Payroll Manager

Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale•Fort Lauderdale, FL

15d•Onsite

About The Position

At Calvary Chapel, we are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ by connecting people to God, people to people, and people to outreach. Our vision is to reach our community and change our world. As a staff member, it’s not what we do, it’s who we are. Your passion: You must have a passion to honor God by caring well for the people behind every paycheck. As Payroll Manager, you will own an accurate, compliant payroll twice each month for our church, school, and ministries, keeping the organization aligned with current laws and rules. Just as important, you will reimagine how this work gets done. We are looking for a self-starter who will transform our payroll process to be cleaner, easier, and more efficient, using Paycor and AI workflows available, so the staff who depend on payroll are served better every cycle.

Requirements

Spiritual gifts in Administration, Wisdom, and Discernment.
5+ years of payroll management experience.
A bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field.
Certified Payroll Professional (CPP) certification, or the drive to earn it.
Deep knowledge of payroll principles and practices, multi-entity payroll, and current tax and compliance rules.
A self-starter’s mindset: you take initiative, work with minimal supervision, and run on a strong sense of urgency and deadlines.
A track record of improving processes, not just maintaining them.
Comfort using AI tools and modern workflow automation to simplify and speed up payroll work, with sound judgment about where automation helps and where a human still needs to check.
Advanced skills in Google Workspace and Microsoft Office (especially Excel), and the ability to learn and apply new technology quickly.
Strong problem-solving, organizational, and project-management skills, with the ability to balance multiple projects at once.
A motivating, relatable leader and team-builder.
Excellent written and verbal communication, dialogue, and listening skills.
The maturity to keep confidential information confidential.
Flexibility and strong time-management skills.
You may have to bend, sit, or stand for prolonged periods of time, and lift, pull, push, and/or move up to 25 lbs.
This is a full-time (40 hours/week) salaried exempt position.
You may have to work evenings and/or weekends to assist with special events or emergencies.
As an employee of and an associate minister of the Gospel, Calvary Chapel expects all employees to: Participate and lead regular times of prayer, devotion and worship as a regular aspect of your role on staff. Teach from the Bible in the appropriate environments inclusive of staff meetings, conferences, camps and/or outreach events.

Nice To Haves

You've led a payroll system conversion or implementation and came out the other side stronger for it.
You've already used AI or automation to take real time and error out of a recurring finance process.
You're the person teammates come to when a paycheck question gets complicated, because you explain it in plain terms.
You hold accuracy and deadlines as non-negotiable, and people trust your numbers without double-checking them.
You see payroll as caring for people, not just processing transactions.

Responsibilities

Run semi-monthly payroll (50%): Own the end-to-end payroll process two times each month for all staff. Review and approve payroll registers before and after processing, handle manual checks, stop payments, and staff-initiated account changes (such as new banking information), and post the related general ledger entries and journal-entry approvals.
Compliance and reporting (15%): Keep the organization compliant with current payroll laws and tax rules. Reconcile quarterly 941 filings, deliver year-end W-2 statements (including the mailing and emailing process for terminated employees), provide monthly payroll reports to the CFO, explain monthly salary trends to the accounting team, and maintain department and GL codes in the payroll system.
Process transformation and systems (10%): Continuously improve payroll using AI and Paycor workflows: automate manual steps, build clear procedures and documentation, and standardize how data moves between payroll and the GL and HRIS timekeeping module. Evaluate the HRIS and payroll systems, recommend changes, and lead implementations to a smooth, accurate transition.
HR and staff support (15%): Review Staff Action Notice (SAN) forms for accuracy, confirming pay rates, status changes, transfers, and bonus payments. Verify new-hire tax and banking information and any specialized deductions, reconcile final PTO payouts and withholdings due on separation, and review payments for employees on FMLA or Workers’ Comp. Partner closely with HR and serve as the go-to for staff and managers’ payroll and attendance questions.
Relationships, training, and audit (5%): Build strong working relationships with staff, leadership, and the payroll provider. Train employees and managers on payroll and timekeeping, and serve as liaison to external auditors on payroll-related projects and reports.
Staff Helping Staff program (5%): Process approved assistance payments, ensure the tax portion is handled correctly through payroll, and report program statistics to executive leadership and management quarterly, upon request.
Perform other department-related tasks as needed and assigned by your supervisor.