Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers · RQF Level 2
IAB Level 2 Certificate in Payroll (QCF)
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 2
- Total credits19
- Guided learning79 hours
- Units in this qualification13
Awarded by Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers · on the Ofqual register
Start here
See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
These are the units Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Calculate Gross PayReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Determine basic pay for different payroll periods
- Calculate overtime payable from given information
- Calculate additional payments from given information
- Implement permanent changes to rates of pay from given organisational information
- Implement relevant statutory additions to pay when entitlement has been determined
Composition of an employee payroll recordReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the information required to set up a payroll record for a new employee
- Understand how to complete a P11 deduction sheet or equivalent, for a new employee
- Deal with income tax forms for a new employee
Computerised payroll skillsReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Process information on starters, leavers and changes to current employees.
- Process payroll accurately on a period basis
- Back up and update systems when required
Computerised payroll theoryReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Understand potential health and safety and security risks
- Maintain the security of data within a computerised environment
- Understand organisational procedures for processing payroll in a computerised environment
Creating an employee payroll recordReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Prepare a payroll record for a new employee
- Complete relevant statutory forms for a new employee
Elements of Gross PayReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Understand what constitutes basic pay for different payroll periods
- Understand the principles of calculating overtime payments
- Know what constitutes gross pay from additional payments
- Understand the need and procedures to make temporary and permanent changes to rates of pay
Fundamentals of employment legislation for payrollReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Know what payroll information is to be prepared and kept by law.
- Understand data protection legislation in relation to payroll
- Know the general principles ofemployment rights legislation
Payroll ProcessingReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Determine income tax to be deducted from gross pay
- Determine national insurance contributions to be deducted from gross pay
- Determine voluntary deductions and non-standard statutory deductions
- Record and reconcile payments and deductions to employees and external agencies
Processing leaversReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Calculate the gross pay for a leaver
- Complete internal procedures and those necessary for external agencies and statutory bodies, for a leaver
Statutory and non-statutory payments and additionsReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the principles of the PAYE system.
- Understand the principles of the National Insurance system.
- Understand the principles of Student Loan deductions
- Understand the principles of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
- Understand the principles of Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP).
- Understand the principles of Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP).
- Understand the principles of Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP and SPP(A)).
- Understand the principles of Attachment of Earnings Orders (AOE).
- Understand the need to complete period end proedures.
Statutory and non-statutory reporting of payroll dataReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Understanding statutory reporting requirements
- Understand the non- statutory reporting requirements
Termination of EmploymentReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Understand what constitutes a leaver.
- Know the amendments to make to a leaver’s final pay
- Understand statutory requirements when processing a leaver.
Work Effectively in Accounting and FinanceReal unit · Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the accounting or payroll function within an organisation
- Demonstrate a range of effective communication skills
- Work independently or as part of a team
- Develop skills and knowledge to meet personal and organisational needs
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 2 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
Where this can lead
Global Payroll Manager
This Global Payroll Manager role isn't just a job; it's a launchpad. You'll gain unparalleled experience in global operations, compliance, and people leadership. The path ahead is yours to shape, whether you continue to climb the payroll leadership ladder, pivot into broader finance or HR operations, or even explore executive leadership. We're here to help you get there.
See the whole journey →Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for IAB Level 2 Certificate in Payroll (QCF)
13 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers.
- Calculate Gross Pay
- Composition of an employee payroll record
- Computerised payroll skills
- Computerised payroll theory
- Creating an employee payroll record
- Elements of Gross Pay
and 7 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.