Payroll Manager
JOB SUMMARY
The Payroll Manager is a highly reliable professional responsible for the end-to-end processing, compliance, and accuracy of the College's payroll functions. This position executes all tasks required to complete bi-weekly, monthly, and summer payrolls, maintain robust tax compliance, track personnel budgets and maintain the payroll system. The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented professional with good analytical skills that excels in the timely execution of payroll while maintaining strict confidentiality, working under pressure and managing scheduled payroll deadlines. Key to this role will include learning the current legacy system and supporting the implementation to a new HRIS, Rippling, by calendar year-end.
MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES
Hands-On Payroll Processing
- Execute end-to-end payroll processing for bi-weekly (staff/students), monthly (faculty/admin), and specialized summer payrolls.
- Perform data entry for all new hires, entering job codes, wages, taxes, and direct deposits.
- Serve as a primary point of contact for employees, faculty, and departments, answering all payroll-related questions with clarity and professionalism.
- Provide backup in processing high-volume student employment lifecycle, entering over 1,500 student jobs annually, tracking Federal Work-Study limits, and applying specialized summer allocations.
- Calculate and enter complex compensation adjustments, including faculty status changes, overloads, grant pay, stipends, chair fund payments, and annual college-wide salary increases.
- Calculate and process final payouts for terminating employees, clear leave plan balances, and prorate benefit costs.
- Calculate and disburse external agency payments per pay period, including garnishments, tax levies, child support, and charitable gifts.
- Work closely with HR on PTO and Sick Leave tracking, retirement benefits tracking, and open enrollment updates.
- Prepare and post monthly G/L entries for payroll accruals, interdepartmental charges, and adjustments.
- Complete monthly bank reconciliations for the dedicated Payroll bank account
- Work directly with the Grants team to allocate payroll correctly to grant-funded or restricted accounts.
Tax Compliance, Budget & Audit Support
- Prepare and file all 941 Quarterly/Year-End and Minnesota state tax returns.
- Process calendar year-end tax requirements, including generating, auditing, and distributing W-2s and 1095-C (ACA compliance) forms as needed.
- Prepare critical payroll data for institutional reporting requirements, including Form 990 wage information, compliance audits, and Workers' Compensation audits.
- Allocate and update compensation budgets by position
- Provide reporting for managers/supervisors to monitor actual results against these budgets.
- Run the monthly FTE report for delivery to FP&A, and prepare all necessary audit schedules (e.g., vacation/wage accruals, FTE lists, and audit samples).
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Business Administration, or a related field
- 6+ years of progressive, independent hands-on experience processing payroll, including 3+ years managing the process
- Experience preparing and filing quarterly and annual payroll tax returns (941s, W-2s)
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel for managing large datasets and budget lines
- Exceptional attention to detail, analytical review skills and accuracy across high-volume data entry and compliance reporting
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience working in a Higher Education setting
- Familiarity with federal student aid compliance, including Federal Work-Study limits and Perkins Loan administration
- Experience going through an HRIS/Payroll implementation
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