Sr Payroll Specialist

GENERAL SUMMARY OF POSITION: 

Under the general supervision of the Payroll Manager, the Senior Payroll Specialist is responsible for the accuracy and timeliness of bi-weekly payroll for 6,000+ employees of UMass Chan Medical School (“UMass Chan”).  Duties and responsibilities include reviewing and maintaining time and labor records, reviewing payroll and payroll reports for accuracy, and maintaining the highest degree of data integrity in data entry procedures. This employee provides assistance to internal and external customers either via phone or email.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Process bi-weekly payroll including wage and overtime payments, requests for paycheck advances, retroactive pay changes, and calculates and records payroll deductions.
• Responsible for reviewing pre payroll queries and audit reports to identify and resolve errors to ensure accuracy of employee time and labor data. Performs time entry adjustments where necessary.
• Process and verify tax changes (including for tax treaty participants), direct deposit changes, general deductions, garnishments, additional compensation, etc.
• Process vacation payouts and retirement sick payouts in accordance with Commonwealth of Massachusetts and UMass Chan policy.
• Enter and audit payroll data with a great degree of accuracy.
• Research and review historical payroll records to resolve issues with W-2’s, compute corrections, and reissue corrected W-2’s as needed.
• Process transactions for maintenance of correct payroll records.
• Resolve payroll discrepancies by collecting and analyzing information.
• Respond to employee and department inquires and research problems concerning Payroll and Time & Labor.
• Responsible for Commitment Accounting tasks including processing of funding changes, updating of funding end dates and encumbrance dates, running queries and error reports and making necessary updates in the system.
• Maintains payroll documentation and files. Documents and updates written payroll procedures.
• Perform other duties as required.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Associate degree in accounting/business or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 3 years of relevant work experience
• Good oral, written, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated knowledge and skills in word processing, mathematical calculations, and computer applications (Excel)
• Visual acuity to review reports with fine detail and close work with computers
• Demonstrated ability to work in a fast-paced deadline-oriented environment

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience with PeopleSoft application preferred