For advice on how to get started with your accountancy training, please see our Getting started guide and our Guide to qualification pathways. If you have any further questions about getting started please get in touch with our friendly customer services team.

To find course dates & prices, first select your study centre then scroll down to ‘course dates & prices’ which is on the left on your study centre’s page. From here you can view the dates & prices PDF document for your qualification and exam sitting. Alternatively, you can use the filters on the Book Now page to view all available courses for your study centre.

AAT, ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW (Professional and Advanced level) courses do not include exam fees. You have the flexibility of booking and paying for your exam at a centre that is conveniently located to you. For ICAEW Certificate exam fees please check with your local study centre. To book an exam at an FI study centre, please visit our CBE booking page.

First Intuition can provide AAT self study materials (course notes and question bank) via the self study option on the Book Now page. For all other qualifications you can choose to study via FI Online, FI Online Live or classroom courses, all of which include hardcopy and digital versions of the course notes and question bank. We do not sell our course notes or question banks separately for ACCA, CIMA or ICAEW courses.

Management accountants manage the accounting of finance in a company, whereas chartered accountants give financial reports on a company. The fundamental difference is, a chartered accountant works externally (is a freelancer, or contractor, for example) whereas a management accountant is based within an organisation.

Courses can be booked online or you can download a booking form from your local study centre page to be returned via email. You can also contact your local study centre during open hours to book over the phone.

If you are a new client you can either book online and pay with a company card, or download a booking form and return it to us via email. Please visit our employer payments page for information on how to book a course if your employer is sponsoring your studies.

To view availability or book an exam with one of our study centres, please visit our CBE booking page.

There are four levels to the CIMA qualification: Certificate, Operational, Management and Strategic.

CIMA is globally recognised. CIMA is the world’s largest professional body of management accountants and has a network of over 696,000 finance professionals.

Most students will complete the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) qualification within four years.

You may be exempt from certain exams in the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting and CIMA Professional Qualification if you hold a relevant degree or qualification. To find out more, please visit the CIMA website for full information.

Will you be new to business or accounting studies? If so, you’ll initially need to work towards the CIMA Certificate in Business Accounting. At this point, you can progress on to the CIMA professional qualification. If you happen to have already studied business or accounting, you may be entitled to exemptions, or there may be an alternative route to entry for you. Get in touch to find out more.

This is subjective and depends on your desired career path. CIMA is for Management Accountants, whereas ACCA is for Chartered Accounts. Learn more about the difference between ACCA and CIMA. If you are unsure as to which career path is right for you, please enquire directly with the awarding bodies before proceeding.

CIMA Unlimited is a study package that includes all learning materials, online resources and Online Live course access for your chosen CIMA level, at unbeatable value. Find out more about CIMA Unlimited.

This is subjective and depends greatly on location, experience and employer.

Broadly, the first 9 modules of the qualification are the equivalent of a degree. The Professional level is the equivalent of a Masters degree.

ACCA students study to become chartered accountants, whereas CIMA students study to become management accountants. Learn more about the difference between a chartered accountant and a management accountant in our article ACCA or CIMA: Which is better?

The best module to take can be quite subjective, depending on an individual’s plans for their optional modules. Generally, we recommend starting with Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) before completing your optional modules, then finishing with Strategic Business Leader.

ACCA is recognised internationally. When you study ACCA, you will have the option to take your career in any direction, in some of the most sought after roles across the world. Find out more about ACCA.

ACCA can be studied across the UK in one of FI’s tutor led classrooms, via flexible learning with FI Online or in a virtual classroom environment with Online Live.

Applied Knowledge modules, and Corporate and Business Law from the Applied Skills level, can be assessed via an on-demand exam. All other exams can be scheduled once per quarter directly with ACCA. Find out more about ACCA exams.

Yes, ACCA stands for Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

No, ACCA exams are not open book. At First Intuition, we give you the opportunity to take part in revision sessions as well as to take mock exams to ensure you are completely prepared for success in your ACCA exams. Find out more about how to approach the ACCA qualification.

ACCA Unlimited is a study package that gives you unlimited access to any and every ACCA Online Live and ACCA Online courses available at Knowledge, Applied Skills or Strategic Professional level at unbeatable value. Find out more about ACCA Unlimited.

You can start studying the ACCA Applied Knowledge level modules at any time, as these exams are on demand. At Applied Skills level, most courses will start towards the beginning of January, April, July and October each year as these modules are set into exam sittings. There are four exam sittings per year: March, June, September and December. Please explore our ACCA programme page to discover start dates across our classroom centres, as well as online and online live courses.

Classroom – Visit one of our friendly, modern study centres and attend a tutor led classroom course.

Distance Learning – There are 3 options for Distance Learning, here is a little more information about them all:

The Self-Study option is books only. You will only receive the books for this option. Inside the books you have a study planner, the course notes, task bank, questions bank and mock assessments for you to self-mark. There is no added support with this option.

If you would like more support, the FI Online option is very popular. With this option you will receive the books as above, but you will also have access to an online account. On here you will have pre-recorded lectures which take you through the books chapter by chapter. You can watch these in your own time at your own pace. There will also be extra mocks, course assignments and a tutor who you can contact by phone and email.

The FI Online Live option is the same as the above, but you will also get access to our Live lectures twice a week either in the day or evening via zoom. This course is more structured as you will have a start and end date for the lectures. This option is very similar to the classroom course, but you are learning from home. Let me know if you would like more information about this option and I can send over the timetable.

Exam fees vary depending on where you are regionally. Here is a link to find your closest assessment centre, their prices and contact details:

https://www.aat.org.uk/assessment-venues/search

Here is the link to our AAT Level Checker Quiz. Once submitted, one of our tutors will mark this and we will let you know which level is best to start at based on your knowledge:

https://www.firstintuition.co.uk/fihub/start-your-aat-studies-at-the-right-level/

Syllabus information for each level can be found below:

Level 2 – https://www.firstintuition.co.uk/fihub/aat-q2022-level-2-certificate-in-accounting/

Level 3 – https://www.firstintuition.co.uk/fihub/aat-q2022-level-3-diploma-in-accounting/

Level 4 – https://www.firstintuition.co.uk/fihub/aat-q2022-level-4-diploma-in-professional-accounting/

AAT fees on Qualifications 2022 (prices correct as of June 2023 but are subject to change)

• Level 2 Bookkeeping £65
• Level 3 Bookkeeping £90
• Level 2 ACC £172
• Level 3 ACC £225
• Level 4 ACC £240

We ask that you apply for AAT membership within 4 weeks of signing up to a course with us. You must be an AAT member to sit an exam. Here is a link to the AAT website to book this:

https://www.aat.org.uk/registration/register-with-aat

The average student studies 8-10 hours a week and based on this:

• Level 2 Bookkeeping 2-4 months
• Level 3 Bookkeeping 6 months
• Level 2 ACC 6 months
• Level 3 ACC 9-12 months
• Level 4 ACC 12-16 months

Unfortunately, we do not accept the Advanced Learner Loan. We do, however, offer our interest-free installments plan for our online courses. Please email aat@fi.co.uk if you would like more information about our installment plans.

We have installment plans available for Distance Learning courses, for our full online and online live levels:

https://www.firstintuition.co.uk/fihub/aat-distance-learning-instalment-plans/

We do not offer installment plans to Employers.

How do I set up the interest-free installments?

At your basket, instead of clicking ‘pay in full’ click over to ‘pay another amount’. The cost of the first installment will show up automatically. This will be taken out today and then you will receive an email to set up a direct debit for the remaining balance.

International students will need to check that there is a local assessment centre where they can sit exams.

We would then need your postal address because there is an extra shipping charge to send books overseas.  Please email your postal address to aat@fi.co.uk requesting a quote.  We will email you a shipping quote for you to approve.

One of the most common questions asked to our team is – which AAT optional units should I choose for level 4? It is an important choice for all students on level 4 to make.

https://www.firstintuition.co.uk/fihub/how-to-choose-your-aat-optional-units/

In this article, AAT Tutor of the Year, Nick Craggs discusses the AAT Bookkeeping qualification and the potential job opportunities that an AAT Bookkeeping qualification can bring you.

Careers in Finance: How to become a bookkeeper?

First Intuition offers apprenticeship training across several accountancy, leadership and management and digital marketing qualifications. You can find more about our apprenticeship programmes here.

If you are a student looking for an apprenticeship we recommend that you have a look at the Government Apprenticeship Finder Website. Once you are employed in a role, we can speak to your employer about apprenticeship training.

To log into your FI Learn account and access your online course content, please click here.

If your password is not working please check you have not picked up an additional space when copying from an email or other source. If that is not the case we recommend you reset your password.

If you need to reset your password you can do so from the FI learn log in page.

Click on the forgotten password link and enter your email or username. You will receive an email with a link to reset you password.

If you would like your details on FI learn changed please contact your local FI centre and they will be able to update your profile for you.

If you have booked your first course with FI and have not received an email with a login to FI learn please contact your local FI centre who will be able to help you.

For subsequent course bookings, you will be sent joining instructions and the courses are automatically added to your FI learn account.

Your course has not been lost! When you complete the course to 100% the course drops off your Dashboard so that your Dashboard stays current. You can still access your course by clicking on the ‘Course Library’ menu item at the top of your FI learn page.

Each course will have certain activities within it that are tracked as part of the course completion. These are generally assessment activities such as Question Banks, Test Your Learning Quizzes and Mock exams. If you hover your mouse over the progress bar of a course it will tell you how many activities and what type make up the overall progress.

It is sometimes possible for your browser settings to interfere with access to assessments. You may be asked to login repeatedly, or may receive a ‘page cannot be found’ error.

The following fix can be tried when using Google Chrome (our recommended browser):

– Go into ‘Settings’

– Click on ‘Privacy and security’

– Click on ‘Cookies and other site data’

– Under ‘General settings’ ensure that ‘Block third-party cookies’ is un-ticked

– Log out of FI Learn, close the browser and log back into FI Learn

You will be able to follow a similar process to allow third-party cookies within other browsers.

ACCA, CIMA, AAT and ICAEW Certificate Level online courses feature a ‘my results’ tile, which you can click to view your assessment results and feedback. ICAEW Professional and Advanced Level feedback can be viewed by clicking into the assignment itself.

Totara Learn is written in-line with industry web standards including XHTML, HTML5, and ECMAScript 5.1 (commonly referred to as JavaScript). Totara Learn should work correctly in any browser that supports these standards.

We test our Learning Platform against the following web browsers. Other browsers may likely work, but we cannot guarantee it.

Desktop browsers

• Chrome: The latest stable release. This is our recommended browser
• Firefox: The latest stable release.
• Microsoft edge: The latest stable release.
• Safari 10.

Mobile browsers

• iOS Safari 9.
• Android browser: The latest stable release.
• Chrome for Android: The latest stable release.

We test our Learning Platform against the following operating systems. Other systems may likely work, but we cannot guarantee.

• Windows – Windows, 7, 8 and 10 or later
• Mac – OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later
• Linux – 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04 or later, Debian 8 or later, openSUSE 13.1 or later and Fedora Linux 21 or later

First Intuition uses various features for video, interactive and other learning content. This is designed to be on demand, across the world, 24/7.

In order to be able to access this, you may need to ask that your IT team unblock access for you/your learners.  We appreciate that this is not always straight forward, that it can take time for approval, or indeed might never be permitted due to security restrictions.  If this is the case – don’t worry – there are other options available to you, and we explore these below.

In the meantime, if you are able to, you should request that your IT team whitelist the following domains and all subdomains on your network:

If you are unable to access the platform/s, there are a few other options:

1. Access the platform/s from a different device.
2. Access the platform from a different server or network.  If the problem exists with your local network, you may be able to log-on in a location with fewer security restrictions on website access, for example, a government office with open access Wifi.
3. Work from home.  Many of our learners take time out in the week to complete their learning at home.  If this is allowable – then please consider this option, as it is one that most people choose;
4. First Intuition has learning centres around the country that may be able to offer you a space in which to complete your studies. Please contact a member of our team who can liaise with you to check availability at one of our centres.