Accruing Leave

It is the policy of most contractors to accrue vacation leave in the General Ledger and to expense sick leave as taken because unused vacation leave is generally paid to employees who terminate, whereas unused sick leave generally is not.

However, even though sick leave is not accrued in the General Ledger, it is often accrued for internal tracking purposes. To automatically accrue either vacation or sick leave, you can enter the appropriate leave accrual rates for each employee on the Manage Employee Leave screen.

If this is the policy of your company, you are charging vacation from the timesheet to the accrued vacation account and from sick leave to the sick leave expense account.

The accrual method can be different for each leave type. A typical setup is:

  • Accrue vacation in the General Ledger (charge vacation taken to an accrual account).
  • Track accruals for sick leave, but do not post to the General Ledger (charge sick leave taken to an expense account).
  • Enter a beginning balance at the beginning of the year on the Manage Employee Leave screen for each employee for holiday and personal leave, but no accrual rate (charge holiday or personal leave taken to expense account).