QuickBooks Time admins ask how to configure time off banks correctly

Administrators who run scheduling in QuickBooks Time keep landing on the same question: how do you configure time off banks so balances build the way your policy intends? The question appeared in the product’s French Canadian help channel, and the formally accepted answer comes from Intuit itself. We went through the full guidance and pulled out the parts that matter.

Admins only, and codes come first

Two ground rules open the accepted answer. Only administrators can configure and manage time off banks, so team members with standard access will not find these controls. Setup also follows an order: establish your time off codes and preferences first, and the banks hang off those codes.

The codes screen sits in the add-ons area of the administrative menus. Open a code, enable bank tracking on it, and the accrual settings follow from there. If a code is missing or unassigned, there is no bank to configure, so get this part right before touching accruals.

Company-wide settings carry one exception

Settings saved on the time off codes screen apply to every member assigned that code. One group stands apart: members carrying custom accrual settings of their own. Changes made at the code level do not reach them.

The product warns you rather than leaving it to memory. A banner at the top of the accrual settings window states how many members have custom banks and will not be affected. Clicking the notice lists exactly who, so you can check whether their settings still fit before saving anything.

Which accrual type should you pick?

The accrual dropdown offers five choices, and each suits a different policy.

• None: no automatic accrual, and no bank of hours to add.
• Manual: no automatic accrual either, but hours can be added through the time off ledger.
• Yearly: a set number of hours is added to a member’s bank balance.
• Every pay period: a fixed number of hours accrues at the end of each pay period.
• Based on hours worked: the bank grows in proportion to the hours a member actually worked, calculated at the end of a pay period.

The hours worked option matters for variable schedules, where a flat grant per period would drift from reality. Manual suits teams that prefer to award time off case by case. Yearly and per period options fit policies that grant leave on a calendar or payroll rhythm.

A five day buffer, recommended

One recommendation sits inside the accrual settings, and Intuit flags it explicitly. Set accruals to take place five days after the end of each pay period. The buffer exists so timesheets can be adjusted before accrued leave is calculated.

The logic is simple. Pay period boundaries invite late corrections, and an accrual that posts immediately leaves no room for them. Five days gives administrators a window to fix hours first, then let the math run.

Member level settings live in My Team

Company-wide defaults are only half the picture. Individual accrual types are set from the My Team area: select Edit, then Time Off, and choose the accrual type beside the relevant code in the Accruals column. The bank type is chosen in the same place.

This split explains a familiar kind of confusion. You change a setting on the codes screen, some balances refuse to move, and the banner about custom settings is the reason why.

Balances, spreadsheets, and reminders

The accepted answer’s learning list includes three more tasks beyond setup. Administrators can add or adjust a member’s leave balance directly. Under the Manual option, that is how hours enter the bank at all: the time off ledger does the work a formula would otherwise do.

Bank settings can also be viewed in a spreadsheet, and updates can be pushed back in the same way. That matters for larger teams, where editing one profile at a time would drag. The final item on the list is an anniversary reminder email.

The short version

The whole path, as the accepted answer lays it out: confirm your administrator access, set your codes and preferences, then enable bank tracking on each code. Choose an accrual type, apply the five day buffer, and check the custom settings banner before saving. For anything member specific, work through My Team.

Balances, spreadsheet reviews, and anniversary reminders round out the toolkit. None of this demands deep technical knowledge. It demands order, and an eye on who carries custom settings.