Learn How to Submit Your Hours as an IHSS Parent Provider

If you are a parent provider for a child who receives IHSS, you must report your hours on an electronic timesheet each month.

Setting up your account

At etimesheets.ihss.ca.gov, create an account for the provider (you), and then create a second account for the recipient (your child). When you log into the provider account, you should see your child’s name on the bottom part of the home screen. If your child’s name is there, you are linked! If your child’s name is not there, you will need to call payroll at 1-866-376-7066 to get linked with your child.

Once linked, you will need to do the live-in certification if you live with the recipient. After you fill out the requested information, you will receive an email confirming they have received it. Typically, this takes about 15 minutes. The live-in certification is important because IHSS income is non-taxable income for live-in providers, and this certification notifies IHSS of your status as a live-in provider.

1. Log into etimesheets.ihss.ca.gov as the provider

2. Click on “Timesheet Entry”

3. Click on the blue arrow next to the recipient’s name

4. Choose the pay period from the drop-down menu

5. Divide your hours in ½ for the month (two different pay periods for each month)

6. Divide by the number of days in the pay period

7. Confirm hours are correct and click on “Submit Timesheet”

8. Click to agree on the terms and click on the button to “Electronically Submit Timesheet and Submit for Recipient Review”

9. Sign out as the provider

10. Sign in as the recipient (if you are the signer for the recipient)

11. Click on “Timesheet Review”

12. Click on the blue arrow next to the provider’s name

13. Click on “Approve Timesheet”

14. Click to agree on the terms and click on the button to “Electronically Sign Timesheet and Submit for Payment”

The easiest way to submit your hours and avoid violations is to take your total hours for a month and divide by 2. Then, take that number and divide by the number of days in the pay period. For the first part of the month, that will always be 15, and the second part of the month will be 15 or 16 days (except February). Put whole hours with no minutes on each day except 1 in the month.

Here is an example:

If your child has 250 hours and 13 minutes, then you will put 125:00 on the first part of the month and 125:13 on the second part of the month. Please note that IHSS does not use decimals. They use minutes, so if you worked 8 ½ hours, it would be 8:30 and not 8.5.

125 hours divided by 15 is 8.33 a day, so you will put 8 hours on 10 days and 9 hours on 5 days. We recommend spreading the 9-hour days throughout the weeks on the time card and not putting all 5 in the same week.

For the second part of the month, you have 125:13. You will do the same thing and add 13 minutes to one of the days.

The exception is February. In February, you want to be as exact as possible. This is a bit tedious but will help prevent getting violations and going over weekly maximums. Using the same example of 250:13 hours for the month converted to minutes, take 15,013 minutes and divide by 28 days. Some days will have 536 minutes (8:56), and some will have 537 minutes (8:57).

All of this is to help prevent going over your weekly maximum allowed hours. This can be found on the Notice of Action (NOA) and is calculated by dividing your hours by 4. In our example, that would be 62:33 a week. You will not be able to claim this each and every week because there are 4.3 weeks in a month. The exception is February; in February, you will hit your max exactly.

Note that live-in providers don't have to clock in and out per the EVV rules with location tracking or anything.

How to enter IHSS sick time

Parent providers are allowed paid sick time of 24 hours per fiscal year from July 1 to June 30, and it's use it or lose it. (Note that the law increased sick hours from 24 to 40 effective January 1, 2024, but the additional hours for this fiscal year will need to accrue before they can be used. Effective July 1, 2024, eligible providers will see 40 hours available for use.)

1. Click Sick Leave Claim
2. Enter date and number of hours
3. Submit

Entering IHSS Career Pathways classes

NOTE: As of November 2024, the Career Pathways program has ended. If the program resumes, we will update the following information.

If you have completed hours for an IHSS Career Pathways training course, follow these steps to submit them to IHSS.

1. Click Career Pathways

2. Enter your claim type. For class time, it’s Training Time. for Incentive 1, it’s Training Incentive, and for Incentive 2 it’s the One-Month Assignment Incentive. For Incentive 3, it’s the Six-Month Assignment Incentive.

3. Select your child’s name from the drop-down recipient menu.

4. For “Pay Period,” select the pay period during which you completed the course, not the current pay period.

5. Enter the course information. Class number is the catalog number, usually four digits. Enter the class name exactly as it is written in the catalog. Be sure the training date and amount of time are correct, especially for self-paced classes where you might start one day and finish the next. The training date should be the date you COMPLETE the class, which is also the date on the certificate of completion. Enter the amount of time listed on the certificate of completion, even if your class ended early.

6. You can click “Add New” to add additional course entries.