Payroll Accountant

About the Role

Location: Remote, United States

Role Type: Full-Time

Reports To: Head of Finance

Department: Finance

Compensation: $70,000–$85,000 per year

CodePath Finance runs payroll across multiple entities, pay schedules, and states for salaried staff, hourly and seasonal instructors, and fellows in Claude Corps, our program with Anthropic. Claude Corps is growing from roughly 100 to 1,000+ fellows, which takes us from six payroll cycles a month to at least ten.

You own assigned payroll cycles end-to-end, from timecard close through funding and post-payroll reconciliation, and you back up our Accounting Manager across all cycles. This is a payroll role with real accounting depth: you process payroll, reconcile it to the general ledger, and catch compliance risks before they reach an employee’s paycheck.

Key Responsibilities

• Payroll processing. Run assigned cycles for exempt and non-exempt employees, including overtime, regular-rate premiums, bonuses, commissions, and off-cycle and correction runs. Maintain pay rates, worksite assignments, deductions, and direct deposit in our PEO platform (CoAdvantage).
• Employee changes and timekeeping. Process new hires, terminations, and pay changes with HR. Review timecards, drive supervisor approvals on schedule, and flag when a new hire’s state requires a new pay schedule or tax setup.
• Retroactive pay. Verify approvals, confirm hours have not already been paid, maintain the retro pay tracker and support, and surface root causes of recurring requests.
• Accounting and reconciliation. Prepare payroll journal entries coded to the correct entity, program, and account. Reconcile wages payable, tax withholdings, benefit deductions, accrued PTO, and clearing accounts; research and resolve payroll-to-GL variances; own payroll accruals for month-end close.
• Compliance. Apply federal, state, and local rules on withholding, taxable wages, pay frequency, and final pay. Support multi-state tax filings, respond to state tax notices, and process wage garnishments and support orders.
• Audit readiness. Keep documentation traceable from timecard to approval, payment, and journal entry all year. Prepare reconciliations, schedules, and sample support for financial statement and benefit plan audits.
• Process improvement. Document the procedures you run, keep supervisor FAQs and decision guides current, and use AI and automation to cut manual work and errors.

What Success Looks Like

• 30 days: Independently run at least one full payroll cycle, from timecard close through reconciliation, while learning our entities, states, systems, and retro pay process. 
• 60 days: Own all assigned payroll cycles and their reconciliations independently, and have written procedures for your cycles. Be ready to run the Accounting Manager's cycles solo during planned or unplanned absences, and put a working process in place for getting timecard approvals in on time. 
• 90 days: Hit every deadline with fully reconciled cycles, own payroll's part of month-end close, absorb new Claude Corps cycles, flag compliance risks before they reach a paycheck, and deliver process fixes for any recurring issues. 
• One year: Be the go-to owner for payroll across all entities and states, lead improvements that let payroll scale with Claude Corps without adding headcount, and support clean financial and benefit plan audits. 

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years owning full-cycle payroll processing, including multi-state payroll for exempt and non-exempt employees (overtime and regular rate, bonuses, commissions, off-cycle payments), wage garnishments, child support orders, and benefit deductions.
• Working knowledge of federal, state, and local payroll tax and wage-and-hour compliance: withholding, SUI/SDI, state pay-frequency and final-pay rules, and the taxable treatment of earnings and pre- and post-tax deductions.
• First-hand experience with payroll reconciliation: payroll register to GL, payroll liability and clearing accounts, tax withholdings, benefit deductions, and accruals, with a track record of resolving variances and keeping audit-ready support that traces from timecard to payment to journal entry.
• Foundational GAAP knowledge, including debits and credits, accrual accounting, and preparing payroll journal entries, plus experience with Sage Intacct or a comparable general ledger system (experience beyond QuickBooks is expected).
• Strong spreadsheet skills in Google Sheets or Excel (lookups, pivot tables) for reconciliations and variance analysis.
• Precision under recurring deadlines, adaptability in a fast-scaling environment, and the emotional intelligence to handle sensitive pay questions with employees and managers.

Preferred

• Current FPC or CPP certification.
• Hands-on experience across multiple HR and payroll platforms (e.g., ADP, UKG, Paychex, or a PEO such as CoAdvantage).
• Proven experience owning payroll for various worker classifications (salaried exempt, hourly non-exempt, part-time, seasonal, and program fellows).
• Practical experience in multi-entity, fund, or grant-funded accounting, including cost allocation across entities and programs and clearing accounts for pass-through activity.
• Direct experience with month-end close for payroll accounts and accruals.
• Demonstrated experience supporting financial statement or benefit plan audits, including sample selections and auditor requests.
• Applied experience using AI or automation tools to streamline recurring payroll workflows.

Full-Time Employee Benefits

This is a fully remote position open anywhere in the U.S. CodePath prioritizes employee well-being with a competitive benefits package to support your health, financial security, and work-life balance.

• Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, and vision insurance (90% employer-covered for employees and dependents), employer-funded healthcare reimbursement, FSAs, and Employee Assistance Program
• Financial Security: 401(k), employer-paid life & disability insurance, and identity theft protection
• Work-Life Balance: Generous PTO, paid holidays, 10 weeks of fully paid parental leave, and an annual year-end company closure (Dec 24 – Jan 2)
• Professional Growth: $1,000 annual professional development stipend and home office setup support
• ​​Student Loan Forgiveness: CodePath is a qualifying employer for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF), helping employees manage student loan debt
• Additional Perks: Pet wellness plans, legal services, home/auto insurance discounts, and exclusive marketplace savings