ICAEW CFAB: a stepping stone to chartered accountancy

ICAEW CFAB encompasses the first six exams of the ACA qualification, equipping students with key finance and business skills.

As a standalone qualification, ICAEW CFAB it is a great route for your students to get a better understanding of whether a career in accountancy is right for them, while your organisation gets a taste of the training process. But it can also be taken as a stepping stone to the ICAEW Business and Finance Professional (BFP) designation, and the full ACA qualification. To achieve the BFP designation, students will also need to develop professional skills and gain 12 months' work experience.

This route is open to all, including school leavers, graduates, mature students and career changers. This opens your recruitment pool and allows you to consider candidates from a wider range of backgrounds.

ICAEW CFAB can also be undertaken by current employees, giving your workforce the essential business, finance and accountancy knowledge to drive your organisation forward. Investing in your staff's development with ICAEW CFAB is a great way to build loyalty and demonstrate your commitment to continued professional development.

While your students must only complete the first six modules of the ACA to achieve ICAEW CFAB, they will still gain a wealth of knowledge and skills through work experience and the topics covered:

• Accounting Fundamentals: Ensures that students have a sound understanding of the techniques of double entry accounting and can apply its principles in recording transactions, straightforward adjustments to financial records and preparing non-complex financial statements.
• Assurance and Risk Fundamentals: Ensures that students understand the assurance process and fundamental principles of ethics, and are able to contribute to the assessment of internal controls and gathering of evidence on assurance work.
• Business Insight and Performance: Enables students to prepare essential financial information for the management of a business.
• Business Law: Provides students with an understanding of the principles of business law.
• Sustainability and Ethics: Provides students with an understanding of the fundamentals of sustainability and ethics and how they are relevant to the work of the professional accountant.
• Tax Fundamentals: Enables students to understand the general objectives of taxation and to calculate income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation tax, VAT and stamp taxes in straightforward scenarios.

Exams can be taken in any order, meaning your students can frontload the topics that best meet your organisational needs.

Credit for prior learning, also known as CPL or exemptions, recognises areas of the ICAEW CFAB syllabus that your students have previously studied. This enables credit to be claimed for up to five of the six exams.

Are you interested in exploring the ICAEW CFAB route further? Register your interest to speak to our dedicated support team who can guide you through your options.

• Register your interest in ICAEW CFAB

Last updated: June 2026