Professional body requirements for practising accountants

The three bodies compared

Practising certificates and licences

ICAEW's practising certificate regulations (in effect from 1 January 2024) say a member may engage in public practice in the UK only with a current certificate. To be eligible a member must have been a member for two years, comply with the CPD bye-law, understand the fundamental principles of the Code of Ethics, undertake to comply with the PII regulations, and be fit and proper.

ACCA's factsheet Am I in public practice? says a principal, or an employee responsible for public practice work, must hold an ACCA practising certificate when practising in a designated territory: the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and dependencies, and the Isle of Man. This applies even if they hold a certificate from another body. ACCA's eligibility page requires three years of supervised experience and two years of continuous membership.

AAT offers a bookkeeper licence and an accountant licence. The accountant licence is open to MAAT and FMAAT members and covers 18 services. AAT's licence conditions include annual renewal, the data protection fee, engagement and disengagement letters, a complaints procedure, and naming another practising accountant for continuity of practice, with an exception for members with six clients or fewer.

ICAS requires a practising certificate for members who provide services, including accounting services, to people other than their employer.

Professional indemnity insurance

ICAEW's PII regulations, effective from 1 October 2026, set a minimum limit of indemnity of £2 million for any single claim and in the aggregate. A firm with gross fee income below £800,000 needs two and a half times its gross fee income, with a minimum of £250,000. The retroactive date must be at least six years before the current policy, or the start of the practice if later. A firm that stops practising keeps run-off cover for at least two years and then takes reasonable steps to cover a further four years.

Under ACCA's PII regulations, in force from 1 September 2023, a firm with total income below £600,000 needs cover of at least the greater of two and a half times its relevant total income and £100,000, and a firm with £600,000 or more needs at least £1.5 million.

AAT's PII policy, issued 1 July 2025, requires cover on an any one claim basis, with full civil liability and full retroactive cover. The minimum is the greater of two and a half times gross fee income and £50,000 for a sole practitioner, or £100,000 for a partnership or limited company. Above £400,000 of gross fee income the most the policy requires is £1,000,000. AAT recommends cover for at least six years after a member stops being a principal.

CPD

ACCA's unit route requires 40 units each year, at least 21 of them verifiable. AAT's CPD policy, issued 1 January 2026, sets no fixed number of hours. Members assess their own learning needs, record what they do, and keep records for at least five years. Licensed members cover the areas they are licensed in, anti-money laundering, practice management and general business skills. ICAEW makes compliance with its CPD bye-law a condition of holding a practising certificate.

Client money

ICAEW's Clients' Money Regulations require money received for clients to be paid immediately into a client bank account, and the total client balances to be reconciled to the bank at least once every five weeks, with any difference corrected immediately. AAT's clients' money policy requires the same five-weekly reconciliation, written acknowledgement from the bank of the account's terms, and records kept for at least six years. ACCA introduced regulation 350.28 on 15 December 2024, requiring client account reconciliations at least every 50 days (ACCA).

Anti-money laundering supervision

ICAEW, ACCA, AAT and ICAS are among the professional bodies that supervise their members for anti-money laundering (GOV.UK). See anti-money laundering supervision.