A payroll administrator is in charge of overseeing the distribution of pay and the maintenance of payroll records. Depending on the size and nature of the company, payroll administrators may have a variety of qualifications. One accounting professional can handle all accounting needs in a small business, including payroll, vendor payments, accounts receivable processing, and other issues. A payroll department supervised a qualified account with a team of clerks may exist in larger businesses, whereas in medium-sized businesses, a single person acts as a payroll administrator and focuses solely on the payroll.
Some payroll administrators have a high school diploma and have worked their way up through the ranks. Others have enrolled in training and certification programs to learn the fundamentals of business administration. Payroll administration coursework is available at a variety of technical schools and community colleges. More qualifications can mean higher pay at first, but they aren’t always necessary.
The payroll administrator collects and verifies timekeeping data and is in charge of issuing accurate and complete paychecks. Payroll administrators must perform withholdings, such as taxes, voluntary contributions to benefits programs, and wage garnishments, as part of the process of generating paychecks. Each paycheck includes a list of the withholdings so that the employee can double-check that they are correct.
Payroll administrators also keep track of previous payroll data. This information will be used to generate tax documents at the end of the year and to provide references in the event of a pay dispute. Employees may not notice problems such as being paid at the incorrect rate right away, and it is possible for an employee to dispute backpay that is several months old, making it critical to keep well-organized records so that information can be quickly retrieved and checked.
This job usually necessitates the use of a computer. Most payroll administrators generate paychecks using computer programs, and they may need to work with accounting software to enter payroll data. Workplaces with computerized timekeeping systems are also common, and the payroll administrator must be familiar with the system and how it works.
People in these jobs earn a variety of salaries. The higher someone’s base pay, the more experience or training they have. Working for a large corporation can provide access to benefits such as health insurance and pension plans, which can add to the value of a salary. A potential payroll administrator may want to use salary comparison websites to compare the salaries being offered to the market rate in the industry and area.