Toast Payroll: Get Started With Time Away from Work (TAFW)

In this Article:

• TAFW Overview
• Before You Begin
• For Managers
  • Set Up or Modify TAFW Tiers and Policies
  • Manage TAFW Requests
    • Manage TAFW Requests From the Dashboard
    • Manage TAFW Requests From the TAFW Dashboard
  • View Employee TAFW
  • Understand TAFW Balance Columns
  • Update TAFW Balances Manually
  • TAFW Reports
• For Employees
  • View Your TAFW Balances
  • Request Time Off
  • Update or Cancel a TAFW Request
  • TAFW Request Notifications
• Related Articles

TAFW Overview

Time Away from Work (TAFW) is Toast Payroll's paid time off (PTO), vacation, and sick leave management system. It lets you track and manage employee time off — including accrual balances, request approvals, and balance adjustments — directly in Toast Payroll.

Tiers are the policies (also called plans) that offer time away, for example, State-Mandated Sick, Hourly PTO, and Salary PTO. Each TAFW Tier (also called Time Away Plan) has its own set of bucket types offered. Only one TAFW Tier can be assigned to an employee.

Bucket Types are the categories of time away your company offers — for example, PTO, vacation, sick time, bereavement, jury duty, parental leave, etc. Each bucket tracks balances separately.

Rules define how a bucket accrues. Each bucket type has its own set of rules. The rules of a bucket include, but are not limited to the accrual type (per hour worked, per pay period, front-loaded, etc.), the accrual rate, maximum cap balance limits on accrued hours, and carryover rules.

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Before You Begin

Applies to: Toast Payroll (Toast Payroll Pro required for TAFW)

Permissions needed:

• HR+ or Manager role to manage TAFW as a manager
• Employee access to view balances and submit requests

What you'll accomplish: By the end of this guide, managers will be able to manage TAFW requests, view and update employee balances, and run TAFW reports. Employees will be able to view their balances and submit, update, or cancel time off requests.

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For Managers

Set Up or Modify TAFW Tiers and Policies

Creating a new TAFW tier, adding a bucket, or changing an accrual rate requires Customer Care. These changes are not self-service in Toast Payroll.

When to contact Customer Care for TAFW tier setup:

• Setting up TAFW for the first time
• Adding a new TAFW bucket (PTO, vacation, sick time, or other)
• Creating or modifying the rules of a tier (accrual type, accrual rate, max caps, carryover rules, etc.)
• Changing which employees are assigned to a tier (if bulk changes are needed)

Before you contact Customer Care, have the following ready:

• Your company code
• The name of each TAFW Tier and bucket you want to set up or change (for example, Sick bucket of the Hourly Staff Tier)
• The accrual type for each bucket: hourly (per hour worked), per pay period, anniversary (lump sum on anniversary date), or front-loaded (lump sum at start of period)
• The accrual rate or lump sum amount for each bucket (for example, 0.0385 hours per hour worked, or 40 hours per year)
• Whether there is a maximum cap on total accrued hours
• Carryover rules at year-end (for example, carry over up to 40 hours, or no carryover)
• Any specific employees who are impacted

State and local compliance: If your restaurant is in a state or city with mandatory paid sick leave laws, your TAFW configuration may need to follow specific accrual rules. See Toast Payroll: TAFW Default Paid Sick Leave Configurations for default configurations by jurisdiction.

Assigning tiers to employees: After Customer Care sets up your TAFW Tiers, you can assign individual employees to a TAFW Tier yourself. See Toast Payroll: Assign an Employee to a TAFW Tier for steps.

To assign a default tier to a position so new hires are automatically enrolled, see Toast Payroll: Assign a Default TAFW Tier to a Position.

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Manage TAFW Requests

You can approve or reject TAFW requests from the main Toast Payroll dashboard (via notifications) or from the TAFW Dashboard.

Manage TAFW Requests From the Dashboard

1. Log in to Toast Payroll and go to the main dashboard.
2. Locate the Notifications list. Pending TAFW requests appear as notifications in this list.
   
   
   
   
3. Select the TAFW notification you want to act on. Choose Approve, Reject, or Mark As New from the options that appear.

Expected outcome: The request status updates and the employee receives a notification of the decision.

Important: Approve or reject TAFW requests before running payroll. Approved TAFW hours are included in payroll processing. Unapproved requests are not paid out.

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Manage TAFW Requests From the TAFW Dashboard

1. Navigate to Time > Time Off in Toast Payroll.
   
   
   
   
2. Use the Calendar view to see requests by date, or select List to see all requests in a list.
3. To narrow the view, select the Filter button in the top-left corner. Filter by employee, bucket, date range, or status.
4. Select a request to open it. Choose Approve or Reject.

Expected outcome: The request status updates. Requests shown in orange are pending; requests shown in green are approved.

Important: Approve or reject TAFW requests before running payroll. Approved TAFW hours are included in payroll processing. Unapproved requests are not paid out.

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View Employee TAFW

To review a specific employee's TAFW balances, assignments, or request history:

1. Navigate to the Team page in Toast Payroll, or use the Search function to find the employee.
2. Select the employee's name to open their profile.
3. Select the Time Off tab.

The Time Off tab includes:

• A calendar that displays requested time off.
• Current Plan Details — the employee's current TAFW tier assignment and currently available balances for TAFW buckets
• Accrual History — a log of previous accruals
• Requests — all submitted TAFW requests and their approval status

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Understand TAFW Balance Columns

TAFW balances are shown in four columns in Toast Payroll. The following table defines each column:

For a detailed explanation of accrual calculation logic, carry-over behavior, and balance correction scenarios, see Toast Payroll: Understand Time Away From Work Balances.

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Update TAFW Balances Manually

Use manual balance updates to correct discrepancies, apply a one-time bonus, or adjust balances after a leave of absence.

1. Navigate to the Team page in Toast Payroll and select the employee whose balance you want to update.
2. Select the Time Off tab.
3. Select the yellow edit pencil on the bucket you want to adjust (for example, PTO, Vacation, or Sick Time).
   
   
   
   
4. In the Edit Balance pop-up, enter the following fields:
   1. Select the date you'd like to modify. This can be set as any day, but for tracking purposes, the current date is usually chosen.
   2. Enter the number of hours and whether you'd like to increase or decrease the overall balance of that TAFW bucket.
   3. Enter a description for the adjustment (optional)
   4. Update Taken: When this is set as Yes, Toast Payroll will deduct the hours from both the Earned and the Taken columns. Set this to Yes when an employee used TAFW hours, but those hours have not been reflected in Toast Payroll. Note: Toast does not recommend setting this as No when you are increasing the overall balance.
      
      
      
      
5. Select Finish

The balance updates immediately. Refresh your page to reflect the updated balance.

Expected outcome: The employee's Available balance reflects the adjustment. The change appears in their Balance History with the reason you entered.

For detailed scenarios — including correcting an accrual, removing hours, or adjusting for a leave of absence — see Toast Payroll: Make Adjustments to Time Away From Work (TAFW).

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TAFW Reports

Toast Payroll includes three standard TAFW reports. To access them, navigate to Reports > Standard and filter for TAFW reports.

The following reports are available:

Important: The Accrual History Report can be data-intensive for restaurants with large teams or long accrual histories. Narrow the date range or filter by employee to improve load time.

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For Employees

View Your TAFW Balances

1. Log in to Toast Payroll. If you need help logging in, see Log in to a Toast Product or Device. 
2. Navigate to My Profile > Time Off.

Your TAFW dashboard shows:

• Your current Available balance for each bucket (PTO, vacation, sick time, or other)
• Upcoming approved time off that has not yet been paid
• Taken hours paid in previous payroll runs
• Earned hours accrued to date
• Your Accrual History — a log of how your balance has changed over time
• Requests — all submitted TAFW requests and their approval status

For an explanation of what each balance column means, see Understand TAFW Balance Columns above.

For a detailed explanation of how accrual is calculated, see Toast Payroll: Understand Time Away From Work Balances.

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Request Time Off

1. Log in to Toast Payroll. If you need help logging in, see Log in to a Toast Product or Device.
2. Navigate to My Profile > Time Off.
3. Select Request+ in the top right corner
4. Select the date(s) of your request and the type of TAFW you would like to use. Then select Next.
   • When you want to take off only one day, select that day in the calendar twice.
   • When you want to take off more than one consecutive day, select the first day off your TAFW and then the last day.
     
     
     
     
5. Enter the hours of each day(s) that you would like to request off. View the total requested hours and the balance remaining after your request at the bottom of this step. Then select Next.
   
   
   
   
6. Enter any notes or comments that you would like to include with the request. The approving manager will see these notes. Select Next.
7. Select Finish.

Expected outcome: Your request is submitted and your manager receives a notification. The hours appear as Upcoming in your balance until approved and paid. If your employer has not set up an approval workflow, the request is automatically approved.

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Update or Cancel a TAFW Request

To change a submitted request, delete it and resubmit with the correct information.

1. Navigate to My Profile > Time Off.
2. Select the Requests tab.
3. Locate the request you want to cancel. Select the trash can icon next to it.
   
   
   
   
4. Confirm the deletion.

Expected outcome: The request is removed, and the hours are no longer shown as Upcoming in your balance. To submit a corrected request, follow the steps in Request Time Off above.

Note: You can only delete requests that have not yet been paid in a payroll run. In other words, you can only delete requests if the requested date is in the future. If the time off was already processed in payroll, contact your manager to make a manual balance adjustment.

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TAFW Request Notifications

When your manager approves or rejects your TAFW request, you receive:

• An email notification sent to the email address on your Toast Payroll profile
• A dashboard notification visible when you log in to Toast Payroll

If you do not receive a notification after submitting a request, check that your email address is correct in your Toast Payroll profile, and confirm with your manager that an approval workflow is configured.

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Related Articles

• Toast Payroll: Get Help With Time Away From Work (TAFW)
• Toast Payroll: Make Adjustments to Time Away From Work (TAFW)
• Toast Payroll: Understand Time Away From Work Balances
• Toast Payroll: Assign an Employee to a TAFW Tier
• Toast Payroll: TAFW Default Paid Sick Leave Configurations

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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.