Finance Assistant- Payroll Business Dept.

Finance Assistant- Payroll, Business Office

Salary: $47,000 - $73,270.00 (Commensurate with FINANCE Experience)
Please visit the NCPS website to determine salary specifics according to the current salary scale: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1P15c1zCOGw1dkVfMsZeKvSLmQiygiBtF

Position Title
Finance Assistant-Payroll
 
Description
This position performs skilled technical work in preparing, maintaining, and processing payroll and related records. Duties involve complex computations—both manual and automated—related to wage calculations, overtime, supplemental pay, taxes, and various voluntary and involuntary deductions (e.g., health insurance, Virginia Retirement System contributions). The role requires strong attention to detail and accuracy in assembling, calculating, and organizing complex data. Work is performed under general supervision, with responsibility for managing schedules to ensure the timely and accurate completion of tasks.
 
Reports To
Chief Financial Officer
 
Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities)

• High School Diploma; college degree or specialized training in bookkeeping/accounting preferred.
• Experience with automated payroll processing is preferred.
• General knowledge of payroll tax withholding laws, legal requirements for court-ordered deductions (e.g., child support, garnishes, bankruptcy), and other applicable programs
• Proficiency with computer software, including advanced Microsoft Excel functions, preferred.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Knowledge of state and local payroll accounting laws and regulations.
• Ability to accurately organize and analyze complex data with attention to detail.
• Ability to follow complex oral and written directions and to prepare complex fiscal reports.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with school officials, associates, and the public.
• Such alternatives to the above qualifications as the Board may find appropriate and acceptable.

 
Performance Responsibilities

1. Know and effectively communicate the Division philosophy and mission.
2. Read, understand, and apply NCPS Leave Regulations in order to ensure compliance with established policies, procedures, and regulations related to payroll processing.

 
EMPLOYEE PAYROLL RECORDS

3. Perform complex proration calculations for employees hired, terminating, or on leave to ensure accurate wage payments based on employee status (e.g., 10-month, 11-month, 12-month).
4. Set up new employees in the financial management system based on data/forms provided by Human Resources.
5. Analyze, compute, and enter salary changes (i.e., promotions, new hires, terminations, pay docking, position transfers, account coding, etc.) for all employees; enter other changes to employee payroll records (direct deposits, voluntary deductions, name changes, tax form updates, etc.)
6. Set up deductions for tax liens, garnishments, child support, etc. in the employee’s payroll record.  Ensure correct employee withholdings and send payments/response forms to appropriate regulatory agencies.
7. Receive all payroll copies of employee applications for health insurance from the responsible Finance Assistant and set up employer and employee deductions for plan options selected.
8. Set up leave accounts for employees eligible for leave (Sick, Personal, Vacation) and add initial leave balance accruals per NCPS Regulation.
9. Assist with review, reconciliation, and correction of of employee position account coding between finance and human resources in order to ensure proper accounting of salaries and benefits.

 
PAYROLL PROCESSING

10. Request from schools, departments, and/or vendors documentation needed to complete payroll.
11. Process payroll data for all school district employees on a biweekly pay cycle (26 paychecks per year) in addition to any special payments which may become necessary.
12. Serve as a backup for verification and data entry of all hourly employee timesheets, including overtime analysis.
13. Compute and process financial adjustments to employee pay, which may be related to:
    1. Overuse of sick, personal, and vacation leave. 
    2. Ensuring employees receive pay that will correspond to the correct total amount for each year.
    3. Ensuring accuracy of employee and employer shares of deductions, including VRS, health insurance, and other voluntary/involuntary deductions. 
14. Compile, calculate, and process tax deposits (Federal/State/FICA) each pay period.
15. Prepare and submit the direct deposit file electronically and mail payroll checks as applicable.  Place stop payments and issue replacement checks as needed.
16. Process payments for benefits and other deductions (e.g., VRS, ICMA-RC/Voia, FFGA) per applicable schedules.
17. Prepare reports for the Northampton County Treasurer to ensure adequate payroll funding is available and accurate expenditure coding of payroll in the County’s financial system.
18. Reconcile VRS deductions with payroll deductions each month, submit the reconciliation to the Chief Financial Officer each month for approval, and process the corresponding payment in accordance with VRS Regulations.
19. Reconcile voluntary deduction remittance vouchers with payroll deductions and vendor withholding checks to ensure accuracy, and make appropriate corrections as needed.
20. Prepare Quarterly and Annual tax reports, including Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) unemployment insurance submissions, as required by law.
21. Review the payroll schedule and proactively discuss changes needed due to holidays or other schedule changes.
22. Stay current with payroll procedural changes and proactively research any required action needed.
23. Research, resolve, and communicate accurate responses to employee inquiries pertaining to payroll calculations, paychecks, payroll policies and procedures, and related matters, both orally and in writing.

 
OTHER

24. Maintain a filing system for payroll related records.
25. Verify employees’ salary with third party requestors, as requested/authorized by employees.
26. Assist, as needed, in the reconciliation of all payroll-related Federal grant reimbursement requests.
27. Maintain the financial management system, including setting up new account segments and new account code combinations in the payroll code series.
28. Research financial information and develop/update reports for audits and other purposes.
29. Maintain electronic Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) documents for areas of responsibility as needed.
30. Create, enter, and post journal entries as needed, which may include correcting entries, allocating expenditures, grants related entries, year-end accruals, etc. 
31. Correspond with bookkeepers, coordinators, principals, and administrators to assist with day-to-day financial and other matters concerning payroll.
32. Coordinate the legal disposition, including destruction, of obsolete public records in accordance with guidelines published by the Library of Virginia.
33. Maintain the confidentiality of reports, records, and personal experiences of a private nature regarding students, school employees, and the public.
34. Perform such other tasks and assume such other responsibilities as may from time to time be assigned by the Chief Financial Officer.        

 
Physical Requirements
 

• Exhibit manual dexterity to dial a telephone and to enter data into a computer.
• See and read a computer screen and printed material with or without vision aids.
• Hear and understand speech at normal levels, indoors, outdoors, and on the telephone.
• Speak in audible tones so that others may understand clearly indoors, outdoors, and on the telephone.
• Physical ability to lift up to 25 pounds.
• Sit for extended periods of time.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.

FLSA Status:       Non-exempt    12- month position   Pay Grade: 10