Choosing the right supervisor
Your practical experience supervisor has to decide when you’ve achieved your performance objectives. Therefore, it must be someone who:
- is a qualified accountant*
- works closely with you
- knows your work.
* A qualified accountant is a member of an IFAC (International Federation of Accountants) member body and/or a body recognised by law in your country.
In most cases, your practical experience supervisor will be your line manager or someone you report to on particular projects or activities.
Decide in advance how often you’ll need to meet your supervisor and how much time you’ll require, so you can choose one who’ll be able to provide sufficient input and give you the support you need.
Line manager not qualified
If your supervisor is not qualified they can sign-off the time you've completed in a relevant role, and you can choose a second, qualified supervisor who can work with your manager to sign-off your performance objectives.
This could be:
- another manager in your organisation
- a consultant
- one of your organisation's external accountants or auditors.
Multiple practical experience supervisors
You may have more than one supervisor - or several different supervisors over a period of time - who are responsible for helping you to achieve different performance objectives.
Friends and family
Where possible you should not have a friend or relative as your practical experience supervisor to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Where this is not possible, you should disclose the relationship to ACCA when you are applying for admission to membership.
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