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TransactionRecruitment

Market insight · Q1 2026

Worth knowing what you're worth.

Salary isn't one fixed number. Different roles sit in different ranges — and the market moves.

Try it yourself

Run the numbers
for any role, in any UK town.

This guide covers the headline ranges — the calculator below goes further: pick any of our 22 specialisms, any UK town or city we recruit into, and an experience level, and get a live estimate. Same figures our consultants use, updated as the market moves.

Medior Payroll Manager · Coventry

£33,333 – £36,667

Full calculator View more details

Typical: £35,000 per year

Medium-high confidence — strong regional evidence

By specialism · Q1 2026

What the
market pays.

Four transactional specialisms, four different pressures on pay — from year-end payroll legislation to board-level cash collection. Real ranges, not national averages.

  1. 01

    Payroll Clerk · Payroll Administrator

    Payroll

    £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.

    Payroll Manager

    £38.5k – £54.5k

    £38.5k–£42k suits a standalone payroll role in an SME, running a smaller payroll end to end. £46k–£50k is average for an experienced manager with team support, rising to £54.5k in larger, more complex environments.

  2. 02

    Credit Controller · Credit Control Manager

    Credit Control

    £27k – £33k

    The lower end attracts someone getting into credit control with some office experience. £30k–£31k gets you a seasoned controller, and supervisors sit towards £33k.

    Credit Control Lead / Head

    £38.5k – £51.5k

    £38.5k+ typically attracts someone leading a small team or in a supervisor role with support. Pay rises alongside business size and team complexity — cash collection is a board-level concern — up to £51.5k.

  3. 03

    Clerk and Manager level, both ledgers

    Purchase & Sales Ledger

    £26k – £33k

    The lower end suits a junior with 0–6 months' experience, studying AAT. £28k+ gets 1–2 years' experience, and £31k+ is the rate for an experienced, set-and-forget ledger clerk. Supervisors sit towards £33k.

    Ledger Manager

    £38.5k – £51.5k

    £38.5k+ attracts someone overseeing a smaller team, or a team leader with management support. Complex environments — think shared service centres with 10+ staff — push towards £51.5k.

  4. 04

    Bookkeeper · Accounts Assistant

    Bookkeeping & Accounts Support

    £27.5k – £38k

    Minimum wage rises keep pushing this bracket up — most entry-level finance roles now start around £27.5k. Study support toward AAT makes a real difference to the calibre of candidate you attract, with experienced bookkeepers reaching £38k.

    Assistant Accountant

    £26k – £35k

    £25k+ suits an AAT studier or graduate with up to 6 months' experience. £28k+ is typical with a year or more, often in a ledger role, rising towards £35k for part-qualified candidates further into their studies.

Hybrid working

Still the single most powerful attraction tool in this market — office-based roles need a stronger package to compete with anything offering genuine hybrid flexibility.

Study support

Backing a chosen specialism — AAT, CICM, CIPP — is one of the fastest ways to secure the strongest candidate available in a tight market.

Development potential

Roles with a clear next step attract people looking to build a career, not just take a job — it's often worth more to candidates than a small salary bump.

Qualified & senior finance · Q1 2026

Clerk to
Finance Director.

Twelve more specialisms from Assistant Management Accountant through to Finance Director. Same real ranges, same market.

Market observations · Q1 2026

What's actually
moving right now.

  1. 01

    Salaries have stabilised

    The 8–10% jumps of the post-Covid years are gone. Most salaries are now stabilising or moving in smaller 2–4% steps.

  2. 02

    Remote work is in decline

    Most companies now expect around three days a week in the office, with a growing number asking for four or five. Hybrid remains the strongest card employers can play.

  3. 03

    Judge the role, not the title

    Job titles overlap more than ever, and the rise of exemptions means exam count alone no longer tells you much about a candidate. Look at what they actually do.

  4. 04

    Minimum wage is reshaping entry pay

    National Minimum Wage rising to £12.71 from April 2026 (£26,436 for a 40-hour week) is pushing entry-level finance salaries up towards £27k and beyond — with knock-on effects further up the team.

Ranked from real data

Same role,
very different pay by postcode.

We recruit right across the UK now, not just the West Midlands — and location alone still moves typical pay more than almost anything else. Ranked below from the same live figures behind our salary calculator, averaged across every specialism we place.

Most expensive to hire

Highest-paying locations

  1. 01London136% of UK average
  2. 02Reading131% of UK average
  3. 03Birmingham120% of UK average
  4. 04Bristol120% of UK average
  5. 05Cambridge120% of UK average

Best value to hire

Best-value locations

  1. 01Boston95% of UK average
  2. 02Blackpool95% of UK average
  3. 03Plymouth96% of UK average
  4. 04Telford97% of UK average
  5. 05Shrewsbury97% of UK average

Index is each location's typical pay as a percentage of the UK national figure, averaged across every specialism we recruit into there — run any specific role through the salary calculator for an exact figure.

Not a national average

Priced by the
market we work in.

Every figure here comes from live placements across Coventry, Birmingham and Warwickshire — benchmarked personally by Danny, this quarter, not pulled from a spreadsheet.

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