Invitation only membership of fractional executives and professionals in the People & Culture space

Cuentas Claras offers deep functional expertise and strategic advising services to Latino business owners. We are passionate about driving economic success in our communities and helping businesses thrive. Our team brings several decades of experience in launching and building successful companies and we leverage this experience to help owners navigate their business experiences, overcome challenges, and leverage opportunities.

As the first HR leader at this venture backed startup, I worked with the company's top executives and board of directors to develop and implement organizational and people solutions that drove productivity and accountability while creating transparency and empathy. Some accomplishments of note include:Defined and implemented a compensation philosophy, benchmarking system, and salary grading system with annual updates.Designed and implemented Lumencor’s first performance management system, fully integrated with the compensation system and employee engagement processes.Selected, implemented, and integrated Lumencor’s first Human Resource Information System (HRIS).Worked with leaders and managers to establish a culture of training and increasing employee training engagement; individual manufacturing employees now engage in an average of 40 training topics each year, including on-site, collegiate-level courses, delivered by local community college instructors.Developed career-pathing opportunities by working with managers to create multi-tiered job descriptions; inspiring employees to increase knowledge, skills, and abilities. This effort resulted in the promotion of 70% of our non-exempt staff, as they demonstrated a documented increase in job knowledge, skills, and abilities in the pursuit of the newly created opportunity to advance.Implemented new recruiting, selection, hiring, and onboarding systems and processes.Recruited and on-boarded top performing employees in Manufacturing, Engineering, Sales, STEM field PhDs’ and Customer Service.Overhauled and upgraded 3rd party benefits advisors and brokers, resulting in lower health insurance premiums with increased coverage.

Implemented and supported complex Payroll and HRIS system integrations.Served as the primary HR consultant for 80+ businesses throughout the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.Drafted 100+ employee handbooks with custom policy development and rollouts.Consulted on HR and benefit compliance topics, including ERISA, FLSA, FMLA, ADA, Policies, and annual filing of Form 5500.Created and delivered manager and employee training.Managed a client book of businesses maintaining year-over-year revenue growth.

Responsible for the system functionality and performance of in-house built payroll and HR products with an employee population of 80,000+ employees. Recognize software deficiencies; propose programming efforts and plan projects for implementation of program fixes.Draft Technical Specs for needed software enhancements.Document all system changes and enhancements as required by Sarbanes and Oxley.Manage system enhancement projects and direct highly visible programming efforts.Assist locations with month, quarter, and year-end close.

Liaison between Accounts Payable department and business partners. Ensured SOX compliance for Accounts Payable transactions.

Responsible for all functions related to processing payroll and payroll taxes using ADP software for several locations in multiple state/local jurisdictions and overseas employees. Reconcile and prepare all payroll related bank transactions (401k; federal, state and local liabilities; direct deposits).Reconcile payroll bank accounts and 401k contra accounts.Reconcile all year-end and quarter-end payroll reports including W-2's and W-2c's where appropriate.Reconcile employee vacation/sick leave balances and accruals.Set up and maintain benefit accrual reports (vacation, sick and 401k) in ADP.Answer all inquiries related to payroll and payroll tax issues from employees, state and federal agencies, workers compensation providers, payroll provider, internal departments and head office in Singapore.Assist HR with ensuring integrity of payroll information such as ensuring proper authorization of new hires, timesheets, vacation, and overtime.Maintain monthly insurance premium statements.

Administer health insurance, COBRA and 401(k) plans.Facilitate company compliance for new HIPAA mandates.Assist employees with medical claims processing problems.Responsible for the development and completion of many department and company wide projects including: Job descriptions for every position in the company; development of simple queries and report writing procedures; and new employee orientations.Handle employee leaves (FMLA, CFRA, PDA); company- wide ergonomic assessments/work station evaluations and Sec. 125 Dependant Care plan.

Coordinate and process payroll for 500+ employees.Administer all H/R benefits, including 401K and Stock plan.Process all A/P transactions for entire company.Post all payroll and A/P expenses to G/L.

Process payroll in PeopleSoft for stores & distribution centers.Research and resolve payroll discrepancies using PeopleSoft HRMS Query Tools, AdHoc Report Writing and FOCUS database.Quickly adapted to a new position and new database with high levels of productivity while requiring little or no supervision.Review processes, analyze options and implement improvements.

Maintained a payroll client base of 300+ businesses.Prepared, filed and amended multiple Federal, State and Local tax returns.Worked individually and on teams to develop business concepts that streamline productivity.Organized business meetings designed to target specific training issues.Lead in-house training sessions to educate co-workers on current and upcoming Federal, State and Local payroll laws and procedures.Performed on and off site client training sessions to educate clients on payroll procedures.