# PTO Handbook Review and Procedure Development Report

Date: 08/25/2026
Audience: Bill / Leadership Review

## Executive Summary
- The `06/19/2024` Titan Employee Handbook gives the core PTO policy rules, but it does not define the payroll cutoff timing needed to guarantee PTO lands on a specific paycheck.
- The final procedure was built by combining the handbook's written PTO, timekeeping, and paycheck rules with Bill's live operating guidance on salary and hourly payroll timing.
- The biggest policy gap was payroll cutoff timing. That gap is now closed with a standardized rule: salary PTO must be fully approved by `12:00 PM` on the `3rd business day` before payday, and hourly PTO must be on the signed Wednesday-before-payday time sheet.
- This approach keeps the procedure anchored to the handbook while adding only the operational controls needed to make payroll timing predictable.

## Key Handbook Points Reviewed
- **PTO eligibility**: full-time employees become eligible after `1 full year` of employment.
- **Part-time PTO eligibility**: part-time employees regularly scheduled for `20+` hours per week become eligible on a pro rata basis after `1 full year`.
- **Accrual rate**: first eligible-year PTO accrues at `0.83` days per month, equal to `10 days per year`.
- **Use restriction**: employees may not use PTO until it is actually earned or accrued.
- **Approved uses**: PTO may be used for vacation, sick time, or personal matters.
- **Planned notice expectation**: employees should generally submit PTO plans to their supervisor at least `4 weeks` in advance.
- **Increment rule**: PTO is scheduled in `1 full workday` increments.
- **Consecutive-day cap**: PTO may be scheduled up to `2 weeks in a row`; more than `2 consecutive weeks` requires prior supervisor approval.
- **Unplanned absence rule**: when PTO cannot be planned in advance because of illness, injury, or emergency, the employee should notify the supervisor in a timely manner.
- **Medical certification rule**: absences of more than `2 consecutive days` for a medical issue require a doctor's note.
- **Time-sheet control**: at the end of each week, the employee and supervisor must sign the time sheet before forwarding it to the Operations Manager.
- **Payroll structure**: Titan pay periods are `bi-weekly or semi-monthly`, depending on the division.
- **Holiday timing rule**: if payday falls on a federal holiday, pay is issued on the preceding workday.
- **Pay rate rule**: PTO is paid at the employee's base pay rate and does not include overtime, commissions, bonuses, or other premium compensation.

## How The Procedure Was Developed
1. Pulled the controlling PTO policy language directly from the `06/19/2024` handbook.
2. Matched the PTO section with the handbook's timekeeping rule requiring signed weekly time sheets to go to the Operations Manager.
3. Matched that with the handbook's paycheck section confirming Titan uses both `bi-weekly` and `semi-monthly` payroll structures.
4. Identified the missing operating rule: the handbook does not say how early approved PTO must reach payroll to hit a specific check.
5. Used Bill's live payroll clarification to fill that gap:
    - salary personnel are paid on the `15th` and the `last day of the month`
    - hourly personnel are paid every other `Friday`
    - hourly time sheets are turned in on `Wednesday` before payday
    - salary PTO requests should be turned in `3 business days` before payday
6. Converted those live rules into one standardized payroll-control procedure that leadership can publish and enforce consistently.

## Procedure Design Logic
- **What came from the handbook**: eligibility, accrual, permitted PTO uses, notice expectations, full-day increments, supervisor approval requirement, doctor's note requirement, time-sheet signature requirement, and the existence of mixed payroll cycles.
- **What had to be added operationally**: exact payroll cutoff timing by pay group, a definition of `business day`, and the late-submission rule for PTO that misses payroll cutoff.
- **Why the salary rule uses business days**: a fixed calendar-day shortcut can be wrong around weekends and federal holidays. Business-day counting keeps payroll timing accurate.
- **Why the hourly rule ties to Wednesday time-sheet turn-in**: that is the real workflow control point Bill identified, and it fits the handbook rule that signed time sheets must flow to the Operations Manager.
- **Why the late-submission rule matters**: without it, supervisors and payroll staff end up making case-by-case judgment calls that create avoidable disputes.

## Standardized Rules Added For Leadership Review
- **Salary personnel**: PTO must be fully approved and in HR / Operations hands by `12:00 PM` on the `3rd business day` before payday.
- **Business-day definition**: Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays.
- **Hourly personnel**: PTO must be approved, entered on the signed time sheet, and turned in with the regular `Wednesday` before-payday time-sheet submission.
- **Hourly control point**: recommended payroll cutoff is `12:00 PM` on that Wednesday unless payroll formally defines a later same-day close.
- **Late submissions**: if approval or paperwork reaches payroll after cutoff, the PTO remains valid but moves to the next regular paycheck unless HR/payroll authorizes a manual correction.

## Leadership Takeaways
- The handbook was strong enough to support a clean PTO procedure, but it was not complete enough to support predictable payroll timing by itself.
- The procedure was developed conservatively: handbook rules were preserved, and only the missing payroll operating controls were added.
- The end result is suitable for three downstream uses:
  - a leadership review report
  - an employee-facing PTO policy
  - a supervisor / payroll checklist

## Source Review
- Titan Employee Handbook reviewed directly from: `Employees/EMPLOYEES/Handbook/Handbook - 2024 FINAL June 19 2024.docx`
- Handbook sections used in this review included:
  - `Timekeeping`
  - `Paychecks`
  - `Paid Time Off (PTO)`
  - related attendance / medical-note language
- Additional live operating inputs provided by Bill on `08/25/2026`:
  - salary personnel are paid on the `15th` and the `last day of the month`
  - hourly personnel are paid every other `Friday`
  - hourly time sheets are turned in on `Wednesday` before payday
  - salary PTO requests are due `3 business days` before payday