Senior Payroll Specialist

Key Responsibilities

• Process bi-weekly, weekly, off-cycle, bonus, and adjustment payrolls through Paychex with a high degree of accuracy and timeliness.
• Review, audit, and validate payroll data, including hours worked, overtime, shift differentials, PTO, holiday pay, bonuses, garnishments, deductions, and retroactive adjustments.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for Paychex payroll processing, system configuration, issue resolution, reporting, and service escalations.
• Maintain accurate payroll records for employees across multiple healthcare locations, departments, and employment classifications.
• Possess strong collaboration with Human Resources to ensure accurate processing of new hires, terminations, status changes, wage changes, benefits deductions, leaves of absence, and direct deposit updates.
• Collaborate with Finance and Accounting to reconcile payroll registers, general ledger entries, payroll taxes, benefit deductions, and employer contributions.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local wage and hour laws, payroll tax requirements, healthcare employment regulations, and company policies.
• Monitor timekeeping data and work with managers to resolve missing punches, scheduling discrepancies, overtime concerns, and approval issues before payroll submission.
• Prepare payroll reports, audit summaries, labor cost reports, headcount reports, and other ad hoc reporting for leadership, Finance, HR, and Operations.
• Support year-end payroll activities, including W-2 review, payroll tax reconciliation, earnings verification, and coordination with Paychex.
• Respond to employee payroll questions professionally and confidentially, ensuring timely resolution of pay, deduction, tax, and timekeeping concerns.
• Identify opportunities to improve payroll processes, strengthen controls, reduce errors, and increase Paychex system utilization.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required; associate or bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field preferred.
• Minimum of 4–6 years of progressive payroll experience, preferably in healthcare, senior living, home health, long-term care, or a multi-location service environment.
• Hands-on experience processing payroll through Paychex required.
• Strong understanding of federal, state, and local payroll regulations, wage and hour laws, payroll tax requirements, garnishments, and benefit deductions.
• Experience with high-volume payroll processing for hourly and salaried employees.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, including sorting, filtering, formulas, pivot tables, and payroll data validation.
• Able to manage confidential information with professionalism, discretion, and accuracy.
• Strong attention to detail, organizational skills, follow-through, and ability to meet strict payroll deadlines.
• Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) or Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) preferred.
• Experience supporting payroll for senior care, assisted living, skilled nursing, behavioral health, home care, or other healthcare operations.
• Experience with multi-state payroll processing and multiple pay codes, shift differentials, and overtime rules.
• Knowledge of HRIS, timekeeping, benefits administration, and payroll accounting workflows.
• Experience supporting audits, payroll compliance reviews, and process improvement initiatives.