Celebrating Payroll Professionals

National Payroll Week (September 6-10 this year) was created to celebrate the administrative and finance workers who pretty much keep the world turning: payroll professionals.

In fact, the celebration actually acknowledges “America’s employees and the payroll professionals who pay them,” adding that, “together, through payroll withholding, we contribute, collect, report, and deposit 70 percent of the U.S. Treasury’s annual revenue, about $2.4 trillion a year.”

Payroll professionals may not own the companies at which we work and from which we then purchase the things we need and want for our families and ourselves. But if they didn’t work diligently to make sure we receive our paychecks on time every payday, we wouldn’t have the money to purchase the things the companies make that we buy.

It’s a cycle of create (business), work (employee),  pay employee (business), and spend (employee) and without the person who makes sure employees get their paychecks, everything….stops.

Why payroll professionals matter

Yes, the job itself doesn’t seem complex, but there are many laws and regulations to keep up with from each state and sometimes even county and city.  A company’s payroll operation is one of its most critical parts: it has a huge impact on employee morale.

Payroll also reflects a company’s reputation and stability. After all, if checks bounce or are delayed for even just one day your employees understandably will be worried and miffed and could well tell many people about the problem. Keep it up and just watch as employees resign to take other positions.

Payroll specialists handle a wide variety of critical HR and administrative duties

While many payroll professionals work in accounting, they often also work in conjunction with human resources in that, with the help of accounting/bookkeeping software, they keep track of employee wages, how many hours employees work, their PTO accrued and then used, etc. Depending on how large or small a business is, they also may prepare tax records and present company end-of-year financial information.

Some – but not all – of a specialist’s duties could include:

• Preparing and submitting paper payroll checks for those employees who don’t have direct deposit.

• Ensuring employee banking information is accurate for direct deposit setup.

• Initiating employee pay deposits on paydays.

• Monitoring and processing employee wage garnishment orders.

• Seeing to it that employee paychecks reflect current taxation rules/laws.

• Documenting and maintaining all payroll records.

• Reconciling the general ledger in regard to payroll transactions.

• Running payroll record audits semi-annually.

• Answering employee questions regarding payroll concerns or issues.

• Detecting and processing issues when employees don’t collect their payroll.

• And much more.

If you’re a payroll professional, we salute you! Thank you for keeping our employees’ – if not our own – pay/salaries coming in regularly.

If you’re looking for work, we’re always on the hunt for great payroll specialists. Take a look at some of our current openings, but if you don’t see something that interests you, reach out to us because we’re always getting new direct-hire, contract-to-hire and contract job opportunities.