School Leaver Payroll Trainee - Peterborough - September 2025

Right now, we're looking for an apprentice student wanting to start their career as a trainee within our Payroll team.

This will be offered under a Level 3 CIPP apprenticeship and will take around 18 months to complete.

About the office

Accountants Peterborough | Tax Advisors Peterborough - Saffery

The role

The candidate will be allocated their own portfolio of clients, processing multiple payrolls and the role will involve:

• Process all payrolls from start to finish
• Starters, Leavers and Permanent data changes
• Process variable data from clients
• Manage multiple deadlines for variable data and managing clients throughout their pay cycle
• Report processing and sending to clients
• Liaise with client and dealing with salary queries
• Completing monthly pension returns
• Dealing with queries from the client and HM Revenue & Customs
• Processing and calculating statutory payments such as SMP, SSP etc
• Manually calculating pro-rata payments such as holiday pay, hourly/daily rates of pay etc
• Keeping abreast of new legislation, supporting the team implement new procedures
• Ad hoc tasks as required

You will have the chance to grow, as well as receive managerial support, and you can expect your responsibilities to increase throughout your time with us. You will work in a friendly and progressive environment, building up your knowledge on all the intricacies of payroll including tax, national insurance, auto enrolment, holiday pay, maternity/paternity/adoption, sick pay and more.

You will also learn the different ways that someone can be paid through salary, hourly pay, overtime, commission, benefits, shares and salary sacrifice.  

About You

A minimum of 6 (or B) in GCSE Maths and English Language (or equivalent).

Where potential meets personal meets you

You'll share our values by being collegiate and enthusiastic, whilst acting with integrity and striving for excellence.

You'll be friendly and approachable with a mindset to be committed, take accountability, and go the extra mile to deliver our signature service. To put your hand up when you see something’s not working, and help to make it better. And yes, we expect drive and focus, effort and enthusiasm.

When you work with Saffery, you’re never a number. You’re you. Because we want everyone’s individual personality and style to shine through. And we care more, and ego less. We get on and we get on. You'll thrive in your close-knit team, delivering high quality in everything you do.

There’s genuine mutual respect here. A rewarding, reciprocal relationship that means we all get the best out of each other. 

We’ll help you to learn about our clients, but even better is if you already have an interest in the wider economic context that they operate in. Be inquisitive and always ask questions.

Surrounded by people who value you, everything you bring, and everything you’re ready to achieve. Ready to take the first step in your Saffery story?

What we’ll offer you

Because you do the best job you can for our clients and your colleagues, we do everything we can for you. We provide a mixture of core and flexible benefits, all designed to save you money and make your life a little easier.

Core benefits

• Annual leave allowance
• A 35-hour working week with flexibility around our core hours of 10am-4pm,
• A contributory pension plan (we’ll contribute 5% of salary on a matched basis with you from the date you join),
• Life assurance cover based on 4 x annual salary,
• Working from home allowance of £25 a month,
• Paid overtime or time off in lieu.

Flexible benefits

• Our agile working policy gives you the option to work from home for up to three days per week,
• Access to health assessments and GP support, cancer screenings, and our BUPA health cash plan,
• Critical illness cover, dental, and travel insurance,
• We’ve got a Techscheme, Cyclescheme and a Gymflex scheme,
• A Workplace ISA,
• Paid travel expenses when working at offices other than your contracted office, and
• Generous referral bonuses if you help bring in new clients or colleagues.

We’re also committed to being a fully inclusive employer and have a huge focus on equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I). When you start with us, you’ll have the opportunity to join a number of people network groups, as well as be a part of our growing ED&I network.

Who we are

Saffery is a partner-led and people-focused firm of chartered accountants, tax and business advisers. Since 1855, we’ve built long-term relationships with our diverse, high-profile clients, across varied and specialised sectors. As a proud member of Nexia, a worldwide network of trusted member firms, we’ve got access to local insight on a global scale.

We pride ourselves on our informal and inclusive culture, building an environment where people can be themselves and enjoy challenging, interesting, rewarding careers.

When you work with Saffery, the well-respected accountancy firm where heritage meets ambition, you work with people who know your name. Who know you as a human being, not just a job title. Everyone belongs here. Always.

Want to know more?

Life at Saffery