Payroll Coordinator

ACU is affiliated with the fellowship of the Church of Christ. This position requires the employee to be a professing Christian and to be willing to support the Christian mission of ACU.

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The Payroll Coordinator serves as Abilene Christian University’s primary day-to-day payroll processor and is responsible for the accurate and timely execution of payroll operations across the ACU system. The position coordinates payroll-cycle activities, reviews payroll and timekeeping exceptions, processes approved employee changes affecting pay, completes operational reconciliations and control reviews, resolves employee payroll concerns, maintains payroll documentation, and supports payroll reporting and audit readiness. The Payroll Coordinator will work closely with the Tax and Payroll Compliance Accountant to maintain effective payroll controls, cross-training, documentation, and business continuity.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

1. Payroll Processing

• Serve as the primary processor for ACU’s scheduled payroll cycles and authorized off-cycle payroll activity.
• Maintain and follow payroll calendars, processing schedules, control checklists, and established deadlines.
• Collect, review, and validate authorized payroll inputs from Workday and other approved sources.
• Initiate and monitor payroll calculations and review preliminary results for completeness, accuracy, and reasonableness.
• Validate earnings, deductions, benefit withholdings, tax elections, direct-deposit information, and other payroll elements within the position’s assigned authority.
• Process approved regular earnings, retroactive adjustments, supplemental payments, overloads, stipends, one-time payments, corrections, and other authorized compensation.
• Identify incomplete, inconsistent, unusual, or unsupported transactions and obtain clarification or corrected documentation before payroll finalization.
• Coordinate resolution of payroll errors and exceptions with the appropriate HR, Finance, Benefits, HRIS, department, or manager representative.
• Complete required payroll close, settlement, transmission, and post-processing activities within established security and approval requirements.
• Maintain complete payroll cycle records, checklists, evidence of approval, reports, and supporting documentation.

2. Timekeeping and Payroll Exception Management

• Monitor time-entry, time-approval, absence, overtime, and payroll exception reports.
• Identify missing or unapproved time, unusual hours, potential underpayments or overpayments, and other timekeeping discrepancies.
• Communicate payroll deadlines and outstanding exceptions to employees, supervisors, departmental administrators, and designated approvers.
• Follow up on unresolved timekeeping items while maintaining the manager’s responsibility for reviewing and approving employee time.
• Process authorized corrections and adjustments in accordance with ACU procedures.
• Escalate recurring, high-risk, or unresolved timekeeping issues to the Deputy CHRO and other appropriate process owners.
• Assist employees and supervisors with understanding payroll deadlines, timekeeping requirements, and correction procedures.

3. Employee and Job Changes Affecting Pay

• Review approved new-hire, termination, job, compensation, work-location, costing, deduction, and other employee changes affecting payroll.
• Confirm payroll-impacting changes have appropriate authorization and supporting documentation before processing.
• Monitor effective dates and payroll cutoffs to reduce missed payments, overpayments, late changes, and unnecessary off-cycle payments.
• Review transactions involving multiple positions, faculty and adjunct appointments, student employment, temporary assignments, supplemental work, and other pay arrangements.
• Coordinate with Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Benefits, Academic Affairs, Financial Aid, Finance, and departments when payroll inputs cross functional areas.
• Maintain appropriate records of corrections, exceptions, approvals, and follow-up actions.

4. Payroll Review, Reconciliation, and Controls

• Review payroll registers and control totals before and after payroll completion.
• Perform or prepare assigned gross-to-net, deduction, benefit, payment, and operational payroll reconciliations.
• Compare payroll results to approved source data, prior-period results, exception reports, and other relevant control information.
• Investigate variances, document findings, coordinate corrections, and track unresolved items through completion.
• Prepare payroll reports and supporting schedules needed by Human Resources, Finance, auditors, and institutional leadership.
• Provide payroll data and documentation to Finance for independent general ledger, bank, liability, and payroll tax reconciliation activities.
• Route payroll results, corrections, and reconciliations for independent review and approval in accordance with ACU’s control structure.
• Maintain evidence of completed reviews, approvals, reconciliations, exception resolution, and corrective actions.
• Support internal and external payroll, financial, tax, and compliance audits by providing accurate and complete documentation.
• Operate within established role-based system access and approval requirements.

5. Employee Service and Issue Resolution

• Serve as a primary contact for employee and manager payroll questions.
• Research and explain pay calculations, earnings, deductions, direct deposits, timekeeping results, approved changes, and payroll corrections.
• Assist employees with payroll forms, direct-deposit matters, pay-statement questions, and other routine payroll needs.
• Respond to payroll concerns promptly, communicate next steps, and track issues through resolution.
• Coordinate with Benefits, Human Resources, Finance, HRIS, managers, and departments when an issue requires cross-functional action.
• Escalate complex tax interpretations, tax notices, multi-state tax determinations, and technical payroll-tax matters to the Tax and Payroll Compliance Accountant.
• Handle sensitive employee, payroll, banking, and tax information with strict confidentiality and appropriate security.

6. Workday and Payroll Systems

• Perform payroll processing and related transactions in Workday and other approved systems.
• Monitor payroll-related Workday workflows, integrations, interfaces, reports, and error messages.
• Identify system or data issues affecting payroll and coordinate resolution with HRIS, Finance, IT, Workday support, vendors, or implementation partners.
• Participate in payroll testing associated with Workday implementation activities, configuration changes, integrations, upgrades, releases, and process redesign.
• Validate payroll results following system changes and document testing outcomes and corrective actions.
• Support the development and validation of payroll reports, dashboards, exception reports, and control tools.
• Follow established system-security, access, change-management, and data-governance requirements.
• Support efforts to streamline payroll processes and reduce unnecessary manual workarounds.

7. Coordination with the Tax and Payroll Compliance Accountant

• Provide accurate payroll data, reports, workpapers, and supporting information needed for payroll-tax filings, reconciliations, notices, audits, and year-end reporting.
• Coordinate employee tax-election corrections and payroll adjustments identified through routine processing or compliance review.
• Refer complex federal, state, local, international, nonresident-alien, taxable-fringe-benefit, and multi-state payroll-tax matters to the Tax and Payroll Compliance Accountant.
• Support year-end employee-data validation, W-2 review, correction processing, and employee communication while Finance retains responsibility for technical payroll-tax compliance and filing activities.
• Participate in recurring cross-training with the Tax and Payroll Compliance Accountant to maintain payroll backup readiness.
• Maintain current payroll procedures, calendars, checklists, and contingency materials needed for backup processing.
• Assist with periodic continuity or backup-processing testing.

8. Documentation and Audit Readiness

• Develop, maintain, and update payroll standard operating procedures, payroll calendars, desk guides, checklists, control documentation, and troubleshooting resources.
• Ensure payroll records and supporting documentation are complete, organized, secure, and retained in accordance with ACU requirements.
• Maintain documentation sufficient to explain payroll calculations, corrections, exceptions, approvals, and reconciliation outcomes.
• Assist with document requests from Finance, Internal Audit, external auditors, legal counsel, and regulatory agencies through appropriate ACU channels.
• Identify missing documentation or weaknesses in payroll processes and coordinate corrective action.

9. Continuous Improvement and Cross-Functional Coordination

• Identify payroll-processing bottlenecks, recurring errors, unnecessary manual steps, and opportunities to improve controls or employee service.
• Recommend practical improvements to payroll workflows, reports, communications, documentation, and Workday processes.
• Participate in cross-functional initiatives affecting payroll, timekeeping, employee data, student employment, adjunct appointments, benefits, compensation, and financial reporting.
• Share payroll trends and recurring issues with the Deputy CHRO and appropriate process owners.
• Support training and communication for employees, supervisors, departmental administrators, and other payroll stakeholders.
• Perform other duties consistent with the purpose and level of the position.

Supervisory Responsibilities

None. 

Minimum Qualifications

Education

• Associate degree in accounting, finance, business administration, human resources, or a related field; or
• An equivalent combination of relevant education, payroll training, and experience.

Experience

• One to two years of payroll processing, payroll administration, accounting, human resources, or closely related experience.
• Experience working with payroll, timekeeping, HRIS, financial, or similar business systems.
• Experience reviewing detailed transactions, identifying discrepancies, and resolving routine issues.
• Experience handling confidential employee, payroll, banking, or financial information.
• Demonstrated ability to learn payroll processes, meet recurring deadlines, and maintain accurate records.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, human resources, or a related field.
• Two or more years of payroll or related HR/finance experience.
• Experience with Workday Payroll, Workday Time Tracking, Workday HCM, or a comparable enterprise system.
• Higher-education payroll experience.
• Experience supporting payroll for varied employee populations, such as faculty, staff, adjunct faculty, student employees, or temporary employees.
• Exposure to multi-state payroll or a geographically dispersed workforce.
• Experience assisting with payroll reconciliations, system testing, process documentation, or payroll audits.
• Fundamental Payroll Certification (FPC) or relevant payroll coursework.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Working knowledge of payroll processing, earnings, deductions, direct deposit, supplemental pay, retroactive adjustments, and payroll corrections, or the demonstrated ability to quickly develop this knowledge.
• General understanding of timekeeping, overtime, payroll recordkeeping, and wage-and-hour concepts applicable to payroll processing.
• General knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll-tax concepts sufficient to identify issues requiring additional review.
• Understanding of the importance of payroll controls, approval requirements, confidentiality, segregation of duties, reconciliations, and audit documentation.
• Ability to analyze payroll reports, identify unusual results, research discrepancies, and document resolutions.
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to accuracy.
• Ability to organize recurring work, balance competing priorities, and meet established payroll deadlines.
• Strong customer service, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to explain payroll information clearly and respectfully to employees and managers.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across Human Resources, Finance, Benefits, Academic Affairs, Financial Aid, IT, and university departments.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and the ability to learn and effectively use Workday reports, workflows, and payroll processes.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality, exercise sound judgment, and appropriately handle sensitive information.
• Ability and willingness to learn new payroll requirements, systems, processes, and procedures.

Core Competencies

• Accuracy and Attention to Detail
• Accountability and Reliability
• Organization and Deadline Management
• Analytical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Customer Service
• Confidentiality and Data Stewardship
• Documentation and Control Discipline
• Collaboration and Cross-Functional Coordination
• Adaptability and Continuous Learning
• Continuous Process Improvement
• Mission Alignment and Stewardship

Professional Development and Training

• Annual continuing education regarding University financial reporting, payroll, tax compliance, and internal controls.
• Workday training applicable to financial, payroll, reporting, and employee data responsibilities.
• Continuing education regarding international student and employee taxation and multi-state payroll compliance.
• Training on systems used by the University for payments, cashiering, commerce, payroll, tax reporting, and related activities.

Physical and Work Environment Requirements

• Work is generally performed in an office or hybrid work environment.
• Extensive use of computers, financial systems, payroll systems, and office technology.
• Ability to sit for extended periods and perform detailed computer-based work.
• Frequent interaction with employees, managers, Finance, Human Resources, and external advisors.
• Occasional extended hours may be required during payroll processing cycles, tax filing periods, audits, quarter-end, or year-end activities.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals to perform the essential functions.

Time Demands

Availability is required during critical payroll-processing periods. Occasional extended hours may be necessary during payroll deadlines, year-end activities, system implementations, audits, emergency processing, or business-continuity events. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals to perform the essential functions.

ACU does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, sex, disability, genetic information, national or ethnic origin in employment opportunities, in keeping with applicable state and federal law.

ACU is committed to maintaining a safe and secure campus environment and protecting the university's financial and physical assets. Therefore, Abilene Christian University conducts background checks on all candidates for employment in security sensitive positions. As a current employee, it will be determined if you need an additional background check upon your hire.