Set up sick leave

Track an employee's sick leave over time and calculate waiting days.

Before you begin

If an employee works the same days each week (aka qualifying days) and is off sick for a full week, you pay the weekly rate of statutory sick pay for this period.

If they are off sick for less than a week, you pay statutory sick pay for that part of the week using the relevant daily rate. The statutory sick pay for this period equals the current rate of statutory sick pay divided by the number of qualifying days in that week, multiplied by the number of sick days in that week.

Note: For a statutory sick pay calculator, see HMRC's Calculate your employee's statutory sick pay.

If an employee's work schedule varies weekly, you need to agree on the qualifying days with them. If this isn't possible, use one of the following to calculate statutory sick pay, and select these days in the employee's Working pattern for statutory sick pay purposes.

• Days both you and your employee agree they are required to work under their contract.
• If no specific work day is named, default to Wednesday.
• Every day of the week except those when none of the workforce are required to work.

Note: To learn more, see HMRC's Work out your employee's Statutory Sick Pay manually.

Additionally, UK Payroll automatically links periods of sickness. If an employee takes sick leave within 8 weeks of a previous eligible period, these sick leaves will be linked together, and no waiting days will be payable. To learn more, see HMRC's Linking Periods of Incapacity for Work.

How to add sick leave

1. From the left side bar, select Employees.
2. Select the relevant employee.
3. Navigate to the Absences tab.
4. Click Add sick leave to the right of the Sick leave header.
5. Enter their First sick day and select the day length from the dropdown menu (Full day or Half day).

6. If you know when the employee's last sick day will be, mark Yes under Do you know [employee name's] last sick day? and enter their Last sick day. If not, mark No.

   Note: If you don’t know the employee’s last sick day, you can leave it blank to record an open-ended sickness. UK Payroll will calculate statutory sick pay up to the statutory limit, and you can add an end date later when the employee returns. This feature is currently available only to a limited number of early adopter customers.

7. Click Continue.
8. Mark the boxes next to the days the employee usually works to ensure the correct amount of statutory payment. Click Continue.
9. Review the Absence, Employment, and Sick pay details. Click Save and close.

How to add a sick leave end date

1. From the left side bar, select Employees.
2. Select the relevant employee.
3. Navigate to the Absences tab.
4. Under the Sick leave section, click the three dots to the right of the relevant sick leave entry.
5. Select Provide end date.
6. Enter the End date, and select the day length from the dropdown menu (Full day or Half day). 
7. Click Save.

How to delete sick leave

If you've made a mistake, you can delete a sick leave etnry.

1. From the left side bar, select Employees.
2. Select the relevant employee.
3. Navigate to the Absences tab.
4. Under the Sick leave section, click the three dots to the right of the relevant sick leave entry.
5. Select Remove leave.
6. Click Yes, remove sick leave.

How to calculate backdated sick payments

Enter statutory sick pay for a previous pay period if sick leave wasn't initially noted in UK Payroll.

1. Create a pay item in Settings > Pay items > Create One-off. For detailed instructions, see Add one-off pay items.
2. Enter the Pay item name (e.g. Statutory sick pay) and select Gross addition from the Payment type dropdown menu. Click Next.
3. Mark the Taxable and Subject to National Insurance boxes.

4. If your pension scheme allows it, mark the Pensionable box.

   Note: Salary sacrifice isn't possible from statutory sick pay.

5. Click Save & close.
6. Create a Gross deduction pay item and enter the pay item name (e.g. Sickness deduction). Click Next.
7. Mark the Taxable and Subject to National Insurance boxes.

8. If your pension scheme allows it, mark the Pensionable box.

   Note: Salary sacrifice isn't possible from statutory sick pay.

9. Click Save & close.
10. Update the employee's payslip by exiting Settings and navigating to Payrolls.
11. Select the current draft payroll and select the relevant employee.

12. If you need to deduct pay for days absent, click Add Pay item > - Gross deduction. Select the gross deduction you created earlier (e.g. Sickness deduction) from the dropdown menu and enter the Amount. Click Add gross deduction.

    Note: The deduction amount is the number of days absent x daily rate.

13. To add statutory sick pay, click Add pay item > + Gross addition. Select the gross addition you created earlier (e.g. Statutory sick pay) from the dropdown menu and enter the Amount. Click Add gross addition.

The backdated sick pay will now appear on the employee's payslip and will be processed in the current payroll.