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TransactionRecruitment

Positions we recruit

Payroll Clerk

Not all heroes wear capes.

Day to day

What a payroll clerk
actually does.

Not all heroes wear capes. Responsible for ensuring employees are paid accurately and efficiently whilst adhering to strict deadlines. Here's what the role covers day to day across the businesses we recruit for.

  • Overseeing weekly & monthly payrolls
  • Adding starters & leavers
  • Amendments to employee records including tax codes
  • Calculating national insurance and holiday entitlement
  • Calculating SSP, SMP & SPP
  • Generating P45s & P60s
  • Auditing payroll data for accuracy
  • Working to strict deadlines
  • Query resolution

What it pays

£27k – £33k

Real market rates, not a national average.

£27k suits someone in their first 6 months. £30k is the market average for established experience, and £32k+ goes to a senior administrator with real depth of knowledge. Hybrid working matters a lot to this talent pool.

Salary calculator

See payroll clerk pay by location and experience.

Medior Payroll Clerk · Coventry

Typical: £32,000 per year

Medium-high confidence — strong regional evidence

Where this leads

From payroll clerk to
payroll manager.

Payroll Manager

A business critical position within any organisation.

Explore Payroll Manager

Hiring or looking?

Either way, we can help.

Hiring

Need a payroll clerk?

Permanent or temporary, we'll shortlist from a network we actually know — with working interviews to de-risk the hire.

Submit a vacancy

Job seeking

Ready to be one?

Send us your CV or browse live Payroll Clerk roles across Coventry, Birmingham and Warwickshire.

Common questions

Payroll Clerk FAQs.

What does a Payroll Clerk do?

Not all heroes wear capes. Responsible for ensuring employees are paid accurately and efficiently whilst adhering to strict deadlines.

How much does a Payroll Clerk earn in the West Midlands?

Salaries for Payroll Clerk roles across Coventry, Birmingham and Warwickshire typically sit at £27k – £33k. £27k suits someone in their first 6 months. £30k is the market average for established experience, and £32k+ goes to a senior administrator with real depth of knowledge. Hybrid working matters a lot to this talent pool.

Is a Payroll Clerk role permanent or temporary?

We recruit Payroll Clerk positions on both a permanent and temporary basis, depending on what the business and the candidate need — many of our clients also use temp-to-perm as a low-risk way to trial a hire before committing.

What qualifications do I need to become a Payroll Clerk?

Most Payroll Clerk roles don't demand a specific formal qualification, though AAT study or relevant hands-on experience makes a real difference to the offers you'll see. We can talk you through what a specific vacancy is really looking for.

What's the career progression after Payroll Clerk?

A common next step from Payroll Clerk is payroll manager — a business critical position within any organisation. Many of the candidates we place build exactly this kind of progression over several moves, not just one.

Do you place candidates studying towards a qualification into Payroll Clerk roles?

Yes — candidates studying AAT (or considering starting) are very much part of the talent pool for Payroll Clerk roles, alongside those with purely hands-on experience.

How does the process work if I want to become a Payroll Clerk?

Submit your CV and a Market Expert will be in touch to talk through your experience, what you're looking for, and any live Payroll Clerk opportunities that genuinely fit — free, confidential, and no obligation.

Do you charge candidates anything to apply for Payroll Clerk roles?

No — there's never a cost to candidates, for this role or any other. Our fee is paid by the employer, and only once a placement is successfully made.

Will my CV be shared with employers without my permission?

No — nothing about your CV or your situation is shared with any employer without your explicit permission first.

Do you help with interview preparation and salary negotiation for Payroll Clerk roles?

Yes — briefing you properly on the role, the employer and realistic salary expectations before an interview is a standard part of how we support every Payroll Clerk candidate, not an optional extra.

Can I see live Payroll Clerk vacancies before speaking to someone?

Yes — you can search live jobs on our careers portal, but we'd always recommend a conversation with a Market Expert too, since not every Payroll Clerk vacancy we're working on is advertised publicly.

What does it cost an employer to recruit a Payroll Clerk through you?

There's no retainer and no ongoing contract — our fee is only payable on a successful placement, whether that's a one-off hire or an ongoing relationship.

How quickly can you fill a Payroll Clerk vacancy?

Temporary cover can often be arranged within days. Permanent Payroll Clerk roles vary with seniority, but our shortlists are built from people we already know rather than a fresh keyword search, so they typically move faster than a generalist agency's.

Can you provide temporary Payroll Clerk cover at short notice?

Yes — covering absence, leave or an unexpected gap in a Payroll Clerk position is one of the most common reasons employers come to us, and we aim for a same-day response.

What happens if a Payroll Clerk hire doesn't work out?

Our rebate periods and money-back guarantees mean you're covered if a placement doesn't work out as expected — ask your Market Expert for the specifics for your vacancy.

Do you offer working interviews for Payroll Clerk vacancies?

Yes — a working interview means the candidate spends a real day in the Payroll Clerk role, on your systems, with your actual workload, before either side commits. It's one of the ways we take the risk out of a new hire.

Do you recruit Payroll Clerk roles for SMEs as well as large employers?

Yes — we work with everyone from internationally recognised brands and shared service centres through to owner-managed SMEs needing a single, sole-charge Payroll Clerk hire.

Will I get a shortlist of CVs, or do you actually vet candidates for Payroll Clerk roles?

Every candidate we put forward has been spoken to and assessed against your specific requirement — not just keyword-matched from a database. That's the difference a Market Expert model makes.

What makes Transaction Recruitment different from a generalist agency for Payroll Clerk roles?

We recruit transactional finance and payroll specifically, not as one line among fifty sectors — that focus means genuinely knowing the Payroll Clerk market, the going rate, and who's actually looking, rather than running a keyword search against a generic database.

No waffle. Just the right person.

Let's find your
payroll clerk.