Manage your time off - employees

Requesting time off can be done both on a computer and through our mobile app. If you need to request time off for a date that has already passed, reach out to your payroll admin for assistance.

1. Click the Time Off tab on the left-hand side of your screen.
2. If your company has multiple time off policies, click on the policy you wish to request time off from.
3. Click Request Time Off
4. Select the day(s) for your requested time off.
   • Full Days: 8 hours will be submitted for each business day (does not include weekends).
   • Partial Days: A default amount of 8 hours will be entered for each date. Update this number as needed.
   • If you select a single date, a default amount of 8 hours will be entered. Update this number as needed.
   • If you select multiple days, choose either.
5. Add a note to your employer regarding the request (optional).
6. Click Send Request.

Your payroll administrators will be notified by email regarding your request. Once the request has been approved or declined, you'll receive an email notification.

You can cancel your time off request as long as it hasn't been processed through payroll. 

1. Click the Time Off tab.
2. If your company has multiple time off policies, click on the policy you wish to cancel a request from.
3. Next to your pending time off request, click View.
4. Click Delete Request.

To edit the request, delete the current one and then create a new request.

Note: If any portion of your paid time off has already been processed through payroll, the Delete Request option will no longer appear. Please reach out to your company's payroll administrator to make the necessary adjustments.

Once you've requested time off, manage and view your time off request history:

1. Click the Time Off tab.
2. If your company has multiple time off policies, click into the policy you wish to view your balance and time off requests.

 On this page, you can view:

• Available Hours: Remaining time off hours you're available to use
• Requested Hours: Your total Pending Requests + Approved Requests time off hours
• Earning Policy: The rate at which you earn time off
• Maximum Hours: If this is part of your company's time off policy, the maximum number of hours you can earn per year
• Pending Requests: Your requested time off that has not yet been approved or declined
• Approved Requests: Your approved time off that has not yet been paid in payroll (payroll has not yet processed for all requested dates)
• Declined: Your requested time off that has been declined
• Past Vacation/Sick Time: Your approved time off that has been paid in payroll (payroll has already processed for all requested dates)

Tenure: The period or term of holding a position. Sometimes used to determine when an employee will get an increase in time off. For example, an employee receives an additional 24 hours of time after 2 years of tenure with their company.

Waiting period: The allotted period of time an employee must wait before they can begin accruing time off. For example, an employee must have a 30 day waiting period before they can accrue time at their company.

Maximum balance: The maximum amount of time off hours that an employee can have at any given time. If an employee has reached their max balance but uses some time off during a given pay period, they may still accrue back up to their max balance. For example, an employee earns 10 hours of time off every month, but they have a max balance of 20 hours total. 

Carry-over limit: The amount of accrued (or unused) time off that can be carried over from one calendar year to the next. Some employees earn more time off on the anniversary of their hire date, while others earn it on January 1.

FAQs

Q: When will annual time off accrue?

A: Annual time off will accrue when the payroll that includes the anniversary date is paid out. For example, if the anniversary is January 1, when the January 1 - 15 pay period is paid out, the amount will accrue.

However, if the payroll includes time from the previous year (such as a period from December 26 - January 10), the employee won't see the accrual until the next payroll fully in the new year (the January 11 - January 25 payroll in this example). 

Q: Do time off balances automatically zero out at year's end?

A: No, some state sick time mandates do not allow for time off balance resets, so balances will not automatically zero out at year's end unless a payroll admin manually zeroes out the balance on an account.

Q: Can an employee go into the negative time off?

A: Yes, a time off balance will go negative automatically if an employee uses vacation they do not have. A payroll admin can also save a negative balance in the employee's details screen under the time off tracking section. 

Review time off balances directly from your Gusto employee account. 

Follow the steps below to view the Time Off Tracker:

1. Click the Time Off tab.
2. If you have more than one policy, select which one you'd like to review from the drop-down.
3. Review Activity to find a breakdown of all changes to your PTO balance.

This feature is only available to Plus and Premium plan customers. If you don't see the Time Off tab, it means you don't have access to this feature. Admins can upgrade their product plan at anytime.

Activity types

Activity	Description
Accrual	Hours accrued in accordance with a PTO policy
Added to policy	Date an employee was added to a policy
Admin adjustment	Balance adjusted from the employee profile
Admin recorded request	Admin manually added a PTO request
Carryover limit reached	Hours capped in accordance with your PTO policy
Employee request	Hours requested by employee
Historical Accrual adjustment	A historical time off request adjusts a prior accrual
Payroll cancelled due to termination	Employee termination caused payroll cancellation
Payroll reversed	Payroll reversal causing accrued hours to be removed
Max balance reached	Hours capped in accordance with your PTO policy
Removed from policy	Employee is no longer associated with a policy
Payout of unused hours	Paying out unused hours during dismissal payroll

Balances will only reflect for limited time off policies.