Payroll Assistant

Columbia University (Staff Jobs)

Position Summary

The Payroll Assistant works under general supervision to support full-cycle payroll processing and comprehensive transaction management in the CUIMC Payroll Service Center. This role is responsible for maintaining precise employee records, assist with executing meticulous compliance & error resolution, and ensuring the accurate calculation of wages, deductions, and specialized compensation.

Responsibilities

• Transactions & Data Integrity

• Review and process high-volume, critical pay-related transactions, including but not limited to new hires, rehires, pay adjustments, job data changes, leaves of absence, and terminations.

• Conduct detailed reviews of all additional compensation (add comps) and salary changes to verify proper authorization and regulatory & CU policy compliance.

• Establish and maintain comprehensive employee payroll records

• Review and audit complex timekeeping records across multiple medical center departments to ensure strict compliance with established standards.

• Payroll Processing & Accounting

• Compute wages, overtime, and specialized pay, including gross to net pay, grossing up wages, provide compensation breakdowns

• Calculate and prepare labor accounting allocations, process cost transfer and salary distributions

• Reporting, Compliance & Error Resolution

• Inspect automated system output, systematically reviewing payroll registers, standard reports, and system logs to identify errors.

• Investigate and resolve out-of-balance conditions, executing routine, minor adjustments to correct documents and datasets prior to final processing.

• Assist with preparing reports and conduct research to generate special reports.

• Performs other duties as assigned or requested

• Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in education and experience

• 1 to 2 years of related payroll or HR data entry experience, preferably within a large organization or hospital system.

• Preferred Qualifications

• Software Skills: Hands-on experience or familiarity with PeopleSoft is highly preferred; a fundamental understanding of using Microsoft Excel (e.g., sorting data, basic formulas, filtering) is required.

• Education & Training: Specialized training in bookkeeping, accounting, or payroll processes is normally required.

• Core Competencies: Extreme attention to detail for salary reviews, strong data verification skills, and the ability to maintain pace under general supervision in a fast-moving medical environment.

• Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

• Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.