How to become Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk in 2024

Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk Compile and record employee time and payroll data. May compute employees' time worked, production, and commission. May compute and post wages and deductions, or prepare paychecks.

Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk is Also Know as

In different settings, Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk is titled as

  • Human Resources Assistant (HR Assistant)
  • Payroll Assistant
  • Payroll Clerk
  • Payroll Coordinator
  • Payroll Representative
  • Payroll Specialist
  • Payroll Technician
  • Personnel Assistant
  • Personnel Technician
  • Timekeeper

Education and Training of Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

Training Required for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk in different industries are

What Do Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk do?

  • Process and issue employee paychecks and statements of earnings and deductions.
  • Compute wages and deductions, and enter data into computers.
  • Compile employee time, production, and payroll data from time sheets and other records.
  • Review time sheets, work charts, wage computation, and other information to detect and reconcile payroll discrepancies.
  • Verify attendance, hours worked, and pay adjustments, and post information onto designated records.
  • Record employee information, such as exemptions, transfers, and resignations, to maintain and update payroll records.
  • Issue and record adjustments to pay related to previous errors or retroactive increases.
  • Keep informed about changes in tax and deduction laws that apply to the payroll process.
  • Provide information to employees and managers on payroll matters, tax issues, benefit plans, and collective agreement provisions.
  • Complete time sheets showing employees' arrival and departure times.
  • Post relevant work hours to client files to bill clients properly.
  • Distribute and collect timecards each pay period.
  • Complete, verify, and process forms and documentation for administration of benefits, such as pension plans, and unemployment and medical insurance.
  • Prepare and balance period-end reports, and reconcile issued payrolls to bank statements.
  • Compile statistical reports, statements, and summaries related to pay and benefits accounts, and submit them to appropriate departments.
  • Coordinate special programs, such as United Way campaigns, that involve payroll deductions.
  • Process paperwork for new employees and enter employee information into the payroll system.
  • Keep track of leave time, such as vacation, personal, and sick leave, for employees.
  • Conduct verifications of employment.
  • Balance cash and payroll accounts.
  • Train employees on organizations' timekeeping systems.
  • Prepare and file payroll tax returns.

Qualities of Good Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

  • 10-key calculators
  • Computer terminals
  • Desktop computers
  • Personal computers

Technology Skills required for Payroll and Timekeeping Clerk

  • Accounting software
  • ADP Enterprise HR
  • ADP eTIME
  • ADP PC/Payroll
  • ADP Workforce Now
  • API Navigator
  • Asure Software HCM
  • Automated payroll software
  • Automated timekeeping software
  • BMH Open4 Payroll
  • BSI ComplianceFactory
  • CyberShift Workforce Management 3G Time and Attendance
  • Data entry software
  • EBS On Line InstaPay
  • Email software
  • Fund accounting software
  • Galaxy Technologies TimeStar Enterprise
  • Human resource management software HRMS
  • Human Resource MicroSystems HR Entre
  • IBM Cognos Impromptu
  • IBM Notes
  • Intuit QuickBooks
  • isolved Time
  • Jantek Jupiter Time Attendance
  • Kronos Workforce Payroll
  • Kronos Workforce Timekeeper
  • MicroFocus GroupWise
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Microsoft Dynamics GP
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Great Plains Personal Data Keeper
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Word
  • Netscape Navigator
  • NetSuite ERP
  • NuView EBS
  • Oracle E-Business Suite Financials
  • Oracle Fusion Applications
  • Oracle HRIS
  • Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
  • Oracle PeopleSoft
  • Oracle PeopleSoft Payroll for North America
  • Paychex payroll software
  • PayData Advanced HR
  • Payroll software
  • PDS Vista
  • Penta software
  • Quicken
  • RSM McGladrey Clear Pay
  • Sage 50 Accounting
  • Sage HRMS
  • SAP Americas mySAP ERP Human Capital Management HCM
  • SAP Crystal Reports
  • SAP software
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Tax software
  • TimePlus Payroll
  • Ultimate Software UltiPro Workplace
  • UNITIME
  • Virtual Software Virtual Timecard
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software
  • Workday software
  • WorkForce Software EmpCenter Time and Attendance