CAT

(Certified Accounting Technician)

CAT stands for Certified Accounting Technician and the qualification provides a strong foundation of knowledge in finance and accounting. It is provided by the ACCA for those students who do not wish to study for the full ACCA Qualification or who do not satisfy the entry requirements and wish to study later for the full ACCA Qualification.

BENEFITS OF OBTAINING THE CAT QUALIFICATION:

The qualification proves to employers that you have all the technical skills and knowledge needed to perform an accounts-support role and that you are capable of working at a technician level.

In addition, once the qualification has been obtained you are able to continue your studies with the ACCA Qualification and will be exempt from the first three ACCA examinations.

STUDYING FOR THE CAT QUALIFICATION

In order to obtain the qualification it is necessary to pass 9 examinations (although if you have previous qualifications or relevant practical experience then you may be exempt from some of the examinations).

• FA1, MA1, FA2, MA2, FAB, FFA and FMA
• Two of the three specialist papers (FAU: Foundations in Audit, FFM: Foundations in Financial Management or FTX: Foundations in Taxation)
• A practical experience requirement
• Foundations in Professionalism (online ethics module)

The exams are held twice a year – in June and in December – and at each sitting you can attempt as many exams as you like (up to a maximum of 4 at one sitting), or no exams at all! There is no time limit for completing the examinations.

Exams are held at the same time in most countries throughout the world.

Rules

Registration with ACCA is compulsory before attempting any paper of CAT Student can sit for any number of examinations in any order in one. But he can’t sit for manual paper examination for 1 & 6 or 2 & 7 in the same exam. If a student wishes to attempt these papers together, he can take the first four papers as computer based exam (CBE).

Exemption in papers of ACCA due to CAT:

A student who completes CAT is given exemption of knowledge level papers (3 papers) of ACCA