Payroll-Synced Policies
A Payroll-Synced time off policy gets its balance from Rise Payroll. Payroll accrues the time off, the balance updates on each pay date, and employees and reviewers see it in Time Off. Approved requests go the other way, into the payroll input sheet.
This suits organizations that already accrue vacation or sick time in payroll and want employees to see the balance they've actually accrued there.
How it differs from a standard policy
| Standard policy | Payroll-Synced policy | |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns the balance | Time Off | Payroll |
| When the balance changes | On the accrual schedule you set | On each pay date |
| Accrual rate | Set in the policy | Set in payroll |
| Reset and carry over | Configurable | Not available |
| Dollar value | Not shown | Can be shown alongside hours |
| Unlimited balances | Supported | Not supported |
Everything else works the same way. Employees request time off from the same screen, reviewers approve from the same place, and the policy still shows on the Time Off calendar and in reports.
Check if it's a fit
A Payroll-Synced policy works when:
- Each employee accrues the time off in payroll. If an employee isn't accruing vacation or sick time in payroll, their balance stays at zero.
- Payroll uses the standard vacation or sick accrual. If you track the balance with a custom accrual, let us know before setup so we can check it can be used.
- The time off is earned in payroll. Banked time earned in Scheduling & Time Tracking can't be a Payroll-Synced policy.
If you only need approved time off to appear on your payroll input sheet, Enable Time Off to Payroll may be all you need.
Get a Payroll-Synced policy set up
Submit a ticket through the help center, and our support team will guide you through it. We'll ask you to decide:
- Hours or days. We recommend hours. Days assume every enrolled employee works the same length of day, and early balances show as fractions, like 0.38 days. This can't be changed after the policy is saved.
- Dollar amount. Whether employees see the dollar value of their balance next to the hours. Admins always see both.
- Negative balances. Whether employees can request time that takes them below zero. By default, they see a warning and can still submit.
- Who's enrolled. Which employees move to the new policy.
Moving from an existing policy
If your employees are on a standard policy today, we'll move them over with you:
- We build the Payroll-Synced policy and enrol your employees.
- Requests that fall after the last posted pay period are re-entered on the new policy.
- You review the enrolled employees and the re-entered requests, and confirm in writing.
- We remove the old policy.
We aim to finish before your next pay period starts, so accrual begins on a clean period.
Re-entering a request that was still waiting for a manager's decision marks it as approved. We'll tell you which requests this affected and ask you to confirm them.
Check the connection
On the Policies screen, the policy card shows two lines that confirm it's working:
- Requests imported to payroll. Approved requests are picked up when you import time off to the payroll input sheet.
- Balance synced with payroll. The balance comes from payroll.
What employees see
Their balance
The Time Off dashboard shows the balance as of the last pay date, with recent changes beside it. If the dollar amount is turned on, employees can click the eye icon to see it.
Their statement
View Statement shows every pay date, how much the balance changed, and the running balance. A pay date can show a negative amount when more time was taken than accrued in that period.
The future balance calculator
Employees can pick a date to see what their balance will be then. On a Payroll-Synced policy, the calculator is marked Synced with payroll, and the estimate uses expected payroll accruals up to that date.
Requesting time off
The request summary shows the balance as of the last pay date and an estimated balance at the end of the pay period the request falls in. Show breakdown lists the expected accrual for each pay date in between.
When the balance updates
The balance changes on each pay period's pay date. It doesn't change when a pay run posts or a request is approved.
- A newly enrolled employee shows zero until the first pay date after enrolment. That's expected.
- Pay runs usually post a few days before the pay date, so during those days payroll can be ahead of Time Off.
- Payroll has no automatic reset or carryover. If your old policy reset each year or capped carryover, that stops when you move to a Payroll-Synced policy.