Construction Payroll & WIP Specialist

AscendHire; New York (NY); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

AscendHire is seeking a Payroll Manager to oversee payroll administration, WIP reporting, and escrow management for construction clients. You will manage contractor payroll across platforms (ADP, Paychex) and review WIP schedules to ensure accurate job costing and compliance.

The role requires hands-on QuickBooks experience, attention to detail, and the ability to coordinate with contractors, banks, and virtual staff to keep records audit-ready and on schedule.

Qualifications

• Hands-on QuickBooks experience with construction job costing and reviewing work by others.
• Direct experience preparing or overseeing WIP schedules in a construction environment.
• Understanding of billings-to-date, cost-to-complete, percentage-of-completion, and over/under-billing.
• Experience processing payroll using multiple payroll systems.
• Strong Excel and financial reporting skills.
• Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills.

Responsibilities

• Oversee contractor QuickBooks records and ensure transactions, job costs, and financial data are accurate and properly coded.
• Manage and review the work of virtual accounting assistants responsible for maintaining contractor books.
• Prepare, review, and maintain Work-in-Progress (WIP) schedules for multiple construction projects.
• Review contract values, billings-to-date, estimated costs to complete, and percentage-of-completion calculations.
• Identify discrepancies between WIP schedules and QuickBooks job-cost information.
• Monitor over-billings, under-billings, job profitability, and other key construction accounting metrics.

Skills

QuickBooks

Payroll

WIP reporting

Construction accounting

Excel

Remote staff management

Auditing / audit readiness

Tools

ADP

Paychex

Certified payroll systems

Job description

AscendHire is seeking a Payroll Manager to oversee payroll administration, WIP reporting, and escrow management for construction clients. You will manage contractor payroll across platforms (ADP, Paychex) and review WIP schedules to ensure accurate job costing and compliance.

The role requires hands-on QuickBooks experience, attention to detail, and the ability to coordinate with contractors, banks, and virtual staff to keep records audit-ready and on schedule.