Office Specialist-Payroll

State of Illinois•Springfield, IL

1d•$59,175 - $92,065•Onsite

About The Position

The Illinois Office of the Comptroller is seeking applicants for the position of Office Specialist for Payroll. The Comptroller is the chief fiscal control officer for the Illinois government, charged by the Constitution with maintaining the state’s central fiscal accounts and ordering payments into and out of the appropriate funds. The office processes more than 16 million transactions annually and serves as a “fiscal watchdog” to ensure that all state payments meet the requirements of the law. The Comptroller’s office provides meaningful and timely fiscal information to help state policymakers adopt effective policies. The office continually seeks new ways to improve how it serves the public. The Comptroller has updated and streamlined the Comptroller’s website and has led the process of updating the state’s payroll and accounting systems. Comptroller Mendoza is committed to running the Office of Comptroller as a financial watchdog for the interest of Illinois citizens and to installing the most modern and transparent systems to make the state’s financial information available to all.

Requirements

Requires knowledge, skill, and mental development equivalent to completion of two (2) years of college and one (1) year of technical accounting experience.
OR
Requires four (4) years of related clerical bookkeeping experience.
Requires extensive knowledge of office practices, procedures, and programs.
Requires ability to use mainframe and computer-based programs, the operation and use of a personal computer, and a variety of software including knowledge of Microsoft Excel.
Requires ability to apply established accounting methods and techniques.
Requires ability to operate commonly used manual and automated office equipment and perform routine maintenance.
Requires ability to use analytical and fact-finding techniques.
Requires ability to follow written and oral instruction of moderate complexity.
Requires good written and oral communication skills.
Requires ability to maintain satisfactory working relationships with other employees and the general public.
May require working knowledge of accounting techniques and procedures.
May require ability to analyze routine accounting records and documents.

Nice To Haves

Prefers a minimum of one (1) year experience in state government payroll, accounting, or auditing operations and systems.

Responsibilities

Audits payroll vouchers for accuracy and in comparison, to electronic voucher files submitted by agencies in preparation of payroll warrant writing.
Verifies payroll files against hard copy signed vouchers supplied by the agencies.
Contacts outside agencies regarding issues, replacement payroll files, and/or missing payroll vouchers.
Reports discrepencies or errors to a supervisor as needed.
Logs payroll vouchers, inputs payroll schedule information into the payroll system setting the scheduled pay date and notifies the Accounting Professionals what payrolls are ready to process for warrant writing.
Assists Accounitng Professionals in the audit review of 114 reports in comparison with the paper vouchers.
Reports any discrepancies to a supervisor and notifies agencies of these issues.
Oversees the quarterly review of Social Security Administration mismatch reports.
Prepares letters and reports for employing agencies regarding missing or invalid employee information such as name, date of birth, and/or social security number.
Submits information to agencies and follows up as needed to resolve errors.
Assists in maintaining the workload entering the payroll unit.
Validates authorized signatures on payroll vouchers, sorts and distributes mail entering the payrol unit.
Assists with filing duplicate W2 requests, answering telephones, data entry, mailing tax statements, and filing the request documentation.
Prepares and distributes monthly payroll schedules based on the annual IOC (Office of Comptroller) payroll schedule and average agency payroll arrival dates.
Provides back up to Accounting Specialist and/or Accounting Professional when needed.
Performs other duties as assigned which are reasonable to the duties defined above.