached. Thus, please enter the maximum allowable hours in the Time Off window for accurate tracking.  

Please follow these steps:

1. Go to the Payroll menu, then choose Employees.
2. Select the name of your employee.
3. Find the Time off section, then click Edit.
4. Open the Sick Pay dropdown menu and verify that the Maximum Allowed field is accurate, then click Save.
5. From the Current Balance field, enter the remaining hours from the previous year.
6. Once done, click the Save button.

For more information about setting up and tracking time off and sick pay, you can refer to this article: Set up and track time off in payroll.

Furthermore, you may want to learn more about adjusting or prorating an employee's fixed salary: Override an employee's salary.

Please let me know if you have additional questions regarding adding the accrual into the current year, jubz727. I'll be glad to assist you again.