Payroll coordinators have numerous roles and responsibilities for their department. First and probably most important is they act as the liaison between employees, payments, and the Payroll Office. They are typically the ones responsible for processing OPUS entries such as hiring, budget number changes, leave of absence changes and separations. It is also their duty most often to enter employee hours into the Time Reporting system for payroll processing. Once payroll has processed, review of employee payroll needs to be done by the payroll coordinator by viewing the online check registers.  If any errors such as underpayments or overpayments occur, it is the responsibility of the payroll coordinator to work with the Payroll office and submit necessary documentation for correction. Another responsibility of the coordinator is coordination of payroll pick up or hand drawn check pick up with the departmental green authorization card.

Payroll Coordinators are the point of contact for missing I9 paperwork.  Be familiar with the UW Payroll Form I9 policy.

All payroll online systems require users to have access. Access is done at the departmental level in ASTRA by the designated authorizer. There is more informaiton about ASTRA located in the Payroll Online Systems section.

All entries in Time Reporting should be released and approved by 3pm to complete the payroll process.  This allows time for any last minute changes that need to be made or for Payroll to provide assistance before the end of the business day.  Departments not completed by the 3:00pm deadline are asked to notify the Payroll Office of this delay as soon as possible.  Units not completed by 4:30pm will be approved by the Payroll Office and possibly communicated to Internal Audit for consideration during their annual risk assessment and audit planning process.

The Payroll Green Authorization Card provides the proper authorization for the holder of the card to pick up payroll, hand drawn checks and other documents (UPass validations, W-2s).

The Back-up Payroll Coordinator performs the same role as the primary payroll coordinator. It is highly recommended that each department have at least one back up who can process changes in OPUS, enter hours in the Time Reporting System, pick up payroll, and fill in for other payroll duties especially in the case of emergencies, disasters, and vacations. The Payroll Office is not considered a back up for departments.

In the event of an emergency, disaster, vacation or illness, campus departments should have an emergency plan that will outline what actions they will take to ensure payroll is processed for their department on time. This includes having back up enterers and approvers for OPUS and Time Reporting entries, designating who will pick up paychecks/payroll so employees get paid or verifying access to the systems from other locations – home, another building on campus, libraries, etc. The Payroll Office will serve as support to an emergency plan, however, they should not be considered as a back up in the case of emergencies.