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Personal Activities

You can view an employee's eligible personal activities and a history of activities. Activities include vacation and sick time, as well as things like funerals, jury duty, retreats, and so on. You can add other relevant activities in the Activity Types keyword list.

Set up the maximum amount of time an employee can take for each activity on the Activity Setup tab. As the employee uses their time, record it on the History of Activities tab. When you add an activity on the History of Activities tab, the values on the Activity Setup tab are automatically updated. The remaining Current Year and Total Left fields are automatically updated when you add a new vacation or sick activity.

Set Up Activity

  1. On the Payroll tab, click Employees > Personal Activities.
  2. On the Activity Setup tab, click the add icon green plus sign above the grid.
  3. Select the activity. If needed, you can add a new activity to the keyword list.
    Tip: When naming activities, include the units to avoid potential confusion. For example, "Vacation Days" or "Sick Hours."
  4. Enter the maximum amount of time available for the activity in your specified units.
    Note: The Used and Total Left values are updated when you enter items on the History of Activities tab.
  5. At the top, click Save.

You can come back to the Activity Setup tab at any time to see how much personal activity time an employee has, how much has been used, and how much remains.

Once activities are set up, you can record each time an employee uses their time on the History of Activities tab.

Set Up Vacation or Sick Time with Accrual

Before you enter information in the Vacation Time and Sick Time sections, make sure you set up the activities in the Activity Setup grid.

You have the option to set up one vacation activity and one sick time activity. This is mandatory if you want to accrue time.

  1. On the Payroll tab, click Employees > Personal Activities.
  2. On the Activity Setup tab, make sure you've set up vacation and/or sick activities in the grid.
  3. Below the grid, select a Vacation Activity or Sick Activity from the drop-down list.
  4. Enter the accrual rate and select an accrual period.
    • Rate—Rate at which the vacation or sick time is accrued in your specified units.
    • Period—Time can be accrued at the entered rate on a Per Pay or a Per Hour basis. Per Hour is only for hourly employees. Per Pay defaults the accrued amount each time a check is issued based solely on the fact that a check was issued. Per Hour multiplies the rate by the number of hours worked to give the default amount.
    The Rem values are updated for Carry Over, Current Year, and Total Left.
  5. Enter a maximum limit for Carry Over and Current Year in the Max column. If there is no limit, enter 0 for these fields.
    • Carry Over—Unused amounts carried over from the previous calendar year. The Rem column is the remaining column and the Max column is the maximum that can be accrued over time. The maximum can be left blank if there is no limit. When the End of Year process is run, the Current Year totals are added to the previous carry over amount up to the maximum.
    • Current Year—Amount from the current year. The remaining amount is calculated in the Rem column.
  6. At the top, click Save.

The Total Left (total amount of time the employee has for an activity) is automatically updated and matches the Total Left column for the activity in the Activity Setup grid.

Edit Accrual Time before Printing Checks

You can view and edit accrual time before printing a check.
Note: When you go to print the checks, the program checks the total amount that the employee can accrue in the current year and does not increment the current year's totals by more than that.
  1. On the Transactions tab, click Expenses > Print Paychecks.
  2. In the Select Paychecks For Payment window, when you click a check, "Accruing" displays in the check description. If the employee isn't accruing vacation and/or sick time, this doesn't display.
  3. Double-click the check to display the preview.
  4. Select the checkboxes for whether to accrue vacation and/or sick time and the rate amount to accrue. If you have a special check, such as a bonus check, and you don't want to accrue time, you can clear these boxes before continuing.

For more information, see Print Paychecks.

Record an Activity

You can view a list of all the employee's past activities. When an activity occurs, enter it on the History of Activities tab.
Note: If an activity occurs that does not have a Max Available time, such as a doctor's appointment or conference, enter it on the History of Activities tab. It is automatically added to the Activity Setup tab. The Max Available field is 0 and the Used and Total Left fields display negative numbers.
  1. On the Payroll tab, click Employees > Personal Activities.
  2. On the History of Activities tab, click the add icon green plus sign above the grid.
  3. Select the activity from the drop-down list.
  4. In the From and To columns, enter the date range of the activity.
  5. In the Num column, enter the number of units used for the personal activity. Use a fraction amount if, for example, the employee did not use an entire day.
  6. In the Comments column, enter any optional comments about the personal activity.
  7. At the top, click Save.

When you enter information on the History of Activities tab, the information on the Activity Setup tab automatically updates.