Troubleshoot TAFW: Best Practices
When troubleshooting time away from work, the best practice is to confirm the employee is assigned to the correct tier and has the correct position settings, depending on whether the employee is hourly or salary.
Check the Historical Plan Details on an employee’s Time Away page to see if their TAFW Tier recently changed, as this will impact their Time Away buckets and balances.
Use the TAFW Balances Report to help with making manual adjustments to employees’ TAFW balances. The best practice is to run the report before and after making any changes.
Time Away From Work (TAFW) FAQ
Why did hours disappear after changing TAFW tiers?
When an employee's TAFW tier changes, their current buckets are zeroed out, and new buckets appear based on the new TAFW tier. The employee will then start accruing hours based on the new TAFW tier. If the tier only accrues once a year, the employee will not accrue those hours until the accrual date.
The hours that were in the employee's previous buckets will be displayed on the Accrual History tab of the employee's Time Off page. You will need to manually add these hours to the employee's new buckets if needed.
I manually added hours, but they aren't appearing in a bucket. Where are they going?
When manually adding hours via the Current Plan Details tab of an employee's Time Off page, the system will ask for a date for when these hours should go into effect. These hours will only display if the date falls within the Period Start/End dates, also found on the Current Plan Details tab.
If a date is entered that is before the Period Start date, those hours will never appear in the employee's bucket.
If a date is entered that is after the Period End date, those hours will be seen once the TAFW resets, leading to that date falling within the new Period Start/End dates.
Why isn't an employee accruing hours when they should be?
Check if the employee is assigned to a Tier with an active type by navigating to Employee Profile > Time Off > Time Away Plan
Check the earning code setup for TAFW Accrual Eligible.
These earning codes are the most common to be TAFW Accrual Eligible
Regular, Salary, Overtime, Double Overtime
You can flag/unflag this setting only on an existing earning code
Note: Some clients specifically request for
Overtime/Double Overtime to not TAFW Accrual Eligible
Other uncommon earning codes to be or not to be TAFW Accrual Eligible
If the employee is salaried:
Check these settings:
Employee Profile > Position > Edit
Is Timesheet Tied to Payroll?
Why didn't a TAFW request appear on payroll or on an employee's timesheet?
The most common reason for this is that a TAFW request was not approved prior to approving timesheets and/or starting a payroll. Without approving a TAFW request, it will not be considered as "taken" and will not affect an employee's TAFW bucket(s) either. If a request falls into this scenario and now you'd like to retroactively add a TAFW request for an employee, see the next question.
Can I record TAFW requests in the past (retroactively)?
Yes. Employees can submit past-dated TAFW requests in Toast Payroll. Additionally, employers who manage TAFW requests are able to submit past-dated TAFW requests on behalf of other employees.
Submitting past-dated TAFW requests usually occurs when an employee misses a day due to illness and needs to record or file the taken sick day at a later date or time. However, it is important to note that if the pay period that covers your employee’s time off request date has already been posted, then the request hours will be deducted from their leave entitlement. In order for your employee to be paid out, the leave hours must be manually added to a future-dated payroll. Navigate to the employee’s profile and select Time Off > Requests. Select the appropriate TAFW bucket by using the edit pencil icon. On the pop-up window, select Decrease Overall Balance and toggle Update Taken? to Yes. Fill out the rest of the details accordingly and select Finish.
Can I remove a TAFW tier, but keep the carryover bucket?
All TAFW buckets (including the carry-over buckets) are displayed for employees based on the TAFW tier they are assigned to. While you can manually add carry-over buckets via import, the "parent" bucket needs to be in the newly assigned TAFW tier for the employee. As an example, if an employee is currently in TAFW tier A with 20 hours of PTO (Carry Over), and is moved to TAFW tier B, their TAFW buckets will refresh with tier B buckets, and we can only import the PTO (Carry Over) bucket if Tier B also has a PTO (Carry Over) bucket.
If an employee is moved to a tier with no buckets, we will be unable to add any carry-over buckets for the employee. One option would be to add buckets to their None tier that never accrue; this way, most employees in this tier don't have any TAFW hours, but hours can be manually added if needed.
What's the process to update TAFW buckets after a PTO payout?
After you add a PTO payout to the Employee Earnings step of payroll (either manually or via import), you may also want to adjust the employee's balances on the employee's TAFW dashboard. To do this, you would navigate to the employee's profile > Time Off > Edit pencil. If you need to update numerous employees (15 or more), we can help by importing the adjustment.
Note: An employee's bucket can only be updated if they are still assigned to a TAFW tier.
When TAFW is requested, does it automatically come out of the bucket? Or does it come out of the bucket when it is paid out on payroll?
It will automatically come out; if denied, then it will go back into their bucket (overall balance).
Why did a time away from work request get approved without a manager review?
If a Time Away From Work approval workflow is not set up (Settings > Workflow > Time Away), then any employee requests will be approved automatically.
How does an employee request time off for a date after their TAFW reset?
An employee can request time off after their TAFW reset. The hours will not display as upcoming or affect the hours in their current bucket. Once the bucket resets, the hours will now display as "upcoming" and be subtracted from the new bucket's total.
If a carry-over bucket is created at the reset, this request will not use the carry-over bucket, but will still use the new main bucket.
When an employee's TAFW request is deleted, what happens to those hours?
When an employee initially requests time off in Toast Payroll's TAFW module, check the Current Plan Details tab (employee profile > Time Off > scroll down to Current Plan Details).
The hours are subtracted from one of their Available Balance buckets (depending on the type they selected in their request) and will now display in the Upcoming column for that type. When a request is deleted, the hours are removed from the Upcoming column, increasing the amount displayed in their Available Balance bucket.
What does it mean if hours do not go back into the bucket after deleting a request?
Most likely, this means that the employee's TAFW tier changed since making the actual request. In this case, the bucket they requested would now be displayed under the Historical Plan Details tab and would contain hours no longer available to the employee.
To confirm this, check the Requests tab. Change the Status filter from Approved to Deleted. This will show you which benefit tier the employee had when requesting the hours. If the tier listed matches the tier in the Historical Plan Details tab, this would mean they were returned to their previous bucket.
Why do I see "NYC sick leave case" in the Accrual History tab?
With certain prerequisites, the Accrual History tab on an employee's Toast Payroll profile may display a coding error which mentions an "NYC sick leave case." This is an internal bug and can safely be ignored.
Can accrual rates be personalized or customized for individual employees?
TAFW Tier accrual rates are universal for all employees assigned to that tier based on their tenure. We cannot customize rates for specific employees within the tier. If you need one or multiple employees to be accruing at unique rates, then we would need to create a new TAFW Tier for that employee with their specific accrual information. Contact us via the blue chat button in the lower-right corner of any Toast Payroll page to create a new TAFW Tier.
If you need a different pay rate at which an employee is paid for TAFW hours, you may go to the employee's profile > Employment > Recurring > Add+.
Select an Earning (this will be Sick, PTO, or any other earning code they have set up specific to their TAFW types)
Set the new Rate, and then the Check Frequency as the frequency at which the employee is paid out.
Select Save.
Note: If an employee has an earning code already set up for Sick/PTO or another TAFW type with a differing rate than what you need, it must be end-dated so you do not receive two line items for time off pay on their paystubs.
Which TAFW pages does a default manager role have access to?
Employees with the default (static) manager security role do not have access to the TAFW module (Time > Time Off), but they do have access to the TAFW page of any employee who reports to them (employee profile > Time Off). Workflows can be set up for manager security roles to be alerted of TAFW requests, which will allow them to approve a time off request directly from the ToDo feature on their own Toast Payroll dashboard.
TAFW and LOA, Termination, and Rehires
How does TAFW work for terminated employees and rehires?
Terminated Employees
If the employee is being terminated, TAFW payout can be included as a step in the termination process. To customize the termination template to include TAFW payout, navigate to Settings > Status Changes and then follow the instructions in Toast Payroll: Create Termination Templates and Reasons.
If you'd like to pay employees out outside of termination, you'll need to do so manually. You can add the hours directly to payroll, then manually subtract from the TAFW buckets via the Current Plan Details tab for each employee (employee profile > Time Off). If you'd like to use a different TAFW earning code to be labeled as a payout, this may need to be created by Toast admins.
When an employee is terminated, they will no longer accrue additional hours unless they accrue based on hours worked and are paid out AFTER their termination.
The amounts they have already accrued will still be displayed on their TAFW dashboard and on reports for payout purposes.
Rehired Employees
If the employee is rehired into a different TAFW tier, they will lose the hours previously accrued and start accruing based on the rules of their new tier.
If the employee is rehired into their original TAFW tier, their previously accrued hours will remain in their TAFW balance based on their previous expiration dates.
When paying out TAFW through the termination module, can the payout attach to an off-cycle?
The short answer is no. When completing the TAFW step of a termination template, you will have a list of check dates for where the payout can be attached:
Off-cycle payrolls will not populate on this list; instead, the list will only display the check date (not name) of the normal payroll calendars created for the employee's designated pay group.
To attach the payout to an off-cycle, you can instead use this step to simply calculate how much the payout should be, and then manually add it to the off-cycle spreadsheet as needed.
Does leave of absence (LOA) always stop time away from work (TAFW) accrual?
Yes. The LOA status will prevent the employee from accruing any TAFW. At this time, there is no way to auto-generate TAFW accruals for employees who are currently on leave. This would need to be manually added if you would like employees on LOA to accrue TAFW hours during that time.
This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for advice.