How to Manage Your PTO

Under the heading of “you have to understand it before you can manage it,” I’d like to explain a few things about Simplifya’s PTO policy.

A Generous Policy

For those who haven’t shopped around as much as I have (mostly because you’re not as old as I am), it should help to know that Simplifya’s PTO policy is very much on the generous end of the spectrum. To wit:

• New employees in salaried positions start with an allowance of 15 days of PTO in their first year of employment. I think 12 days is more common, particularly in the cannabis industry. Back when we flirted with an acquisition of iComply, we learned they don’t even have PTO.
• Your allowance increases at a rate of three days for each year of tenure (capped at 27 days of PTO per year). Some companies use tiered policies where PTO allowances increase only after you reach two or three years of tenure. Others increase the accrual in smaller increments.
• You are allowed to carry up to five days of PTO from one year to the next. Many companies have a smaller carry-over or put a time restriction on the carry-over (eg, must be used in Q1) or both.
• You are granted the day after Thanksgiving as a company holiday so you don’t have to use your PTO for a day that – let’s be real – is pretty much a non-working day for all but those in retail jobs. That, combined with 4/20 Day in the cannabis industry, means Simplifya has nine company-paid holidays. That’s not as many as governments and banks, but it’s still pretty good!
• Your full allowance is available to you from your first day of employment. I’ll explain this in more detail in the next section, but the point is that we don’t force you to accrue PTO before using it.

Executing the Policy in Timetastic

Simplifya uses a time-tracking system called Timetastic. Like most other time-tracking systems, it does a nice job of facilitating leave types and requests within a departmental reporting structure. But the main reason we chose it is because of its Wall Chart feature.

In the screenshot below, the Wall Chart shows the September schedule for the Regulatory Affairs Department. At a glance, I’m able to identify potential bottlenecks in production and manage accordingly. It’s also helpful for respecting when people are trying to be on vacation. Pre-pandemic, it was also helpful to know when people were out of the office but still working – mostly, traveling for conferences.

PTO with a Twist

As cool as Timetastic is, it introduces a twist. Your PTO accrual is based on a “tenure year” – the 12 months following your start date – but your PTO allowance is displayed in Timetastic based on a calendar year.

Let’s illustrate the twist using an old friend, Jane Doe. In this example, Jane was hired on April 1, terminated on September 30 of the same year, and used five days of PTO in between. How would this have played out?

• As a salaried employee, Jane begins accruing PTO at a rate of five hours per pay period or the equivalent of 15 days in her first year.
• Jane’s allowance in Timetastic is prorated based on her start date. Her potential employment for the calendar year is from April 1 to December 31 or 75% of the year. Then 75% of 15 days is 11.25 days. We always round up to the nearest half day (another bit of generosity), so Jane’s allowance in Timetastic for the current calendar year is 11.5 days. Technically, her other 3.5 days are in the following calendar year.
• In the coming months, Jane takes five days of PTO. In Timetastic, her remaining allowance for the calendar year is now 6.5 days.
• Jane resigns at the end of September, so she was employed for six of the nine months in the calendar year. She is entitled to any PTO that she has accrued but not used at the time of her departure. But how much PTO has she accrued?
• She wasn’t employed for the full nine months in the calendar year, so she definitely didn’t accrue 11.5 days. She accrued 6 ÷ 9 x 11.5 = 7.67 days. So when we subtract the five days of PTO she already took, her PTO payout is 7.67 – 5.0 = 2.67 days. It can be a shock if Jane was expecting to be paid the 6.5 days that showed in Timetastic.

At the time of your departure, you are entitled to the PTO you have accrued and not to the allowance that shows in Timetastic. It’s stated clearly in the leave section of our Employee Handbook, but of course few people remember the “fine print” at the time of departure!

Again, Timestastic shows you your annual PTO allowance as if you were employed through the end of the calendar year. If you leave before the end of the year, your PTO will be prorated based on your last day of employment. We will then subtract the number of PTO days you’ve already taken and pay you the difference.

Note that because Timetastic assumes the positive – that you will stay with us through the end of the calendar year – it’s possible for you to use more PTO than you’ve actually accrued. In the example above, if Jane had used eight days of PTO during her six months of employment, she would have had 8.0 – 7.67 = 0.33 days taken out of her final paycheck. If you’re worried about this scenario and don’t want to reveal to me that you’re thinking about leaving, I encourage you to do the math!

About That Carry Over

I’m writing this post in September, so it’s a good time to remind people that our PTO policy allows you to carry up to five days into the following year. Effective in 2021, any balance over five days is paid out in the final paycheck of the year. Though it may seem like a “bonus,” PTO payouts are considered supplemental income that is subject to a higher withholding rate. We encourage you to use your PTO throughout the year both to minimize these tax consequences and to create a healthy work-life balance.