BARBARA SAWYER, CPP

23150 Avenue San Luis #120

Woodland Hills, CA 91364 

(505) 977-1270                                                                                                   bsawyer06@gmail.com

SUMMARY

Enthusiastic, high-energy Payroll professional with thirty years of combined Payroll, Human Resources and HRIS experience. Noted for the ability to enhance and streamline processes, systems and procedures. Thrives in highly diverse, rapidly changing environments. Areas of expertise include:

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Serves as strategic partner to Human Resources and Payroll departments in servicing 600 employees for two non-profit and one for profit organization. Software used was Deltek Costpoint for HR/Payroll, Impromptu report writer, Microsoft Excel, Word, Powerpoint and Sharepoint.

• With the use of Sharepoint , designed a Sharepoint secure site to distribute sensitive data to upper management and supervisors for the annual increase process.
• Conduct Human Resources staff training on data entry and audit of HR/Payroll data entered  in Costpoint’s Human Resource and Benefit Modules.
• Perform bi-weekly audits for various employees benefit deductions and set up.
• Research new state withholding and SUTA tax tables and completed the registration in new states.
• Prepare 5500s for benefit plans.
• Prepare each business entity health, dental and life insurance vendor negotiations. Championed with HR Director, insurance broker and upper management to analyze and select the benefit providers and rates for employees and Institute.
• Prepare discrimination testing files for pension (401a, 401k and 403b plans) and health flexible benefit plans.
• Prepare file for pension administrator to produce yearly max calculations for employee deferrals annually.
• Prepare information for annual worker’s compensation renewal, reconcile and adjust workers compensation accruals yearly and audit reports issued to Human Resources from carrier to insure employee injuries where charged to correct entities to insure the experience rating is applied correctly.
• Prepare maintenance of accounting software of yearly and other tax rate changes, as needed.
• Maintain all pay and deduction taxation set up and tax tables to stay in compliance.

Hired as Payroll Specialist and was promoted to Payroll Manager within a year. Served as Payroll Manager to 400 total employees for two non-profit organizations in six multi-state locations. Supervised one Payroll Administrator. Software used was Deltek Costpoint for HR/Payroll, Impromptu report writer, Microsoft Excel, Word, and Powerpoint.

• Implement Costpoint’s Human Resource and Benefit module.
• Prepare 5500’s for benefit plans.
• Prepared all information needed for health, dental and life insurance vendor negotiations. Worked with controller, insurance broker and upper management to animalize and select the benefit providers and rates for employees and Institute.
• Worked as a payroll consultant with Next Generation Economy, Inc. which included training the administrative assistant in processing payroll using Deltek’s GCS Premier, reconciling general ledger accounts and preparing quarterly and yearly federal and state tax returns.
• Lead project to select and implement an automated time clock and attendance system that resulted in the purchase of the ADI Time software. This allowed information to be directly transmitted from the time system to Costpoint eliminating manual entry of time sheets.
• Established audit controls for bi-weekly payroll for three entities and provide internal controls for off cycle payrolls for bonuses, final checks etc.

• Prepared discrimination testing files for pension and health flexible benefit plans. Included preparation of pension administrator file to produce yearly max calculations for employee deferrals annually. Prepare information for annual worker’s compensation renewal, reconcile and adjust workers compensation accruals yearly and audit reports issued to Human Resources from carrier to insure employee injuries where charged to correct entities to insure the experience rating is applied correctly.
• Research and propose procedures to be in compliance with all federal, state and other regulatory agencies. Prepare maintenance to accounting software of yearly and other tax rate changes as needed. Maintain all pay and deduction taxation set up and tax tables to stay in compliance.

Responsible for database design and implementation. System designed to condense and streamline corporate listings. Software used was Microsoft Excel, Word, Publisher, Access Data Base and Powerpoint.

• Managed corporate budget and expenditure maintenance.
• Authored all corporate newsletters and public communication.

Served as strategic partner to Human Resources Department servicing 20,000 total employees in 22 payroll regions in multi-state locations. Software used was ADP’s IPP for HR, Payroll and report writer, Microsoft Excel, and Word.

• Telephone support for 22 Regional Payroll Offices and the corporate office for NMC’s customized ADP Integrated Payroll and Personnel (IPP) product. This support was for the Human Resource and benefit side of the product. Support was also given to other Human Resources employees on reporting and use of the customized system. Analyzed procedures and software programs to streamline and document the processes. Other responsibilities were system administrator for security, consolidation of 22 regions on a bimonthly basis for reporting purposes and data base integrity.
• Developed downloads from ADP system to be used in Lotus, Excel and Paradox.
• Supervised the Human Resource data entry clerk for the corporate payroll of 350 employees.

Developed and managed the payroll department for this multi-state, multi-location company of ten stores, one distribution center and the corporate office with a total of over 1,800 employees. This included monthly and weekly payrolls. Software used was ADP’s IPP for HR, Payroll and report writer and Microsoft Excel.

• Initiated moving from a manual payroll system with ADP to ADP’s computerized IPP product. Moved the company from punch timecards and manual input of hours into ADP to an automated timekeeping system that allowed data to be directly downloaded into ADP to reduce costs of timecard audits and entry.
• Managed four payroll assistants in the daily payroll processing while supporting the management team with reports form the system for all benefits and compensation.
• Responsible for data integrity for both the Payroll and Human Resources side of the database.
• File all Federal and state payroll tax returns, including weekly deposits for payroll taxes.
• Computed commissions for sales employees. Administered all benefit plans, including the pension and profit sharing plans. This included reporting and verifying data with the actuary and initiating payments when necessary and issuing 1099-R yearly.

EDUCATION

CERTIFICATIONS AND AFFILIATIONS

• CPP Certification (2002) - Recertified (2007)
• APA CPP Study Group Coordinator (2003 to 2008)
• APA National’s Certification Advisory Group that writes questions for CPP Certification testing (2006 to Present)