A payroll coordinator manages employee compensation and tax payments, including processing time worked, managing claims, calculating benefits, and processing bonuses. The role varies depending on the company’s size and structure, and can involve manual or computerized processes. As the workforce grows, the coordinator may also handle benefits, expense reimbursements, and employee inquiries.
A payroll coordinator manages the system for compensating employees and paying employment taxes. This includes processing time worked for normal pay, but may also include managing claims, calculating benefits due and processing bonuses, and other one-time checks. The actual scope of work of a coordinator depends on the organizational structure of the company. Generally, large companies with diversified accounting departments assign a payroll coordinator to strictly process the tasks. Small businesses without dedicated accounting or human resources staff are likely to expect a coordinator to do whatever is necessary to pay employees and track benefits.
One of the trickiest parts of business operations is processing payroll. The task is highly regulated from many directions. Employers are required by law to pay employees on a schedule, at an agreed rate, and to adequately compensate overtime hours worked. By law, companies are also required to pay appropriate employment taxes to local and regional governments. In addition, tax authorities require companies to maintain proof of time worked by employees in case business expenses are audited by the government.
These potential legal liabilities make payroll management a critical business function. A payroll coordinator is a specialist hired specifically to manage the employee pay process according to an established schedule. This includes collecting, reviewing and filing timesheets, verifying the accuracy of the time reporting process and securing appropriate authorizations for paying regular pay and any overtime. Finally, the coordinator is responsible for packaging the payment and delivering it to the employees. Cutting checks and arranging electronic deposits into employees’ bank accounts are typical forms of payroll payments.
As long as a company is small with a limited number of employees, a payroll coordinator can usually manage the payroll process manually. Time calculations are maintained in a financial spreadsheet, checks are run in-house, and tax payments are made through a direct business account with the tax agency. Once a company reaches a certain capacity, however, it becomes impossible to manage payroll in this way. A payroll coordinator at the next level is responsible for running some type of payroll software or working with a payroll processing company. The tasks are basically the same, except that the entire system is computerized.
As the workforce increases in numbers, payroll management needs to expand as well. Depending on the company’s operating structure, a payroll coordinator is expected to keep an accounting of benefits owed to employees, such as accrued contributions to a retirement plan. He may be tasked with tracking and executing expense reimbursements and dealing with employee inquiries about his pay rate and other issues. A coordinator will work with the accounting and human resources staff to fulfill these ancillary tasks, or will sometimes operate in place of dedicated staff in these departments, depending on the circumstances.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
