Payroll Manager Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a payroll manager. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a payroll manager.
Who is a Payroll Manager?
The payroll manager is the payroll specialist in the company. To prepare the payroll, he gathers, analyzes, and processes the information and elements relating to each employee of the company. The payroll manager must therefore master the preparation of payroll, its posting, and the preparation of payslips. For this, he masters the configuration and use of payroll software.
As a payroll manager, you will oversee the calculation and payment of employee wages. The salary and benefits package is a crucial component of this role. You should be comfortable handling simple and complex mathematical calculations. You should also be familiar with basic accounting software and the use of spreadsheet software, such as Microsoft Excel. As the role entails dealing with sensitive information, you must maintain discretion and confidentiality.
The payroll manager will also work closely with other departments, such as the human resources and accounting managers. He collaborates with both of these to develop changes for the company. To do this, he/she needs to be good at communication, both verbally and in writing. Effective leadership skills are also necessary. A payroll manager should be able to effectively resolve conflicts and make recommendations.
The payroll manager should be able to work with other employees and company executives. Having strong interpersonal skills is essential, especially when dealing with sensitive payroll issues. It is important to be able to work with others and manage several tasks at once. Some companies require applicants to have a master’s degree in the same concentrations as the accountants they supervise. However, applicants with five or more years of experience in the field may be allowed to work with less education.
Payroll Manager Job Description
Below are the payroll manager job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a payroll manager job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The job and duties of a payroll manager include:
- Developing systems to process payroll transactions (e.g. wages, benefits, garnishments, taxes, and third-party payments)
- Coordinating payroll and time control systems
- Monitoring the processing of payroll changes (e.g., new hires, contract terminations, increases) and system improvements
- Ensuring compliance with important laws and internal policies
- Supervising and guiding payroll managers and assistants
- Acting as liaison with auditors and managing payroll tax audits
- Collaborating with the Human Resources (HR) and accounting teams
- Keeping accurate records and preparing reports
- Solving problems and answering questions related to payroll
- Preparing, and implementing payroll accounting
- Preparing and supervising income tax and social security exams
- Managing the reporting and certification system
- Creating standard reports, personnel statistics, and their evaluations
- Contacting executives questions about social security and wage tax law
- Mastering data maintenance
- Contacting for employees, health insurance companies, and authorities
- Preparing employment contracts, certificates, terminations, etc.
- Creating and placing job advertisements
- Supervising and processing company pension schemes
- Clarifying salary accounts with the accounting department
- Managing personnel files, annual wage accounts, and working time accounts of the employees
- Preparing and checking of payslips
- Transfering salaries and taxes promptly
- Providing information on salary, tax, and tariff issues
- Submitting mandatory reports to authorities
- Calculating extraordinary payments made to employees
- Controlling compliance with applicable labor and collective bargaining regulations
Requirements
- Demonstrable experience in the field of payroll management or a similar role
- Current knowledge about payroll procedures and related laws
- Expert knowledge of taxes and payroll in various locations
- Familiarity with HRIS/Payroll software (e.g. ADP, Kronos, SAP, and MS Office (especially Excel).
- Attention to details
- A good analytical mind and math skills
- Outstanding communication skills (verbal as well as written)
- Leadership and organizational skills
- A degree in Accounting, Human Resources or Business Administration, or a similar field; a professional certification (e.g. A valuable asset will be CPP or CPM
Essential Skills
- Knowledge of compliance
One of the primary responsibilities of payroll managers is to ensure that the service they provide meets a network of compliance requirements. Since this is closely related to tax and legal regulations, it is important to understand how compliance is achieved and monitored. Requirements vary around the world – you should be able to demonstrate a deep level of compliance knowledge for your location.
- Strong math and numeracy skills
The role requires that you work frequently with numeric data and complex calculations. A high level of numeracy skills and a talent for math and accounting are important traits for any payroll employee who must make accurate net payments to employees, make statutory deductions, and submit accurate tax reports to state tax authorities such as HMRC.
- Have professional experience
The appropriate work experience is extremely important. Previous professional roles influence hiring decisions. Is a candidate who has worked for a small or medium-sized company ready to move on to a larger organization? Does the applicant appreciate the special needs and challenges of the employer organization?
- Problem-solving skills
The role often leads to problems such as misjudgments, tax irregularities, and compliance issues. You should be prepared to resolve these issues quickly and efficiently – and anticipate potential future challenges. In dealing with the unique problems a company may face, creative thinking can be just as important as the ability to crack numbers.
- Communication skills and self-confidence
The complexity of the payroll process can confuse employees in other departments. You need to interact with individuals at all levels of the organization and explain what you are doing clearly and confidently. If changes affect your system, administrators need to be able to communicate how it will affect the rest of the company.
- Customer service and etiquette skills
You will encounter inquiries from customers looking for information on a range of wage-related topics – including taxes, social security, and several peripheral deductions from their salaries. In answering such questions, administrators need to be able to maintain proper etiquette and provide great customer service at all times.
- Flexibility
The payroll process has many moving parts and is necessarily an element of human unpredictability. You need to be flexible enough to maintain a high standard of compliance while accommodating customers’ changing professional and personal needs. With foreseeable deadlines, a payroll system may need to adapt quickly to deliver on time.
- Ability to plan and set priorities
Each pay cycle will include an extensive list of priority tasks. Planning a concept for a range of pay and tax deadlines is an integral part of your job. On a weekly or monthly basis, administrators should be able to identify and process those tasks that require their immediate attention without affecting the system they are developing.
- Decision-making authority
You may have to make decisions that affect a large number of people or affect the general business infrastructure. In these situations, you need to be able to apply a careful thought process to a potentially difficult situation and to firmly follow the course of action you have chosen.
- Responsibility and reliability
Payroll managers take on significant responsibilities not only towards individual customers but also towards their entire organization. Whether you’re serving a handful of tight-knit small business owners or thousands of employees in an enterprise, you need to be reliable enough to deliver accurately, on time, and within the parameters of a spectrum of legal compliance requirements.
- Discretion
You have to handle sensitive personal information. A data breach can be extremely damaging to a company – both its employees and its customers. To ensure sensitive data is protected, you need to understand a company’s security and privacy protocols – and the critical need for discretion.
- Administrative skills and attention to detail
This job requires a range of administrative skills. Knowledge of general office work, organizational skills, and a high level of computer literacy are extremely useful. Getting the “little details” – like keeping records and handling data – right is an essential step in achieving the high standards of payroll and compliance employers seek.
- Knowledge of industrial software
You should be familiar with a variety of software platforms. In addition to standard office software such as Microsoft Office and Excel, experience with dedicated accounting platforms such as Sage, Quickbooks, and Xero is also useful. Software platforms are frequently updated by developers. Administrators should be aware of the functions of the platform they are using and be able to identify weak points and potential for improvement.
- Leadership skills
You may need to take control of a team, work closely with another department, or brief other members of the organization, including board members and human resources, on a variety of wages and salaries. The ability to coordinate colleagues, clients, and different departments is an integral part of the role of a payroll officer.
- Ability to work in a team
While an essential feature in a modern business setting, the importance of payroll to the rest of a company makes your ability to work on a team especially important. You need to develop strong interpersonal skills, maintain a professional demeanor, and understand the pressures and priorities that other team members may be affecting.
How to Become a Payroll Manager
A person who wants to become a payroll manager can start preparing for a career as early as high school. Courses in math, business, communication, and computer science can teach fundamental skills that can pay off immensely in a future career in payroll. A student may be able to gain an entry-level position in a company as an HR or timekeeper to gain hands-on experience in a business setting. Near graduation, he or she can begin looking for community colleges and universities with strong business programs.
An associate’s degree is sufficient for some payroll jobs, but a person can significantly improve their skills and qualifications by working towards a four-year bachelor’s degree. Advanced courses in business mathematics and management provide a thorough understanding of common terminology, payroll techniques, and tax laws. After earning a degree, a graduate can search for job opportunities by browsing job search websites and using recruitment services at their school.
A person may be able to take up a position as a salary manager immediately upon graduation, but most workers begin their careers in assistant positions. As an employee or assistant, a new specialist learns firsthand how to use electronic filing systems, adapting service packages, and preparing taxes. By gaining experience, an employee can perfect their professional skills and develop close relationships with employees and supervisors. Successful assistants with several years of experience are often awarded promotions to management positions.
A lot of professional organizations offer certification to new managers to improve their chances of getting higher-paying jobs. In the United States, the American Payroll Association offers certified payroll professional qualifications to employees who have three years or more of experience and have successfully passed written exams. Many other countries have similar organizations that help managers advance their careers. With the right qualifications and years of experience, a payroll manager may have the chance to become a senior human resource manager or even an executive in their company.
Where to Work
If you have payroll experience, you should know that you can find a job in a payroll firm or an accounting firm. On the one hand, because in practice, you can claim a position of a payroll manager, and on the other hand, because you can enjoy the daily life of the payroll manager in practice and the tools available such as payroll software Silae.
In any case, know that if you have payroll experience, you can apply for a payroll manager position in a human resources department in a company.
If you like administrative management and personnel management in a social law universe, then you should consider working in an HR department in a company.
Of course, as a payroll manager in a company, the payslip will be part of your daily life but you will have more follow-up of files to do.
On the other hand, if you like social monitoring and technical payroll monitoring, the firm is for you. In practice, you will have to make settings, plus you will work in a multi-conventional context.
Payroll Manager Salary Scale
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the salary of a Payroll Manager ranges from $96,550 to $160,240 annually. The highest-paid 10 percent earned $160,240 or more a year. The lowest-paid 10 percent makes $53,370 or less. The highest paying industries were corporate management and health care, with employees earning an average of $112,330 per year. with numbers.
The average pay for this position varies from country to country, depending on how many years of experience the manager has.