Question

Changing or creating payroll item with type "Vacation Pay"

Forum|Forum|10 months ago
September 10, 2025
1 reply
5 views

We have an employee who was accruing vacation pay and we allowed them to use more vacation than they had accrued, but then they left with an amount still owing. We wanted to use an item in our payroll item list called "Vacation Accrual Adjustment", but it doesn't appear to affect the actual vacation accrual on the employee's account.

When looking at the payroll item list, I can see it's listed as "Deduction" under "Type", whereas our regular "VacPay-Paid Out" is listed as "Vacation Pay" under "Type". Is there a way to either change this existing item to "Vacation Pay" type or to either create a new payroll item with "Vacation Pay" as the type? I tried and it didn't seem possible.

QuickBooks Enterprise Suite

J

JamesDuanT

QuickBooks Team

The Vacation Accrual Adjustment directly reflects in the Employee Summary table without impacting the employee's Vacation Accrued (VAC. ACCRUED), Jessica.

The Vacation Hourly Rate in the Earnings table can be used to update the employee's Vacation Available ($) and Vacation Accrued ($) amounts. The table below outlines how the entered hours affect these values:

Please note that we cannot change the payroll types once created. The only option is to mark them inactive and create a replacement item.

For guidance in creating a time off payroll item, you can refer to the steps outlined in this article: Set up and track time off in QuickBooks Payroll.

We'll be right here if you need more clarification or if have other questions.

J

Jessica_SAuthor

How do I change an employee's vacation hourly rate?

I've attached a list of all our vacation-related payroll items and I don't see "Vacation Hourly Rate"

On the employee's final pay, we attempted to enter a negative amount under "VacPay-Accrual Paid Out" to show they were paying back an amount in arrears, but QuickBooks didn't let us, so we had to find a work around.

MariaSoledadG

QuickBooks Team

Thanks for the screenshot you provided. You'll need to go to the Employee's profile to change or edit the vacation hourly rate, Jessica.

To do so, follow the steps below:

Go to the Employees menu and select Employee Centre.
Right-click the employee's name and choose Edit Employee.
From the Payroll Info tab, select Vacation Hourly Pay.
Make changes on the rate.
Click OK.

In relation to this, the "VacPay-Paid Out" item currently being used is categorized as an Addition Payroll Item. This type of item only allows the entry of positive numbers. You can use the payroll Deduction Item you've previously created and enter the arrears amount (e.g., $100) as a positive value in the deduction field. QuickBooks will automatically subtract it from the employee's final net pay. I've added a screenshot for your visual guide:

You can always get back to us if you have any other questions or concerns when dealing with vacation rates or payroll items in QuickBooks. We're always right here to help you.

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