Manage time off requests (for admins)

Gusto does not send time off requests to managers if the employee requesting the time off is also an admin on the account.

Keep in mind, you must have the required permissions to be able to enable or disable time off requests.

Enable time off requests

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. If you have not done so already, grant your employees access to Gusto.
3. Click your profile name (upper-right corner).
4. Click the Settings section.
5. Click the Customization tab. 
6. Next to “Time off requests,” click edit.
7. Toggle to Enabled.
8. Click Save.

We'll send an email notification to your employees, so they can start making time off requests.

Once an employee makes a request, you can view, approve, or decline the requests, or delegate these tasks to assigned managers.

Disable time off requests

Important: Disabling your time off requests will automatically decline all open requests.

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click your profile name (upper-right corner).
3. Click the Settings section.
4. Click the Customization tab. 
5. Next to “Time off requests,” click edit.
6. Toggle to Disabled.
7. Click Save.

Once you set up paid time off requests, you can manage and view all employee requests from your Gusto account. 

Admins will receive notification of employee's time off requests, unless a manager is assigned to an employee. Once a manager is assigned, admins will no longer receive notifications of time off requests, but they can still manage them from the Time Off tab. 

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Time off.
3. Use the dropdown on the right side to view all requests for vacation and sick time.
   • To Review: Requested time off that has not yet been approved or declined.
   • Approved: Approved time off that has not yet been paid (payroll has not been processed for all requested dates).
   • Paid: Approved time off that has been paid (payroll has already been processed for all requested dates).
   • Declined: Requested time off that has been declined.

Approved requests will appear in the Time Off Tracker. 

Once an employee submits a time off request, admins will receive an email notification. A reminder will also appear as a sticky note on the Home page.

• If you've assigned a manager to your employee, only the manager will receive the email notifications. You can still manage all time off requests from the Time off section.

Heads up: Administrators listed as "external accountants" in Gusto will not receive these notifications. If you'd like them to receive emails, contact us from the Help section of your account to request the removal of the user's role type.

Approve or edit a time off request

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Time off.
3. Under "To Review," click a View next to a request.
4. Review the request.
5. If necessary, click Edit next to "Requested time" to make changes.
6. Add a note to your employee (optional).
7. Click Approve.

Your employee will be emailed once the request has been approved. Approved hours for upcoming payrolls will automatically populate with the requested amount in the Vacation & Sick Days screen. The employee's available time off balance will also automatically reduce for the amount that was approved.

If a payroll admin submits a time off request, no email communication will be sent to any other admins on the account.

Declined requests cannot be undone. If a request is denied in error, the employee will need to resubmit the request. 

Decline a request 

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Time off.
3. Under "To Review", click View next to a request.
4. View the request.
5. Add a note to your employee about why you are declining their request.
6. Click Decline.

Your employee will be emailed once the request has been declined.

Decline a previously approved request

This only works if the applicable payroll has not been processed.

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Time off.
3. In the dropdown on the right-hand side, change to "Approved."
4. Click view next to a request.
5. Click Decline Approved Request.
6. Add a note to your employee about why you are declining their request.
7. Click Decline.

Your employee will be emailed once the request has been declined.

Admins with the required permissions have two ways to add time off for an employee: 

From the Time off section

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the Time & Attendance section and select Time off.
3. Click Record time off for an employee in the US at the bottom of the page.
4. Enter the time off details.
5. Click Record Time Off.

The time off will be automatically approved, and the employee will get an email letting them know that you’ve added this on their behalf.

From the employee's page

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the People section.
3. Select the employee's name.
4. Navigate to their Time Off tab and click Record [employee]’s Time Off.
5. Enter the time off details.
6. Click Record Time Off.

The time off will be automatically approved, and the employee will get an email letting them know that you’ve added this on their behalf.

Record time off for a salaried employee with default hours

If you set default hours for a salaried employee, those hours will automatically be added to the regular hours field in payroll for that employee. Since default hours are the total hours a salaried employee is expected to work during that pay period, their time off should never exceed the default hours. 

When running payroll, if you override a salaried employee’s default hours in the regular hours field, their time off will be added on top of the regular hours. 

If you’ve already processed payroll and have a pending time off request for the same work period, you can still record it or decline it. 

If you manually added time off hours when running payroll that covered a time off request not yet approved, decline the time off request since you already incorporated these hours. No further action is needed.

If you still need to approve the time off request and record the time off, you can do so using an off-cycle payroll.

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the People section.
3. Select the employee.
4. Scroll to the "Recent paystubs" section and click Run off-cycle payroll.
5. Select a date range under "Work period".
6. Enter the PTO date range as the work period.
   • The requested time off hours will autofill on the "Vacation & Sick Days" page of the off-cycle payroll. This will also automatically recalculate the employee's remaining time off balance once the payroll is submitted.
7. Review the Advanced Settings to make sure the tax withholding rate, work period, and deduction and contribution settings are as desired.
8. Click Gross Earnings.
9. Manually input 0.00 into the Gross Earnings field.
10. Click Save & Continue.
11. The time off will appear on Page 2, click Save & Continue.
12. Review and submit the payroll.

Once processed, a paystub will be generated for the time off.

• Hourly employees will see wages paid for the paid time off processed.  
• Salaried employees will not see additional pay as a result of this off-cycle; they should have been paid in full on the original payroll run.

You can edit an employee's time off balance at any time in your admin Gusto account. If you do not see the policy you need to edit, make sure the employee has been added to the policy.

Update an employee's time off balance

1. Sign in to Gusto.
2. Click the People section.
3. Select the employee's profile. 
4. Click the Time Off tab.
5. On the right-hand side of the screen under the "Policies" section, click edit under the policy or balance you’d like to modify.
6. Make the necessary changes and click Update.

Once you edit the balance, the employee will be able to see the new hours available to them. If your company's time off policy is set up to accrue hours, the employee will continue to accrue hours as normal.

Note: The employee view of their balance might differ from the admin's view. An employee's current balance is the total amount of hours an employee has. The available balance is the remaining hours an employee has available–hours that have not yet been requested to be used.