Acca Module Exemptions

[Alexia Borson]

Ifyou already have some qualifications you may not have to take all of the exams in the ACCA Qualification or Foundations in Accountancy awards. These are called exemptions and mean that you will start your studies at the right level for your knowledge and skill.

You can also claim exemptions on the basis of practical experience if you wish to complete the Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) Qualification.

You will need to pay an exemption fee for each exam awarded. These fees helps us with the continuous process of rigorously assessing and accrediting a global network of professional and academic bodies and their awards, so that employers know that ACCA members have the skills and knowledge needed to succeed, wherever they started on their learning journey.

ACCA offers conditional exemptions to students who are studying an assessed course and will graduate at a date in the future. Students can claim exemptions up to the Financial Management (FM) exam. Upon your graduation, you will be required to submit documentary evidence to ACCA to confirm that you have completed the course and passed all the required modules. The conditional exemptions would then be converted to actual exemptions.

There are several routes to ACCA membership and many students undertake prior learning which is equivalent to some ACCA exams. Where appropriate, ACCA wishes to ensure that students' entry points match the knowledge and skills they have acquired from their previous qualifications. In doing so, we aim to provide students with the quickest possible route to membership.

Our process of awarding exemptions is very rigorous as we need to ensure we are confident that the prior learning matches the skills and knowledge needed for the ACCA Qualification. This is a continuous process as we make regular updates to our qualification, both in terms of annual syllabus updates and skills tested.

A maximum of nine Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills exams of the ACCA Qualification can be awarded. To preserve the integrity and rigour of the ACCA Qualification and to ensure that all students share a common experience, we do not award any exemptions for Strategic Professional exams.

Exemption from all three levels of the Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) Qualification can be considered, depending on the standard and equivalence of the qualification held.

Exemptions are also available for the Foundations in Accountancy suite of awards.

No exemptions are awarded from any of the exams of modules examined within ACCA's suite of post-professional qualifications.

Please take a look at the Exemptions calculator to find out which exemptions you could claim.

Our Exemptions calculator details all exemptions that may be available on the basis of qualifications held by students. This includes exemptions awarded to accredited programmes and exemptions awarded using our exemption framework.

We have produced a user guide to the Exemptions calculator, which provides a short step-by-step guide to checking what exemptions you may be eligible to claim.

If you require any further assistance in determining your exemptions, please contact ACCA Connect who will be able to assist you.

If you have gained additional qualifications since you first registered as a student and believe you may be eligible for further exemptions, you can apply for these at any time. You can send us copies of your educational documents via the contact us form

Please be aware that you should wait until your exemptions have been confirmed as awarded before committing to any course of study. ACCA will not be held liable for any fees incurred for changes to tuition or study materials where the award of exemptions has not been confirmed in advance.

ACCA implements a system of rigorous checks when assessing applications for exemptions, however, in the event that you are awarded an exemption in error, ACCA reserves the right to remove the exemption(s) and shall notify you immediately if this exceptional incident does occur.

Our assessment of students' qualifications takes into account a number of considerations, which may cause students with similar qualifications to be awarded differing levels of exemption. These considerations include:

When your exemptions have been awarded, you will be issued with an exemption notification, and an invoice, and the relevant section will be updated in myACCA. Please pay for your exemptions as soon as you have received the invoice.

It's up to you to decide if you wish to claim the exemptions you are awarded. You may wish to consider forfeiting exemptions, for instance, if a significant period of time has passed since you gained your previous qualifications, and you have not undertaken any further activity related to your studies in the intervening time.

It is advisable to consult the syllabus and study guides for each ACCA exam that you are eligible to receive exemption from and consider whether you are entirely comfortable with the topics covered before accepting exemption.

If you do accept the exemptions, you may wish to consider whether you need to undertake any additional study or preparation to ensure you are ready to begin the higher-level exams.

If you decide to forfeit your exemptions, you must notify ACCA within 14 days to be eligible for a refund. After 14 days, exemption fees are non-refundable. Please read the exemption terms and conditions before applying. You can download the exemptions forfeit form from our administrative forms section.

If you intend to complete the BSc degree in Applied Accounting*, please be aware that Oxford Brookes University gives credit for exemptions awarded to ACCA students for any of the Applied Knowledge exams, but a student must sit and pass the Financial Reporting (FR), Audit and Assurance (AA) and Financial Management (FM) Applied Skills exams to be eligible for the BSc degree. Oxford Brookes is not able to give credit for exemptions based on qualifications gained more than 10 years ago. This does not apply for registrations from 20 September 2021 onwards.

*The BSc programme is closing in 2026. Find out more.

ACCA can only award exemption on the basis of qualifications awarded by recognised institutions (i.e those which are recognised by the local Ministry of Education as public sector institutions or the equivalent status under their regulations.)

If your institution is not listed on the Exemptions calculator, ACCA will check the status of your institution with our external references on receipt of your educational documents.

Please also be aware that we list qualifications under the awarding body, not the study centre. If you have taken a qualification which is awarded by an establishment other than the one where you studied, please ensure you have checked the Exemptions calculator for the awarding establishment.

If you graduated before the first assessment dates shown for your accredited programme on the Exemptions calculator, this means that your qualification was not assessed at the time of your graduation. You will not be able to claim the full level of exemption shown for the accredited programme but may still be eligible for some exemptions using ACCA's exemption framework.

If the assessment dates on the Exemptions calculator finish before your graduation date, your institution has not provided ACCA with up-to-date information about the programme or has informed us that the programme is no longer running in the same format. Please check whether your programme has been accredited under a different programme title, or check with your course leader.

If you have taken the modules which form part of the exemption accreditation but the titles or reference codes of these modules differ from those shown on the Exemptions calculator, ACCA's Accreditation team will need to check that these changes are valid with the awarding institution. If you are aware of any discrepancies between the information shown on our Exemptions calculator and the delivery of your assessed programme, please ask your course leader to contact ACCA in order for this information to be updated.

Please be aware that if you have studied part-time over a longer duration than is normal for your course of study or you have taken a sandwich or gap year, the modules you have studied may be spread across a range of graduate dates. Please check all assessment dates between the start and end of your studies if this is the case.

If your educational establishment or awarding body has not provided ACCA with the opportunity to fully assess their qualification, it will not be listed as an assessed programme.

If you are currently studying towards a qualification which has not been assessed and believe that programme accreditation may yield further exemptions, please ask your course leader to visit the Learning Providers section of the ACCA website to find out more about exemption accreditation. Please be aware that ACCA can only work directly with the awarding institution, and will not accept programme details submitted by students on behalf of their institution.

If your programme of study is assessed by ACCA in future, please be aware that any additional exemptions gained through the accreditation process will not be awarded to you retrospectively as the assessment will not relate to your graduate year.

ACCA uses its exemption framework to apply an appropriate level of exemption to specific qualification types that have not been assessed. For example, a student who has completed a programme which has not been assessed by ACCA may be awarded up to a maximum of the first four exams of the ACCA Qualification.

To find out what exemptions are available for the qualifications that you hold, use our Exemptions calculator.

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