How to Manage, Track and Approve Paid Time Off

How much time do you spend approving and denying PTO requests?

How much time does your team spend trying to figure out how many vacation hours they have left – and how long it will take them to earn more? 

Paid time off is an essential part of your benefits package. A competitive vacation plan can help you recruit top talent while improving employee morale and productivity. However, a complicated PTO management process can leave employees confused while frustrating managers and HR teams. 

OnTheClock developed a PTO tool that’s as easy to use as...ordering a fruity beach drink on the vacation you just booked. From vacation time to holidays and sick days, you can set your team up with a clear view of the hours they have to use.  

Managers can quickly add new employees within our system, make edits to the PTO of the entire staff, and approve or deny employee requests in just a few clicks. Employees, meanwhile, can manage their own PTO accounts and have a clear view of how they used their time. 

Discover how OnTheClock’s PTO management system can help you.  

How PTO Tracking Benefits Your Company

While many small businesses try to use an informal PTO process, there are significant benefits to tracking employee time off through one unified system. Your business can operate smoothly with an online tool and you can focus on operations instead of spending hours on employee management. A few additional benefits include:

• You will know who is out of the office on any given day. With this, you can plan for days when you will be understaffed and schedule meetings when the most team members will be in the office. 
• Your time cards will be automatically updated to reflect PTO hours. Your management and HR teams can save time by not having to fix errors or make adjustments.  
• The PTO is automatically added over time and subtracted when used. This prevents your team from updating internal systems for multiple employees. 
• Your company will experience fewer payroll problems. With updated timesheets and a system that syncs together, your employees will get paid accurately for their time off. 
• You can reduce understaffing. By limiting how many employees are approved for PTO on specific days, you can make sure all shifts are covered.  
• Employees and managers both know how much PTO is remaining. 

Each employee and team can manage their PTO without turning to the HR staff for help. PTO management becomes easier across the board, whether you are a CEO bringing on multiple staff members or a seasonal intern reporting a sick day. 

Set Up PTO Accrual for Your Team in Three Easy Steps

Give up your spreadsheets full of formulas and ditch your outdated accrual tools in favor of our easy, web-based system. OnTheClock makes your transition process seamless, creating a smooth onboarding experience for your new team members. 

Whatever your needs, you can set up our easy PTO management interface in three easy steps.    

Step One: Choose the Type of Paid Time Off You Want to Set Up

We offer four categories of paid time off that you can select when choosing the settings for your employees: vacation time, sick time, holiday time and personal time. You can use all four of these to log your employee hours or just use one or two depending on your benefits package.

 

Step Two: Select the Method of PTO Accrual or Allotment for Your Employees

Every business has its own unique policies for paid time off. We offer multiple accrual options based on your plan. You can allot a flat number of PTO hours per year, or base PTO accrual on the pay period or the percent of hours worked. 

You can choose different accrual methods for each PTO option depending on your benefits package, and also customize accrual for each employee.  

 

Step Three: Choose When the PTO Year Starts and Ends

We know that most employees don’t start on January 1. Use our calendar to set start and end dates for the PTO year, and customize the expiration dates for individual employees.

 

You can base your PTO year on your own fiscal calendar or use the traditional calendar year to make it easy for employees to track their time off.

Paid Time Off Calendar View

A calendar view of your employees’ paid time off makes for an easy visual for pending, approved and denied requests. This option conveniently allows employers and managers to physically see who is using PTO and when they are using it. Customize your view via month, week, day or list to fit your preferences. 

 

Just like a regular calendar, you will be able to digitally flip through the months by using the search and filter options. Also enjoy the luxury of selecting individual employees or all employees when viewing your PTO calendar. Dive in a little deeper and view by specific departments as well.

Are you very detailed and would like more from your PTO? You are in luck, because our users can view the paid time off calendar by the type of PTO days that are requested, approved or denied. Whether it is vacation, holiday, sick or personal, this robust PTO feature covers it all.

Quickly edit PTO requests from the calendar view by simply clicking on the employee’s highlighted time off shown on the calendar. See details regarding when the PTO was submitted, approved or denied. You will also have the ability to choose which days are paid or unpaid, read notes from the employees, and create your own notes. Our PTO calendar view is the center of our paid time off tracking feature, and you won’t be disappointed.

Add Bulk PTO for Company Holidays

If your office is closed for a holiday, make sure your employees still get paid. OnTheClock makes it easy to bulk add PTO so all of your employees receive pay even if they don’t clock in. We provide a list of popular holidays to choose from and you can also create custom holidays for your unique needs.

Manage Paid Time Off Requests

Not only does OnTheClock make it easy for your human resources team to onboard new hires, it also offers an easy process for employees to request time off and check their remaining PTO hours. 

 

With just a few clicks, your employees can select the type of PTO they want to use, pick which hours or days they want to take off, and submit a time off request to their manager. 

Their direct report will then immediately get the request, which they can approve or deny just as quickly. 

Our system makes it easy for both employees and managers to see their PTO approval status and check on requests from the past. As a manager, you can filter requests depending on whether they are approved, denied, or pending. You can also narrow the requests by each employee or bulk approve or deny PTO requests at once.

Start your day by reviewing pending requests to get them off your plate, or check your approved requests to see who will be out of the office in the coming weeks. 

 

Approving PTO shouldn’t be a large part of your day. Click to our PTO tab and respond to your time off requests quickly so you can focus on running your business instead. 

PTO Approval that Makes Payroll and Time Card Tracking Easier

By setting up PTO tracking for your employees through OnTheClock, you can save your management teams the time and frustration of aligning time cards with the time off requested. Plus, our system allows you to sync your time cards with payroll services like Quickbooks. Accurate time cards mean accurate pay rates – and happier employees who don’t need to ask for corrections in their pay.  

Paid Time Off Made Simple

We developed OnTheClock with the idea that you shouldn’t need a math degree to track your vacation time or manage employees who want time off. Our PTO tool is simple and can scale to the number of employees you manage. Whether you are onboarding a new employee and adding their vacation time for the year or giving your whole staff Christmas Day off, you can easily navigate our PTO tool to achieve your goals.