Jill Knutson

I think my success really comes down to the opportunities that were given to me throughout my career. The crazy thing is how I got started in payroll. I was actually hired by a skilled nursing facility in San Diego to bill Medicaid for them, and the second week there, the office manager overheard me telling a colleague that I had taken accounting classes. Next thing I know, she's calling me into her office saying she's going to have me learn payroll. From payroll, it moved into accounts payable, and I was posting everything in the general ledger.. The GL book was about six inches thick back then because it was all manual. It was just a matter of opportunities that came along, and people saw that I understood payroll, that I had some leadership capabilities, and that I was able to get people to listen so I could also train. In 2000, when the APA started offering certifications, I went and got certified as a CPP, and I've been certified for 25 years plus now. I've worked for different companies with different sizes, and I've overseen payroll for HCA hospitals across paying staff and some of the Docs in Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The fun part for me in payroll now is actually the training. I did a lot of training when I lived in Denver and worked for HCA. I was in the hospitals training Kronos, and I wrote policies for on-call and callback that all the hospitals agreed to. I'm a very logical thinker, and to me, accounting's very logical, so that helped. I also make sure to take care of myself by going to the gym to relieve stress. I work out with a trainer, and I played a lot of sports. I'm from a big family as the baby of eight kids, and I go home to Colorado a lot because family and my close friends are very important to me, especially after we lost both our parents.

The best career advice she ever received came from a college professor who encouraged her to pursue accounting, a suggestion that ultimately guided her toward a successful and fulfilling career in payroll and financial compliance.

Pay attention to the detail. That's what the payroll world's all about. But also, be able to listen to people coming into payroll, because most of the time, payroll gets blamed for stuff that is really garbage in, garbage out. We process what we're given from the managers. If the managers forget to give us a week's worth of vacation on a timesheet or whatever, then that person's not going to get paid for that. But payroll has to learn to listen and not react to the anger that's coming in the door. You gotta have thick skin, you gotta be able to listen, but pay attention to the detail. You're gonna fail to do payroll if you don't. Really, when it comes to listening, that's how you find where the problem lies.

One of the biggest challenges in payroll today is AI. AI can be very useful to payroll, but can also be a demon, meaning if AI gets in the wrong hands, a lot of harm can be done in Payroll. If the wrong person gets a hold of the ACH file, then payroll will have a HUGE problem on their hands, as a major theft potential is out there. Along with getting ahold of the ACH file, if they get ahold of the check stock, that could also mean potential major fraud, remember you only have to take a picture of the check to deposit it in the bank now.. AI could be very helpful to payroll, but...payroll still needs humans in that department, as they need to be there for those questions that AI can't answer and people will still want that human interaction when it comes to their money and questions regarding their pay. AI can be a very useful resource or a very scary creature for payroll.

The values most important to her in both work and personal life center on family, along with a strong commitment to attention to detail, active listening, mentoring and training others, and maintaining resilience in the face of challenges.