Job Summary

UKG Functional Lead – General Ledger

Location: United States
Role Type: Functional Lead / Senior Functional Consultant
Primary Focus: UKG Payroll General Ledger Processes

Position Summary

The UKG Functional Lead will provide functional leadership for payroll accounting and General Ledger processes within the UKG environment. This role will work closely with Payroll, Finance, Accounting, HR, IT, and implementation teams to define, design, validate, and support the processes required to accurately translate payroll results into financial accounting transactions.

The Functional Lead will serve as the primary functional subject matter expert for UKG General Ledger processes, including payroll costing, labor distribution, account mapping, organizational and costing structures, journal entry requirements, reconciliation, and downstream integration with enterprise financial systems.

This role is expected to lead requirements gathering, solution design, testing, issue resolution, and stakeholder coordination while providing direction to offshore techno-functional and technical resources.

Key Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

• Lead functional design and implementation activities related to UKG payroll-to-General Ledger processes.
• Partner with Payroll, Finance, Accounting, HR, and IT stakeholders to document current-state and future-state payroll accounting requirements.
• Define requirements for:
  • Payroll costing and labor distribution.
  • General Ledger account structures and mappings.
  • Company, business unit, department, cost center, location, project, and other accounting dimensions.
  • Earnings, deductions, taxes, employer liabilities, benefits, and other payroll-related accounting transactions.
  • Debit and credit rules.
  • Journal entry creation and balancing.
  • Retroactive payroll and adjustment accounting.
  • Off-cycle payroll accounting.
  • Payroll corrections and reversals.
• Translate Finance and Accounting requirements into UKG functional configuration and integration requirements.
• Lead design workshops and facilitate decisions regarding payroll accounting and GL processing.
• Evaluate existing GL processes and identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, automate, or improve controls.
• Define GL mapping rules and coordinate their implementation within UKG and downstream financial systems.
• Ensure payroll accounting results accurately reconcile to payroll registers, tax results, funding requirements, and financial system postings.
• Develop and maintain functional design documents, process flows, mapping documents, configuration specifications, and reconciliation requirements.
• Provide functional direction to UKG techno-functional and technical consultants.
• Coordinate with ERP and Finance technology teams responsible for systems such as SAP, Oracle, Workday Financials, PeopleSoft, or other financial platforms.
• Lead functional validation of payroll-to-GL interfaces.
• Define test scenarios and expected results for unit testing, system integration testing, parallel payroll testing, regression testing, and user acceptance testing.
• Review GL output for accuracy, completeness, balancing, and proper accounting treatment.
• Lead investigation and resolution of payroll-to-GL defects and reconciliation differences.
• Support cutover, deployment, hypercare, and production stabilization activities.
• Establish repeatable reconciliation and operational support procedures for ongoing payroll accounting.
• Support internal and external audit requirements by ensuring appropriate controls, documentation, traceability, and evidence are maintained.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for functional GL-related issues.

Skill Requirements

• 10+ years of experience working with payroll, payroll accounting, HRIS, HCM, or workforce management solutions.
• Strong hands-on experience with UKG Pro Payroll or related UKG payroll solutions.
• Demonstrated experience with payroll General Ledger processes and payroll accounting.
• Strong understanding of:
  • Payroll costing.
  • Labor distribution.
  • GL account mapping.
  • Chart of accounts structures.
  • Debit and credit accounting.
  • Journal entries.
  • Payroll accruals and liabilities.
  • Payroll reconciliation.
• Experience designing or supporting integrations between UKG and enterprise financial systems.
• Experience leading requirements gathering, functional design, testing, and production deployment.
• Ability to translate accounting requirements into system and integration designs.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with Finance, Payroll, HR, Accounting, IT, and external implementation partners.
• Experience coordinating onshore and offshore delivery teams.
• Ability to work independently and lead complex cross-functional initiatives.

Other Requirements

• Experience with UKG Pro integrations and payroll export capabilities.
• Experience with SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Workday Financials, or another enterprise ERP/financial platform.
• Experience supporting global or multi-company payroll environments.
• Experience with payroll implementations, transformations, conversions, or major system upgrades.
• Understanding of financial controls, audit requirements, and segregation-of-duties principles.
• Experience developing payroll-to-GL reconciliation frameworks and operational controls.