Federal and state requirements for Paid Time Off
Creating formulas in Sage 300 CRE can be daunting for even the most experienced user, and payroll formulas are often the most complex. With expanding Federal and State legislation requiring paid sick leave, automatic accrual of hours for this or any other type of paid time off (PTO) is a worthwhile objective. But coming up with the PTO payroll formulas to automate the accrual becomes a challenge.
Types of formulas
In many cases, more than one formula may be needed to accrue any type of PTO, including paid sick leave. Separate formulas are often used to provide the following variables for calculation:
- Employee anniversary date
- Employee length of service
- Tests for Pay Group or department
- Total employee YTD hours accrued
- Total employee YTD hours taken
- Total regular and overtime hours worked during the pay period
For example, a PTO accrual formula that ensures the calculation occurs only on the first check in a pay period, checks the employee Pay Group where some employees are paid weekly and others are paid biweekly, and then calculates PTO hours based on formulas for the Pay Group might be written:
IF (Check Sequence [PR Check] = “First” AND Pay Group (PR check) = “BIWEEKLY”, Sick Accr BW (Public Formula), IF(Pay Group (PR check) = “WEEKLY”, Sick Accr WK (Public Formula)))
Note that this formula contains two additional formulas that were created separately and then combined in one relatively complex formulas in an “If – Then – Else” type calculation. Selecting the right records to use in each of the formulas is key to the success of the calculations, and logical sequencing is critical.
If your head hurts just reading this, don’t despair! The Help Topics in PR > Help > Formulas give great information and examples. And even more examples are available in the Sage Knowledgebase.
Don’t forget to test!
It’s important to test the formulas once created before using them in a live payroll. You can easily accomplish this by linking the final formula to the Pay setup for the accrual, adding the Pay to an employee record, marking it as automatic, and then creating and processing a sample check using Enter Checks.
Need to set up CARES Act payroll? Learn how to here.
And as always, if you’d like a little expert help getting your paid sick time and other PTO accrual formulas set up and working in your system, please call ETHOSystems at 866.482.3400.
by Kyle Zeigler, Sage Senior Certified Consultant