Purpose
Sometimes a balance needs a manual correction: a migration opening balance, a buyback, a donation programme, or fixing an error. This guide covers making an adjustment and choosing whether it counts as accrued time or a balance-only correction. That choice controls accrual totals, the policy's maximum-accrual cap, and what employees see on pay stubs.
Who can do this: Users whose role grants Full Access to the employee-level Manage Time Off permission for that employee. The Employer Administrator has this for everyone; HR admins and other custom-role admins have it for the employees their role covers.
Steps
- In the employer portal, find the employee on the Employees tab and open their profile.
- Open the Time Off tab.
- Click Adjust Balance.
[Screenshot: Adjust Balance dialog]
- Fill out the dialog:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Time Off Type | The policy to adjust. The dropdown lists the employee's assigned policies. |
| Type of Adjustment | Addition or Subtraction. |
| Adjustment Amount | The amount, in the policy's units (days or hours). |
| Include in Accrual Balance? | Yes: treated as accrued time. It is included in accrual totals, counts toward the policy's Maximum accrual cap for the current cycle, and is displayed as accrued time on pay stubs. No: a balance-only correction. It changes the balance but is excluded from accrual calculations, the cap, and pay stubs. |
| Effective Date | The date the adjustment takes effect (MM/DD/YYYY). This is the date the history row carries. |
| Balance Details | Display-only preview: Current Balance, the Adjustment (+/−), and the resulting New Balance. Check it before saving. |
| Comment(s) | Optional. Record the reason for the audit trail. |
- Click Save.
Choosing Yes or No on Include in Accrual Balance
Ask one question: did the employee earn this time under this policy?
- They earned it (Yes). Example: the March accrual failed to post and you are adding it by hand. The adjustment should look like an accrual everywhere: in totals, on the pay stub, and against the Maximum accrual cap.
- They did not earn it here (No). Examples: an opening balance carried in from your previous provider, a buyback reversal, a keying error. The employee should have the right balance, but UZIO's accrual totals and the pay stub's "accrued" figures should not be inflated.
Why the cap matters. A policy with a Maximum accrual of 80 hours per cycle stops crediting once 80 hours have been earned in the cycle. If you add a 40-hour opening balance with Yes, only 40 hours of headroom remain and the employee's scheduled accruals stop early. With No, the 40 hours sit in the balance and the full 80 hours can still accrue.
Expected outcome
- The balance updates immediately.
- The adjustment appears at the bottom of the page in the Time Off History section, with an indicator showing whether it was classified as included in accrual. It is a permanent audit entry with amount, before and after balances, and comments.
- Pay stubs issued after the adjustment reflect the new balance. Pay stubs already issued are not changed; they show the figures as they stood when that payroll was processed.
Tip: When uploading opening balances for many employees at once, use the Time Off Import template (Assigning Time Off Policies) rather than one adjustment per person. Use an adjustment with Include in Accrual Balance: No for the stragglers.
Note: Adjustments are one kind of history entry. You will also see automatic system entries there: accruals, carryovers, the zeroing entry when a policy is removed from an employee, and reversals such as "Approved By: Void Payroll" when a payroll containing accruals is voided. System entries never count toward the accrual cap.
Common mistake: Adjusting the balance to "fix" something that is actually a policy problem (wrong accrual rate or tier). Fix the policy. Adjustments mask the root cause and must be repeated every period.
Common problems
Why doesn't my adjustment show in the accrual totals or on the pay stub?
You chose Include in Accrual Balance: No. That is what the option does: a balance-only correction, invisible to accrual totals and pay stubs. If the time should count as accrued, redo it as a subtraction plus a new addition with Yes.
The employee stopped accruing after I added a balance
You added the balance with Include in Accrual Balance: Yes on a policy with a Maximum accrual cap, and the adjustment used up the cap for this cycle. Reverse it with a Subtraction (Yes) and re-add it with No. Scheduled accruals resume on the next run.
Should this be an adjustment or a time off request?
If the employee actually took time on specific dates, record it as an on-behalf request. It lands in reports and history as dated time off and reaches payroll as paid hours. Use an adjustment only for corrections that are not tied to dates taken (opening balances, buybacks, donations, error fixes).
I need to stop a terminated employee's balance from paying out
Zero the balance here (Subtraction for the full amount) before the final payroll is approved. A policy with Balance Payout on Termination? = Yes automatically pays whatever balance remains when the final payroll is processed. Details and the payroll-side override: Automatic PTO Balance Payout on Employee Termination.
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