TRACKING EMPLOYEE SICK LEAVE
ACCRUED & USED
First, plan your Sick Leave policy (or policies). Determine whether you want to have a single policy for all employees, or whether different types of employees will have different policies applied to them. You might have different policies for different types of employees (e.g., temporary vs. regular, or hourly vs. salaried), or policies might change depending on the number of years an employee has worked for your company.
Example: all field employees accrue up to 3 days of sick leave per year, but office employees accrue 5 days of sick leave per year. In this situation, you would need to set up one PTO Policy for field workers and a separate PTO Policy for office workers.
IMPORTANT: You must purchase the PTO option in order to use AgStar to track PTO types other than Sick Leave. Please contact AgStar Support for more information.
You can choose to designate the policy which will apply to the majority of your employees as the default Policy. A PTO Policy marked as default will affect all employees who are not explicitly assigned to a different PTO Policy. When you assign employees to a PTO Policy other than the default policy, they will accrue PTO according to the assigned policy. Note: If no PTO Policy is marked as default, any employee not explicitly
assigned to a PTO Policy will not accrue any PTO.
Once you have defined your PTO policies, here is how to set up AgStar to track them.
Assigning Payroll Admin Permissions
IMPORTANT: You must assign Payroll Admin permissions, no matter whether you use a Single User or Multi User version. Payroll Admin permissions are NOT assigned to any users by default.
1. Log into AgStar as the SYSADM user
2. In the Payroll module, click on File, then click on Payroll Setup
3. In the Payroll Setup window, click on Users, then click on Add/delete user
4. For each user who will be allowed to create or edit PTO Policies, make sure that both the User Name and Full Name fields are filled in
a. A password is not required for Single User installations, but the User Name and Full Name fields ARE required
5. Put a checkmark in the box labeled “Payroll Admin” 6. Click Save
7. Repeat for each user who will be allowed to create or edit PTO Policies 8. Close the User Setup window and then close the Payroll Setup window
Preparing the Tasks List
1. In the Payroll module, click on Lists, then click on PTO Policies 2. In the PTO Policies window, click on Lists, then click on Tasks 3. AgStar will create a new task named Sick Leave automatically
Create PTO Policies for groups of employees
Default Policy Group
1. In the Payroll module, click on Lists, then click on PTO Policies 2. In the PTO Policies window, click on New Group
3. The Sick Leave task will automatically populate when a New Group is created 4. Edit the Group Name to reflect which employees will be part of this group
5. Click in the checkbox labeled “Default Policy” in order to designate this as the default PTO Policy a. Note: designating a PTO Policy as the default policy will make it affect all employees who are
not explicitly assigned to a different PTO Policy
6. Start accruing after: Enter the number of days to wait before starting to accrue Sick Leave 7. Eligible to use after: Enter the number of days to wait before being able to use Sick Leave 8. Accrual rate: Enter the number of hours to accrue per hours worked
a. The number of hours to accrue goes in the first field b. The number of hours worked goes in the second field
9. Accrual period: Select either beginning of the [calendar] year or employee hire date anniversary
10. Beginning hours: If employees automatically accrue a specific number of hours at the beginning of each calendar or hire date anniversary year, enter that number of hours
11. Reset hours at the beginning of the accrual period: Checking this box will make AgStar set the hours back to the amount in the Beginning hours field at the beginning of the selected Accrual period 12. Max. hours/year:
a. The maximum number of hours that may be accrued per year goes in the first field
b. The total number of hours that may be accrued (including any carryover) goes in the second field
13. Allow negative accrual: Check this box to allow employees to use sick leave before it is actually accrued 14. Expire accrued hours: If an employee is laid off or leaves the company, for how many months should
the accrued hours be kept in case the employee returns? Enter that number of months here.
15. Do not accrue PTO hours for: Use these two checkboxes to specify whether sick leave will continue to accrue for Sick Leave and Vacation hours paid out in a payroll, for overtime hours paid out in a payroll, or neither
16. Click on Save to save the Policy you have created
Assign PTO Policies to employees
After you have set up a default PTO Policy Group, the first time you pay an employee, they will
automatically become part of the default PTO Policy Group. You may assign an employee to a different PTO Policy Group if you do not want them to get the default settings.
1. In the Payroll module, click on Lists, then Employees, then All Employees to open the Employees List 2. Select the employee
3. In PTO Policy drop-down list (located directly above the Full Time Status box in the bottom right), select the PTO Policy Group that applies to the employee
4. Click on Save
Note: Switching an employee from one PTO Policy Group to another WILL NOT wipe out any balances already accrued or granted under the first group. If you need to adjust balances after switching an employee’s PTO Policy Group, you will need to do it manually in the PTO Summary screen.
Examples of AgStar PTO Policy setup for minimum Sick Leave policy required by California
law
Accrual Method: Accrue 1 hour Sick Leave for every 30 hours worked, maximum of 24 hours
Upfront Method 2: Grant 24 hours of Sick Leave at employee hire date anniversary, resetting back to 24 hours at the next anniversary of hire date
Editing Policies
1. In the PTO Policy window, click on the Policy you wish to edit 2. Make changes in the various options of the Policy
3. Click on Save
4. Important Notes about editing PTO Policies:
a. Changing a Beginning Hours balance setting will not affect any employees who already had a beginning balance loaded by that policy until the beginning of the next accrual period that you selected (beginning of the year or employee anniversary date)
b. Changing an Accrual Rate will take effect on the next payroll after the change, but it will NOT retroactively go back and change previously accrued time--If you need to go back and change previously accrued time, you will have to manually edit that balance in the employee PTO Summary screen
c. If you change an accrual limit, and an employee is already over the new limit, the employee’s accrued amount will automatically be reduced on the next payroll
Creating additional PTO Groups
1. Repeat steps 1 through 4 in the Default Policy Group section above
2. Create a new Sick Leave Policy within the new PTO Group as outlined above
When leave time is used
After an employee has met the requirements for minimum time before beginning to accrue PTO (e.g., 30 days) and minimum time before being eligible to use PTO (e.g., 90 days), you can begin recording leave time that is used in their timecard lines.
1. In a payroll, add a timecard line for an employee using PTO
2. Enter the hours used as PTO and make sure that the pay rate is calculated correctly 3. Change the Task to Sick Leave (or whatever other type of PTO is being used) 4. Normal hours worked can be entered on other timecard lines as usual
5. When all regular timecard lines and PTO-using timecard lines have been entered, click on Save 6. Prepare, Proof, Print, and Post the payroll as usual
Important Note on Using PTO: Any PTO that is used needs to be recorded in the correct Accrual Period. This
is important to ensure that carryover balances are calculated correctly.
If you selected “beginning of the year” as the accrual period, make sure that all PTO used before the end of the year gets entered into timecard lines dated no later than December 31st even if the pay
period in which it is used includes January 1st.
If you selected “employee anniversary” as the accrual period, make sure that all PTO used before the employee anniversary date gets entered into timecard lines dated no later than the day before that employee’s anniversary even if the pay period in which it is used includes the date of the anniversary. For example, if October 1st is the employee’s anniversary date, and the pay period goes from
September 23rd through October 6th, then all PTO used prior to that anniversary must be entered into timecard lines dated no later than September 30th.
New upfront balances are not assigned until the first payroll is created that is entirely within the new accrual period. So, if you have a pay period of December 28th through January 10th, and you selected "beginning of the year" as the accrual period, then upfront balances for the new accrual period will not be assigned until the following pay period.
If you do not see the Date column in the timecard lines entry screen, simply click on View, then put a checkmark next to “Date Column” in the list of available columns.
Viewing an employee’s PTO balance
There are three ways to view an employee's current PTO balance.
AgStar users who have Payroll Admin rights can change the employee's PTO balance from the same screen.
From the Payroll Grid:
1. Right mouse click on an employee in the payroll
2. In the pop-up menu, click on Show employee PTO summary
From the Single employee timecard screen:
1. Click on Actions
2. Click on Show employee PTO summary
From the Employees list:
1. Select the employee in the list 2. Click on Actions
3. Click on Show employee PTO summary
4. It will display the results for the current accrual period
Sick Leave accruals and usage are recorded when you save timecard lines. (They are updated when you prepare the payroll or save changes to timecard lines.)
The way you access the screen will determine the date range covered by the results.
If you access the Employee PTO Summary screen from the Employees list, the results will be for the current accrual period.
Example #1: Today's date is July 12, 2015. The accrual period for Sick Leave is the calendar year. The Employee PTO Summary will cover all Sick Leave accrued and used in 2015. If you have accidentally entered a PTO adjustment dated in the future (e.g., August 30, 2015), it will not be included in the summary.
Example #2: In the Payroll Grid, you select an employee in an April 2014 payroll. The vacation accrual period is based on the employee's hire date anniversary, and this specific employee was hired on 5/1/2009. The results will cover all vacation accrued and used between 5/1/2013 and 4/30/2014.
The Employee PTO Summary screen shows:
Which PTO policy group the employee falls into
Hire or rehire date (whichever is later)
A row for each type of PTO for which the employee is eligible
o Period: The accrual period (i.e., dates of calendar year or hire date anniversary year) o Beginning balance: Initial balance plus any carryover balance from prior year (in hours) o Accrued: Total amount accrued during the accrual period (in hours)
o Used: Total amount used during the accrual period (in hours)
o Balance: Beginning balance + accrued hours - used hours = Remaining balance
Enter or edit prior earned (accrued) leave
You may need to adjust an employee's Sick Leave balance if:
Employee had a Sick Leave balance before you set up the PTO policy in AgStar
You agreed to allow a salaried employee a certain number of comp time hours in appreciation for an unusually heavy workload during peak season
A PTO policy was set up incorrectly
Employee was assigned the wrong PTO policy group
A timecard line was entered for sick leave, but the employee did not in fact take that time off
An employee was paid, but the right type of PTO was not entered as the task on the timecard
Correcting amount of PTO used
1. If one or more timecards used the wrong Task, but the amount paid was correct, edit the
timecard(s) and change the Task on those lines. (You do not need to void the paycheck in order to change the Task.)
2. If a single timecard line should have been split out between regular pay and PTO: o Void the check
o Release (Delete) the check number so it can be re-used o Correct the timecards
o Prepare the payroll, making sure the deductions and net amount still match the original check o Reprint the check to white paper, using the original check number
o Post the payroll
3. Or, enter the adjusting timecard(s) on the employee's next payroll
Correcting PTO balance, carryover amount, or amount accrued
1. You must have Payroll Admin rights in order to adjust PTO balances 2. Open the employee's PTO Summary screen
3. Click on Edit (to the left of the PTO type you need to adjust) 4. Enter the date of the adjustment
o To adjust the beginning or carryover balance, use the first day of the accrual period 5. Enter the hours to add or subtract
6. For partial hours, enter the quantity as a fraction of an hour, not as minutes. For example, one and a half hours should be entered as 1.5 (not 1:30). Type the reason for the adjustment
7. Click on Save
8. The Employee PTO Summary screen will immediately reflect the change
PTO Audit Report
In addition to viewing individual employee PTO Summary information as described above, a new PTO Audit Report has been added to AgStar to display other information about PTO accrual, balances, and liability.
Running the PTO Audit Report
1. In the Payroll module, click on Reports, then click on PTO Audit Report
a. You can also access this report from the PTO Policy window by clicking on Reports, then clicking on PTO Audit Report
2. Date Range: Enter the date range to reflect in the report
3. Order By: Select the option by which to sort the data in the report
4. Employees: Optionally limit the report to a selected range of employee numbers or specific employees 5. PTO: Optionally limit the report to specific PTO Groups or PTO Policies
6. Format: Choose how to summarize the data
a. Day – shows a detail line in the report for each day that a PTO transaction occurred
b. Employee – shows summarized data in the report for each employee showing all PTO types that they have accrued or used
d. Week – shows a summary line in the report for all PTO transactions that occurred by week e. Include Balance Forward and Include Liability Amount – these checkboxes allow you to
determine whether to include this data in the report
7. Once the options are selected, the report can be printed, previewed, and printed to file with the corresponding buttons
Common Issues
I have an employee that is not accruing any hours.
o Does the employee have a Hire Date set for them? Check this in the Employee List by clicking on Actions, then clicking on Status.
o Does the employee have a Termination Date, but no Rehire Date?
o Has the employee met the eligibility minimums that you set up in the policy?
Regular employees use calendar days since date of hire to determine eligibility. Temporary and Undetermined employees use number of individual timecard lines
entered to determine eligibility.
o Is the employee set to the correct PTO Policy Group?
I set up an upfront policy, but it has not granted balances to the employees that are assigned to it.
o AgStar will grant upfront balances the first time a new payroll is created after an upfront policy is created.
I go into the PTO Policy setup screen, but I don’t see any button that says “New Group” and all of the options are grayed-out.
o You need to assign Payroll Admin permissions.
Reference
How do I convert a Monthly Salaried Rate to hourly?
The following formula is used by the California EDD to convert a monthly salary to a weekly, daily
and/or hourly rate of pay:
1.
Multiply the monthly remuneration by 12 (months). The result is the employee’s annual
salary.
2.
Divide the annual salary by 52 (weeks). The result is the employee’s weekly salary.
3. Divide the weekly salary by the number of days worked per week. The result is the
employee's daily salary.
4. Divide the daily salary by the number of regular hours worked per day. The result is the
regular hourly rate.
Employee is paid $2,500 per month
2,500.00
Monthly Salary
x
12
Months per year
= 30,000.00
Annual Salary
divided by
52 Weeks in a year
= 576.92
Weekly Rate
divided by
5 Days worked per week
= 115.38
Daily Rate
California Sick Leave Law (effective 7/1/2015)
An employee who, on or after July 1, 2015, works in California for 30 or more days within a year from the beginning of employment, is entitled to paid sick leave. Employees, including part-time and temporary
employees, will earn at least one hour of paid leave for every 30 hours worked. Accrual begins on the first day of employment or July 1, 2015, whichever is later.
An employee may use accrued paid sick days beginning on the 90th day of employment.
You can either: (a) accrue at least one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, or (b) provide at least 24 hours or 3 days or sick leave at the beginning of a 12 month period (either calendar year or employee hire date anniversary).
If you choose method (a):
The “hours worked” must include both regular and overtime hours.
An employee’s accrued sick leave must be restored to that person if the employee returns to work for the same employer within 12 months from the previous separation.
If you choose method (b):
Accrued sick leave does not have to be carried over from one year to another
Employees who are paid variable rates (e.g., piece work, commission, varying hourly rates depending on the task performed, etc.) must be paid for sick leave used at the average hourly rate earned during the preceding 90 days.
The law defines the minimum sick leave California employers must provide; employers may have more generous sick leave policies.
More information about the law can be found here http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/ab1522.html and here
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Paid_Sick_Leave.htm
There are many gray areas in this law. As of 6/1/2015, the Labor Commissioner is interpreting the law as follows:
1. For regular employees, the “30 day/90 day” provision means 30 days and 90 days of continuous employment (i.e., 30/90 days since hire date)
2. For day laborers and other temporary employees, the “30 day/90 day” provision may mean 30 days and 90 days actually worked, or 30 days/90 days since hire date, or anything in between, depending on variables that the Labor Commission has thus far not spelled out. AgStar staff have repeatedly asked the Labor Commissioner’s office to provide us with clear guidelines that can be programmed into payroll software, and they have refused to do so. To be on the safe side, we have set sick leave policies for California payrolls to operate as follows:
a. If the employee’s Full Time Status is RF (Regular full time) or RP (Regular part time), AgStar will use the number of calendar days since hire date or rehire date (if rehire date is after the sick leave accrual expiration date).
b. If the employee’s Full Time Status is TF (Temporary full time), TP (Temporary part time) or UN (Undetermined), enter the accrual period as 30 days and eligibility as 90; AgStar (behind the scenes) will use 21 work days and 63 work days respectively. (21 work days is the equivalent of one standard 30-day month of continuous employment at 5 days/week; 63 work days is the equivalent of a three-month period of continuous employment.). This only affects sick leave and California payrolls. All other types of PTO will use the number of calendar days.
Warning: If you do not enter daily timecards for temporary or undetermined employees, AgStar will NOT calculate sick leave accruals and eligibility accurately.
