Small Business Shared Interest Group

Hello Everyone,

Missouri recently passed a new requirement on employers to accrue PTO for their employees based on hours worked. In my current position, I do not outsource payroll. Rather, payroll is fully done in-house. Our DMS (Dealer Management System) payroll software is not designed to perpetually accrue PTO hours, can only be updated periodically. Currently, PTO hours are earned annually based on hire date. I'm thinking about tracking PTO hours by using an excel spreadsheet based on the hours shown on the digital time cards. I am interested in any other suggestions? How do other small businesses handle accruing PTO? 

Hi Samuel,

Yeah, we outsource Payroll and HR, so the vendor has a system of their own for tracking this. 

There may be some low cost/free options of tools you can use online though?  I see TalentHR is free for companies with 10 or less users/employees.  The Day Off app appears to be low cost at $1 per month per user (for the version that has accrual capability).  VacationTracker is also $1 per user/month, but has a $25 minimum.  There are a LOT of applications/software out there to sift thru, these few just seemed low cost and promising that they might provide what you need.

Manual tracking via Excel is also an option, but it puts a lot of the burden on the one maintaining the file, making sure accrued and used vacation is all entered.  Versus allowing the individuals to enter/request time off and the system tracking when that time off is and adjusting the accrued time automatically.

Regards,

Hello Everyone,

Missouri recently passed a new requirement on employers to accrue PTO for their employees based on hours worked. In my current position, I do not outsource payroll. Rather, payroll is fully done in-house. Our DMS (Dealer Management System) payroll software is not designed to perpetually accrue PTO hours, can only be updated periodically. Currently, PTO hours are earned annually based on hire date. I'm thinking about tracking PTO hours by using an excel spreadsheet based on the hours shown on the digital time cards. I am interested in any other suggestions? How do other small businesses handle accruing PTO? 

Hello Everyone,

Missouri recently passed a new requirement on employers to accrue PTO for their employees based on hours worked. In my current position, I do not outsource payroll. Rather, payroll is fully done in-house. Our DMS (Dealer Management System) payroll software is not designed to perpetually accrue PTO hours, can only be updated periodically. Currently, PTO hours are earned annually based on hire date. I'm thinking about tracking PTO hours by using an excel spreadsheet based on the hours shown on the digital time cards. I am interested in any other suggestions? How do other small businesses handle accruing PTO? 

Samuel,

My immediate thought was to change the company's payroll service to one that handles PTO tracking. Most payroll services do provide PTO tracking. However, I held off answering because it was implied in your answer that you were going to keep using the DMS payroll software. Without knowing more regarding the situation, I can only make these general suggestions. I can see the following basic options for you.

• Keep using the DMS payroll software and use Excel to track PTO
• Export (manually or automatic) payroll data from DMS payroll software and import into another payroll software to track PTO
• Replace the DMS payroll software with another payroll software that does track PTO

After thinking over the problem you presented, I have a few questions that you can ask yourself that will help you determine which way to go.

1. Is using the DMS payroll software required by contract?
2. What benefits are the company receiving by using the DMS payroll software?
3. What other pain points does the DMS payroll software have?
4. What are the employees' opinions of the DMS payroll software?
5. Is it possible to integrate the DMS payroll software with another payroll service?

I am confident you will find a solution that works best for the company. This type of problem is exactly the kind I solve for my clients on a regular basis.

Hello Everyone,

Missouri recently passed a new requirement on employers to accrue PTO for their employees based on hours worked. In my current position, I do not outsource payroll. Rather, payroll is fully done in-house. Our DMS (Dealer Management System) payroll software is not designed to perpetually accrue PTO hours, can only be updated periodically. Currently, PTO hours are earned annually based on hire date. I'm thinking about tracking PTO hours by using an excel spreadsheet based on the hours shown on the digital time cards. I am interested in any other suggestions? How do other small businesses handle accruing PTO? 

David Belnap,

Great questions that are very helpful in developing a solution,

The DMS software is under contract, which streamlines all departments. The payroll system is already integrated with the DMS software. Unfortunately, the DMS software does not support integrating outsourced payroll. Therefore, if I chose to outsource payroll I would need to manually post an entire payroll into the accounting system line by line. The current system streamlines the posting process. In the last 4+ years of using this software,  tracking PTO has been the only short fall. With this in mind, manually tracking PTO hours seems to be less tedious versus posting an entire payroll into the accounting system. 

Since the law is recently passed, I am watching for the department of labor to release notes & guidance on compliance to develop a better solution to the problem.

Thanks for your response,

Samuel,

My immediate thought was to change the company's payroll service to one that handles PTO tracking. Most payroll services do provide PTO tracking. However, I held off answering because it was implied in your answer that you were going to keep using the DMS payroll software. Without knowing more regarding the situation, I can only make these general suggestions. I can see the following basic options for you.

• Keep using the DMS payroll software and use Excel to track PTO
• Export (manually or automatic) payroll data from DMS payroll software and import into another payroll software to track PTO
• Replace the DMS payroll software with another payroll software that does track PTO

After thinking over the problem you presented, I have a few questions that you can ask yourself that will help you determine which way to go.

1. Is using the DMS payroll software required by contract?
2. What benefits are the company receiving by using the DMS payroll software?
3. What other pain points does the DMS payroll software have?
4. What are the employees' opinions of the DMS payroll software?
5. Is it possible to integrate the DMS payroll software with another payroll service?

I am confident you will find a solution that works best for the company. This type of problem is exactly the kind I solve for my clients on a regular basis.

Hello Everyone,

Missouri recently passed a new requirement on employers to accrue PTO for their employees based on hours worked. In my current position, I do not outsource payroll. Rather, payroll is fully done in-house. Our DMS (Dealer Management System) payroll software is not designed to perpetually accrue PTO hours, can only be updated periodically. Currently, PTO hours are earned annually based on hire date. I'm thinking about tracking PTO hours by using an excel spreadsheet based on the hours shown on the digital time cards. I am interested in any other suggestions? How do other small businesses handle accruing PTO?