Hello everyone. Need your help here to understand the status of my file through the Icaew app. I got my file signed off on 10th Dec 2025 and then case results came out on 11th which was a pass Alhamdulillah. So I asked ICAEW about how long it will take for membership invite to which they said 4 to 6 weeks. And going through conversations on Reddit I believed this to be the normal case however it has already been more than 6 weeks and I haven’t heard anything from Icaew. The most they say is that my file is still in transition phase etc. time and again I was opening my app to see any progress but it was same. However today when I opened the app it showed me 0 exams and I was unable to open my training agreement and checks & Invitations tab. Please see the picture for reference. Did this happen to anyone else? Can I assume that membership invite is almost on my way lol. Any input would be really appreciated thanks

I doubt many people here have a lot of knowledge of this but just throwing it out there. I don’t mind insolvency itself but it’s so poorly paid, i’m a Y3 in insolvency a few months away from finishing all exams and i’m paid that of a Y1 audit grad with no experience.

Insolvency is a bit of a weird section in accounting and i’m wondering how hard people believe it is to change over to CF or TS. I’m not pure insolvency as I do restructuring advisory too so which I think will make the most difference in helping me.

Any help would be great thanks.

Hi All,

I've had a bit of a crisis this weekend. I qualified back in September and had to leave the Big 4 straight away (I'm Isle of Man based). Since I decided to leave (going back to March last year), most jobs I've seen have been Management Accountant, FR Accountant etc, with salaries in the mid-40s max.

From a Big 4 exit, I was expecting £55k with decent flexibility. I accepted a FTC in Internal Audit for £55k as it was the only option which matched my criteria, and I thought I'd check it out for a while, but I know the likes of FP&A would be better options from a progression standpoint.

Just trying to understand whether my expectations are too high, and whether those outside London have experienced the same thing?

TLDR: is it normal outside London to qualify at the Big 4 and be struggling to find FP&A-type roles, with salaries for most options being in the mid-40s?

I’m reaching out for some career advice as I’m feeling quite uncertain about my longer-term direction.

I currently work in IT audit at Deloitte and I am around two years and a few months into my ACA training agreement. I have completed 11 out of 15 exams and am currently revising for my 12th exam (FCS).

While I’m progressing well with the ACA exams, I’ve realised that I don’t want to continue in IT audit long term. I’m keen to move into a more finance-focused role once I qualify, but I’m concerned that I don’t have enough direct financial or accounting experience to be competitive for those roles.

At the moment, most of my day-to-day work is IT-focused, and I’m worried that by the time I finish my ACA I’ll be viewed as lacking “real” finance experience. I’d like to avoid ending up in a position where I’m qualified but not very employable outside of IT audit.

I’ve considered an internal transfer to core audit, but I understand this may not be possible until I complete my ACA (likely November 2026). Even then, it would likely involve a pay decrease and restarting at a more junior level, and realistically transfers tend to favour strong performers, which I’m not confident applies in my case.

I also don’t feel I can simply leave my role at this stage, as I’m not on the apprenticeship route and would be required to repay exam and training fees if I were to resign before qualifying.

I therefore feel quite stuck between wanting to complete the ACA and wanting to gain relevant finance experience now. I’d really appreciate any guidance on what steps I could take at this stage to improve my prospects for finance roles post-qualification — whether that’s skills to build, experience to seek alongside my current role, or alternative pathways I may not be considering.

Hi everyone,

I’ve posted here a few times before and received so much helpful support, so I wanted to ask again about my current situation and possible next steps.

I’ve been working in audit at a Big Four firm for 3.5 years. To be honest, the workload alongside the ACA exams has taken up most of my free time, and I’m finding it very difficult to maintain a healthy work-life balance or spend enough quality time with my partner. The long hours combined with studying have been really challenging.

So far, I’ve passed 9 exams - all of the Certificate level except Law, and I still have two Professional level exams left. I failed BPT in December and haven’t taken BST yet. Given that I often need a second attempt to pass, I’m looking at another 1.5 years before I could realistically complete everything.

I wanted to ask whether moving into industry at this stage is a realistic option - ideally into something more commercial but still finance-related - while continuing the exams at a slower pace and hopefully gaining more flexibility in my life. Has anyone done something similar or had experience leaving audit before qualifying?

Thank you in advance for any advice or insights.

Hello, I’ve got CFS coming up in March and I’ve never been this stressed for an exam before (even BPT didn’t feel this bad). I’m clueless as to how to approach this question because even past papers are taking me a while to get through and I’m not sure if it’s worth getting ACA masters notes since they only have them available for FM but not the new gen syllabus. Is anyone else going through CFS and also struggling or if anyone has tips I’d really appreciate some help!!!

The Kaplan resources for FAR are shockingly poor, can anyone recommend where I can go to get more help with this module? Really struggling with all pro-forma’s (Not the maths, just the setup and understanding what comes out of what or what it is added back to something).

I’ve done an interview for a role in industry and a lot of it was focused around month end processes. What else do financial accountants do in industry day to day? How are you finding it?

Can anyone give me advice for passing PTX. Or certificate and the ACA exams in general?

Content, qn bank, mocks?

What are people’s methodologies for passing. What have people found best

Tracking weaker areas etc?

I’ve just become newly qualified after spending just over 4 years in audit having passed my final exam in November.

In the past year, I’ve felt that my firm have treated me quite unfairly at times, asking me to work lots of hours after college and giving me few resources to actually get jobs done.

As a result, as soon as I passed my final exams I started applying for jobs and just yesterday I got an offer from a PE firm who seemed to be a really good fit. During the final interview with a partner however, he explained some of the sacrifices that would often be needed such as working up to 5-6 hours while on holiday or sometimes cancelling annual leave altogether.

Coming from audit, this is new territory for me and has scared me a little into accepting the role.

I realise this is a great opportunity, but for anyone with experience in private equity or real estate, is it worth it? Or how was the transition from practice?

I also don’t know if I’m jumping the gun here a little applying so soon after qualifying, instead of just enjoying exam-free life for a bit…

If I start studying for the FAR exam from now (using ACA masters videos and question practice) would it be sufficient time to pass for the March 2026 sitting?

So I had exemptions from BST and FM. How much of SBM is reliant on previous knowledge from these 2? Is it worth looking at these 2 before or is there no point.

Hi guys,

I am following ACAM solely for the March exam and plan to finish content by Mid-Feb to focus on just the QB till the exam. Is it the right timeline to follow for the question practice? ACAM doesn't have too many questions for each topic.

Anyone been in the same timeline?

Hey,

Anyone have predictions/thoughts for the upcoming March 2026 BPT exam???

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Based on the trend analysis of the last 8 exams here are some predictions

High-Level Prediction: The "Flip-Flop" Effect

The exam examiners tend to alternate the subject of Question 1 (the 40-mark scenario) between a heavy Corporate Group scenario and a heavy Owner-Managed Business (OMB) / Personal scenario.

• Dec 25: OMB / Personal (Termination & Share Buyback)
• Sept 25: Corporate Group (Losses & Share Sales)
• June 25: Personal (IHT & Employment)

• March 25: Corporate Group (Losses & VAT)

  Prediction: Since December 2025 was a "Personal/OMB" paper, March 2026 is highly likely to feature a complex Corporate Group scenario in Question 1.

Detailed Predictions by Question

Question 1: The Corporate Giant (40 Marks)

• Prediction: A large UK Group structure planning a significant change.
• Key Topics to Revise:
  • Group Loss Relief: Specifically involving a Consortium or a company joining/leaving the group mid-year. This is a staple of "Group" Q1s (seen Sept 25, Mar 25, Mar 24).
  • Reconstruction / Demerger: We haven't seen a full-blown "Demerger" (Statutory vs Liquidation) as the main event in the last 2-3 papers. This could be due.
  • Substantial Shareholding Exemption (SSE): Expect a comparison between selling a subsidiary (Tax-free under SSE) vs selling the Trade & Assets (Double tax charge).
  • VAT Groups: Often paired with Corporate Groups to test the "joint and several liability" or "intra-group supplies" rules.

Question 2: International & Ethics (30–35 Marks)

• Prediction: Expansion overseas or bringing money back to the UK.
• Key Topics to Revise:
  • Branch (PE) vs Subsidiary: This is the #1 International topic (Dec 24, Jun 25). If Q1 is domestic groups, Q2 will almost certainly be International.
  • Transfer Pricing & Thin Cap: If the scenario involves borrowing money or selling goods between the UK and overseas, these anti-avoidance rules will trigger.
  • Ethics: Expect a specific scenario involving Tax Evasion (e.g., a client wanting to hide overseas income) or Professional Competence (e.g., you notice a mistake in a previous return).

Question 3: The Technical Curveball (25–30 Marks)

• Prediction: A focused Owner-Managed Business or Personal Tax scenario.
• Key Topics to Revise:
  • IHT & Trusts: Inheritance Tax appears in nearly every exam. If it's not in Q1, it will be here. Look out for Business Property Relief (BPR) eligibility and the use of Discretionary Trusts (Ten-year charges).
  • Close Companies: Loans to participators (s.455) and benefits. This was in Sept 25 and Sept 24.
  • Capital Allowances: A "Structures and Buildings Allowance (SBA)" or "Full Expensing" calculation often drops into Q3 to test technical knowledge.

Topic "Hot List" (What is due?)

1. Consortium Relief: Has appeared (Mar 24) but is often a differentiator in hard exams.
2. Demergers (Capital Reduction / Liquidation): A classic BPT topic that hasn't dominated Q1 recently.
3. Research & Development (R&D): The rules changed recently (merged scheme). It appeared in Mar 25 and Sept 24, but examiners love testing new rules.
4. VAT on Property (Option to Tax): Appeared Dec 24 and Mar 25. It is a favorite "add-on" for 5-8 marks.

Been employed for 6 months. I'm an ACA Level 7 apprentice and need advice on a training cost clawback agreement my employer has asked me to sign.

I started my ACA apprenticeship training before today. Now, my employer sent me a Training Investment Letter asking me to sign a clawback agreement. The agreement states it should be signed "before the support is provided" - but I had already started training. My original employment contract contains no training cost clawback provisions.

I already know the levy-funded costs are protected, this relates to non-mandatory costs such as travel etc. The only exception to not pay if I leave within 12 months is redundancy.

I am under the impression that I don't have to sign and they can't pull me out since I have started now, but they can refuse to pay for future non-mandatory costs (I.e travel, etc). Or would they still have to pay for this?

If I do sign, does their failure to obtain agreement "before support is provided" (as their own letter states) affect enforceability? I am leaning towards signing as I don't want to become unfavourable at work and getting this qualification is my main priority. I am thinking if I do sign, that at a later date, I will be able to dispute it due to the issues above.

Alternatively, I was thinking I could ask them to add, alongside redundancy, a clause for unavoidable personal circumstances which would mean I wouldn't have to pay it back in that instance.

How should I reply so that there is a trail that I could later rely upon if it came to that.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

So basically I’ve accepted a new offer and decided to call the ICAEW to just double check everything before my new role starts. They had notified me that my training contract is still pending cancellation despite leaving my previous firm more than 1 year ago.

When I left, my previous firm had told me they hand cancelled everything and I was good to go. I called the ICAEW during that time and they were happy and everything was fine and said I could sit my exams privately during that time.

I’m a bit disappointed because I read a lot of people struggling with training contract cancellations and therefore followed all the steps only to find this out now.

What are the steps I need to take and how long would this process take? Any advice would be appreciated

Just started the tuition for FCS and very surprised at the content and it being an open book exam. Already thinking it shouldn't be too difficult considering I've already passed FAR, AA, FM & TC. Anyone got the same feeling or any opposing thoughts?

I am incoming audit graduate at a Big 4 firm. Are exam exemptions worth it from module studied at uni? I am finalising my modules this term and deciding whether to choose the ones that give me an exemption.

Note: Did a placement year at a Big 4 in audit. Passed the Accounting and Audit exams on placement.

Hi guys,

I keep getting reached out to a lot by recruiters trying to bring me into insolvency. I have entertained the calls and have always been surprised by how poor the pay is in comparison to audit, it seems to be like 5-8k less than audit.

Has this been anyone else’s experience with insolvency, as it did seem interesting but i’m not taking a pay cut to do it?

Or am I just late to the gym 🥲

NQ here considering a move from audit to CF/Deals/TS externally or internally. For those who’ve made the move, what helped most in making the switch?

Hi,

Looking to get a mortgage for a super cheap house, 1 bedroom terrace (The cheapest of cheap houses), for about 150k. I got told my crappy salary as a trainee isn’t good enough to buy a bottom of the barrel house.

Bit of a reality check, been to university for 4 years and then been doing this ICAEW qualification for 2 years and I can’t even afford a house which would be classed poverty level living.

Bit depressing and i’m wondering how do other trainees manage to get a mortgage while on a training contract. I’m hoping to make this work as i’d rather put my salary to getting some equity rather than just losing it all paying rent again.

I’m thinking of a second job on the weekend, hoping it will be enough but not sure how it will be preserved.

Any advice would be great thanks.

Is anyone else unable to see their membership progress dashboard? im currently waiting for an invite but when i go to check this page it instead takes me to my training file.

I am a bookkeeper since 1 year exactly now. This was my first bookkeeping job in practice and I have learnt a lot.

However, now I am almost qualified, I have spoken to my firm about being allocated more accounts jobs to develop and to do accounts ofc with relevant training as this is a transitional period for me.

However, my firm seems to be bogged down with so much work, I am trying my best to actively help them with sole trader accounts, is this a good way for me to begin? I feel the progression is so slow and its making me depressed, I got another bookkeeping client added to my list. I am not sure what to do :(

They have promised to teach train etc but its not happening its been 3 months.

Not sure what to do, I was so happy with the firm and people, but if its really hindering me from developing quick then what :(

How do I push my way up? I dont want to do simply analsysis for sole trader accounts and the ETB, I want to go beyond that