A new role can be a welcome step forward and a surprisingly awkward moment for a learning record. You remember the projects, but a supervisor is about to leave, the account access will change and several months of useful work still need a clear explanation. The best handover begins before those details become difficult to reconstruct.
For ACCA practical experience, keep three things distinguishable when a role changes: the relevant time claimed, the performance demonstrated and the person authorised to approve each part. Review the actual duties and approved record, resolve outstanding sign-off and identify what remains to be achieved in the next role. A job title or an employment anniversary cannot supply that whole account.
Find your next learning step
Separate relevant experience time, performance objectives and supervisor approval, then prepare a clear ACCA PER handover when a role or employer changes.
ROUTE 1 · CHAPTERS 1–3
Understand the evidence
Separate relevant time, objectives and approval.
ROUTE 2 · CHAPTERS 4–6
Prepare the handover
Examine role changes, supervision and restricted information.
ROUTE 3 · CHAPTERS 7–9
Check the route
Read employer arrangements and plan new learning.
ROUTE 4 · CHAPTERS 10–12
Test the reasoning
Diagnose gaps and try changed circumstances.
ROUTE 5 · CHAPTERS 13–15
Take the next step
Use practical roles, questions and current sources.
Full chapter index · Independent learning check · Education parent guide
Full chapter index
Understand the evidence · Chapters 1–3
Prepare the handover · Chapters 4–6
Check the route · Chapters 7–9
Test the reasoning · Chapters 10–12
Take the next step · Chapters 13–15
CHAPTER 1 OF 15 · Understand the evidence
Locate PER within the professional learning route
This article concerns ACCA's Practical Experience Requirement, usually called PER, under public guidance checked on 23 October 2026. It explains a learning and record-handover task. The people, periods and workplace events below are original fictional examples, not decisions about an actual trainee.
ACCA's PER overview specifies 36 months of supervised relevant accounting or finance experience and nine performance objectives: all five Essentials and four Technical objectives. The applicable recording and approval process matters alongside the work itself.
PER sits within the wider ACCA Qualification. Examinations and the ethics component have their own requirements. Completing one part does not establish that every other part is complete, or confer a separate practising entitlement.
For the separate ethics-learning task, the guide to making an ethical decision explainable alongside EPSM uses original preparatory cases. It develops judgement and communication while keeping module completion separate from the practical-experience record.
The existing guide to accounting study and the requirements beyond tuition addresses the broader course-choice question. This article develops the narrower task of preserving relevant experience when employment or responsibilities change.
The Education parent guide asks whether learning remains available for a changed situation. A role transition makes that question practical: can the trainee explain what they did, what they learned and which new responsibility still needs supported experience?
Start with the current record rather than a fresh estimate from memory. Identify approved entries, outstanding entries and future intentions separately. Those categories may all belong in a useful plan, but they should not be presented as though they have the same status.
CHAPTER 2 OF 15 · Understand the evidence
Separate elapsed employment from relevant experience
An employment period describes when someone held a role. Relevant experience describes the qualifying work within it. The two may coincide closely, or they may differ substantially because of duties, working hours or breaks.
ACCA's 36-month guidance explains that part-time work and roles containing only some accounting or finance work can contribute proportionately. MyExperience uses the hours and relevant-work percentage entered to calculate the time. Experience can span roles and employers; appropriate supervision and sign-off remain necessary.
Consider an original arithmetic illustration: a full-time role lasts eighteen months, with one-third of working time spent on relevant work. Eighteen multiplied by one-third is six. This illustrates why eighteen calendar months should not simply be relabelled eighteen relevant months. It is not an authorised assessment of a person's record.
The actual claim needs accurate role information and the applicable ACCA process. A trainee should not reverse-engineer a convenient percentage from the number of months they hope to complete. The percentage should describe the work, supported by a defensible account of duties.
Now change the exercise to a part-time role. The same relevant-work percentage no longer tells the whole story because working hours also matter. Enter the actual circumstances in the official tool and resolve uncertainty with the appropriate supervisor or ACCA.
The useful teaching question is what the quantity measures. Calendar duration, contracted hours and relevant duties are different pieces of information. Keeping their meanings visible prevents an attractive total from hiding the conditions that produced it.
CHAPTER 3 OF 15 · Understand the evidence
Treat performance objectives as a separate evidence question
Time in a role provides opportunities for learning, but it does not automatically explain which performance has been demonstrated. Two trainees can spend the same period in similar jobs while having different responsibilities and evidence.
ACCA's performance-objective guidance describes objectives through a description, five elements and a statement. In the standard route, all five elements must be achieved, with a 200–500-word statement giving examples of the trainee's work for supervisor approval. Eligible Approved Employer arrangements have a different recording route, discussed later.
An objective therefore needs more than a statement that a topic appeared in the workplace. The trainee should be able to connect the requirement with actions they actually performed and explain their contribution within its proper limits.
For example, attending a meeting about a report is different from preparing part of it, checking an assumption or resolving a discrepancy under supervision. Each may be useful learning, but they support different descriptions of performance.
Read the actual elements before drafting. If an example supports one part well and leaves another part unaddressed, identify the gap. Adding more adjectives to the same example does not create the missing experience.
A useful preparation page has two columns in ordinary language: the requirement I am trying to demonstrate and the work that provides evidence for it. The match may need discussion with the supervisor. The point is to expose the relationship rather than make the page look complete prematurely.
The trainee's explanation should remain recognisably their own. A polished account borrowed from another person can conceal the very learning need that the objective is intended to make visible.
CHAPTER 4 OF 15 · Prepare the handover
Worked case: a mixed role needs a clearer duty account
Fictional trainee Maya works in an operations team. Some tasks concern accounting records; others concern arranging meetings, general administration and customer enquiries. After a year and a half, she writes that she has eighteen months in finance because the department supports finance-related activity.
Begin with the work rather than the department label. Ask Maya to describe a representative set of tasks, the responsibility she held and how the work connects with accounting or finance. The purpose is to establish a truthful account, not to choose whichever classification creates the fastest total.
Suppose she can explain how she prepared a reconciliation for review, followed up identified differences and documented the unresolved items. That is more informative than saying she helped with spreadsheets. It gives the supervisor a particular activity to examine.
For her other duties, the connection may be different or absent. A general administrative task does not become accounting work because it appears in the same calendar week. Equally, an unfamiliar job title does not prove that relevant work never occurred.
Maya gathers a proportionate duty account and discusses the uncertain boundaries with the appropriate supervisor. She uses actual role information in the recording process. She does not treat one unusually busy finance week as representative of the entire employment period without explanation.
The learning repair concerns classification and evidence. Maya needs to understand what her claim describes and which observations support it. More time in the same role will not, by itself, repair an inaccurate description of the time already completed.
For transfer, imagine a new role with a stronger accounting focus but fewer weekly hours. Maya must check both changes. The earlier proportion should not follow her automatically into a role whose duties and working pattern differ.
CHAPTER 5 OF 15 · Prepare the handover
Worked case: a team result is not yet an individual account
Fictional trainee Daniel joins a team that produces a monthly internal report. The report is delivered successfully. His first draft says that he designed the reporting process, resolved all data problems and advised management on the final result.
When asked to reconstruct the work, Daniel explains that another colleague designed the process and a manager made the final judgement. Daniel prepared a particular section, checked several entries and raised one question for review. His contribution was useful, but the first draft described more than he actually did.
The repair is to restore the boundaries of the contribution. Which part did he prepare? What did he check? What question did he identify, and what happened after he raised it? Where did someone else's review or authority enter?
A bounded account can demonstrate more understanding than a grand claim. Daniel can explain why a check mattered, how he recognised a discrepancy and what he learned from the review. Those details make the learning visible without assigning him the whole team's achievement.
Now examine the objective elements. Perhaps his example supports part of the requirement but does not yet demonstrate all of it. That is useful information for planning another appropriate opportunity, not a reason to inflate the existing story.
The existing Education guide to German Ausbildung training records explores a different qualification system's work-to-learning record. Its rules do not govern ACCA. The shared educational habit is explaining the learning behind the activity while retaining the actual system's requirements.
Daniel's next account should be checkable by someone who knows the work. If the explanation depends on the reviewer assuming responsibilities that never belonged to him, it needs revision before it can serve as reliable evidence.
CHAPTER 6 OF 15 · Prepare the handover
Worked case: the time total and the objective record can diverge
Consider three original fictional progress profiles. The figures describe a teaching model only. They do not determine actual ACCA eligibility, replace MyExperience or predict when a person will qualify.
| Fictional trainee | Approved relevant months | Approved Essentials | Approved Technical objectives | Question still needing attention |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sana | 22 | 4 of 5 | 4 | Remaining relevant time and one Essential |
| Kiran | 36 | 5 of 5 | 2 | Two further Technical objectives |
| Eva | 16 | 5 of 5 | 4 | Remaining relevant time |
For Sana, the arithmetic difference between thirty-six and twenty-two is fourteen months. That is not a promise that fourteen more calendar months will complete the time requirement. The future work, hours, relevance and approval process still matter.
Kiran's time total does not fill the missing Technical objectives. He needs to discuss appropriate work that can demonstrate the remaining requirements. Continuing the clock without examining the learning opportunities could leave the same gap unresolved.
Eva's objective record does not transform sixteen months into thirty-six. Her learning evidence and time record answer different questions. Both need to be preserved accurately when she plans the next stage.
The table helps diagnose the next useful action. Sana needs a plan addressing two dimensions. Kiran needs a particular performance-evidence discussion. Eva needs a realistic account of further relevant experience.
A broad instruction to finish PER would give all three trainees the same label while hiding their different starting points. A useful plan identifies the dimension that remains incomplete and the evidence needed to move it forward.
Change the figures in a practice discussion and ask the learner to explain what changes in the plan. Understanding the relationship is more useful than memorising the three fictional profiles.
CHAPTER 7 OF 15 · Check the route
Match the approval task with the right supervisor
A person who knows the work is important to a meaningful review. A person with the appropriate status is also important to the formal process. Those conditions should be established before a trainee relies on a future signature.
ACCA's supervisor guidance says that objective sign-off requires a qualified accountant who works closely with the trainee and knows the work. Its definition refers to an IFAC member-body accountant and/or recognition by law in the relevant country. A non-qualified line manager can sign relevant time; an additional appropriately qualified supervisor with a business connection may be needed for objectives.
Fictional trainee Lina's line manager understands her duties well but is not a qualified accountant. The useful response is to clarify the approval arrangement early. Asking the manager to approve every kind of claim simply because they supervise the daily work would ignore the distinction in ACCA's guidance.
Lina can prepare a concise account of who observes which activities, who can verify her time and who can review the objective evidence. The purpose is to create a workable arrangement around real knowledge of her work.
Do not confuse a senior title, a friendly relationship or availability with the necessary role. Equally, do not assume that one supervisor must personally observe every activity across an entire career. Use ACCA's current arrangements for multiple supervisors and the actual circumstances.
Before a role ends, establish which approvals remain outstanding and whether the proposed reviewer has enough evidence to make them. The conversation should concern work completed, not pressure to sign a convenient total before a deadline.
When the arrangement remains uncertain, ask ACCA rather than inventing an equivalence between different professional titles or national recognition systems.
CHAPTER 8 OF 15 · Check the route
Write the statement from decisions and evidence
A useful statement helps a supervisor follow the trainee's work. Begin with a specific situation and the responsibility held. Then explain the action, the reason for it, the result and what was learned. This is a preparation routine, not a replacement for ACCA's objective elements or recording instructions.
Compare two original practice sentences. I improved the reporting process gives the reader a broad claim. I identified that two source lists used different reporting dates, asked the reviewer which date governed the report and revised my section after confirmation identifies work that can be discussed.
The second sentence does not prove a complete objective. It gives the reviewer a clearer piece of evidence. The trainee can then explain which requirement it supports and where additional evidence is still needed.
Retain the distinction between action and outcome. A trainee may have raised a sound question without controlling the final organisational decision. They can describe that contribution honestly rather than claiming every later improvement as their personal result.
Use enough technical language to be precise, but make sure it is understood. If the trainee cannot explain a term in relation to their own task, the statement may be concealing a vocabulary or conceptual gap.
Protect the organisation's information. A useful learning account does not require publishing client names, restricted files or confidential details. Follow the employer's permissions and the actual ACCA process for what may be included or shared.
End the preparation by explaining the example aloud without reading the polished text. If the reasoning disappears when the wording is removed, return to the underlying work before editing the prose again.
CHAPTER 9 OF 15 · Check the route
Prepare the handover before leaving the role
A transition becomes easier when the record is reviewed while the people and evidence remain accessible. Begin with the actual end point: what has been completed, what has been approved and what remains unresolved?
For a fictional handover, Sana first checks the role dates and duties in her record. She then identifies entries awaiting review and asks the appropriate supervisor to discuss them. She keeps future intentions separate from claims about work already performed.
Next, she records the status of each important item. Submitted for review, approved and still needing experience are different descriptions. A message sent before the final working day is not, by itself, an approval.
Sana also prepares a forward-looking learning account for herself: the kinds of work she can now explain, the objective elements still needing evidence and the support that helped. That account can inform a discussion in the next role without pretending that the new employer has inherited every previous approval responsibility.
Use the official process to update role information and obtain the relevant sign-off. ACCA's current time guidance specifically addresses leaving or changing roles. Do not postpone the whole record merely because the final thirty-six-month total has not yet been reached.
If a supervisor has already left or access has changed, preserve the information you actually have and ask ACCA about the appropriate next step. Reconstructing a truthful record is different from filling gaps with assumptions or obtaining a signature from someone unfamiliar with the work.
The handover is complete enough to be useful when the next reader can distinguish the original work, the approval status and the remaining learning need without relying on an optimistic summary.
Preserve a useful account when working files must stay at work
Fictional trainee Priya is leaving a team whose working files contain restricted information. She wants her learning record to remain understandable, but she should not assume that copying a folder to a personal account is an acceptable solution.
She asks what information may be retained and follows the employer's approved process. Her own learning note can distinguish the type of task, her responsibility, the review that occurred and the approval status without reproducing the underlying confidential material.
If further evidence is needed for the formal process, Priya clarifies how the appropriate reviewer can examine it through authorised arrangements. The need to demonstrate learning does not, by itself, give her permission to export organisational records.
This is a practical boundary to resolve while the supervisor and employer can still help. A careful description and a clear approval record are more useful than a collection of files whose relevance or retention permission is uncertain.
CHAPTER 10 OF 15 · Test the reasoning
Check the Approved Employer route before copying a workflow
An Approved Employer arrangement can change how achievements are recorded. It should therefore be identified before a trainee assumes that another person's screenshots or standard-route instructions apply to their own role.
ACCA's current Approved Employer guidance describes simplified recording where the employer holds Gold or Platinum trainee development approval and allows the relevant arrangement. Not every team or role is eligible. The 36-month relevant supervised-experience requirement remains.
Under that confirmed arrangement, employment information is recorded in MyExperience and the Approved Employer PER confirmation form records the relevant completion or leaving-employer position. The portal explains that separate time claims, objective approvals and supervisor registration in the tool are not required for that route. Follow the current form instructions rather than combining incompatible workflows.
Fictional trainee Amir sees his employer's name associated with approval and assumes that his own team is covered. His next useful action is to confirm the status and permission for his role with the employer. A familiar logo is not the evidence that answers that question.
Suppose Amir then changes to another employer before completing everything. He needs a clear record of what has been achieved and what remains. The new role's recording arrangement should be checked in its own right rather than inherited from the previous employer's status.
The educational principle remains the same across routes: work, demonstrated learning and formal confirmation must retain their meanings. Simplified recording changes an administrative process; it is not a reason to invent experience that did not occur.
If the route is unclear, resolve that uncertainty before spending hours rewriting statements or requesting approvals through the wrong process. The current ACCA guidance and the employer's confirmed arrangement should direct the next action.
CHAPTER 11 OF 15 · Test the reasoning
Plan the next role around a specific learning opportunity
A role change can be planned as more than a continuation of a month count. Ask which responsibilities could help the trainee develop and demonstrate the next relevant capability, within the role and appropriate supervision.
For Kiran, two Technical objectives remain unresolved in the fictional profile. The first question is which objectives fit his actual work and the opportunities the employer can reasonably provide. Choosing an impressive-sounding objective in an area he never works in would create a predictable evidence gap.
A useful discussion identifies an activity, the responsibility the trainee may take, the guidance available and the evidence that could show progress. It should also identify limits. A junior trainee should not quietly take on authority that has not been assigned merely to create a stronger learning story.
Suppose a supervised reporting task could provide a useful opportunity. Before the task begins, Kiran reads the relevant elements and asks what good performance would look like. Afterwards, he reviews what he actually did and which parts still depended on support.
The plan should include time to revisit the learning. Repeating a task once with a helpful colleague beside him may establish a supported achievement. Explaining the reasoning and applying it in a changed situation can reveal a different stage of control.
Keep the forecast separate from completion. Planned rotation, expected project and proposed objective are useful planning entries. They become claims about achieved experience only when the relevant work and approval have occurred.
This makes professional learning more manageable. The trainee can identify the next appropriate opportunity instead of treating every new job as a vague instruction to become generally more experienced.
Make one learning opportunity observable
Imagine that a permitted new task involves preparing a section of a routine internal report. Before the work begins, the trainee and supervisor discuss what the trainee will actually do, what will be reviewed and which requirement the experience may help address.
The first attempt might be highly supported. The supervisor identifies the source, explains the reporting period and shows how an unresolved item is documented. The trainee's record should retain those conditions. A completed output with that support demonstrates something different from recognising the same issues independently.
On a later appropriate task, the support can change. The trainee identifies the source and period, explains what needs checking and brings a specific uncertainty to the reviewer. The supervisor can now see whether the earlier explanation has become usable knowledge.
Suppose the trainee notices that a newly supplied file covers an extra week. They pause before combining it with the established report and ask which period applies. That action is an observable learning event: a condition was recognised, an assumption was questioned and the next action respected the review process.
The example still does not establish an entire performance objective. Its value is that the trainee and supervisor can examine what happened and match the evidence with the actual elements. They can also identify which responsibility has not yet been attempted.
Afterwards, the trainee writes a short learning note in their own words. Which check mattered? What did the reviewer clarify? What could be done with less support next time? These questions join the experience record with a practical plan for developing capability.
This is more informative than treating exposure as a yes-or-no box. Watching, assisting, performing with guidance and exercising appropriate independent judgement are different conditions of learning. A useful development conversation makes those conditions visible without inventing an unofficial ACCA grading scale for them.
CHAPTER 12 OF 15 · Test the reasoning
Test whether the learning survives a changed task
Use these original cases for preparation or discussion. They are not ACCA objective statements, official assessment items or ready-made submissions.
First, a trainee has always prepared a report from one clean source. A new task uses two sources with different date ranges. Ask what must be checked before the figures are combined. A useful response identifies the definitions and period before assuming that similar-looking columns describe the same thing.
Second, a trainee has described a successful team project. Ask which decisions they made, which were reviewed and which belonged to someone else. If the contribution cannot be separated, return to the actual work rather than improving the claim's wording.
Third, a trainee moves from a full-time mixed role to a part-time accounting role. Ask which details must be reconsidered in the time record. The earlier relevant-work percentage and the new job title do not remove the need to record the new hours and duties accurately.
Fourth, a trainee completes an activity that seems related to an objective but cannot identify how it addresses the elements. The next step is to examine the match with the supervisor. A topical resemblance is not a complete demonstration of the requirement.
For each case, ask the learner to state the evidence, the uncertainty and the next action. This reveals whether they understand the record's meaning or merely know where to enter information.
Transfer should remain proportionate. These exercises develop professional learning habits; they do not establish that a person is authorised to make every accounting, audit or regulatory decision in a real organisation.
The useful achievement is increasing control over explanation, evidence and appropriate help-seeking when the task changes.
CHAPTER 13 OF 15 · Take the next step
Give trainees and supporters workable roles
The trainee's responsibility is to make their actual work and learning visible. Maintain a truthful record, understand the objective being discussed and identify uncertainty before it is disguised by a polished summary.
A supervisor can help identify appropriate opportunities, review evidence and make the approvals they are authorised to make. A regular short review can expose a mismatch while there is still time to address it through relevant work.
An employer can clarify the role, supervision and any Approved Employer arrangement. Useful support includes a realistic account of available responsibilities rather than an informal promise that every requirement will somehow be satisfied later.
A tutor or study supporter can help the learner understand terminology and organise a learning plan. They should not manufacture workplace examples or write an account that the trainee cannot explain. The actual supervisor still needs the evidence relevant to the formal process.
A family member can help protect a manageable period for reviewing the record, especially during a busy job transition. Asking what remains unresolved can be more useful than repeatedly asking whether the trainee is finished yet.
Keep feedback precise. The example explains your contribution but does not yet address this element gives a trainee a clear next question. Your record is weak supplies a broad judgement without a usable repair.
The shared aim is a record that helps the learner continue: experience is described accurately, learning is checkable and the next role begins with an intelligible account rather than a collection of uncertain claims.
Does three years in employment automatically complete PER?
Use the relevant experience record, objective achievements and applicable approval process. Employment duration alone does not answer all those questions. Check what the current official record actually shows.
Can experience from more than one employer contribute?
ACCA's guidance allows experience across roles and employers. Preserve the relevant work and approval record from each period, and check the arrangement when the role changes.
What if only some of my role involves accounting or finance?
Describe the duties and record the actual hours and relevant-work percentage through the official process. Do not classify the whole period from the department name or select a percentage to create a preferred completion date.
Can my line manager approve every part of the record?
Check the distinction between time and objective approval and the supervisor's eligibility. A non-qualified line manager's knowledge of the work does not automatically replace the qualified-supervisor requirements for objectives.
Do Approved Employer trainees follow the same recording steps?
Not necessarily. Confirm the employer's approval, the relevant role's eligibility and its permission for simplified recording, then follow ACCA's current instructions and form for that route.
Can I reuse someone else's successful statement?
A statement should explain your own experience. Borrowed wording can conceal differences in responsibility and understanding. Start from the work you actually performed and the elements you need to demonstrate.
Should I wait until the final month to update everything?
A role transition is a reason to review the record while the relevant people and evidence remain accessible. Keep the status of submitted, approved and incomplete items clear throughout the process.
CHAPTER 15 OF 15 · Take the next step
Use current sources and make the handover concrete
The official information in this guide was checked on 23 October 2026. Start with ACCA's PER overview, then use the separate pages for relevant time, performance objectives and supervisor arrangements. For the simplified route, consult the Approved Employer explanation.
The fictional profiles and workplace examples illustrate reasoning. They are not ACCA approvals, interpretations of a named employer's status or evidence that a particular trainee has completed the qualification.
For the next useful step, choose one item that would be difficult to explain after leaving the role. Identify the actual work, the relevant requirement, its approval status and the person who can resolve the remaining question.
Then preserve a concise forward-looking account: what is secure, what still needs experience and which support will help in the next setting. A useful professional learning record carries understanding forward while keeping the evidence and its boundaries intact.