Time and Leave Clerk

Summary

West Palm Beach VA Medical Center is looking for Time and Leave Clerk in the Centralized Time Keeping Unit of Nursing, Patient Care Service. Must fully understand time and leave regulations to ensure that timecards are processed timely and accurately. This position requires to interact with all levels of staff in Patient Care Services and other Medical Center personnel on a day-to-day basis including Chief Nurses, Nurse Managers, Fiscal Service/Payroll, Human Resources, and front-line staff.

Duties

• The Time and Leave Clerk provides timekeeping management for a minimum of over 200 staff in the Centralized Timekeeping Unit of Nursing, Patient Care Services. They utilize the electronic time and attendance (T&A) system to enter/adjust tours of duty for all assigned departments/services or work units on a daily basis to facilitate bi-weekly payroll processing. Time and Leave Clerk is responsible for posting and validating regular time, overtime, compensatory time, as well as various leave types including annual leave, sick leave, military leave, leave without pay, FMLA, and authorized absence. Additional Duties Include But Not Limited To: Processes timecards for a variety of appointment types including Title 38, Hybrid Title 38, Title 5, full-time and part-time appointments. Responsible for annotating remarks for special time and leave postings that are entered in the PAID System. Is responsible for ensuring that corrected timecards are completed timely. Utilizes a variety of tools to review time and leave status for staff in preparation for timely submission of timecards. These tools include the nurse scheduling system (AcuStaf), certified unit staff schedules, staffing variance sheets and VATAS Leave system. Reviews the payroll 'Exceptions' list daily and makes appropriate adjustments to timesheets. Advises staff and management of actions required to clear pending Exceptions. Maintains an electronic filing system for records and/or forms pertaining to timekeeping/payroll. Such records include time schedule confirmations, SF-71 for leave, military orders and medical certificates, authorized absence training records, jury duty and military leave documents, advanced leave memos, overtime related documents and compensatory time used documents. Maintains detailed log of used and remaining FMLA hours for staff on FMLA status. Responsible for extracting Employee Leave Reports to assist Nurse Managers with Time and Attendance audits for assigned units. Maintains manuals and policies pertaining to time and leave in order to respond to staff questions or inquiries and solve problems related to timekeeping. Provides customer service in person, by telephone, and/or e-mail. Participates in the orientation and training of new centralized timekeepers or other clerical support staff with alternate timekeeping duties in Patient Care Services. Maintains confidentiality of all employees' PAID information. Arranges for alternate coverage in cases of planned or emergency absences of other timekeepers. Responsible for notifying managers and/or chief nurses that timecards are ready for certification; and following up on T&A reports that are incomplete or not in agreement with other available data. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 7:30 am to 4:00 pm. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Time and Leave Clerk/PD03086A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized. Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved. Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/21/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-5 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-4. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-04 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: 1.) Using manuals, operating procedures, policies, technical publications, standards and guidelines as references. 2.) Communicating with co-workers, management staff, supervisors via face to face, telephone, email or Teams. 3.) Organizing files and retrieving reports, ensuring accuracy. 4.) Keeping account for timekeeping and clerical support. 5.) Communicating verbally and in writing with a variety of people from different backgrounds and different levels of understanding. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have completed 4 years' education above high-school. OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond high school. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administrative and Management: Knowledge of planning, coordination, and execution of business functions, resource allocation, and production. Customer Service: Works and communicates with clients and customers to satisfy their expectations. Committed to quality services. Clerical: Knowledge of filing, typing, entering data, maintaining records, taking shorthand, and using and completing forms. Accountability: Holds self and others accountable for measurable high-Quality, Timely, and coast-effective results. Determines objectives, sets priorities, and delegates work. Accepts responsibility for mistakes. Complies with established control systems and rules. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary. Some walking, standing, and bending may be required. Continuous work in front of a computer screen is required. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

Requirements

You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job. Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959 Subject to background/security investigation Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment. Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period or trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

How to apply

All applicants are encouraged to apply online. To apply for this position, you must complete the questionnaire and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 09/21/2026 to receive consideration. To preview the questionnaire click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13058685. To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents and complete the occupational questionnaire. Click Submit My Answers to submit your application package. NOTE: It is your responsibility to ensure your responses and appropriate documentation is submitted prior to the closing date. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/hiring-information/merit-hiring-plan-resources/applicant-guidance-on-the-two-page-resume-limit/ Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified: applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.