Payroll Coordinator

Payroll Coordinator

Salary Range: $68,000-$78,000

Work Year: 12-Month Position

Reports To: Business Manager / Chief School Business Official (CSBO)

Department: Business Office

Position Summary: As the sole payroll practitioner for the district, the Payroll Coordinator manages the end-to-end payroll cycle for all salaried and hourly school district employees. This position demands a high level of autonomy, precision, and confidentiality to ensure staff are compensated accurately and on time. The role is responsible for full-cycle payroll processing, Illinois state retirement reporting (TRS and IMRF), deduction management, and coordinating with the Township Treasurer's Office, while also providing essential administrative support to the district office.

Core Responsibilities

Full-Cycle Payroll Processing & Reconciliation

• Create, maintain, and distribute the annual district payroll schedule to all staff and administration, clearly communicating timecard submission deadlines, supervisor approval cut-offs, and official pay dates.
• Execute the district's complete payroll cycle, transitioning raw timesheet data into finalized pay runs.
• Extract, review, and reconcile employee timecards, cross-referencing hours worked, paid time off, and leave balances with data from the district's third-party timekeeping vendor to ensure accurate data imports.
• Audit all timesheets for required administrative signatures, accurate mathematical calculations, and correct hourly pay rates prior to entry.
• Perform comprehensive pre-payroll reconciliations (trial runs) to verify the accuracy of total hours, salary adjustments, docks, and deductions against active payroll registers.
• Identify needed payroll corrections, investigate pay discrepancies, and accurately process necessary adjustments, retroactive pay, or off-cycle corrections.
• Validate all direct deposit setups, modifications, and pre-notes.
• Coordinate directly with the Township Treasurer's Office to authorize and execute the final paycheck run.
• Securely stuff, seal, and distribute physical paychecks and annual W-2 tax forms to respective school buildings or via mail.

Compensation & Employee Records Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all employee payroll inquiries, providing excellent customer service while explaining pay calculations, tax withholding (W-4s), and deduction adjustments.
• Administer compensation for all salaried employees, including calculating contract balances, processing pay docks, and updating annual salary rate changes at the start of each academic year.
• Coordinate closely with the Human Resources and Benefits departments to ensure the accurate alignment of employee salary data, status changes, and benefit deductions.
• Generate, process, and distribute formal employee dock letters to accurately communicate pay reductions resulting from unpaid time off or exhausted leave balances.
• Process all onboarding and offboarding payroll logistics, creating physical employee files, inputting new hire data, and terminating records for exiting staff.
• Manage all voluntary and mandatory payroll deductions (e.g., taxes, union dues, garnishments, benefits), entering initial setups and adjusting ongoing changes in the payroll system.
• Reconcile and process outbound vendor payments related to employee payroll deductions.

State Retirement & Compliance Reporting

• Compile, reconcile, and submit monthly payroll reports, schedules, and gross-to-net summaries for Board of Education review and formal approval.
• Manage the district's Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund (IMRF) portal, accurately processing employee additions, terminations, monthly wage reporting, and annual IMRF reporting and reconciliation.
• Compile, verify, balance, and submit the complex Annual Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) report, managing all end-of-year TRS processing requirements.
• Prepare and submit required Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) reports related to district personnel, compensation, and salary data (e.g., Educator Information System / EIS reporting).
• Assist in the tracking of employee hours for Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliance and coordinate the annual generation and distribution of 1095-C forms.
• Generate and submit required recurring state and federal tax and labor reports.
• Prepare and provide necessary payroll records, documentation, and data to support the district's annual financial audit, state audits, and other internal or external audits as required.

Office & Administrative Support

• Serve as a welcoming point of contact for the district office by answering the main switchboard and managing front-door visitor access.
• Assist the Business Manager/CSBO with special accounting or administrative projects as needed.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive Payroll Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) manual to ensure business continuity.
• Maintain accurate and highly organized payroll records in compliance with the Illinois Local Records Act.
• Attend ongoing professional development, workshops, and seminars to remain current on the latest federal and state payroll regulations, TRS/IMRF updates, and industry best practices.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Associate's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Human Resources, or a closely related field.
• Minimum of 3 to 5 years of previous experience managing full-cycle payroll (school district or municipal fund accounting experience highly preferred).
• Working knowledge of Illinois public school retirement systems (TRS and IMRF), ISBE reporting protocols, and state/federal payroll tax regulations.
• High proficiency with financial and payroll software (specifically Skyward School Business Suite or similar K-12 ERP systems), spreadsheet applications (Excel/Google Sheets), and basic data entry.
• Familiarity with third-party time and attendance software (e.g., Frontline, TCP, ADP, etc.) and data export/import procedures.
• Exceptional attention to detail and mathematical accuracy.
• Ability to work independently as a single-person department while maintaining strict confidentiality regarding sensitive employee compensation and demographic data.
• Must pass a fingerprint-based criminal background check and be eligible for employment in a public-school setting.

Physical Requirements & Working Conditions

• Ability to sit for prolonged periods at a desk and work on a computer.
• Ability to lift up to 25 pounds (e.g., boxes of printer paper or employee files).
• Standard office environment with frequent interruptions and strict deadlines.