Passing all your ACCA exams doesn’t make you a member. There’s one more requirement most students underestimate: the ACCA PER. This ACCA PER Guide covers what it is and how to actually get through it.
What Is ACCA PER
ACCA Practical Experience Requirement, or PER, is the real workplace experience you need before ACCA will call you a member. It’s not another exam. It’s proof you can do the job, not just answer questions about it on paper. This ACCA Experience Requirement applies to every student, no matter which country you study or work in.
Your exams prove you know accounting. Your PER proves you can apply it at a real desk, with a real manager, on real problems. ACCA requires both.
The Numbers
You need 36 months, three years, of relevant work experience. You need to hit 9 performance objectives during that time. And you need a supervisor to sign off confirming you actually did the work.
The 36 Months
This doesn’t have to be one job. Your three years can span different employers, different roles, even different countries. What counts is the total time, not where you spent it.
The clock starts the day you begin doing relevant work, not the day you start logging it in ACCA’s system. If you were already working in finance or accounting before you registered for ACCA, some of that time may already count. Check rather than assume it doesn’t.
The 9 Performance Objectives
ACCA splits performance objectives into two groups: Essentials and Technical.
There are 5 Essentials, and all five are mandatory. They cover professional ethics, managing relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, strategic thinking, risk and governance, and basic leadership.
There are also Technical objectives, and you pick 4 from the wider list. These map to areas like financial accounting, management accounting, tax, and audit. Pick the ones that match the work you’re actually doing, since you can only claim an objective your job genuinely gives you exposure to.
Five Essentials plus four Technical equals your nine performance objectives.
Your Supervisor
A supervisor has to review your work and sign off on each objective. They need to be a qualified accountant, either an ACCA member or someone with an equivalent recognised qualification. They don’t have to be your direct manager, but they need to actually see your work closely enough to vouch for it.
Recording It
You log everything through myACCA, ACCA’s online portal. As you hit each objective, you write it up and your supervisor approves it there. Update it regularly rather than leaving it until the end. Reconstructing three years of work experience from memory right before applying for membership is a bad way to spend a weekend.
Can You Do PER While Still Studying
Yes. Most students run PER alongside their exams rather than waiting until after. There’s no requirement to finish all 13 papers first, and doing both together often works better, since what you learn in your exams shows up in your job, and the other way around.
Some ACCA jobs are structured around this directly. Big Four firms hire ACCA students into training contracts where PER tracking is built into the role, with mentors who already know what ACCA requires.
What Counts as Relevant Work
You don’t need a specific job title to start earning PER. What matters is whether the role exposes you to the skills ACCA checks for. Audit, tax, financial accounting, management accounting, and advisory are the obvious fits. Roles in operations, systems, or client facing work can count too, as long as you can show the skills line up with an objective.
If your current job doesn’t cover everything you need, you can pick up objectives through volunteer work, a side project, or a short secondment into a different team. It doesn’t all have to come from your main job.
Why This Matters for Your Career
PER can feel like paperwork standing between you and your ACCA certification. But employers care about it because it’s proof you’ve handled real problems, not just exam scenarios. Being able to discuss actual situations you managed, backed by a signed off record, carries weight in interviews.
It also shapes your ACCA career. The technical objectives you choose steer the kind of experience you build. Audit heavy objectives point you toward an audit path. Tax objectives point you toward advisory or tax specialism. Choose based on where you want to end up, not whichever objective is easiest to tick off.
Common Mistakes
Waiting until your last year of exams to start on PER. Starting early gives you three full years to build up the right experience instead of scrambling near the end.
Letting your write ups go stale. Update myACCA while details are fresh, not months later when you’re guessing at dates.
Assuming any supervisor will do. Make sure they’re actually qualified and willing to review your work properly, not just sign off without reading it.
Pushing the Essentials aside for later. All five are mandatory, and some, like ethics, need real reflection rather than a quick write up.
Bottom Line
PER exists so ACCA can confirm you can actually do the job, not just pass tests about it. Start early, keep myACCA updated as you go, pick a supervisor who takes it seriously, and choose your technical objectives with your future ACCA qualification and career direction in mind. Whether you’re just starting your ACCA course or already deep into it, treat PER as part of the plan from day one, not something bolted on at the end. Handled that way, it becomes one of the more manageable parts of the journey toward full ACCA Membership, not the stressful afterthought most students treat it as.
If you want guidance on choosing the right performance objectives or connecting with employers who understand ACCA training contracts, The WallStreet School’s placement network and mentor faculty can help you plan your PER alongside your exams instead of scrambling at the end.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ques 1) Can I complete PER before finishing my exams?
Yes. Most students do both together, and it’s usually the smoother path.
Ques 2) Does my job need to be in finance to count toward PER?
Not strictly. What matters is whether you can show real exposure to the specific skills ACCA checks for, even in an adjacent role.
Ques 3) What happens if I pass all 13 papers but haven’t finished PER?
You still don’t become an ACCA member. Exams and PER are both required, and neither substitutes for the other.
Ques 4) Who can sign off my performance objectives?
A qualified accountant, either an ACCA member or someone with an equivalent recognised qualification, who has actually observed your work.
