KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
● Payroll Leadership and Ownership: Own end-to-end delivery of all 10 company payrolls. Assign and balance the payroll portfolio across the team, set the payroll calendar, and act as final reviewer before submission. Process payrolls directly when volume, complexity, or coverage requires.
● Team Management: Supervise, coach, and review the work of the payroll administrator and any future payroll staff. Set work standards, conduct quality reviews, provide backup coverage, and support onboarding and training of new team members.
● Approval Workflow and Controls: Enforce the established approval workflow: local branches approve time, payroll processes and validates the payroll, local contacts review and approve the payroll ledger, and payroll submits the approved payroll. Design and maintain review checklists, segregation of duties, variance thresholds, and audit trails.
● Payroll Review and Reconciliation: Oversee review of employee changes, time records, earnings, deductions, benefits, garnishments, and adjustments. Own pre- and post-payroll reconciliations, payroll-to-GL reconciliation, and resolution of escalated discrepancies. Page 1 U.S. Payroll Manager | Job Description
● Multi-State Tax Compliance: Serve as the subject-matter expert for federal, state, and local payroll taxes across 19+ states, including reciprocity, multi-state withholding, local taxes, and SUI. Manage the relationship with the outsourced payroll provider, which handles tax deposits and filings, oversee tax reconciliations, and own resolution of agency notices.
● Wage and Hour Compliance: Monitor federal and state wage and hour rules affecting payroll, such as overtime, final pay timing, pay frequency, pay statement requirements, and minimum wage changes. Flag compliance risks to HR and leadership.
● Prevailing Wage and Davis-Bacon Compliance: Ensure employees working on federal and federally funded contracts are paid in line with the Davis-Bacon Act, Related Acts, and applicable state prevailing wage laws. Apply the correct wage determinations, job classifications, fringe benefit rates, and overtime. Prepare and submit certified payroll reports (WH-347 or state equivalents), and maintain records that support contract compliance reviews and audits.
● Benefits Administration Support: Support benefits administration as it affects payroll, including enrollment and eligibility changes, benefit deduction setup and maintenance, and carrier or vendor invoice reconciliation. Coordinate with HR to keep benefit deductions accurate and timely.
● New-State Setup and Registrations: Lead new-state payroll setup. Coordinate Department of Revenue (DOR) registrations through the provider and own Secretary of State (SOS) and Department of Labor (DOL) registrations, which fall outside the provider’s scope. Validate state tax accounts, rates, and employee tax settings.
● Payroll System Ownership: Act as the payroll system owner in OneHCM/UKG Ready. Approve and execute configuration of earnings codes, deduction codes, taxable and pre-tax treatment, PTO accrual policies, and pay rules. Maintain configuration documentation and change logs.
● Change Management and Testing: Assess the downstream impact of configuration changes on payroll calculations, taxes, balances, GL, and reporting. Require testing and sign-off before changes are used in live payroll, and lead troubleshooting and escalations with the payroll provider.
● Quarter-End and Year-End: Lead quarter-end and year-end close, including tax reconciliations, review of Forms 941 and state returns with the provider, W-2 review and corrections (W-2c), and benefits and fringe reporting.
● Acquisitions and Integrations: Lead payroll integration of acquired companies, including data gathering, entity and tax setup, configuration, parallel testing, and first-payroll readiness. The client will provide walkthroughs for the first few implementations; the role then builds a repeatable integration playbook and…