Practical Experience Requirement (PER)

Ideally, this means that you have a job where your time is spent on activities and tasks that are accounting, finance, audit and assurance related, or in other related technical areas such as taxation, insolvency and forensics.

Experience can be gained prior to registering with ACCA, while you are studying for the exams or after you have completed the exams. However remember that you will still need to get this prior experience signed off by a practical experience supervisor at the employer where you gained the experience.

ACCA trainees can work in any sector and size of organisation – you don't have to work for an ACCA Approved Employer. Your experience doesn't have to be gained in a single role or in one continuous period and you can gain your experience in different roles and with different employers. You could also gain experience by doing voluntary work for clubs, charities or associations.

It's important is to look for the opportunities to help you meet your PER and to obtain a total of 36 months' experience in a relevant role or roles. It's also important that your work is appropriately supervised and that the time you complete towards your 36 months' experience is signed off by your practical experience supervisor.

You can gain experience working on a part-time basis or in a role where your job includes only some accountancy and finance work. When you record your employment details in My Experience you will be asked to provide details about your role, including the number of hours you work and the percentage of your time spent on accounting or finance related tasks. The tool will use this information to calculate the amount of time you can count towards the 36 months' requirement.

For example, if you only spend 50% of your working time on accounting and finance tasks you can still use this experience towards your PER, you'll just accrue time more slowly. So in this example you would gain six months PER in a 12 month period.

PER is based on the time you're gaining relevant work experience – not just the time you are in paid employment. So if you're taking an extended break from work but will be returning at some point in the future (for example maternity leave, taking time off to care for a relative, long-term illness or if you are furloughed/off work due to COVID-19) you can't count this time towards your 36 months. You should add an end date to you role and can add a new role with a new start date when you begin working again.

It is important to ensure that your PER record is updated and that your practical experience supervisor has signed off any performance objectives or time you have achieved when you change roles. MyExperience will prompt you to get your time signed off when you indicate you are leaving a role or when you reach 36 months in total. You will then need to achieve the remainder of your time and any remaining performance objectives in your new role.

If you are not working in a relevant accounting or finance role then you should still update MyExperience to record details of your employment. Time you spend in this role will not count towards your 36 months' relevant experience, however if your work is supervised by a suitably qualified person then you may be able to achieve the following performance objectives while working in this role: Stakeholder relationship management, Strategy and innovation, Leadership and management.

As part of the practical experience requirement (PER), you'll need to achieve performance objectives. The performance objectives and exams are closely linked. This means that the knowledge you'll develop through your studies are also relevant to the skills and techniques you'll use in the workplace.

You'll need to achieve nine performance objectives in total: all five Essentials objectives, and any four from 17 Technical objectives. You'll demonstrate your achievement by performing activities in the workplace. You'll then write a statement to provide examples of your experience which demonstrates to your practical experience supervisor that you have to achieved the objectives.

You'll need to achieve all 5 Essentials and choose 4 Technical objectives. It's best to choose Technical objectives that align to your role. You'll find it much easier to achieve the performance objectives if you focus on the objectives that link most closely to your every day work.

You can use the ACCA competency framework to help you choose the right performance objectives.

There are three parts to a performance objective:

1. A description – This is a summary of the objective
2. Elements – Each objective has five elements which outline the tasks, skills and behaviours you must demonstrate to achieve the objective
3. A statement – You'll need to write a 200-500 word statement where you demonstrate achievement of the objective by providing examples of your work

To complete a performance objective you need to claim all five elements and write a statement. These are submitted to your practical experience supervisor for approval.

Your employer may allow you to claim a performance objective exemption if you work for an ACCA Approved Employer and your employer holds trainee development approval at Gold or Platinum level. This is because we recognise that some employers have training programmes which support their trainees to complete their objectives. So in these cases, you'll achieve the objectives through the training you receive from your employer.

Your practical experience supervisor should guide and support you by helping you identify which performance objectives you should aim to achieve, setting performance targets and timescales, providing access to appropriate work experience, evaluating and reviewing your progress on a regular basis, and signing off the performance objectives you've achieved and the time in a relevant role you're claiming towards the 36 months' requirement.

In most cases your practical experience supervisor will be your line manager. In order to sign off your performance objectives your practical experience supervisor should be a qualified accountant (a member of an IFAC member body).

If your line manager is not qualified they can still sign-off your time in a relevant role and you'll need to nominate an additional qualified supervisor to work with your line manager to sign-off your objectives. This additional supervisor could be another manager within the organisation, a consultant or the organisation's external accountants or auditors.

Where possible you should not have a friend or relative as your practical experience supervisor to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Where this is not possible, you should disclose the relationship to ACCA when you are applying for admission to membership.

You'll use the online MyExperience tool in MyACCA to plan and record your achievement of PER. The tool will help you to record your employment details, calculate your experience, plan your development, complete performance objectives, submit your experience for approval, and track your progress.

As your PER is based on the time you're gaining relevant work experience – if you're taking an extended break from work (e.g., maternity leave, long term illness, furlough) you should add an end date to you role and can add a new role with a new start date when you start working again.

Your statement is where you summarise the experience you have gained towards achieving a performance objective. Each description should be a concise explanation of 200-500 words. You'll need details of one or two tasks that you've been involved with for every performance objective.

When writing your statement: be concise, avoid jargon, provide evidence and examples, and avoid repeating information.

ACCA's Approved Employer programme is an accreditation of employers' learning and development policies and systems. If you work for an ACCA Approved Employer who holds trainee development approval at Gold or Platinum level, then they may allow you to claim a performance objective exemption. You will still be required to complete 36 months' experience and record this in My Experience.

If you are leaving an Approved Employer where you are claiming the exemption, you must complete the Approved Employer PER Confirmation form. Please forward the signed off copy to ACCA and we will update your My Experience record. Make sure you keep the original form for your own record. You will need to achieve the balance of your time and performance objectives with a new employer.

To become a member of ACCA, you must pass all the exams, successfully complete the Ethics and Professional Skills module and complete the PER. You cannot apply for membership until you have completed all three components.

Yes. You can use experience from previous job roles (before or after registering as an ACCA student) to help you claim a performance objective. There is no specific time limit. However, the qualified person who supervised your work at that time must be able to review and sign-off the experience.

Yes. Up to 12 months' lecturing experience can count towards meeting the PER. The lecturing experience must be at a minimum level equivalent to the Applied Skills exams of the ACCA Qualification and cover basic accounting, business studies and finance-related subjects.