Payroll Assistant
We are looking for a reliable and detail-oriented Payroll Assistant to support payroll administration for approximately 150 employees across 11 retail stores, 2 distribution warehouses, and an administrative team.
This role is responsible for preparing and reviewing payroll information, maintaining accurate employee records, coordinating with managers, and communicating directly with employees regarding payroll questions, discrepancies, and disputes.
Key Responsibilities
- Prepare and review weekly payroll using Gusto
- Collect and reconcile employee hours, overtime, PTO, missed punches, commissions, bonuses, reimbursements, and other payroll adjustments
- Coordinate with managers across multiple locations to ensure payroll information is complete and submitted on time
- Review payroll calculations, deductions, taxes, garnishments, direct deposits, and gross-to-net amounts
- Maintain accurate and confidential payroll and employee records
- Process approved employee changes, including pay rates, locations, departments, deductions, hires, and terminations
- Support new-hire payroll setup and onboarding documentation
- Monitor and process CalSavers deductions and contributions
- Assist with wage garnishments and required payroll documentation
- Prepare monthly workers' compensation payroll reports
- Track employee document acknowledgments and required forms
- Communicate directly with employees and managers regarding payroll questions, discrepancies, and disputes
- Research payroll records, explain findings clearly, resolve routine issues, and escalate unresolved or sensitive matters when needed
- Reconcile payroll records and maintain proper supporting documentation
- Identify and escalate missing approvals, payroll discrepancies, compliance issues, or unusual payroll activity before payroll is submitted
Requirements
- At least 3 years of experience in payroll, accounting, HR, timekeeping, or administrative work involving confidential employee information
- Working knowledge of payroll concepts, including:
- Regular and overtime hours
- PTO
- Earnings and deductions
- Reimbursements
- Garnishments
- Direct deposits
- Gross-to-net payroll review
- Comfortable using payroll and timekeeping systems, spreadsheets, email, and shared files
- Strong attention to detail and accuracy
- Able to manage recurring deadlines and follow up with multiple managers
- Strong written and verbal English communication skills
- Comfortable communicating with employees about payroll issues and payment discrepancies
- Able to handle confidential employee and payroll information securely
- Must be available to work 8 hours per day, Monday through Friday, during Pacific Time business hours
Preferred Experience
- Experience using Gusto or a similar payroll platform
- Experience supporting a multi-location, retail, warehouse, or hourly workforce
- Familiarity with California payroll
- Experience with CalSavers, garnishments, new-hire reporting, workers' compensation payroll reporting, and final pay
- Intermediate Excel or Google Sheets skills, including formulas, sorting, filtering, reconciliation, and exception tracking
What We're Looking For
We are looking for someone who is:
- Highly organized and detail-oriented
- Reliable and consistent with deadlines
- Comfortable following up when information is missing or incorrect
- Professional when speaking with employees about sensitive payroll matters
- Able to research payroll discrepancies instead of simply passing them along
- Careful with confidential information
- Able to recognize when an issue needs to be escalated rather than making an unsupported decision
The Payroll Assistant is responsible for preparing, verifying, documenting, and coordinating payroll activity. Final payroll approval remains with the designated company approver.