Right now, we’re looking for penultimate year university undergrads wanting to join us as an accounting placement student. You’ll work across a number of teams and departments including audit and personal tax.
About your role
Our scheme runs for one year each summer and provides a unique and valuable insight into the workings of Saffery. You’ll be partnered with a dedicated mentor who will ensure your placement is both enjoyable and challenging.
Audit
In this team you’ll be involved in audit and accounts preparation assignments. There are many factors to consider when reviewing files, and we will introduce you to this process during your placement. You may start with audit testing of simpler balances within financial statements, such as cash at bank and share capital, and then progress to income and expenditure testing. You’ll work on a variety of clients from different industries making for an exciting learning experience.
You may even get to go to a client site if the opportunity arises.
Personal Tax
Personal tax professionals help individuals to pay the right amount of tax to keep them compliant - work dealing with tax returns and the reporting of tax to the Revenue authorities such as HMRC is called tax compliance.
You'll work in a friendly and progressive team, involved in tasks such as preparing and filing tax returns, carrying out manual reconciliation of tax liabilities and liaising with clients over the phone or in person. The client base is varied and includes clients who are both domestic and international, so we guarantee an exciting and complex portfolio.
What you'll need
- Penultimate year of a university degree,
- A minimum 2:1 expected in any discipline,
- A minimum of 120 UCAS points in your A Levels (or equivalent), and
- A minimum of 6 (or B) in GCSE Maths and English Language (or equivalent).
Want to return to Saffery?
Hopefully you’ll love your time with us and want to return. If all goes well, you may receive an offer for a training contract for when you finish university. You wouldn’t have to complete another application process either. Although if you do request an office transfer, you’ll be required to do an interview with your new chosen office.
We offer three year training contracts to our trainees with a view to becoming an ACA qualified accountant or Chartered Tax Adviser (ATT/CTA).
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, which increases in line with length of service,
- 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,
- Our Profit-Sharing Plan, enabling you to share in the firm’s profits (usually c.£1,000), and
- 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.