SOLVED•by QuickBooks•419•Updated February 06, 2023
Learn how to set up and track time off, vacation, and sick pay for your employees.
With QuickBooks Online Payroll and QuickBooks Desktop Payroll, you can set up and track the time your employees take. First, you’ll set up time-off policies like paid or unpaid time off, sick pay, and vacation pay. If you need to, you can add time off at any point if someone needs more.
Before any of your employees can take time off, you first need to set up a time off policy. Set up vacation or sick pay with these steps for your version of payroll.
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.
Complete the on-screen fields to create your policy, then select Save.
Select Payroll & Employees then go to the Company Preferences tab.
Select Sick and Vacation.
Fill in the defaults you want to set up. Note: Make sure to check the Do not accrue boxes at the bottom if you don't want time accrued when paying sick/vacation/overtime.
How to add paid or unpaid time off
Need to give an employee more time off? Here's how to add more time.
Scroll down to the Time off policies section. Next to the Paid time off or Unpaid time off, enter the current balance. Or if you want to change the policy, select Edit ✎ then choose how the hours are accrued, Hours per [time period] worked, and Maximum allowed (optional), then select Save.
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.
Select the Accrual period ▼ dropdown menu and choose one of the three accrual periods for sick time listed above.
In the Hours Accrued field, enter the number of hours that will be accrued (based on your selection in step 4).
(Optional) In the Maximum number of hours field, enter the maximum balance of sick hours that the employee can have.
If you do not allow hours to roll over to the next year, select “Reset hours each new year?”.
Enter the start date of the accrual year.
Note: Use January 1 for calendar year or hire date if accrual happens on an employee's anniversary date.
Enter the date that sick time should begin accruing.
To specify accrual information for vacation hours, repeat steps 4 through 10 for the Vacation section of the window.