Paid Time Off (PTO) & Paid Sick Leave

Create and manage time off policies that automatically track your employees' paid time off and sick leave balances.

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What You Can Do

• Track balances: Automatically subtract hours when employees request time off
• Set accrual rates: Choose how employees earn PTO (fixed yearly amounts or hourly)
• Manage requests: Approve or deny time off requests (Plus plan required)
• View history: See all time off requests and make changes as needed

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Accessing Time Off Dashboard

To view your Time Off dashboard:

1. Sign in to your Homebase account on web
2. Navigate to Time Off - Click Shifts on the left, then Time Off
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Important to Note

• Each employee can only be in one PTO policy AND one sick leave policy at a time
• Plus and All-in-One plans can create unlimited policies
• PTO and sick leave policies have the same setup process

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Types of Accrual Methods

There are two types of accrual methods for PTO & Paid Sick Leave hours:

• • Fixed: A set amount of PTO hours are accrued during the year with specific frequencies.
  • Hourly: Employees can only accrue PTO hours for the time they are clocked in.

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Creating a New PTO & Sick Leave Policy

Note: PTO policies are created at the company-level. This means that PTO policies will be shared across all locations within the same account. PTO policies cannot be created for a specific location.

Step 1: Set up policy basics

1. Start creating. Click Create Policy in the bottom right corner.
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2. Name your policy. Use a clear name like "Full-time PTO" or "Part-time Sick Leave."
3. ​​Choose how employees earn time off. Select one accrual method.
   1. Fixed Amount: Employees get a set number of hours each year (e.g. 120 hours per year)
   2. Hourly Rate: Employees earn time off based on hours worked (e.g. 1 hour per every 20 hours worked)
4. Complete the details for your chosen accrual method.
   1. If you chose Fixed Amount:
      1. Total per year: Enter how many hours employees earn annually
      2. Earning frequency: Choose when employees receive their time off.
         1. All at once (at the start of the year)
         2. Each pay period (recommended - many states require all granted time off be paid out when an employee resigns or is terminated.)
      3. 
   2. If you chose Hourly:
      1. Rate: Enter the ratio (example: 1 hour earned per 20 hours worked)
      2. 
5. Click Continue in the bottom right corner.

Step 2: Optional Settings

Configure these settings based on your company needs:

• Maximum Balance: Cap how many hours employees can save
• Prevent Negative Balance: Stop requests that would create negative balances
• Maximum accrual per year: Limit annual earning
• Maximum use per year: Limit annual usage
• Carryover Limit: Set hours that roll over to next year (excess hours are removed)
• Waiting Period: Delay before new hires can accrue PTO
• Tenure Accrual: Award bonus hours based on anniversary dates

Note: For fixed accrual with waiting periods that cross into the next year, you'll need to enter PTO manually.

Step 3: Enrolling Employees

1. Select employees - Click the plus icon next to employee names
2. Remove employees - Click the X for assigned employees
3. Review assignments - Employees move to the Assigned column when selected
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Note: Employees can only be in one PTO and one sick leave policy at a time.

Step 4: Starting Balances

1. New policies: Leave at zero - employees will start accruing based on your settings
2. Existing balances: Enter current hours for each employee
3. Tenure accrual: Confirm employee start dates for anniversary bonuses
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Step 5: Finish

1. Click Create Policy to activate

After Creating Your Policy

What happens next:

• Employees are not notified about policy enrollment
• Employees see their balances when requesting time off
• Balances update automatically based on your accrual settings

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Editing an Existing PTO or Paid Sick Leave Policy

1. Find your policy on the Time Off dashboard
2. Click on Edit next to the policy name
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3. Make changes using the same steps as creating a policy
4. Click Update Policy to save changes
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Viewing & Managing PTO History

1. Go to Time Off under Shifts from the left side of the screen.
2. Click View History at the top of the page.
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3. Make necessary changes:
   1. Delete request - Click the trash can icon
   2. Edit details - Click the pencil icon 
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   4. Note: Changes cannot be undone and will show which user made the edit.

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Viewing PTO Balance

1. Go to Time Off under Shifts from the left side of the screen.
2. Click PTO at the center of the page
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3. Click the Employee's Name to open their balance history
4. View Balance
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Understanding Time-Off Requests

1. All time-off requests are broken down into the same sections:
    
   1. Employee
      The employee who is requesting the time off or the employee the time off is being entered for.
   2. Category
      Determines whether the time off will be recorded as unpaid, deducted from a PTO balance, or deducted from a paid sick leave policy, depending on the policy the employee is enrolled in. Regardless of the name of the policy the name will come up as "PTO, Paid Sick Leave or Unpaid".
   3. Reason
      Used to note why the time off is being requested. This field is informational only and does not affect the category or how time is deducted.
   4. Note
      Optional written communication from the employee or from an owner/manager when entering the request.
   5. Dates
      Used to select the date range and the total number of hours to be deducted.
   6. Whole Day
      Enabled by default. When turned on, the system automatically sets the total hours to 8 hours per selected day.
      Turning this off allows you to customize how many hours are deducted per day.
   7. Hours
      Choose the amount of hours for the time off period, such as 3 hours. Note: You can only customize total hours after toggling off Whole Day.