Sr Payroll Consultant, Taxes and GL

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Role/ Department: Senior Payroll Consultant, Tax and GL / NA Shared Services

This role will be responsible for the overall tax management of the U.S. Payroll and the quarterly/year end processes and the Finance/ GL accounting function of the U.S payroll.  

Tax – This part of the role will perform quarterly tax reconciliations between Workday and ADP to ensure filings are complete and accurate and monitor all tax notices with ADP to ensure they are resolved in a timely manner.  The role will also research and monitor regulatory and legislative changes to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations. The role will assist the payroll team in performing daily payroll activities to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant payroll processing including quarterly and year-end tax activities. 

Finance/ GL – This part of the role will be responsible for performing the Finance/ GL accounting functions for the U.S. Payroll. This role will prepare and/or monitor payroll tax and general ledger accounts/activities and will coordinate with Finance to reconcile identified discrepancies including processing/advising on appropriate accounting transactions to balance accounts.  The role will also assist the payroll team in performing daily payroll activities to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant payroll processing including quarterly and year-end tax activities.

The key responsibilities of the role include:
•    Coordinate with the U.S. Payroll team and ADP to perform quarterly reconciliations, filings, amendments, and tax notices
•    Review payroll adjustment requests to ensure proper authorization and compliance with payroll policies, federal, state, and local regulations. Advises team and management of appropriate corrective action when an error occurs.
•    Prepare and/or monitor payroll tax and general ledger accounts/activities and coordinate with Finance to reconcile identified discrepancies including processing/advising on appropriate accounting transactions to balance accounts
•    Assist in performing daily payroll activities to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant payroll processing including quarterly and year-end tax activities
•    Analyze existing policies, procedures, and practices to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local tax regulations. Recommends and implements modifications of existing payroll processes to ensure compliance with requirements. 
•    Research and monitor regulatory and legislative changes to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations
•    Respond to payroll inquiries to explain pay calculations, adjustments, and impact of policies, tax regulations, and related changes
•    Coordinate with vendors and/or review payroll systems/applications to ensure changes submitted are correctly reflected on the payroll. May be responsible for system/application testing (e.g. WD new releases), as necessary
•    Represent and lead payroll in meetings with internal teams and external vendors (e.g., responsible for direct interaction with committees, management, and internal/external auditors).
•    Acquire knowledge of team members’ payroll activities to provide back up support
•    Manage payroll projects/process improvement initiatives
•    Conduct secondary quality reviews of payroll transactions and cross train team members 

Skills/Qualifications:
•    10 or more years of payroll experience required, with a sound payroll tax background
•    Extensive knowledge of federal, state, and local tax regulations
•    Must be familiar with all aspects of payroll processing including payroll production, quarterly reconciliations, garnishments, year-end processing, tax filings, etc.
•    Solid understanding of G/L, payroll accounting, and employment taxes
•    Attention to detail, ability to work independently and collaboratively, strong organizational skills, and deadline driven
•    Proficient with MS office (i.e., Excel)
•    Excellent analytical and problem solving skills with a focus on continuous improvement
•    Able to multi-task in a high paced environment
•    Knowledge of other cross functional areas (i.e., HR, Finance, etc.) 
•    Excellent oral and written communication skills
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