Intuit
While we have covered these features in our 'What's New' webinar, we haven't really covered them in a written feature, and that's why I wanted to go ahead and summarize a few pointers about them and give you a reference you can use for more information. Intuit's Payroll team launched two new Time Off Policies: Paid Time Off (PTO) & Unpaid Time Off.
These new policies are (or soon will be*) available everywhere you find Sick & Vacation Policies within your payroll service products. The various Intuit payroll services have different ways of setting up and using these Time Off Policies, so you will need to reference specific instructions related to each of those products. We will give you a reference where you can find those details later in this article. But before we do that, let's look at the new policies a little closer.
Paid Time Off
Many businesses have chosen not to offer separate Sick & Vacation Time, instead they provide simply Paid-time-off, which can be recorded in a single time-bucket as "PTO." As far as (all of the) Intuit Payroll offerings go, this policy will function exactly like Sick and Vacation policies. It will track accruals, usage, and will print on Paystub as “Paid Time Off.” If anyone has created their own “Paid Time Off” pay type in the past to use as a workaround for not having an official time off policy with this name, it is best to rename that item before adding the actual Paid Time Off policy.
Source: Intuit Payroll Services
New_Time_off_policies_Spring-2019
Unpaid Time Off
Many states have enacted Sick Leave laws and have some type of inclusion for the accrual of Unpaid Time Off for certain employers. Intuit's new payroll time-off policies incorporate an option for an Unpaid Time Off policy to allow for such an accrual and usage of time. Unpaid Time Off will accrue based upon an accrual frequency entered, just like Sick and Vacation accrues. But when used on a paycheck, it does not increase the net pay (hence “Unpaid” time off).
Source: Intuit Payroll Services
New_Time_off_unlimited_preferences
Some states have requirements for employees to accrue a certain amount of Unpaid Time Off, or simply use an “Unlimited” accrual frequency to track all unpaid time taken by employees. Be advised that Paychecks still cannot have a $0 net pay, so if an employee takes an entire pay period off, this new time policy will need to be added to the next paycheck after the employee returns to work.
Many employers are starting to adopt “Unlimited” time off policies. Some of the states with Sick Leave laws have included guidelines on how to apply the law when employers offer unlimited time off. Intuit Payroll has added “unlimited” as an Accrual Frequency option to allow companies with such policies to reflect this accrual type on paystubs (as can be seen in the illustration below).
Source: Intuit Payroll Services
New_Time-off_Payroll-stub
The paystub illustrated above reflects Vacation, Sick and Unpaid time off. Obviously, your paystubs may differ depending on how you configure your own payroll. Your stubs might only reflect Paid-time-off and Unpaid-time-off if you choose to use only the two new options.
Additional paystub configurations will also vary by payroll subscription type including Intuit Online Payroll, Intuit Full Service Payroll, QuickBooks Online Payroll and QuickBooks Full Service Payroll, as well as 'printed' vs 'on-line' display. For your specific payroll version, including detailed set-up of these time-off policies, please refer to this official Intuit Community Article.