How to gain a recognised payroll qualification in your spare time
How To Gain a Recognised Payroll Qualification In Your Spare Time
Get properly qualified in payroll — with printed workbooks delivered to your door, BrightPay software included, and a tutor who has been teaching payroll for over 25 years.
This course is perfect if you want to:
- → Set up your own payroll business
- → Add payroll as a service to an existing bookkeeping or accountancy practice
- → Learn how to run payroll accurately and efficiently in the UK
- Printed workbooks included
- BrightPay access — course duration
- Free Xero certification
- ICB registration (worth £110)
- Up to 9 months to complete
- 13× ICB Training Provider of the Year
Meet Jo Fredriksen — your expert payroll tutor
Jo has been working in payroll for over 25 years and has been the sole author and tutor of this course since joining Training Link in 2020. Every year, once the Budget confirms the figures, she rewrites it from scratch — the videos alone take two months to refilm.
In 2009 Jo won the inaugural ICB Tutor of the Year award and has been shortlisted three times since. She has also been awarded ICB Companion status — a board-selected honour given to just a handful of people each year for outstanding, long-standing contribution to the profession. It cannot be applied for or examined.
Everything You Need To Qualify
- Printed workbooks — posted to your address
- Full online learning platform access 24/7
- BrightPay payroll software — full access for course duration
- Free Xero accounting certification
- ICB registration included (worth £110)
- 19 online assessments + 5 computerised assessments
- 4 mock exams with tutor marking and feedback
- Up to 9 months award-winning tutor support
- Personal tutor — email and phone
- Student Services open 7 days a week
- Student Street community 24/7
- TOTUM student discount card entitlement
"If you don't understand how the figures are calculated, you're not doing payroll — you're doing data entry. And if it goes wrong, it's someone else's mortgage."
— Jo Fredriksen, ICB Payroll Tutor & Course AuthorSoftware included — more than just one tool
Some providers bundle one piece of software and call it done. Training Link gives you hands-on experience with BrightPay as standard — the payroll software of choice for thousands of UK accountants and bookkeeping practices — plus a free Xero certification, and the option to add Sage 50 Payroll if you need it.
BrightPay
The payroll software of choice for thousands of UK accountants and practices. You'll have full access throughout your course — using it alongside the manual learning to apply what you study in practice.
Xero Certification
Free Xero accounting certification included as an additional course — an additional credential that enhances your CV and is widely recognised by employers.
Sage 50 Payroll
Want Sage experience too? Add the Sage 50 Payroll Levels 1 & 2 combined course at checkout for an additional fee.
From student to payroll business owner
Jaye wanted to add payroll to her bookkeeping practice. Hear how qualifying with Training Link gave her the confidence to do it.
I felt a huge sense of pride and achievement every time I passed an exam – the feelings that had been missing since school.
— Jaye Snell
21 chapters — covering everything you need for a career in payroll
From employment law and gross pay through to pension auto-enrolment, CIS, and PAYE reporting. Updated every year to reflect the current tax year.
- Recruitment, hiring and employment law
- Gross pay calculations
- Taxation, tax codes and PAYE
- National Insurance Contributions
- Starters, leavers and K codes
- Directors' PAYE and NIC
- Holiday entitlement and holiday pay
- Statutory deductions — SSP, SMP, SPP
- Student loans and attachment of earnings
- Pension auto-enrolment
- Benefits in Kind
- Construction Industry Scheme (CIS)
- PAYE reporting and deadlines
- Dismissal, grievance and redundancy
- Computerised payroll using BrightPay
- PAYE Scotland and Wales
- Net pay calculations
- Payroll systems and software
- Employer responsibilities
- 19 online assessments included
- 5 computerised assessments included
- 4 mock exams with tutor feedback
Award-winning tutor support — from Jo herself
Hear what our students say about the support they receive throughout their studies.
Your learning experience includes
- Tutor support- by email and phone
- Printed workbooks
- Practical hands-on activities
- Online learning resources
- Extra lessons
- E-books
- Tests
- Mock Exams
- Videos
- Instant assignment marking results
- Student Services is open 7 days a week
- Support and chat with tutors and fellow students
30+ Award Wins — And Counting
Independent recognition from the industry bodies that matter most.
- ICB Training Provider of the Year – 13 times!
- ICB Tutor of the Year — four times
- ICB Student of the Year — four times
- PQ Tutor of the Year — 2026
- AAT Student of the Year Winner — 2026
- AAT Student of the Year Winner — 2024
- Online College of the Year — PQ Magazine 2019
- Feefo Platinum Trusted Service
The world's largest bookkeeping organisation
There are over 150,000 ICB students and members worldwide. Garry Carter, President of ICB Global, explains how the organisation began and why the qualification is recognised by employers across the UK.
"Bev (my tutor) was really sweet as well. There was a time when I thought ‘Oh God, this isn’t going to work out’. And she’d just say ‘You’ll get there! I’m sure you will’ and I just kept going and I’m really glad that I did."
— Siobhan Ife, ICB Student of the Year nominee
Ready to get properly qualified in payroll?
Printed workbooks delivered to your door. BrightPay software is included for the duration of your course. Free Xero certification. Jo Fredriksen as your personal tutor — the inaugural ICB Tutor of the Year, with 25+ years of real-world payroll experience. All for £485.
