Depending on the state or province your company does business in, employees may require accrue sick pay or get a set balance every year. This guide will walk through the process of creating the necessary categories and help setup your employees to receive sick pay. Depending on how your company's rules for sick days, employees may accrue each pay run, get a a set amount of days every year, or they get unlimited days.

By default, Harmony comes with one predefined sick pay accrual and sick paid (pay out) category. If your company has multiple sick pay accrual rules, then you will need to create multiple sets of accrual and pay out categories. 

Accrue Each Pay Run

If employees accrue each pay run, then it is important to determine which pay roll categories contribute to the sick accrual. 

Steps: 

  1. Go to Payroll > Payroll categories > select or create a new payroll category for sick accrual. 
  2. In the table on the right side labelled Payout:, ensure that your 'Sick Paid' earning payroll category is selected.
  3. Be sure to check the basis is set to units or salary and define whether units refers to days, hours, or other. If you want to accrue a dollar amount every pay run, then use salary, if you want to accrue in units (time), then you set it in units.
  4. Navigate to the formula tab () on the right side of the screen. 
  5. Define the sick accrual formula for all the categories that contribute to sick pay accrual. Be sure to finish off your formula with "*'ASSIGNED RATE'/100.00". For 'ASSIGNED RATE', you can click the orange bar labelled 'ASSIGNED AMOUNT'.
  6. Click the  button to erase one part of the formula at a time, or click the eraser button () to erase the entire formula. 
  7. Validate your formula to ensure it is correct. 
  8. If valid, save your payroll category to save your changes. 
  9. Head back to the 'Details' tab. 
  10. If your employees reset sick pay at the year end, then check off "reset at year end". 
  11. If the employees can carry sick days over to the new year but they have a maximum number of days, set the maximum. 
  12. Click the save button when you are done.

Tip: If your formula is not valid, double-check your formula! Ensure that there are no straggling plus signs and that if you are using parentheses/brackets, that there are both open and end brackets.

Remember to assign both the accrual and earning payroll categories to your employees! In the employee master paycard, you can enter the percentage in the "Amount" field. 

Accrue Once a Year

If employees get a set balance of sick days every year, then they will still need to have an accrual category to track the number of sick days remaining and reset every year.

Steps:

  1. Go to Payroll > Payroll categories > select or create a new payroll category for sick accrual. 
  2. In the table on the right side labelled Payout:, ensure that your 'Sick Paid' earning payroll category is selected.
  3. Be sure to check the basis is set to units or salary and define whether units refers to days, hours, or other. If you want to accrue a dollar amount every pay run, then use salary, if you want to accrue in units (time), then you set it in units.
  4. If your employees reset sick pay at the year end, then check off "reset at year end". 
  5. If the employees can carry sick days over to the new year but they have a maximum number of days, set the maximum. 
  6. Click the save button when you are done.

Remember to assign both the accrual and earning payroll categories to your employees! In the employee master paycard, you can enter the number of units in the "Amount" field. 

No set amount (Unlimited Days)

If the employee does not have a limit to the number of sick days or you do not track the number of sick days paid but you still wish to pay employees for any sick days they take, you do not need an accrual. You can simply setup an earning "Sick Paid" category. There is no need for an accrual.