How do you create a pay of a salaried employee who takes a day unpaid but does not want to use their vacation time?

Hello accounting529,

QuickBooks offers a powerful payroll module that makes it simple to pay your staff on time. I'll be happy to point you in the right direction so your salaried employee can get paid the right way. 

Based on what you've described, I recommend manually adjusting your employee's salary. QuickBooks makes it easy to adjust the salary on your payroll screen. Here's a screenshot for visual reference:

From here, you can enter the unpaid hours and that should automatically update the total pay. Give this a try and let me know how you make out. I'll be here in case you have other questions. Otherwise, enjoy the rest of your week. :)