Payroll Accountant

Payroll Accountant

City of London

6-8 Months Fixed term contract

65,000 – 70,000

Portfolio Payroll is delighted to be partnering with a Global Financial services firm based in the City of London. They are seeking a Payroll Accountant on a 6-8 Months FTC basis.

The role covers payroll accounting in the UK, and requires collaboration with a number of different stakeholders including the UK payroll and benefits teams and the various Finance teams, in particular within the UK. As well as being responsible for business-as-usual activity across weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual cycles. The successful candidate will be responsible for proactively identifying opportunities to streamline processes, strengthen controls, and improve efficiency.

Key Responsibilities

• Prepare, review, and post payroll related journals, ensuring accurate allocation to profit and loss, balance sheet, and accrual accounts.
• Own key HR/payroll balance sheet reconciliations and substantiation, including salary clearing and HR holding accounts, investigating and resolving reconciling items in a timely manner.
• Review monthly payroll outputs from an accounting perspective, analysing material variances against prior periods and expectations.
• Manage payroll related accruals, including legal and professional fees, Global Mobility costs, flexible benefits, and year end requirements, ensuring accurate recognition across reporting periods.
• Administer and process intercompany payroll transactions and recharges, coordinating payment requests and ensuring accurate cross entity postings.
• Support the reconciliation between payroll processed compensation (e.g. paid bonuses and allowances) and centrally held compensation accruals, ensuring clear audit trails and timely clearance.
• Ensure accurate accounting for payroll related leaver costs, adjustments, and corrections, including alignment with variable and deferred compensation accounting where applicable.
• Deliver accurate and timely month end close for HR and payroll cost areas, including journals, accruals, and reclassifications.
• Manage end-to-end processing of HR/payroll third-party invoices and intercompany recharges, ensuring accurate coding, approvals, period cutoff, and cross entity settlement.
• Provide detailed inputs to support forecasting and budget processes, alongside HR cost analysis and run rate and variance commentary.
• Maintain strong governance and audit readiness, providing payroll related financial data, explanations, and supporting schedules, and responding promptly to audit and stakeholder queries.
• Coordinate the quarterly allocations process across the UK HR team, ensuring timely submission, accurate cost allocation, and clear supporting documentation.

Person Specification

• Qualified accountant with at least 6 to 10 years’ experience in a financial services environment
• Strong technical accounting knowledge, especially in payroll accounting
• Experience of working with SAP and other relevant financial systems
• Excellent communication skills, with proven ability to liaise across multiple teams and entities
• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion and professionalism
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office suite, including, in particular, advanced Excel skills to support detailed reconciliations, analysis, and reporting
• Detail-oriented with strong reconciliation and analytical skills
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines throughout the monthly, quarterly, and annual cycles
• Ideally previous exposure to HR forecasting and budgeting processes
• Continuous improvement mindset, with experience identifying inefficiencies, streamlining month end processes, and improving controls through standardisation and automation where appropriate

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