Defining PTO Benefit Plans

To define PTO benefit plans that determine employee paid time off accruals, use the PTO Benefit Plans form.

Note:  The PTO Register is where the system tracks how much paid time off the employees have accrued and taken. For more information, see Creating PTO Registers.

Each PTO Benefit Plan establishes limits on the amount of paid time off that employees can earn and how many hours they can carry over from one plan period to the next. Clients often have more than one PTO benefit plan. For example:

• Vacation
• Sick
• Personal
• Other plan types taken according to client policy that can represent time accrued

Note:  To copy a PTO plan from another client, use the Copy from another plan option, and then edit the PTO plan information as required.

To define a PTO benefit plan:

1. Click the Client menu.
2. From Client|Change, select PTO Benefit Plans. The PTO Benefit Plans form opens.
3. Complete the following:
Field Description
PTO Plan Enter a unique code for this benefit plan.
Plan Description Enter a description for this plan.
Calculation Basis

Select the Calculation Basis used to accrue paid time off. Additional fields become available based on this selection. If you specify Unlimited, many of the fields are disabled and you cannot enter values in them.

Note: If the client’s employees cannot carry over unused PTO hours, enter 0 in the Annual Carryover and Lifetime Maximum Carryover fields. If there is no maximum number of hours, enter 9999.99.
Annual Carryover Enter the maximum number of unused hours that employees can carry over from one year to the next.
Lifetime Maximum Carryover

Enter the maximum number of unused hours that employees can carry over for the duration of their employment. This includes all plan years, starting from each employee’s start date.

Note: A warning message displays if you set the Lifetime Maximum Carryover field to zero (0), "Zero designates no limit. If you do not want carryover then enter zero in the Annual Carryover field instead of here." (Since a value of zero designates no limit in this field, the system does not apply this value when it calculates carryover at the end of a plan year.)
Negative Carryover Select if employees’ negative hours can carry over from one year to the next.
Carryover Expiration Enter the number of days, months, or pay periods after the beginning of a new year that any unused carryover hours expire. Leave this field blank if hours do not expire.

Expiration Period

Select for the Carryover Expiration: Days or Months, or Pay Periods.

Suppress Print Method

Suppress printing on pay stubs. Enter the number of days or months (from the PTO start date) to suppress printing the PTO balance of this plan on each payroll check stub and to suppress the display in Employee Portal. From the list, select Days or Months.

Accrue on Arrears

Select if hours should accrue on arrearage vouchers.

Add To Balance On First Accrual

Enter a flat amount to add on the accrual balance when the first accrual triggers for any employee assigned to this PTO benefit plan.

Note: This amount only applies to plans with a Calculation Basis of Flat Amount, Flat Amount by Hours Worked, or Months Worked. (Plans that use other Calculation Basis options will display Add To Balance On First Accrual as read-only.)

Note the following:

• If you enter a Add To Balance On First Accrual amount before selecting a Calculation Basis option, after selecting an option the system removes that amount.
• If a current PTO Benefit Plan contains a Add To Balance On First Accrual amount, when you access that plan and select an unsupported Calculation Basis option and click Save, the system removes that amount.

Plan Expires

Enter the PTO benefit expiration date. After this date, no paid time off accrues for this plan.

Usage Waiting Period

Specify a usage waiting period to suppress employees’ accrued time off until after the specified period of time after their original hire date. Using the field and the drop-down, enter the number of hours, days, or months until employees can request time off, if appropriate for this PTO benefit plan. (This must be a whole number.)

Accrued time off will not display as available on pay stubs/advices until that many hours, days, or months have passed since their original hire date. If an employee leaves the company and is then rehired, the system uses the original hire date, not the rehire date.

Max Usage Limit Per Plan Year

Enter the maximum use limit per register year that the employee can use.

Stop Init If Exceed Limit

Select if the system must stop the calculation/initialization step of the time sheet process when one or more employees exceed the Max Use Limit per Register Year.

Display Used Amt On Check Stub Memo

Select this setting to display, on the memo line of the employee pay stub, the hours that the employee already used (year-to-date). Use this field to comply with California's COVID-19 sick leave requirements for 2022.

To use this setting, you must have Print On Check enabled for the corresponding PTO Register Type. For details, see Creating PTO Registers.

Note the following:

• Most check formats support a maximum of four memo lines.
• Currently, this setting prints the Plan Description in the memo line. This will be corrected soon to use the value in the Pay Stub Name field on the PTO Register Types form. If you need to use this feature in the meantime, we recommend updating the Plan Description field to match or resemble the Pay Stub Name.
4. If you want to perform PTO adjustments for the selected employee, select one of the following shortcuts:
• PTO Classes: Opens the PTO Classes form, where you can restrict the number of register types that can be assigned to an employee to avoid employee PTO register duplication. (You need to create only one of each paid time off class, such as vacation or illness.)
• PTO Register Types: Opens the PTO Register Types form where you can create or update a PTO register. (PTO registers track the usable hours of PTO that employees accrue over the course of the year.)
• PTO Absence Codes: Opens the PTO Absence Codes form where you can create codes for all absences, paid and unpaid. (Paid absence codes are associated with a PTO Register. Unpaid absence codes are not.)
• PTO Auto Enroll Rules: Opens the PTO Auto Enroll Rules form where you can specify plans that automatically enroll new employees.

Note the following about these shortcuts:

• Only the forms you can access will display as shortcut links. For example, if you do not have access to the PTO Classes form, the PTO Classes shortcut will not display. If you have no access or are denied access to these forms, the header and shortcuts do not display.
• If you have Inquiry access to these forms, you can select these links and the appropriate forms will open, but you are unable to make any changes within the forms.
5. Click Save.
Panels displaying below the PTO Benefit Plan panel vary based on the value selected in the Calculation Basis field.
• Setting Up Flat Amount Calculation Basis for PTO Benefit Plans
• Defining Months Worked Calculation Basis for PTO Benefit Plans
• Defining Hours Worked (by Hours) Calculation Basis for PTO Benefit Plans
• Defining Hours Worked (by Months) Calculation Basis for PTO Benefit Plans
• Defining Hours Worked (by Position) Calculation Basis for PTO Benefit Plans
• Defining Flat Amount by Hours Worked Calculation Basis for PTO Benefit Plans
• Defining Unlimited PTO Plans
• Defining First Year Prorated Amounts