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Reports to: Payroll Systems Supervisor
Division: Administrative Services

Our ideal candidate
You are a dependable, punctual, caring payroll professional, with excellent communications skills who uses tact, patience, and courtesy and have a proven track record of establishing rapport and earning the trust of colleagues and end users alike. You understand politically sensitive issues and handle yourself in a confidential and diplomatic manner. You have excellent customer service skills and the ability to maintain focus and attention to detail with frequent interruptions. You have strong organizational skills that include the use of technological resources and taking initiative to creatively determine solutions to meet a variety of circumstances regarding employee compensation, retirement reporting, and the training of others. You take ownership of the tasks and responsibilities of the position. You are committed to providing the best service available to Santa Barbara County Education Office and school district staff.

General description
Under direction of the Payroll Systems Supervisor, the Payroll Specialist assists with global payroll production and the resolution of complex and complicated errors, is responsible for retirement and garnishment reporting, the transmission of confidential employee and banking data, system enhancement development and testing, and responds to questions and provides training for more than 20 external agencies, including the County Education Office, school districts, charter schools, and community colleges. The position acts as a liaison between governmental agencies, Santa Barbara County Education Office, and our districts. Therefore, the complexity and consequence of error in this position is highly elevated. This position requires professional judgment, political sensitivity and attention to detail. The position requires excellent customer service, confidentiality, initiative, and the use of independent judgment and discretion to resolve issues.

The Payroll Specialist is distinguished by its specialized subject matter expertise in performing complex and complicated calculations, researching and responding to frequent questions from internal and external district-level school staff with varying levels of expertise regarding intricate payroll setup, calculation of employee compensation and associated adjustments and deductions and state and federal payroll taxes, and the proper identification of compensation subject to public retirement contributions. This position requires learning and using a multimodule, highly complex, integrated software system and training others, internally and externally, how to use the system. The Payroll Specialist is distinguished from the internal payroll staff in that the latter class is responsible for the functions and activities for the internal SBCEO payroll unit; whereas the former class is responsible for supporting the functions, activities and training of internal and external school payroll units for centralized payroll production, the reporting of global retirement contributions and state and federal taxes, testing of data system enhancements and designing new programming, and the setup and maintenance of software for a variety of organizations with unique pay schedules, benefits, calendars, leaves, pay cycles and different types of pay in addition to base salary.

Specific duties and responsibilities

• Support the Payroll Systems Supervisor with global payroll production to assure accuracy, resolve complex errors and meet set deadlines
• Test system upgrades to modules affecting payroll, assist in the design of new programming
• Act as an information resource for internal and external school districts regarding payroll applications
• Provide technical training, advice and guidance to internal and external district staff regarding payroll setup in multiple areas of the human resource and payroll modules, compute complicated salary payment calculations linked to benefits, calendars, deductions, leaves, pay cycles and salary schedules; explain complex late start or early termination adjustments to pay, leave and vacation balances
• Audit and analyze internal and external payroll and retirement data for accuracy and compliance
• Oversee and process garnishments for internal and external employees, transmit data to state
• Audit and transmit global banking records for employee direct deposits
• Research, prepare and apply retirement, Social Security, and Medicare adjustments
• Audit, reconcile, and prepare public retirement system (CalPERS, CalSTRS) reports and deposits of employee/employer contributions in compliance with established laws, rules, regulations, procedures and timelines
• Assist with the preparation and deposit of state and federal payroll taxes and reporting documents for internal and external districts
• Export and import retirement system reporting data using external systems, audit and correct data
• Interpret and explain proper retirement system reporting for membership, eligible compensation, and compliance with applicable laws, regulations and procedures
• Prepare internal and external payroll production calendars identifying pay dates and critical deadlines for reporting, deposits, and input of data; monitors internal and external payroll units to assure the set timelines are met
• Review, research and prepare CalPERS and CalSTRS forms for approval
• Responsible for calendar and fiscal year-end activities including W-2 processing and rolling of payroll and leave related data to new year for internal and external districts
• Research, prepare and write documentation for procedures, training materials and job aides
• Performs other essential job-related duties as assigned.

Requirements
Education: The position typically requires a combination of two years of college courses in accounting, business administration, or payroll management.

Experience: Four years of progressively responsible experience in payroll processing; experience with multi-module payroll system.

Knowledge and skills:

• Knowledge of the laws, regulations, accounting standards and procedures that govern public payroll and retirement system processing
• Knowledge of payroll calculations for compensation, tax withholding, deductions, and leave adjustments
• Advanced math skill to perform complex compensation and statistical computations
• Well-developed English language knowledge and skill to prepare professional reports and written communications
• Excellent human relations skills to convey personal and technical information to all levels of staff
• Exceptional and resourceful problem solving ability

Abilities

• Prepare clear, complete and concise financial records and analyze payroll accounting data
• Work independently with minimal supervision to meet payroll processing and reporting deadlines
• Prepare payroll adjustments and custom reports using PC based spreadsheets and relational databases
• Conduct technical research, prepare complex arithmetic computations, reconcile payroll data
• Present information clearly and in an organized manner
• Maintain positive professional relationships with internal and external staff and promote teamwork
• Analyze situations and adopt effective solutions
• Incumbent must be able to work in an office sitting engaged in work of a primarily sedentary nature
• Sufficient ambulatory ability to use common office equipment and retrieve documents
• Hand-eye-arm coordination to use a computer keyboard and 10-key at an advanced rate
• Visual acuity to recognize letters and numbers
• Auditory ability to carry on conversations in person and over the phone
• Perform all aspects of the position.

Licenses and certificates
Valid California driver’s license

Working conditions
Work is performed indoors with minimal exposure to health and safety considerations.

Salary range 75

Series
Fiscal/Business

Approved by the Personnel Commission: July 20, 2005
Revised: Aug. 18, 2006
Revised: June 28, 2012
Revised: May 25, 2017