Senior Payroll Specialist

Ensure compliance with federal and provincial payroll legislation, statutory remittance requirements, and employment-related payroll obligations.  

Prepare, reconcile, and submit CRA remittances, provincial remittances, Employer Health Tax, workers’ compensation filings, Quebec payroll requirements where applicable, and other payroll-related filings.  

Coordinate year-end payroll activities including T4s, T4A reporting, CNESST wage statements, annual reports, pension reporting, taxable benefit reporting, and related reconciliations.  

Monitor legislative changes and assess impacts to payroll processes, systems, employee experience, reporting, and controls.  

 

Prepare and reconcile payroll-related journal entries, payroll accruals, statutory liabilities, benefit-related entries, and payroll expense accounts.  

Own payroll-related balance sheet reconciliations and ensure reconciling items are investigated, explained, and cleared in a timely manner.  

Partner with Finance to support month-end close, quarter-end reporting, year-end audits, financial statement requirements, and payroll variance analysis.  

Prepare meaningful commentary on payroll variances, trends, reconciling items, and financial impacts.  

Maintain strong payroll controls that support internal audit, external audit, SOX-style governance, operational risk expectations, and financial reporting requirements.  

 

Lead investigation and resolution of payroll discrepancies, complex employee payroll issues, and payroll accounting variances.  

Distinguish between one-time payroll corrections and systemic issues requiring process, system, data, vendor, or control remediation.  

Prepare issue summaries that include root cause, employee impact, financial impact, control impact, corrective action, owner, and prevention plan.  

Track recurring payroll issues and recommend changes to reduce repeat inquiries, manual adjustments, employee impact, and operational risk.  

Escalate material risks, compliance concerns, financial impacts, and control deficiencies with clear analysis and recommended actions.  

 

Coordinate payroll audit activities and provide timely, accurate support for internal and external auditors.  

Own the preparation and maintenance of payroll audit evidence, including control logs, reconciliations, approval evidence, exception reports, sign-offs, and procedure documentation.  

Lead periodic payroll audits and control reviews across key payroll processes, including new hires, terminations, compensation changes, deductions, taxable benefits, remittances, off-cycle payments, and year-end reporting.  

Develop and maintain payroll control frameworks, audit documentation, standard operating procedures, and evidence of review.  

Identify operational risks and implement sustainable process improvements that reduce dependency, manual effort, and single points of failure.  

 

Serve as a subject matter expert for Dayforce and related payroll systems, integrations, configuration impacts, reports, and system controls.  

Support system implementations, upgrades, acquisitions, integrations, payroll transformation initiatives, and post-go-live hypercare activities.  

Lead or participate in user acceptance testing, parallel payroll testing, regression testing, and validation activities.  

Recommend opportunities to automate manual processes, improve reporting, strengthen controls, and improve operational efficiency.  

Maintain payroll procedures, workflows, checklists, control documentation, and knowledge management materials.  

 

Act as the escalation point for complex payroll inquiries and payroll-related issues requiring cross-functional resolution.  

Provide guidance to HR, Finance, Tax, Benefits, Legal, vendors, leaders, and employees on payroll-related matters.  

Translate payroll issues into clear business impacts, including employee experience, financial exposure, compliance risk, and control implications.  

Build strong partnerships with internal stakeholders and third-party vendors, providing recommendations rather than only identifying issues.  

Support mergers, acquisitions, organizational changes, and other strategic initiatives affecting payroll operations. 

 

• Minimum 7 to 10 years of progressive payroll experience in a complex, multi-entity Canadian payroll environment.  

• Have an accredited payroll compliance professional certification  

• Experience independently processing payroll for multiple legal entities and complex payroll populations with a group ranging between  1500-3000 employees  

• Experience supporting payroll accounting, journal entries, accruals, reconciliations, financial reporting, and variance analysis.  

• Experience owning or supporting internal audit, external audit, control testing, and audit evidence preparation.  

• Experience with Dayforce payroll strongly preferred.  

• Experience with payroll integrations, implementations, acquisitions, system testing, or payroll transformation projects considered an asset.  

• Demonstrated experience with payroll accounting, audit ownership, controls, root cause analysis, and cross-functional issue resolution.  

• Canadian payroll legislation, employment standards, statutory remittances, and year-end reporting requirements.  

• Income Tax Act requirements, CPP, EI, taxable benefits, employer payroll obligations, and provincial payroll requirements.  

• Payroll accounting principles, general ledger reconciliations, accruals, variance analysis, and payroll liability management.  

• Internal controls, audit practices, evidence standards, documentation requirements, and operational risk management.  

• Advanced Microsoft Excel and payroll reporting capabilities.  

 

💰 Competitive discretionary bonus 

✨ Market leading RRSP match program

🩺  Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits

📝  Employee Share Purchase Plan

👶🏽 Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one

🏝 Generous vacation policy and personal days 

🖥  Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues

🎓  Professional development and comprehensive Career Development program

💛  A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience

 

The incumbent will be working hybrid and in office time will be spent working from EQ Bank’s additional office space located at 2200-25 Ontario Street, Toronto, ON.