Payroll & HRIS Analyst (Dayforce)

Reporting to the Head of Human Resources, the Payroll & HRIS Analyst is a hands-on HR operations role responsible for accurate payroll processing, payroll tax support, HRIS data integrity, reporting, system troubleshooting, and payroll-related financial reconciliation.

This position serves as a key technical and analytical resource between Human Resources, Finance, Accounting, IT, Dayforce, and external vendors. The successful candidate will be comfortable investigating discrepancies, tracing data across systems, identifying root causes, and driving issues through resolution with limited supervision.

This is not a traditional HR Generalist or Benefits Administration role. While a separate Benefits Specialist manages routine benefits transactions and employee inquiries, this position is responsible for understanding how benefits and retirement-plan data should flow through Dayforce and vendor systems, validating that data, and troubleshooting issues involving deductions, eligibility, interfaces, and record reconciliation.

Key Responsibilities

Payroll & Payroll Tax

• Process and support accurate and timely payroll, including regular payroll, bonuses, adjustments, deductions, garnishments, retroactive payments, and other employee payments.

• Review payroll reports, exception reports, and control totals to identify discrepancies prior to payroll finalization.

• Perform payroll reconciliations and investigate pay, deduction, tax, and employee data discrepancies.

• Support federal, state, and local payroll tax compliance, including researching and resolving tax notices, agency inquiries, and filing discrepancies.

• Work with Dayforce, payroll tax vendors, and government agencies to resolve payroll tax setup, registration, remittance, and reporting issues.

• Support quarter-end and year-end payroll processes, including tax reconciliations, Forms 941, W-2/W-2C reporting, and applicable state and local filings.

• Maintain payroll documentation, audit support materials, and internal controls to ensure accurate and compliant payroll processing.

HRIS, Integrations & Data Integrity

• Support the administration and ongoing use of Dayforce and other HR technology platforms, including employee data maintenance, system testing, reporting, troubleshooting, and documentation.

• Monitor inbound and outbound integrations between Dayforce and third-party vendors, including retirement, medical, dental, vision, HSA/FSA, life insurance, and other payroll-related systems.

• Understand vendor feed structures, timing, and expected data to identify missing, rejected, duplicated, or inaccurate records.

• Investigate discrepancies between Dayforce, payroll records, benefit elections, retirement-plan data, vendor files, and downstream systems.

• Determine the root cause of issues involving employee data, HRIS configuration, payroll setup, file mapping, eligibility rules, vendor processing, or system timing.

• Review interface results, exception reports, error logs, and reconciliation reports and drive issues through resolution.

• Support testing of new vendor feeds, HRIS enhancements, file-layout changes, and system updates.

• Perform recurring audits and reconciliations to identify issues before they become payroll, benefit, or compliance concerns.

• Maintain documentation related to vendor feeds, interface schedules, file specifications, reconciliation procedures, and issue-resolution processes.

Payroll Accounting & Finance Support

• Partner with Finance and Accounting to reconcile payroll activity and payroll-related liabilities.

• Prepare, review, or support payroll journal entries and related accounting information.

• Reconcile wages, taxes, deductions, benefit premiums, retirement contributions, and payroll liabilities to payroll reports and general ledger activity.

• Research and resolve discrepancies between payroll records, vendor data, and accounting records.

• Prepare payroll variance analyses and explain significant period-over-period changes.

• Support month-end, quarter-end, year-end, internal audit, and external audit activities.

• Provide payroll and HR data for budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, and business analysis.

HR Analytics & Reporting

• Prepare recurring payroll, headcount, compensation, workforce, and HR reports for Human Resources, Finance, and business leaders.

• Analyze HR and payroll data to identify trends, anomalies, data-quality concerns, and process improvement opportunities.

• Develop and maintain Excel-based reports, audits, reconciliations, and data-validation tools.

• Support compensation analysis and other HR analytics projects.

• Identify opportunities to automate recurring reports, audits, and manual processes using Dayforce, Excel, Power Query, Power BI, and other available tools.

HR Compliance & General Operations

• Support compliance with payroll, employment, and employee-record requirements.

• Assist with onboarding, offboarding, employee changes, and other HR transactions that affect payroll, employee data, or HR systems.

• Support internal compliance reviews and maintain accurate, secure, and confidential employee records.

• Provide technical and analytical support for HR projects and operational initiatives as assigned.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• 3 to 5 years of experience in payroll, HRIS, payroll accounting, HR operations, or a related field.

• Hands-on experience processing or supporting full-cycle payroll.

• Multi-state U.S. payroll experience strongly preferred.

• Working knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll tax requirements.

• Experience researching payroll discrepancies and payroll tax issues.

• Experience working with HRIS or payroll systems and troubleshooting employee, payroll, or system data issues.

• Experience performing payroll, deduction, benefit, retirement-plan, or general ledger reconciliations.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify root causes and drive solutions independently.

• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including PivotTables, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, formulas, filters, and data reconciliation techniques.

• Ability to work with large datasets and effectively communicate findings.

• Strong attention to detail, organization, confidentiality, and data integrity.

• Ability to collaborate effectively with Human Resources, Finance, Accounting, IT, employees, vendors, and government agencies.

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Accounting, Finance, Business, Information Systems, Data Analytics, or a related field preferred. Equivalent experience may be considered.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Dayforce Payroll and HRIS.

• Experience handling payroll tax notices, agency inquiries, tax registrations, and year-end payroll processes.

• Experience supporting 401(k), HSA/FSA, medical, insurance, or other HR vendor integrations and data feeds.

• Experience with data validation, reconciliation, interface troubleshooting, and integration support.

• Exposure to ERP or accounting systems such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Great Plains, or similar platforms.

• Experience with Power Query, Power BI, or other reporting and analytics tools.

• Experience preparing payroll journal entries and reconciling payroll to the general ledger.

• FPC or CPP certification, or interest in pursuing payroll certification.

Success in This Role

The ideal candidate is comfortable working across payroll, HR systems, data analysis, and accounting. Success requires someone who goes beyond identifying discrepancies by determining why they occurred, isolating the root cause, engaging the right stakeholders, and driving the issue through resolution.

Successful candidates will:

• Work independently with minimal day-to-day supervision.

• Approach issues with curiosity and a root-cause mindset.

• Understand how payroll, HR, benefits, retirement-plan, and financial data interact across multiple systems.

• Balance technical accuracy with sound business judgment and effective communication.