ACCA runs four exam sessions a year, in March, June, September and December, and each one comes with its own entry window, standard and late deadlines, and results date.
Missing a deadline pushes your exam back a full session, so getting these dates right matters more with ACCA than with most other professional qualifications.
Quick summary of ACCA exam dates:
- All four 2026 sessions are confirmed: March, June, September and December.
- ACCA runs one global exam calendar. There are no separate dates by country, but all deadlines are set in UK time.
- June 2026 has no late entry option. Late entry isn’t guaranteed every session, ACCA decides this session by session.
- March and September sessions only offer Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exams, and only limited variants.
- June and December sessions offer all exam variants, except some Corporate and Business Law (LW) variants, which are on-demand only.
- You get 7 years to complete Strategic Professional once you pass your first Strategic Professional paper.
When are the ACCA exams in 2026?
ACCA runs four exam sessions in 2026, and every session’s dates, deadlines and results for 2026 are now confirmed.
| Session | Standard entry deadline | Late entry deadline | Exam dates | Results date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2026 | 26 Jan 2026 | 2 Feb 2026 | 2-6 Mar 2026 | 11 Apr 2026 |
| June 2026 | 16 Apr 2026 | Not available | 1-5 Jun 2026 | 13 Jul 2026 |
| September 2026 | 27 Jul 2026 | 3 Aug 2026 | 7-11 Sep 2026 | 19 Oct 2026 |
| December 2026 | 2 Nov 2026 | 9 Nov 2026 | 7-11 Dec 2026 | 18 Jan 2027 |
Note that June 2026 has no late entry option at all. Late entry isn’t a guaranteed feature of every session, ACCA decides this on a session-by-session basis, so don’t assume it’ll be available next time just because it was for your last exam.
If you miss the standard deadline for June, your only route is to enter for September instead, so this is the one session where the deadline genuinely cannot slip.
Which day will you sit each ACCA paper?
Within each session week, every paper has a fixed day. ACCA publishes the day-by-day breakdown for the current and next upcoming session on its exam timetables page, updating it as each new session approaches, so only September and December 2026 are confirmed as of this update.
September 2026
| 7 Sep 2026 (Mon) | 8 Sep 2026 (Tue) | 9 Sep 2026 (Wed) | 10 Sep 2026 (Thu) | 11 Sep 2026 (Fri) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audit and Assurance (AA) | Taxation (TX) | Performance Management (PM) | Financial Reporting (FR) | Financial Management (FM) |
| Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) | Strategic Business Leader (SBL) | Advanced Performance Management (APM) | Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) | Corporate and Business Law (LW) |
| Advanced Taxation (ATX) | Advanced Financial Management (AFM) |
December 2026
| 7 Dec 2026 (Mon) | 8 Dec 2026 (Tue) | 9 Dec 2026 (Wed) | 10 Dec 2026 (Thu) | 11 Dec 2026 (Fri) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audit and Assurance (AA) | Taxation (TX) | Performance Management (PM) | Financial Reporting (FR) | Financial Management (FM) |
| Advanced Audit and Assurance (AAA) | Strategic Business Leader (SBL) | Advanced Performance Management (APM) | Strategic Business Reporting (SBR) | Corporate and Business Law (LW) |
| Foundations in Taxation (FTX) | Foundations in Financial Management (FFM) | Advanced Taxation (ATX) | Diploma in International Financial Reporting (DipIFR) | Advanced Financial Management (AFM) |
| Foundations in Audit (FAU) | Role Scenario Assessment (RSA) |
December carries extra Foundations-level and DipIFR papers that September doesn’t, since December is a full session with every variant available.
If you’re combining two papers in one sitting, check which days they fall on before booking annual leave, since your exact desk and local start time are only confirmed on your exam attendance docket.
Does ACCA have different exam dates in different countries?
No. ACCA runs a single global exam calendar, so the four sessions happen in the same calendar week whether you’re sitting in the UK, India, Malaysia, France, Pakistan or anywhere else. There’s no separate country-specific timetable to check.
What does vary is time zone conversion. Every entry deadline is set at 2359hrs UK time on the listed date, regardless of where you’re sitting the exam.
If you’re outside the UK, convert the deadline to your own time zone rather than assuming it lines up with your local midnight, since missing a deadline by a few hours over a time zone mix-up is an entirely avoidable way to lose your standard entry fee or your spot in the session.
Your actual exam start time on the day is set locally by your exam centre, not globally, and will be confirmed on your exam attendance docket. So the session week is global, but your sitting time is local.
Which ACCA exams can you sit in each session?
Not every paper is available in every session, and this catches out a lot of first-time candidates who assume ACCA works like a rolling exam calendar.
- March and September are limited sessions. Only Applied Skills and Strategic Professional papers are offered, and only in a restricted set of variants.
- June and December are full sessions, where every paper and every variant is available, with one exception: some Corporate and Business Law (LW) variants are only ever available as on-demand computer-based exams (CBEs), never in a session.
- Applied Knowledge papers, Foundations level exams, and the on-demand LW variants sit outside this session structure entirely. You can book and sit these at almost any time through myACCA, subject to your exam centre’s availability, rather than waiting for one of the four fixed windows.
If your planned paper isn’t available in your target session, check your ACCA exemptions first. It’s worth confirming before you commit to a study timeline.
What’s the ACCA exam entry deadline structure?
Each session has an entry window that opens roughly three months before the exams and a standard deadline that closes several weeks before. Booking within the standard window gets you the lowest fee. Where a late window exists, it costs more and gives you a shorter runway to prepare your exam attendance docket, so it’s worth treating the standard deadline as the real one to plan around rather than the late one as a safety net.
Exam attendance dockets, which show your assigned desk and centre address, are typically released around three weeks after the standard entry deadline closes. If you’re sitting a remotely invigilated exam, you’ll also need to pass a mandatory system test before your exam check-in, usually required in the final week or two before the session starts.
When will you get your ACCA exam results?
When will you get your ACCA exam results?
Results are released roughly five to six weeks after each session ends.
| ACCA session | Results date |
|---|---|
| March 2026 | 11 April 2026 |
| June 2026 | 13 July 2026 |
| September 2026 | 19 October 2026 |
| December 2026 | 18 January 2027 |
You can opt in to receive your results by text through myACCA, but you need to do this at least seven days before the results date, and it’s a one-time setup that applies to all future sessions once activated.
If you’re checking how to read your result, what a provisional versus confirmed result means, or what to do if you need to appeal, see our full guide to ACCA exam results.
How long do you have to complete ACCA exams?
ACCA gives you seven years to complete the Strategic Professional level once you pass your first Strategic Professional exam. There’s no published time limit for Applied Knowledge or Applied Skills specifically, but the Strategic Professional clock is the one that catches people who take an extended break partway through.
How will the 2027 ACCA changes affect exam dates?
From September 2027, ACCA is moving to an 11-paper structure, renaming Applied Knowledge to Knowledge and Applied Skills to Expertise, among other changes.
If you’re studying under the current structure before then, your passed exams will map across to the new structure automatically, and the four-sessions-a-year pattern is expected to continue. Read our full breakdown of the ACCA 2027 changes for what this means for your study timeline.
FAQs
March 2026 runs 2-6 March, June 2026 runs 1-5 June, September 2026 runs 7-11 September, and December 2026 runs 7-11 December. Standard entry deadlines are 26 January, 16 April, 27 July and 2 November respectively.
Each paper has a fixed day within the session week. For September and December 2026, Audit and Assurance, Advanced Audit and Assurance, Foundations in Taxation and Foundations in Audit fall on Mondays, and other papers are spread across the week. Check ACCA’s exam timetables page for your specific paper closer to your session.
ACCA doesn’t publish a fixed reason. Late entry isn’t a guaranteed feature of every session, ACCA offers it at its own discretion depending on the session, and June 2026 is one where it wasn’t offered. If you miss the standard deadline for June, you’ll need to wait for September.
No. ACCA runs one global exam calendar, so the four sessions happen in the same week everywhere. All entry deadlines are set at 2359hrs UK time, so candidates outside the UK need to convert deadlines to their own time zone. Your actual exam start time on the day is set locally by your exam centre.
Deadlines vary by session. For 2026, standard entry closes on 26 January (March), 16 April (June), 27 July (September) and 2 November (December). Booking by the standard deadline gets you the lowest fee and avoids the late entry surcharge where one applies.
Applied Knowledge, Foundations level exams, and some Corporate and Business Law (LW) variants are available on demand year-round. Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exams are session-based only, held in March, June, September and December, with March and September offering limited variants.
Results are released roughly five to six weeks after each exam session ends. For 2026, results land on 11 April (March session), 13 July (June session), 19 October (September session) and 18 January 2027 (December session).
ACCA runs four sessions a year: March, June, September and December. March and September only offer Applied Skills and Strategic Professional exams in limited variants. June and December offer all exam variants, with a small number of exceptions available only as on-demand exams.
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