Payroll Specialist

Job Title: Payroll Specialist
Location: Westport, CT. On-Site
Employment Type: Full Time
Department: Finance

About Us:
Maplewood Senior Living, is a leading operator of premier senior living communities across 6 states, featuring two distinguished brands: Maplewood and Inspīr. Known nationally for innovation in the senior living space, Maplewood is a growing company dedicated to excellence in care, offering personalized and thoughtful services in independent living, assisted living and memory care.

Our success is built on a foundation of personalized, compassionate care and communities designed to enrich the quality of life for our residents. We foster a dynamic and supportive work environment that empowers our teams to excel, inspire, and make a meaningful impact every day. If you are a passionate about driving growth and innovation in senior living, Maplewood offers the opportunity to be part of a forward-thinking organization that values your expertise. Join us and help shape the future of senior living!

Overview: The Payroll Specialist is responsible for ensuring the timely and accurate delivery of weekly and bi-weekly payroll to all Maplewood Senior Living and any of its entities while ensuring compliance with all relevant payroll tax laws and regulations. This also includes the oversight of time management, PTO and other payroll related benefits and processes.  This role involves meticulous attention to detail in payroll processing, tax filing, and handling internal and external audits. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in payroll administration, tax accounting, and 401K audit procedures and a collaborative style for optimizing processes.

Key Responsibilities:

• Process weekly and bi- weekly multi-site payroll, including validation of employee changes, garnishments, benefit elections, taxes and submission of positive pay to all Maplewood Senior Living and Inspir associates.
• Generate and review of payroll reports to ensure accuracy and completeness of payroll, earnings statement and deductions; identifies and resolves discrepancies
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local payroll regulations, including withholding taxes, garnishments, and other deductions.
• Review and verify timekeeping records and work with department managers to resolve discrepancies.
• Review and processing of wage garnishments, tax and direct deposit forms changes
• Issue paychecks or pay cards for termination and resignation in accordance with state specific requirements, ensuring compliance and timeliness of payment due
• Act as a liaison between company and federal, state, and local tax agencies
• Calculate and remit payroll taxes, including Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, and other payroll-related taxes.
• Reconcile payroll tax liabilities and ensure proper reporting on W-2s, 1099s, and other tax documents.
• Stay updated on changes in payroll tax regulations and implement necessary adjustments in payroll processing.
• Communicate changes in payroll policies and tax regulations to employees as needed.
• Prepare all monthly, quarterly and annual year-end tax and payroll reports
• Reconcile payroll accounts in the General Ledger, identifying and resolving discrepancies between payroll records and GL balances.
• Assist in the month-end and year-end close processes by providing payroll data and reports.
• Collaborate with the accounting team to ensure that payroll expenses are accurately reflected in financial statements.
• Generate detailed payroll reports for management and finance, including variance analysis and trend reporting.
• Keep current on payroll system functionality and wage and hour laws
• Assists with payroll support projects such as annual audits, unemployment claims inquiries and employee data requests (such as Employment Verifications)
• Administer all aspects of the 401K Plan (including but not limited to enrollment, transmittal of all 401K contributions, distributions, compliance, audit, and HCE testing)
• Assists with the completion of 5500’s for all benefit plans (medical, dental, vision, life/LTD and 401K)
• Communicate proactively with communities, Human Resources, Accounting to review cross-departmental impact of reconciled data and make suggestions for process improvements that lead to best-practice operations
• Creating and assisting with the training of team members as needed
• Assist with various projects as needed
• Ensure adequate coverage of payroll functions for time off and or holiday coverage

Education/Experience/Licensure/Certification:

• Bachelor's degree in Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Business Administration, Human Resources, or related field required
• 3-5 plus years of hands-on experience with payroll processing, time keeping and HRIS software; preferably UltiPro or Kronos payroll software
• Strong analytical, problem solving and customer service skills
• Ability to work with sensitive data and maintain confidentiality
• Excellent organization and time management skills
• Self-motivated and ability to work well within a fast-paced environment
• Solid Excel skills
• Ability to work with minimal supervision

Why You’ll Love Working with Us: 

• Innovative Culture: We are a group of smart, forward-thinking and compassionate pros dedicated to enhancing the lives of our residents through service excellence, creative and meaningful programs and continuous innovation.
• HEART: We recognize Humor, Empathy, Autonomy, Respect and Trust as core values that guide our work.
• Growth Opportunities: We promote and foster career development and continuous learning.
• Work-Life Balance: We value autonomy, flexibility and a family-friendly supportive workplace.
• Competitive Comp and Benefits: We offer a competitive compensation package, bonus, health insurance, 401K with match, paid time off, and more. Inspir believes in rewarding top talent and dedication, depending upon years of experience and commitment to the company. Inspir strives for transparency, reviewing pay periodically, to be the industry leader in recruiting talent like you!

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)