ACCA Syllabus
The ACCA syllabus (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) consists of three stages:
1- The Applied knowledge stage which contains three exams; Business and Technology (BT), Management Accounting (MA), Financial Accounting (FA). 2- The Applied Skills stage which contains six exams; Corporate and Business Law (LW), Performance Management (PM), Taxation (TX), Financial Reporting (FR), Audit and Assurance (AA), Financial Management (FM). 3- The Strategic Professional stage which contains six exams;
However, two are essentials; Strategic Business Leader (SBL), Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) and four are options; Advanced Financial Management (AFM), Advanced Performance Management (APM), Advanced Taxation (ATX), Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA).
Students must also complete the ACCA Ethics and Professional Skills stage. Depending on your current qualifications, you may be exempt from some ACCA exams. You can find out more information below
The ACCA syllabus consists of 13 exams divided into 3 levels:
- Applied Knowledge - 3 exams
- Applied Skills – 6 exams
- Strategic Professional (Essentials and Options) – 2 Essentials exams and 2 Options exams
Applied Knowledge
This stage, which includes exams BT to FA, is the starting point for achieving your ACCA qualification. Once you've passed all 3 exams, you can continue on to the ACCA Skills stage.
Applied Skills
Comprising exams LW to FM, this stage examines the principle technical subjects that you're expected to have an advanced understanding of. These subjects include law, taxation, auditing and financial management, financial reporting and performance management. You will develop knowledge and skills in these subject areas, reaching a level of knowledge equivalent to a bachelor's degree.
Strategic Professional (Essentials)
This stage is called Essentials as it will provide you with the specialised skills and techniques required to become an expert accountant, either in a consultancy or high-level advisory role. Each of the 2 ACCA exams is 3-hours long.
Strategic Professional (Options)
Minimum entry requirements:
- Two A Levels and three GCSEs or equivalent in five separate subjects, including English and Mathematics
- Good English level is required
Foundations in Accountancy route (FIA)
- Must be 18 or over
- Students who successfully complete the Diploma in Accounting and Business via Foundations in Accountancy can transfer to the ACCA Qualification and commence their studies from LW onwards
- Gain exemptions from ACCA exams BT, MA and FA
Graduate entry route
- Relevant degree holders from ACCA-accredited institutions may be exempt* from up to nine exams within the Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills levels and register directly at the Professional level
- Holders of recognised business and/or accounting degrees may also qualify for exemptions*
*We advise you to check your starting point with ACCA before you enrol on the course.
*Please see full Terms and Conditions for more information.
*Please see full Privacy Policy for more information.
Information about technical requirements
Our platform does not require any additional software. However, it is advisable that students have Microsoft Office installed on their computers as tutors may provide additional downloadable notes in Doc, Xlsx, PPT, and PDF formats.
Google Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari (Macintosh only) are all supported by Canvas.
Canvas has been carefully crafted to accommodate low-bandwidth environments. A minimum internet speed of 512kbps is recommended.
Information about when access to materials opens and closes
Access to all learning materials and live sessions opens in the month of intake and closes three months later. For example, if teaching starts in mid-June, access will stop in mid-September after the exams finish. Students taking Computer Based Assessments (CBE) have access for 6 months.
Learning materials consist of the following:
- Live tuition and revision sessions
- Recorded live tuition and revision sessions
- Study manuals, question banks, class, and revision notes
- Other relevant materials tutors may provide
Available resources for enrolled students before live tuition begins:
- Access to recorded live tuition and revision for the session that is currently running
- Access to study manuals, question banks, class, and revision notes
Students who have purchased a course but have not yet enrolled can request access to a study manuals and or question bank.
Timetable
All courses are taught in the evening (BST), Monday through Thursday. Classes typically start at 6:30 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m., and revision ends at 9 p.m.
We also provide a mentoring hour in the evenings for all students. During mentoring hours, students can have their homework marked and speak to their tutors directly with any concerns.
Normally, there are eight weeks of live online tuition (Some courses have up to 2 extra sessions) and four weeks of live online revision.
For Computer Based Examinations (CBE):
- Business Technology – 8 weeks
- Corporate and Business Law – 10 weeks
- Management Accounting – 11 weeks
- Financial Accounting – 12 weeks
Face-to-face revision is offered on two weekends in London. If you cannot attend, you can either join the session live online or watch the recording.
Learning Expectations
We advise that you allocate nine hours of self-study per week in addition to your live classes. For the Strategic Professional exam, we advise 12 hours of self-study.
You will be asked to complete homework in every tuition and revision session, which will be marked with feedback provided during your mentoring hour. You will also be asked to complete a time-limited exam that will also be marked with feedback.
We expect you to attend all live sessions, but if that is not possible (e.g., time zone constraints), we ask that you study using the recorded sessions provided. If you do not attend any sessions, live or recorded, then you may be removed from the course and deferred to the next session.
Information about Practical Experience Requirement (PER)
Studying for your ACCA exams requires you to pass them and gain practical experience that is essential to becoming a fully qualified accountant.
You must take the Ethical and Professional Skills module and gain professional experience by spending 36 months in an accounting or finance-related role.
Exam success, practical experience, and knowledge of ethics will enable you to become a successful accountant.
More detailed information can be found at PER-trainee-guide.pdf (accaglobal.com)
Topics that you will cover in your course
| S.No. | ACCA Paper | Topics | Tutor |
| 1 | Corporate & Business Law | Unit 1 --The English Legal System Unit 2 -- Contract – formation Unit 3 -- Contract – terms, breach Unit 4 -- Tort, Employment, Introduction to Agency & Partnership. Unit 5 -- Partnership Unit 6 -- Company Law (legal personality & company formation, Share capital, Loan capital, Meetings & resolution) Unit 7 -- Company Law (Directors, Meetings & resolutions, other officers, Insolvency) Unit 8 -- Fraudulent behaviour |
Debbie Crossman |
| 2 | Business & Technology | Unit 1 -- Training and development Unit 2 -- Personal effectiveness. Performance appraisal Unit 3 -- Leading People. Individuals and teams Unit 4 -- Motivation. The role of accounting. Micro-economics. Unit 5 -- Macro-economics. Business environment. Business organisation. Unit 6 -- Organisational culture. Corporate governance. Ethics. Unit 7 -- Information systems. Control and security. Fraud. Unit 8 -- Revision (working through BT CBE) |
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| 3 | Financial Accounting | Unit 1 --Introduction to Accounting and Double Entry Unit 2 -- Adjustments to Financial Statements Unit 3 --Non-current Assets Unit 4-- Accurals and Prepayments Unit 5 -- Maintaining records for Customers and Suppliers Unit 6 -- The Correction of Errors and Bank Reconciliation Statements Unit 7 -- Process of Accounting for Limited Companies Unit 8 -- Accounting Standards Unit 9 -- Cash Flow Statements Unit 10 -- Interpretation of Accounts Unit 11 -- Introduction to Group Accounting |
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| 4 | Performance Management | Unit 1 -- Overview of information systems. Costing methods. Unit 2 -- Costing methods. Unit 3 -- Short-term decision making (many topics fall under this heading: relevant costing, further processing, make or buy decision, limiting factor analysis, linear programming) Unit 4 -- Short-term decision making (CVP analysis). Pricing. Unit 5 -- Decisions under uncertainty. Budgeting. Unit 6 -- Budgeting (learning curves). Advanced variances Unit 7 -- Financial and non-financial performance evaluation. Unit 8 -- Divisional performance and transfer pricing. |
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| 5 | Taxation | Unit 1 -- Fundamentals of taxation and the basics of corporation tax Unit 2 -- Corporation tax, treatment of a company's loss and Groups Unit 3 -- Personal tax computation, Employment Income and NICs Unit 4 -- Trading profits, the basis of assessment and Partnerships Unit 5 -- Fundamental of chargeable gains Unit 6 -- Chargeable gains: partial disposals, reliefs and exemptions Unit 7 -- Fundamental of inheritance tax and lifetime transfers Unit 8 -- Inheritance tax: death estate and VAT |
Barbara Begio |
| 6 | Financial Reporting | Unit 1 -- Consolidated Statement of Financial Position Unit 2 -- Consolidated Statement of Financial Position, Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss, and Associates Unit 3 -- Practice Questions Unit 4 -- Published Accounts – Introduction, and Non-current Assets Unit 5 --Impairment of assets and Leasing Unit 6 -- Revenue, Contracts and Assets held for sale Unit 7 -- Taxation adjustments and Provisions & Contingencies Unit 8 -- Financial Instruments Unit 9 -- Earnings Per Share; Analysis and Interpretation |
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| 7 | Audit & Assurance | Unit 1 -- Essential Exam Technique for the AA paper Unit 2 -- Key Audit Concepts Including Ethics Unit 3 -- Audit Planning including Risk Unit 4 -- Internal Controls in Audit Unit 5 -- Audit Evidence Principles Unit 6 -- Substantive Procedures Unit 7 -- Finalisation of the Audit and Audit Report Unit 8 -- Internal Audit |
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| 8 | Financial Management | Unit 1 -- Introduction to Financial Management & Investment Appraisal Techniques Unit 2 -- Advanced Investment Appraisal Unit 3 -- Advanced Investment Appraisal Unit 4 -- Sources of Finance and Cost of Capital Unit 5 -- Unit Structure and Financial Performance Unit 6 -- Raising Equity Finance and Financial Performance Measures Unit 7 -- Risk Unit 8 -- Working Capital Management |
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| 9 | Strategic Business Leader | Unit 1 -- Strategic Analysis Unit 2 -- Strategic Choice Unit 3 -- Values, Ethics and Professional Skills Unit 4-- Corporate Governance and Stakeholders Unit 5 -- Risk Unit 6 -- Using Numbers – investment appraisal, Ratio Analysis, Decision making and Forecasting Unit 7 -- Operational Improvement Unit 8 -- Project Management |
David Laws |
| 10 | Strategic Business Reporting | Unit 1 -- Basic Groups Unit 2 -- Changes In Group Ownership Unit 3 -- Foreign Currency Translation and Group Cash Flow Statements Unit 4-- Performance Reporting Unit 5 -- Provisions and Non-Current Assets Unit 6 -- Leases and Employee Benefits and Share-Based Payments Unit 7 -- Financial Instruments Unit 8 -- Tax and Other Corporate Reporting |
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| 11 | Advanced Financial Management | Unit 1 -- Senior Financial Manager & Advanced Investment Appraisal Unit 2 -- Advanced Investment Appraisal & Introduction to Options Unit 3 -- Real Options, Project Specific & Combined Asset Beta WACC’s Unit 4 -- Adjusted Present Value & International Investment Appraisal Unit 5 -- Mergers & Acquisitions and Valuation Techniques Unit 6 -- Framework for M&A / Reconstructions Unit 7 -- Hedging Foreign Exchange Risk Unit 8 -- Hedging Interest Rate Risk |
David Laws |
| 12 | Advanced Performance Management | Unit 1 -- What is Strategic Control? Unit 2 -- Management Control Unit 3 -- Organisation Structure Unit 4-- Financial Performance Unit 5 -- Divisionalisation Unit 6 -- Non Financial Performance Evaluation Unit 7 -- Issues with Performance Systems Unit 8 -- Employability and Technology Skills |
Jean-Paul |
| 13 | Advanced Taxation | Unit 1 -- Introduction to Corporation Tax Unit 2 -- Corporation Tax groups & Losses Unit 3 -- Fundamentals of Inheritance Tax Unit 4-- Valuation rules for Inheritance tax & the Death Estate Unit 5 -- Fundamentals of Taxing Capital Gains Unit 6 -- Capital Gains Reliefs and Exemptions Unit 7 -- Personal Tax Computations and Investment Advice Unit 8 -- Income from Employment and Self-employment Unit 9 -- Trading Losses and Partnership |
Zahid Ahmed |
| 14 | Advanced Audit & Assurance | Unit 1 -- Essential Exam Technique for the AAA paper Unit 2 -- Ethics and Professional Issues Unit 3 -- Practice Management including Quality Management of audit work Unit 4 -- Audit Planning, including Risk Unit 5 -- Audit Procedures and Evidence Unit 6 -- Finalisation of an audit plus Group Audit Considerations Unit 7 -- Audit Reports Unit 8 -- Other Assignments and Current Audit Issues |
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| 15 | Management Accounting | Unit 1 -- Introduction to Cost Accounting; Cost Classification and Behaviour Unit 2 – Materials, labour and Overheads Unit 3 -- Overheads and Absorption Costing and Cost bookkeeping Unit 4-- Absorption vs Marginal Costing. Job Costing Unit 5 -- Job, Batch and Service Costing (continued). Process Costing Unit 6 -- Budgeting and Introduction to Statistical Techniques Unit 7 -- Advanced Statistical Techniques Unit 8 -- Investment Appraisal Unit 9 -- Standard Costing and Variance Analysis Unit 10 --Performance Measurement (Financial Performance) Unit 11 -- Revision |
- Maximum of two exams to be taken in one sitting.
- Exams within a module may be sat in any order but ACCA recommends that they should be sat in numerical order.
- Exams must be taken in modular order for the ACCA Qualification; however you can attempt the exams within each module in any order. If you wish to enter to sit exams in the next module, you must also enter for all outstanding exams in your current module.
- The two Essentials ACCA exams do not have to be sat together.
- Students have 10 years to pass all the examinations. Students will have 7 years to pass the exams at Professional level (SBL and SBR and two of the options exams AFM - AAA). The 7-year time limit starts when a student passes their first Professional level exam.
- The pass mark for all examinations is 50%.
- In addition to the above 13 exams, students are required to study and sit an online module in Professional Ethics. It is recommended that this is studied at the same time as SBL.
- Practical experience required.
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