An Arab accredited proffessional certificate aiming at providing Arab accountants with the highest Qualifications.

The curriculum for the qualification of the Arab professional accountant has been developed to comply with the international curriculum issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in collaboration with a group of consultants from ASCA, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Certified General Accountants Association in Canada (CGA–Canada), European Commission, the Federation International des Experts Compatibles Francophone (FIDEF), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the Polish Accounting Standards Board and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), as well as representatives of academic and international accounting firms acting in their personal competence

Validation of the “Arab Certified Professional Accountant (ACPA)” Certificate by the University of Cambridge-International Examinations (CIE)
The University of Cambridge-International Examination (CIE) validated the “Arab Certified Professional Accountant (ACPA)” Certificate designation after a thorough evaluation and review of the curriculum material of the professional accounting qualification program, related prescribed academic reference books, level of examinations and procedures for preparing, proctoring, and correcting the examinations and ensuring that the level meets the best and highest international standards.

ACPA Examinations’ Date & Regulations
ACPA examinations shall be conducted once at the end of every year for a period of seven days. One examination representing one subject is held each day, except on the seventh day where two examinations are held; one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
Each examination’s duration is three hours, the candidate sit for the exam in all the required papers from the first time. The candidate has to sit for the rest of the papers and/or the papers he/she has failed in the second and third sessions during the three-exam session period since his/her registration. If he/she passes any paper of the eight, he/she shall not re-sit for it again; otherwise, if he/she fails, he/she has to re-sit for all the papers.

Curriculum of ASCA
The curriculum consists of eight subjects as follows:

  1. First paper : Organizational Knowledge & Business Knowledge (I).
  2. Second paper : Organizational Knowledge & Business Knowledge (II).
  3. Third paper : Accountancy and Accountancy Related Knowledge (I).
  4. Forth paper : Accountancy and Accountancy Related Knowledge (II).
  5. Fifth paper : Auditing.
  6. Sixth paper : Taxes & Laws.
  7. Seventh paper : Information Technology.
  8. Eighth paper : Foreign Language (English or French).

Subjects Covered by the Curriculum

The curriculum consists of various subjects related to the accounting and auditing professions including economics, management, finance, statistics, law, information technology, and other significant subjects. Following are details of each subject covered by the curriculum: 

First Paper: Organizational Knowledge and Business Knowledge (I)
Main theme: Economics
Sub theme

  • Economic methods and markets.
  • Market structure, competition, and monopoly.
  • Production and enterprises' economic policies.
  • National economic issues and performance measurements.
  • Monopolistic competition market and oligopoly. • Money, banking, and interest rates.
  • Expenditure decisions.
  • Global environment.
  • Elasticity, price regulation, and consumer choice.
  • Unemployment and inflation.

Main theme: Quantitative Methods and Statistics for Business
Sub theme

  • Basic arithmetic operations.
  • Measurement of uncertainty.
  • Statistical data presentation.
  • The use of computers to generate statistical presentations of data.
  • Basic concepts of statistics.
  • Mathematical decision models.
  • Fundamentals of probability. 
  • Probability distributions.
  • Sampling and distributions.
  • Statistics estimation. 
  •  Statistical hypothesis testing.
  • Regression and correlation.
  • Multiple regression, index numbers and time series. • Statistic decision theory, matrices, and linear programming.

Second Paper: Organizational Knowledge & Business Knowledge (II)
Main theme: Management Functions and Practices, Organizational Behaviour, Market Function in Business and Principles of International Business
Sub theme

  • Roles, functions and management styles.
  • Organizations and their international environments.
  • Marketing and international business.
  • The role of accountants in management teams in providing information and assisting in the analysis, interpretation and forecasting of business operations.

Main theme: Operations Management and Strategy
Sub theme

  • Management of operations and services.
  • Management of the working environment.
  • Management of human resources.
  • Strategic implications of information technology.

Main theme: Business Finance and Financial Management
Sub theme

  • Financial objectives of different types of organizations.
  • Management of working capital.
  • Special problems of financial management in the public sector.
  • Framework of financial management.
  • Capital expenditures and investments.
  • Sources of finance.
  • Treasury management.
  • Long-term financial planning.

Third Paper: Accounting and Accounting-Related Knowledge (1)
Main theme: Accounting Profession, Preparation of Financial Statements, International Accounting Standards (IASs) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs)
Sub theme

  • The accounting profession, accounting ideas and the theoretical background of accounting.
  • National concepts and principles relating to the preparation and presentation of financial statements.
  • Preparation and presentation of financial statements for business enterprises (under conditions of stable prices). 
  • Recording, handling and summarizing accounting data.
  • Basic interpretation and use of financial statements.
  • Professional ethics and institutions.
  • International accounting standards.

Main theme: Advanced Financial Accounting Practices
Sub theme

  • The theoretical accounting framework. 
  • Preparation of the different types of financial statements and other special accounting issues. 
  •  Advanced concepts for analysing and appraising financial and related information. 
  •  Preparation of financial statements for various types of organizational entities. 
  •  Communicating information to users.

Main theme: Advanced Financial Reporting Principles
Sub theme

  • Professional activities of accountants. 
  • Special issues relating to accounting for restructuring, uniting of interests and business combinations. 
  • Advanced analysis and appraisal of financial and related information. 
  • Assessing informational weaknesses and limitations of financial statements. 
  • Assessing the impact of price-level changes on financial statements.
  • Accounting for winding up of an enterprise.
  • Group (consolidated) accounts.
  • Accounting in specialized industry
  • Accounting in environmental, social and ethical issues

Forth Paper: Accounting and Accounting-Related Knowledge (I1)
Main theme: Management Accounting: Basic Concepts
Sub theme

  • Background information.
  • Cost and management accounting framework.
  • Costing methods; the costing of resource outputs.
  •  Cost and management accounting methods.
  • Cost determination: the costing of resource inputs.
  • Costing systems: marginal contrasted with absorption costing.

Main theme Management Accounting: Planning, Decision-Making and Control
Sub theme

  • Information for budgeting, planning and control purposes.
  • Evaluating the impact of changes in business structures, functions and performance measures on the applicability and appropriateness of management accounting techniques and methods.
  • Non-financial objectives of enterprises such as environmental and social objectives.
  • Non-financial performance indicators such as productivity per employee or per service unit.
  • Design of management accounting systems.
  • Other information for decision-making purposes.
  • Business planning.
  • Standard costing.

Fifth Paper: Auditing
Main theme: Auditing Fundamentals
Sub theme

  • Nature, purpose and scope of an audit.
  • Regulatory framework of auditing and international standards on auditing.
  • Framework of auditing and the performance of an audit.
  • Fundamental principles and concepts of auditing.
  • Evidence collection and analysis.
  • Audit evaluation and planning.


Main theme: Auditing: Advanced Concepts
Sub theme

  • Audit reporting framework.
  • Evaluation of computer-based business systems.
  • Communications with boards of directors and management concerning internal control weaknesses detected in audits.
  • Organizing and planning complex audit situations, including group audits and joint audits.
  • Auditor’s risks of professional liabilities.
  • Internal auditing: its objectives and functions.

Sixth Paper: Taxation and Law
Main theme: Taxation
Sub theme

  • Overview of the national tax system.
  • Income tax of employees and corporations.
  • Taxation of incorporated businesses.
  • The use of computers for tax planning and for the preparation of tax returns.
  • National insurance schemes. 
  • Value-added tax schemes, capital gains taxes, sales tax, inheritance taxes, social security schemes and trusts. 
  • Local direct taxes, including real estate and other property taxes.
  • Other taxes such as excise taxes and road taxes.
  • Tax planning and the application of appropriate tax planning measures.
  • Non-domestic (foreign) activities giving rise to tax liabilities. 
  •  Ethical considerations: tax avoidance and the minimization of tax liabilities vs. tax evasion.

Main theme: Business and Commercial Law
Sub theme

  • General legal concepts of enforceable rights and obligations, Types of laws, the national legal system, general principles of the law of contract, contracts for the sale of goods, and employment contracts.
  • Nature, purpose, scope and key principles of national legislation, directives and case law.
  • Laws of associations such as clubs and partnerships to carry out certain activities; rights and duties of members and partners of such associations; rights of third parties; rules governing financial statements and prospectuses.
  • Laws of insolvency; procedures for filing for insolvency under relevant laws; rights of creditors and other interested parties.
  • Company law and the nature of a limited liability company.
  • Capital and financing companies, management and administration of a company.

Note : All materials of Sixth Paper ( Taxation and Law) shall be compiled by the student according to the country he resides in.(This implies for all countries) 

Note for Palestinian student:
Given the non-completion of legislation related to the companies and tax law and the Palestinian commercial law the required materials in paper six exam – tax & law shall be from the approved materials for ACPA ,namely:
1. Jordanian Tax Law (Income Tax and Added Value Tax )
2. Jordanian Companies Law
3. Jordanian Commercial Law

You can visit the following link http://www.lob.gov.jo/ui/laws/index.jsp to review Jordanian laws and legislation

Seventh Paper: Information Technology
Main theme: Cambridge Diploma in IT Skills
Sub theme

The minimum required modules are the following:

  • Introduction to IT.
  • MS-Word - Standard Level (Word Processing).
  • Using computers and managing files (Windows).
  • Electronic Communication.

Eighth Paper: Foreign Languages
Main theme: English or French
Sub theme

  • Grammar.
  • Commercial correspondence.
  • Filling in blanks.
  • General questions.