Senior Accounting/Payroll Specialist

City of El Paso•Various Locations within the City of El Paso, TX

About The Position

Under direction, this role involves performing highly responsible and complex paraprofessional fiscal support functions related to centralized accounts payable or receivable, or payroll or pension processing, verification, documentation and authorization for represented and non-represented employees. The position may oversee or engage in automated and manual review, reconciliation and issuance of diverse or intricate batch and individual payments, billings, collections, deposits, transfers, restitutions and adjustments. It also involves checking records and forms for validity, finalizing posting of transactions, and authorizing payment and receipt of funds. The role requires performing and verifying calculations, investigating and resolving discrepancies, developing and maintaining master spreadsheets, generating reports, and setting up/canceling accounts. Additionally, it involves preparing correspondence, counseling employees and vendors, overseeing payroll processing, monitoring sick leave, FMLA, and vacation, and providing human resources support. The position also entails entering, retrieving, and reviewing accounting data, implementing updates to reference tables, requesting and reviewing daily reports, and providing backup assistance to other staff. As a lead worker, this role involves assigning, scheduling, guiding, and monitoring work, appraising performance, providing training, counseling, motivating, maintaining harmony, identifying and resolving staff differences, enforcing personnel rules, and interviewing applicants.

Requirements

High School diploma or GED, or higher
Six (6) years of budget, accounting or payroll support experience.
MOS Code: 42A (Army)

Responsibilities

Oversee or engage in automated and manual review, reconciliation and issuance of diverse or intricate batch and individual payments, billings, collections, deposits, transfers, restitutions and adjustments.
Check records and forms received to ensure validity of initial identification, transaction codes, and time, quantity or monetary debits and credits, finalize posting of transactions to official city journals, and authorize payment and receipt of funds.
Perform and verify calculations, including pro-ratings, and effect on general ledger balances in relation to budget appropriations.
Investigate and resolve discrepancies, complaints and procedural problems pertaining to various payroll and accounting matters.
Develop and maintain master spreadsheets to track budget or other financial activity for multiple departments.
Generate various periodic and special summary and analytical accounting or statistical reports to management or regulatory agencies.
Set up and cancel, and open and close accounts each cycle.
Query, compare and balance accounting information and initiate retroactive corrections as warranted.
Print and void checks, advices, invoices and vouchers, and send and receive wire transmittals.
Prepare correspondence or personally counsel employee, retirees, beneficiaries, vendors, businesses and citizens of payroll or accounting activities, balances and legal requirements.
Oversee and perform payroll processing and provide related human resources support.
Monitor payroll preparation and processing to include, sick leave, Family Medical Leave (FMLA), and vacation.
Monitor departmental accounting/payroll clerks and specialists during, and participate in development and maintenance financial and human resource database management system, which includes analyzing information archived and processed to ensure quality.
Enter, retrieve and review accounting data from centralized financial management system or source documents to detect processing exceptions and computation mismatches associated with installation of software upgrades and patches.
Implement updates of reference tables such as rate schedules and identification codes.
Request and review daily reports to assess system performance and advise users of errors.
Provide backup assistance to other staff to ensure continuity of services.
Supervise or serve as lead worker to designated employees.
Assign, schedule, guide and monitor work.
Appraise employee performance.
Provide for training and development.
Counsel, motivate and maintain harmony.
Identify and resolve staff differences, conflicts and deficiencies.
Enforce personnel rules and regulations and work behavior standards.
Interview applicants.
Recommend hiring, termination, transfers, discipline, merit pay or other employee status changes.