Three years of relevant work only becomes ACCA membership if it is recorded properly – and that happens in the MyExperience tool inside your myACCA account.
With this guide, we will walk you through the process of how to record your practical experience on myACCA. Whether you are starting your first relevant role or catching up on a delayed PER record, here is how to record PER in ACCA.
ACCA practical experience is recorded through MyExperience, the online tool inside your myACCA account.
The basic process is:
- Add your employment and enter your role, dates and working hours.
- Add your supervisor so they can review your PER.
- Record your qualifying experience as you gain it.
- Work on your performance objectives using examples from your actual job.
- Submit your completed objectives and experience for supervisor approval.
- Keep the record updated whenever your job, supervisor or employment details change.
Three different things are happening here, and it helps not to mix them up:
- Employment record: This tells ACCA where you worked, what role you had, when you worked there and how much qualifying experience you gained.
- Performance objectives: These show what you have actually learned and demonstrated through your work.
- Supervisor approval: Your supervisor verifies the experience and objectives you have submitted. Simply entering a job or writing an objective does not mean it has been signed off.
The easiest way to handle my ACCA PER is to update it as you work. If you leave everything until the end, you have to reconstruct old employment details, recall old projects, and track down supervisors who may no longer be with the company.
How Do You Add Employment Details To MyExperience?
To add employment details in myACCA, you will need to collect details such as:
- Employer name and address
- Your job title and role
- Employment start date
- Employment end date, when applicable
- Average hours worked
- Relevant supervisor details
Your employment record should reflect the job you actually did, because ACCA assesses the relevance of your experience rather than simply looking at your job title. If you change employers, add all the above details for the new one to your employment history.
What Counts As Practical Experience For ACCA?
ACCA practical experience is about relevant work that allows you to develop and apply accounting, finance and related professional skills. You can gain it through roles involving:
- Finance & accounting
- Audit and assurance work
- Tax
- Financial management
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Internal controls
- Other accounting or finance responsibilities
Here, the important question is not simply, “What is my job title?” It is “What work am I actually doing?” An “analyst” doing pure data entry may gain nothing, while an accounts assistant preparing reconciliations does.
Note: ACCA candidates should record time according to ACCA’s current rules for relevant roles. If you are unsure, check the current ACCA guidance before treating all of your time as qualifying experience.
Can You Record Past ACCA Practical Experience?
Yes – relevant experience gained before you began recording, even before registering as an ACCA student, can be added retrospectively. It must still satisfy ACCA’s rules, though: the role must have been genuinely relevant, and the supervisor who oversaw that work must verify it – older employment does not count automatically.
Before adding a previous role, confirm that the supervisor is reachable, recalls your duties and dates, and is eligible to sign – no reachable verifier means a weak claim.
Who Can Sign Off ACCA Practical Experience?
Your Practical Experience Supervisor (PES) is the person who verifies your work experience for ACCA PER. They review the work you have done, confirm your qualifying time and, where eligible, approve your performance objectives in MyExperience.
In most cases, your line manager will be your practical experience supervisor because they directly oversee your work. The important thing is not the job title. Your supervisor needs to know what you do and be able to judge the quality of your work.
So, the person signing off must be a qualified accountant or auditor – a member of an IFAC-recognised body or recognised by law – who works closely with you. This is important to sign performance objectives and relevant time. A non-qualified line manager can only sign off time.
How Do You Complete ACCA Performance Objectives?
Performance objectives are the part of PER where you show how your workplace experience translates into actual professional skills. Under current rules, you need to complete all 5 Essentials and 4 of the 17 Technical objectives.
- Go to your myACCA portal and log in with your credentials.
- Now, head to the MyExperience tool and open the Performance Objectives section
- Work through the elements of the objective in your job. Keep notes of relevant tasks, situations, decisions and outcomes as you go.
- Write a concise 200 to 500 word PER statement covering the tasks you performed, the skills you used and the results you delivered.
- Submit the completed objective through MyExperience to your Practical Experience Supervisor.
How Do You Submit ACCA Performance Objectives For Sign-Off?
The process to submit performance objectives through MyExperience is very simple. Follow these simple steps:
- Open the Objectives section.
- Select the performance objective.
- Complete and save your 200 to 500 word statement.
- Select Claim Objective.
- Open the basket and review the claim.
- Send it to the supervisor who oversaw the relevant experience
Based on your statement, your supervisor will either approve or decline the objective. If they decline it, review their feedback and make the necessary changes before submitting it again.
How Do You Complete ACCA PER?
So, how to complete ACCA PER? Fulfil these four requirements:
- 36 months of relevant experience: Work in a relevant accounting or finance role and record your qualifying experience. You can gain this experience by working for an ACCA Approved Employer.
- 9 performance objectives: Complete all 5 Essentials and at least 4 Technical objectives through your workplace experience.
- Supervisor approval: Have your experience and performance objectives reviewed and signed off by an eligible practical experience supervisor.
- Keep MyExperience updated: Record your employment, dates, hours, supervisor details, and progress as you gain experience.
Remember, passing ACCA examinations does not qualify you to become an ACCA. Exams test your technical knowledge; PER shows that you can apply that knowledge in a real workplace.
How Do You Record Experience During A Career Break?
A career break does not erase your 36 months of ACCA PER experience. It just pauses it. Only the periods when you are actually gaining relevant experience move the clock forward. So an extended break should not sit inside an active employment period.
That’s the mistake most people make. Whether the break is maternity leave, long-term illness, time off to care for a relative, or a sabbatical, close the role properly in the MyExperience tool and reopen cleanly when you are back:
Situation | What to do in MyExperience |
Break starting | Edit the role, add an end date and save. Counting stops from that day – the tool keeps the banked months attached to the role. |
During the break | Nothing to log. Keep the experience you have already accumulated. The qualifying months you completed before the break still count. |
Returning to relevant work | Add a new role with your actual return-to-work date (yes, even if it is with the same employer) |
Any role change | Get your qualifying time and completed objectives reviewed and signed off by your supervisor |
P.S. Don’t try to make your ACCA PER online record look continuous when your employment wasn’t. Accurate dates keep your myACCA PER record honest and easy to verify.
What Should You Do With Your PER When Leaving A Role?
Before you leave an employer, close out your PER record while the details are still fresh and your supervisor is still accessible. Once you are gone, every remaining step gets slower.
In ACCA course, timing matters because the one who supervised the work is the one who must sign it off. A new employer’s supervisor cannot simply re-approve objectives from your old role, and chasing a former manager months later is slow, awkward, and sometimes impossible.
So, here is a list of things worth checking before your final day:
- Update your employment end date: Go to the employment section in MyExperience, edit the role and enter your actual end date.
- Check what is still outstanding: Make a note of your approved months and completed objectives before moving to the next employer.
- Confirm the supervisor is linked: Each role needs its own signatory. Make sure the right supervisor is still attached to sign off your time or performance objectives.
- Submit completed objectives: If you have finished any performance objectives, don’t leave them sitting in draft. Submit them to the supervisor who oversaw the relevant work.
- Save your supervisor’s personal contact details. A personal email or LinkedIn profile keeps the door open if anything needs checking after you have both moved on.
How Often Should You Update MyExperience?
Don’t treat My Experience ACCA like something you only open when your ACCA exams are finished, or you have accumulated 36 months of PER. Start recording your PER experience as you gain it.
To update your MyExperience section, you will need to have details of the following:
- Your employer, role, and supervisor details
- Total amount of internship experience gained
- Your development and target performance objectives
Here is why waiting until you have finished your exams is the most expensive mistake in the ACCA PER journey:
- Memory decays faster than you think – Regular updates also help you write stronger performance objective statements because you can describe what you actually did, the skills you used and what you learned, rather than trying to remember a project from months or years ago.
- Supervisors sign what they can verify – Your supervisor signs off both your time towards the 36 months and your nine performance objectives. So, if you don’t update them, they cannot do ACCA PER sign off.
- Get approvals when supervisors are available – Supervisors get promoted, switch firms, go on long leave. An approval that takes ten minutes while they are still your line manager can turn into a six-week hunt for a former colleague’s new email address – or a dead end.
In simple words, your record is evidence, and evidence is only reliable when it is captured close to the event. Update your experience as you go, and your final statements become a tidy-up exercise instead of an archaeology project.
Frequently Asked Questions About How to Record Your Practical Experience on myACCA (H2)
How Do I Log My Experience?
Log in to myACCA and open the MyExperience tool, add your employment details. Then record your time and work through the performance objectives – submitting each one to your practical experience supervisor for approval.
Can You Record Past ACCA Practical Experience?
Yes, you can record relevant experience gained before becoming an ACCA, provided it meets ACCA’s requirements and is verified by the supervisor.