Practical Experience (PER)

As part of your journey to become an ACCA member, you must demonstrate relevant skills and experience within a real work environment.

Find out more about PER

To complete PER you’ll need to achieve 36 months of supervised experience. This should be in a relevant accounting or finance role. You’ll also complete nine performance objectives – all five Essentials and four Technical objectives.

You’ll record your progress online within MyExperience and have your PER signed off by your practical experience supervisor.

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FAQs on PER

36 months' practical experience

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.

We recommend you use the range of career resources in ACCA Careers, to help you gain a relevant job.

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:

2: Stakeholder relationship management

3: Strategy and innovation

5: Leadership and management

If you work for an Approved Employer, you will still need to complete a minimum of 36 months in a relevant role.

You’ll still use MyExperience to record your employment information to let ACCA know that your role is with an Approved Employer and you’re planning to claim the performance objective exemption.

Use the ACCA competency framework to understand how the ACCA Qualification is relevant to a particular role, the sector you work in. This tool will help you discuss your current skillset with your employer and can help you think about your future career and which other roles in finance and accountancy you might be interested in. 

Performance objectives

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.

Performance objectives are the benchmarks of effective performance. They describe the types of work activities you’ll be involved with as trainee accountants. They also outline the values and attitudes you should demonstrate.

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 of the performance objectives 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.

For more information on the performance objectives, download the performance objectives booklet (PDF, 724KB).

To learn more about how Performance Objectives link to exams, download the exams to objectives factsheet (PDF, 22KB).

These are essential, fundamental, business skills that all professional accountants need so you must achieve all five. 

  1. Ethics and professionalism
  2. Stakeholder relationship management
  3. Strategy and innovation
  4. Governance, risk and control
  5. Leadership and management

There are 17 Technical performance objectives to choose from – and they fall into different technical areas. You can choose to complete any four of these objectives.

Corporate and business reporting

  1. Record and process transactions and events
  2. Prepare external financial reports
  3. Analyze and interpret financial reports

Financial management

  1. Evaluate investment and financing decisions
  2. Manage and control working capital
  3. Identify and manage financial risk

Management accounting

  1. Evaluate management accounting systems
  2. Plan and control performance
  3. Monitor performance

Taxation

  1. Tax computations and assessments
  2. Tax compliance and verification
  3. Tax planning and advice

Audit and assurance

  1. Prepare for and plan the audit and assurance process
  2. Collect and evaluate evidence for an audit or assurance engagement
  3. Review and report on the findings of an audit or assurance engagement

Advisory and consultancy

  1. Business advisory

Data, digital and technology

  1. Data analysis and decision support

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. 

For example, if you’re not working in a specific Audit or Tax role you won’t be getting the right level of experience to achieve these objectives. You should choose other objectives that are more relevant to your role.

You can use the ACCA competency framework to help you choose the right performance objectives. Explore the framework to find objectives that best align to your current role or the career you aspire to. 

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 PER progress – the achievement of the performance objectives, and time spent in a relevant role, are all recorded online in MyExperience, which you access via MyACCA.

Your employer may allow you to claim a performance objective exemption if:

  • you work for an ACCA Approved Employer
  • 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.

Practical experience supervisors

Practical experience supervisors play a key role for PER. As well as supervising your experience they are also responsible for signing off your achievement.

A practical experience supervisor is an individual who supports your development in the workplace and reviews your progress and performance at work.

Selecting the right person to support you with the PER is a fundamental part of the process.

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 and supporting your development, for example arranging job rotations, project work or other opportunities for you to gain relevant experience
  • evaluating and reviewing your progress on a regular basis
  • signing off the performance objectives you’ve achieved
  • signing off the time in a relevant role you’re claiming towards the 36 months requirement.

It’s important that your supervisor has the knowledge and experience to support you as they’re responsible for verifying you’ve met the practical experience requirement – so it’s essential they have the expertise to do this.

For more information on the role and responsibilities of a practical experience supervisor and the personal and organisation’s benefit undertaking this role can bring, download the Become a Practical Experience Supervisor guide (PDF, 71KB)

In most cases your practical experience supervisor will be your line manager or the person you report to on particular projects or activities.

In order to sign off your performance objectives your practical experience supervisor should be someone who:

  • is a qualified accountant*
  • works closely with you
  • knows your work.

* A qualified accountant is a member of an IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) member body and/or a body recognised by law in your country.

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 sign-off your objectives. This additional supervisor could be another manager within the organisation, a consultant or the organisation’s external accountants or auditors who will work with your line manager to validate your experience.

You may have more than one supervisor – or several different supervisors over a period of time – who are responsible for helping you to achieve different performance objectives.

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. 

Recording experience

If you’re in a relevant role you should start recording your PER as soon as possible.

You’ll use the online MyExperience tool to in MyACCA plan and record your achievement of PER.

The tool will help you to:

  • record your employment, role and supervisor details
  • calculate the amount of experience you’re gaining in your role
  • plan your development and target performance objectives
  • complete the performance objectives
  • submit your experience to your practical experience supervisor for approval
  • track your progress towards achieving the PER.

If you’re not yet working in a relevant role you can still log into the tool and have a look around to become familiar with the performance objectives and how to record your experience.

You’ll record details about your employer and your role. The tool will calculate how many months experience you have gained in your role based on the employment dates, amount of hours worked per week and the relevance of your role.

You can also add details of previous relevant roles – even if they were before you became an ACCA student. Previous experience needs to be signed off by the person who supervised you in that role.

It’s best to record your progress as you go along, adding new roles if you change jobs and getting you’re time signed off if you are leaving a role.

Remember it’s only the time you are working that can count towards your PER – so if you are taking an extended break from work but will be returning at some point in the future you should add an end date to you role when you finish and can add a new role with a new start date when you start working again.

As your PER is based on the time you’re gaining relevant work experience – if you’re taking an extended break from work but will be returning at some point in the future (for example maternity leave, long term illness, taking time off to care for a relative or if you are furloughed/off work due to COVID-19) 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.

You’ll need to achieve all 5 Essentials and at least 4 Technical objectives. You don’t have to complete all the objctives at once and can complete them in any order.

You also don’t need to complete a performance objective all one go. You can claim individual elements of an objective as you achieve them and can work up to writing the statement and completing the whole objective.

You can work on multiple objectives at the same time and send any combination of objectives and elements to your supervisor for approval.

The tool will track the status of the objecitves you’ve started working on and will update your progress as you complete them.

Your statement is where you summarise the experience you have gained towards achieving a performance objective. 

In your statement you should describe the skills you’ve gained and reflect on what you’ve learned, using different examples for each objective. Make sure you clearly document the tasks or activitivites you’ve undertaken to enable your supervisor to sign-off your objectives. 

You don’t need to write your statement all at once – you can start working on it, save your progress and come back to it later. When you’ve written your statement – and it’s within the 200-500 word limit – you can submit the objective for review.

Approved Employers

ACCA’s Approved Employer programme recognises and rewards employers staff training and development.

The 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. This exemption exists because ACCA has assessed that the level of training and support they provide to you is sufficient to meet the PER. 

However, it is important to confirm that your employer has this level of approval and whether they will allow you to claim the performance objective exemption.

You should check with your employer and can also search ACCA’s Approved Employer directory.

If you qualify for the exemption, it means that you do not need to record the performance objectives in MyExperience and will achieve these through the training you’ll receive with your employer – and you’ll still need to complete a minimum 36 months’ experience.

You must use MyExperience to record your employment information to let ACCA know that your role is with an Approved Employer and you’re planning to claim the performance objective exemption. You’ll be prompted to download the Approved Employer PER confirmation form in the recording tool when you achieve 36 months experience.

If you work for an Approved Employer where you are claiming the performance objective exemption and you are planning on leaving, you must complete the Approved Employer PER Confirmation form. This will ensure that you have a record of any performance objectives you have achieved while working for them.

You’ll also be prompted to download the form in the recording tool when you add an end date to your role – or when you achieve 36 months experience. Please forward a copy of the form to ACCA. We will update your record to reflect the performance objectives and time you have achieved.

Please retain the original form for your own records.

Student FAQs on the PER

FAQs about the PER

To become a member of ACCA and qualify as a professional accountant, 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. 

There are three components to the PER:

  • completing 36 months’ employment in an accounting or finance-related role or roles
  • achieving five Essentials and at least four Technical performance objectives to the satisfaction of your practical experience supervisor
  • recording and reporting your PER progress through the online My Experience record.

Further information on the PER can be accessed within this section and from the ‘Related links’.

We recommend that you regularly update your online My Experience record. One of the difficulties trainees can encounter when they come to apply for membership is that they find they are missing vital information, such as employer details, or they have failed to gain sign-off for time and performance objectives achieved with a previous employer.

FAQs about gaining experience

ACCA trainees work in every sector and size of organisation. Wherever you work it is important to look for the opportunities to help you meet your PER and to obtain the 36 months’ experience in a relevant role, or roles.  Ideally, you should have a job where most of your time is spent on activities and tasks related to accounting, finance, audit and assurance, or in other related technical areas such as taxation, insolvency, and forensic accounting.

If your job only includes some accounting or finance work then the time you spend on these activities can still count towards your 36 months’ experience.  For example if only spend 50% of your working time during the year is spent on accounting or finance tasks, you can claim six months out of a possible 12 as relevant time. When you record your role in My Experience you must input the percentage of time you spend on accounting or finance activities, the relevant time you can claim will then be calculated automatically.  

You can use experience from previous roles, voluntary work, work placements and internships towards your PER, including experience gained before registering with ACCA.  If you are using previous experience then the person who supervised your work at that time must be able to review and sign-off your experience.

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 performance objectives and time you claim on the basis of this experience.

Also, as the profession continually evolves, consider carefully if experience gained more than five years ago is still relevant.

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.

Yes. You can use experience gained at either a work placement or internship if the work experience was relevant and provided sufficient breadth and depth to contribute towards achieving performance objectives. This experience must also have been properly supervised by a qualified accountant.

Yes, provided that the work experience is of sufficient breadth and depth to contribute towards achieving performance objectives and is properly supervised by a qualified accountant.

However, you may find that experience gained in a part-time or temporary position does not allow you to achieve many performance objectives and may not provide sufficient opportunities for career development.

Also, work experience gained on a part-time basis can only count towards the PER for membership on a pro-rata basis. You will be asked to enter the number of hours a week you work against your role in My Experience and your time will be automatically calculated. Therefore, wherever possible, it is advisable to obtain full-time work experience* that is relevant, supervised and meets the PER.

*As a guideline, ACCA considers full-time work experience to be 35 hours per week. 1,540 hours of part-time work equates to 12 months of full-time work experience. This discounts annual leave etc.

As long as you are in a relevant accounting or finance role, the PER can be achieved in all sectors and sizes of organisation. Once in a relevant role, the first thing you need to do is find a practical experience supervisor you can work with to achieve your PER.

Yes. You could start your qualification in one country and complete it somewhere entirely different – many ACCA trainees do. PER is completely transferable – across organisations, sectors and geographical locations.

To support trainees around the world, we have a network of national offices providing support and information for trainees including, in many cases, national websites.

Ideally, you should have a role where most of your time is spent on activities and tasks related to accounting, finance, audit and assurance, or in other related technical areas such as taxation, insolvency and forensic accounting. You will be asked to confirm what percentage of your role is spent on relevant accounting or finance tasks and your time will then be automatically calculated on a pro rata basis.

If your role or organisation does not offer sufficient opportunity to achieve your performance objectives you have a number of options.

You can use experience from previous roles to help you claim a performance objective, including experience gained before registering with ACCA. The qualified person who supervised your work at that time must be able to review and sign-off the performance objectives and time you claim using this experience.

You may start in a junior role where your exposure to different work activities is limited but you should aim to gain more responsibility and accountability over time. Examples include when:

  • you are promoted
  • your job changes in some way.

Other ways that you may be able to gain experience in a current role is through job rotations, secondments, project work, workshops, job shadowing, and on-the-job training. Or you may consider moving to a different organisation to allow you to take on increasing levels of responsibility and accountability.

You can also achieve performance objectives outside of your employment. For example, you may act in a voluntary capacity as treasurer to a club or society.

To make progress, you should actively plan your career, setting yourself goals which should include the types of jobs you would like to do. Take a look at our Competency Framework to help you plan.

No. You do not have to obtain your practical experience in an organisation which has been approved by ACCA. Although there are advantages to achieving your PER if you do work for an ACCA Approved Employer.

Information on the Approved Employer programme can be accessed from the ‘Related links’ section of this page.

No. ACCA trainees can chose to work in any business sector or combination of sectors to gain their PER, providing they work in a relevant role and are able to get the range of experience required to achieve the performance objectives.

In order for work experience to count towards the PER, it must be supervised and verified by a suitably qualified person. While trainees can provide basic book-keeping and certain other services direct to the public, this cannot constitute ‘approved accountancy experience’ and therefore can’t count towards the PER.

However, basic bookkeeping and other accountancy work undertaken under supervision (eg on a sub-contract basis) may count towards the PER.

Your PER is based on the time you’re gaining relevant work experience – so if you’re taking an extended break from work this time would not count towards your 36 months experience. If will be returning at some point in the future (for example after maternity leave, long-term illness, taking time off to care for a relative or if you are furloughed/off work due to COVID-19) 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.

FAQs about practical experience supervisors

A practical experience supervisor is an individual who supports your development, oversees your achievement of performance objectives and signs-off performance objectives once they have been achieved. Your practical experience supervisor will also sign off the time you claim in your role towards the 36 months’ requirement.

The practical experience supervisor role is central to you completing the practical experience requirement of the ACCA qualification and achieving membership.  

For more information about supervisors, please visit our practical experience supervisor section.

Your practical experience supervisor should be someone with whom you work closely, who knows the type of work you are doing now, and who also knows the quality of your work. Ideally this will be your line manager or the person to whom you report on particular projects or activities.

In order to sign-off your performance objectives your practical experience supervisor should be a qualified accountant recognised by law in your country and/or a member of an International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) body.

If your line manager isn’t qualified they can still sign-off the relevant time you are claiming in your role. You can then nominate a second, qualified, practical experience supervisor to work with your line manager to sign-off your performance objectives. If you work for a small organisation and are the most senior finance person, or your organisation does not employ a professionally qualified accountant who can sign-off performance objectives, then you may need to find someone external to your organisation such as an external auditor or consultant to work with your line manager.

1. Using someone working at your employer as your practical experience supervisor

There may be qualified accountant working for the same organisation who is able to be your practical experience supervisor. They will have a general overview of your work and can confirm details of your experience with your unqualified line manager. They may ask to see samples of your work. This supervisor would typically be someone senior to your line manager or a manager from another department.

2. Using a consultant or external contact as your practical experience supervisor

There may be a consultant or external contact who is a qualified accountant and knows your work. They could act as your practical experience supervisor and sign-off your performance objectives.

For example, your organisation may have external accountants or the organisation’s auditor might be willing to fulfil this role – but make sure they do not feel there is any conflict of interest if they agree to do this. They will need to confirm details of your experience with your line manager and may ask to see samples of your work.

It is your responsibility to find a practical experience supervisor. Once you have identified the most appropriate person to be your supervisor, in most cases this will be your line manager, the next thing to do is to thoroughly familiarise yourself with the practical experience supervisor role so you can have an informed conversation with them. For full information and resources, please visit our practical experience supervisor section.

If the person you approach is not an ACCA member, you will need to also explain basic information about the ACCA PER to them.

Although you need a practical experience supervisor in order to progress through the PER, supervisors also benefit from their role in many ways and it will help you to have a more successful conversation with them if you can explain these benefits.

Some benefits include skills development in areas such as communication and time management, which when applied to your role can increase your effectiveness and the value you are able to bring to your team and organisation. Many supervisors also report that they have learnt a lot through supporting an ACCA trainee and find it personally meaningful.
The role may contribute to the continuing professional development (CPD) requirements of their own professional body as well.

Visit our practical experience supervisor section to learn more. The section contains a brief guide that trainees can download and give to potential supervisors, explaining the reasons for taking on the role.

Once you have found someone who agrees to act as your supervisor, you should enter their details including their email address against the relevant employer and role in your online My Experience record.

An email will be sent asking them to agree to act as your supervisor and inviting them to register. They will then be given access to review and sign-off your performance objective(s) and/or time via My Experience.

Once your practical experience supervisor has registered they will have the ability to update their contact details through their myACCA account.

However before they have accepted your invitation and registered you will be able to amend their details. Therefore if you have entered their email address incorrectly and they have not received their invitation to register you will be able to amend their email address in your My Experience record and resend the invitation.

FAQs about recording experience

You’ll recording your PER progress online using My Experience which you can access through MyACCA.

You’ll need to record details of your employer and your role and the PER time will calculate your time in a relevant role. As a minimum you’ll enter details of your job title, start date, average hours per week and how revant your role is to allow your time to be calculated. If it’s a current role leave the end date blank and the time will accrue automatically.

You only need to claim time when you leave a role or when you reach 36 months overall experience – you will be reminded to do this.  If your circumstances stay the same then you don’t need to send regular time claims to your supervisor.

To claim time when you’re leaving a role you need to update your role and then send your time to your supervisor for sign off:  You can do this by following these steps:

Step one – update your role:

  • go to the employment section
  • select the role you want to update
  • click ‘edit this role’
  • enter your end date
  • click ‘save and finish’
  • make sure you have a supervisor linked to the role.

Step two – claim time

  • click on ‘Claim time’ in the browser
  • locate the role you want to claim time for on the left hand side of the screen
  • click the ‘Claim this time’ button to send it to your supervisor.

As your PER is based on the time you’re gaining relevant work experience – if you’re taking an extended break from work but will be returning at some point in the future (for example maternity leave, long-term illness, taking time off to care for a relative or if you are furloughed/off work due to COVID-19) 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.

Once you reach 36 months’ experience in your role you should send this time to your supervisor for sign off. 

Firstly go to the employment section and make sure your role information is correct and make sure there is a supervisor linked to your role. Then submit the time to your supervisor by following these steps:

  • click on ‘Claim time’ in the browser
  • locate the role you want to claim time for on the left hand side of the screen
  • click the ‘Claim this time’ button to send it to your supervisor.

The performance objectives are made up of a description, elements which describe the skills and experience you must demonstrate and a statement. The statement allows you to summarise and reflect on your work activity, so that your supervisor can evaluate whether you have achieved the standard required for the performance objective you are trying to achieve. You will need to claim five elements and complete a 200-500 word statement for each performance objective.

You can claim elements individually as soon as you achieve them, you do not have to wait until you are ready to submit the whole objective.

Your statement

Each description should be a concise explanation of how you achieved the performance objective description. You only need to cover the broad description of each performance objective. You don’t need to summarise all the activities you carried out to achieve the individual elements.  

We’ll need details of one or two tasks that you’ve been involved with for every performance objective. The tasks should relate closely to the objective’s description.  Remember there is a limit of 200-500 words for each statement.

When writing your statement:

  • be concise
  • avoid using jargon or abbreviations, unless they are explained
  • provide evidence and examples to help illustrate your statement.
  • avoid repeating information or making reference to other statements.

Remember that your experience is unique and your statement should be unique too.

ACCA recommends that you regularly update your online My Experience record. One of the difficulties trainees can encounter when they come to apply for membership is that they find they are missing vital information, such as employer details, or they have failed to gain sign-off for time and performance objectives achieved with a previous employer.

You should consider the following when writing you statements:

  • Keep your answers concise, but relevant. You should use a minimum of between 200 and 500 words. As a guide, someone who doesn’t know your work should be able to read your statements and fully understand and appreciate the work you have completed.
  • Check back against the description of the performance objective. Have you met all the outcomes and shown that you have conducted yourself in an appropriate manner?
  • Provide one or two examples of activities you have done to meet the elements to illustrate your statement.
  • Your practical experience supervisor should obtain value from your statements, as these should provide them with a useful reminder about your workplace achievement and contribution.

To submit your performance objective to your supervisor in My Experience follow these steps:

  • click on your chosen performance objective to select it from the list
  • click ‘start objective’ and then complete and save your statement. 
  • click ‘claim objective’ button to add your objective to the basket
  • select the basket icon to go to the basket and send your objective to your supervisor.

Your practical experience supervisor should ideally be your line manager or the person your report to on projects or activities. They need to understand your work and recognise its quality.

To sign-off your performance objectives your practical experience supervisor should be a qualified accountant recognised by law in your country and/or a member of an International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) body.

You can check whether your line manager’s membership body is IFAC registered at the IFAC website.

If your line manager isn’t qualified they can still sign-off the relevant time you are claiming in your role. You can then nominate a second, qualified, practical experience supervisor to work with your line manager to sign-off your performance objectives.

  • Once you have found someone who agrees to act as your supervisor, you should enter their details including their email address against the relevant employer and role in your online My Experience record.
  • An email will be sent asking them to agree to act as your supervisor and inviting them to register. They will then be given access to review and sign-off your performance objective(s) and/or time via My Experience.

ACCA will automatically invite you to membership once all performance objectives and time has been signed off.

FAQs about Approved Employers

If your employer is an ACCA Approved Employer – trainee development stream, you may be able to claim the performance objective exemption. This is because ACCA recognises that your employer already has a strong training and development programme in place, which will equip you with the required competence.

It is up to the employer to decide if they want to allow you to claim the performance objective exemption. You will still be required to complete 36 months’ experience and record this in My Experience. You will also claim the exemption in My Experience.

In summary:

  • Please note that it is your employer – not you – who decides whether you can claim the performance objectives exemption.
  • You will still need to use My Experience to record the 36 months of experience you gain and to claim the exemption.

If you are employed by an Approved Employer where you are claiming the performance objective exemption and you are planning on leaving, you must complete the Approved Employer confirmation form which you can download from your My Experience record.

Please forward the signed off copy to ACCA and we will update your My Experience record to reflect the performance objectives you have achieved. You can also access the ‘PER support’ section from the ‘Related links’ for the Approved Employer confirmation form.

Make sure you keep the original form for your own record; it may be requested during a PER audit.

Remember – you will need to achieve the balance of your time in a relevant role and performance objectives with a new employer. 

Access the Ethics and Professional Skills module.

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