Colleen Armstrong

With over 10 years of progressive experience in payroll management, coupled with my accounting and finance experience I have honed my skills in strategic payroll planning, compliance, and team leadership to ensure that payroll operations support an organization's broader financial and strategic objectives.

Dynamic Finance/Payroll Professional

Management professional with several years’ experience in the Finance and Payroll fields. Proven ability to lead and develop cohesive, productive, and service oriented teams focused on excellence and bottom line results. Experience with mergers & acquisitions leading the Payroll and HR benefit functions during due diligence and integration of an acquired entity into the company.

Manager Finance, People & Culture (P&C)

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of 10 Payroll accounting professionals, 5 on-shore and 5 off-shore responsible for all aspects of payroll accounting for 30,000+ employees located throughout Canada. Provide feedback, coaching and information sessions as required to ensure compliance with federal and provincial legislation and company policies.
• Maintain a comprehensive task manual for the department and ensure ongoing Training for team members on new or enhanced operation procedures and policies. 
• Accountable for all journal entries, GL accounts, accruals and third party payments for the portfolio. 
• Audit payroll records in preparation of T4 and Relevé 1 reconciliation; Review T4’s and Relevé’s prepared by Payroll Clerks prior to distribution. Ensure compliance with all province/country regulations.
• Ensure accurate reporting for equity programs including Restricted Stock Unit (RSU) releases, Employee Share Purchase Plans (ESPP), and any other equity award related transactions on a regular basis.
• Prepare the budget for the Total Rewards team, and review monthly variances on expenses to budget and ongoing triages. Provide reporting for Leadership team on monthly results.
• Maintaining our compliance both internally with audit and externally with government and audit agencies to prevent penalties for non-compliance. 
• Build strong relationships within the P&C community and represent P&C Operations at various meetings, acting as a technical payroll and accounting resource. Provide guidance to the P&C Operations team members related to resolving escalated issues through problem recognition, research and analysis.
• Build strong partnership with our Corporate Finance team for proactive accounting purposes and to support Controller questions related to payroll.
• Support the preparation of monthly activity reports that support our P&C Operations dashboard.
• Work with both internal and external audit teams as required coordinating the collection of and submission of audit requests. Review and respond to questions from auditors on documentation provided.
• Work with internal SOX team to ensure compliance to documented processes are being followed and maintained. Provide updates as required due to change in process, or system enhancements.