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How to Map Leave Policies for QuickBooks Online Payroll Exports

Workyard connects directly to QuickBooks Online's Payroll API, which means you can map leave policies — like Vacation, Sick, and PTO — to QBO earn codes so that time off exports correctly to QuickBooks Online Payroll.

Written by Yesenia Quintana

What to Expect

Before Workyard can export time off (vacation, sick, PTO, etc.) to QuickBooks Online Payroll, two things need to be set up: each Workyard leave policy needs to be mapped to a QBO Payroll earn code, and that earn code needs to be assigned to each relevant employee inside QuickBooks Online itself.

Prerequisite: QuickBooks Online Payroll must be enabled on your connected QBO account. Until it's enabled, the option to map leave policies or include time off in an export won't be available.

Mapping Leave Policies in Workyard

  1. Go to the Map Leave Policies screen.

  2. For each Workyard leave policy (e.g. Vacation, Sick, PTO), select the matching earn code from the dropdown.

  3. Save your mappings.

Note: The earn codes in this dropdown are the ones Workyard has already synced from your QBO Payroll setup — this is not a live, real-time list. If you just added a new earn code in QuickBooks Online and don't see it here yet, trigger a sync of your QBO integration (or re-pull employees, which refreshes earn codes as a side effect). There's no automatic scheduled refresh, so it won't appear on its own.

Assigning the Earn Code to Employees in QuickBooks Online

Mapping a leave policy above does not automatically make that earn code available for every employee — QBO requires it to be assigned per employee, the same way Regular Pay, Overtime, and Double Time are.

  1. Log in to QuickBooks Online with a user that has payroll permissions.

  2. Navigate to the Employee List and select an employee who will have time off exported.

  3. Click the Job & Pay tab.

  4. Scroll down to Additional pay types.

  5. Click Add (top right of the Additional pay types box).

  6. Search for and select the earn code(s) you mapped above.

  7. Click Save.

Repeat these steps for every employee who should be able to export that type of time off, and for every leave policy in use.

Exporting with Time Off Included

  1. Start your payroll export as usual.

  2. Check the Include Time Off Activity box.

  3. Continue with the export as usual.

Note: If the pay period includes a leave policy that hasn't been mapped yet, you'll be prompted to map it during the Map Leave Policies step before the export can continue.

If time off doesn't export for an employee

After the export runs, if you see an error like "Missing payroll item for pay type [code]:[name]" on an employee's export results, this means:

  • The leave policy isn't mapped to a QBO earn code yet (Step 1), or

  • The earn code isn't assigned to that specific employee in QBO (Step 2).

Fix the mapping/assignment and re-export to include that employee's time off.

If you run into trouble, reach out to our support team at help@workyard.com or call 213-348-7631.

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