ACCA Salary: Is It Worth It?
"ACCA salary" is one of the most searched, and most contradicted: terms in accountancy. Search around and you'll find the average quoted anywhere from the low £30,000s to the high £80,000s, often from sites that never say which stage of career they mean, which region, or which source. This page cross-checks four named recruiter sources: Hays, Robert Half, Michael Page and Reed's 2026 UK salary guides, so the figures below are comparing like with like rather than an average of averages.
- Newly qualified accountants typically earn £45,000–£65,000 across the UK
- ACCA finalists (Applied Skills complete, working towards Strategic Professional) earn £35,000–£70,000 nationally
- In London specifically, ACCA finalists average £60,000: exactly the same as CIMA finalists
- London pays roughly 36% more than the national figure for qualified accountants, consistently across roles (Robert Half, 2026)
- With 5+ years post-qualified experience, £65,000–£110,000 is typical
- At Group CFO level, salaries range £150,000–£500,000
Salary by career stage
These are UK-wide ranges, so expect the top end to skew towards London and the South East. Figures are from Hays' 2026 Salary & Recruiting Trends guide, via ACCA's own "How much does an accountant earn?" page (last reviewed June 2026).
| Career stage | UK salary range |
|---|---|
| Trainee (pre-Applied Skills) | from £22,000 |
| ACCA finalist (studying Strategic Professional) | £35,000 – £70,000 |
| Newly qualified | £45,000 – £65,000 |
| 5+ years post-qualified | £65,000 – £110,000 |
| Financial director | £85,000 – £300,000 |
| Group CFO | £150,000 – £500,000 |
The London premium
Robert Half publishes national and city-specific pay data side by side, which makes it the cleanest source for isolating the London effect. Its 2026 guide draws on its own placement data plus more than 350,000 live job-posting data points, broken down across 24 UK cities. Across four roles spanning part-qualified to finance manager, the pattern barely moves: London pays about 36% more than the national figure at every stage, with all eight boundary figures landing between 35.7% and 36.1%.
| Role (Robert Half, 2026) | National | London | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part-qualified accountant | £33,250 – £42,000 | £45,250 – £57,000 | ~36% |
| Qualified financial accountant | £47,250 – £58,500 | £64,250 – £79,500 | ~36% |
| Qualified management accountant | £47,250 – £58,500 | £64,250 – £79,500 | ~36% |
| Finance manager | £51,500 – £67,000 | £70,000 – £91,000 | ~36% |
Michael Page's own salary comparison tool corroborates the national end of this: its 2026 UK average for a management accountant is £40,830, and £38,670 for an accountant: both sitting just under Robert Half's national "qualified" band, which makes sense since Michael Page's averages blend part-qualified and qualified candidates rather than qualified-only. Reed publishes a 2026 accountancy and finance guide too, built on 18 million job postings since 2017 across 12 UK regions, but the figures sit behind a download form, so nothing on this page is sourced from it.
Salary by role
Job title matters as much as career stage. These come from ACCA Careers' own Role Insights data (June 2026).
| Role | UK salary range |
|---|---|
| Assistant accountant | £24,000 – £36,000 |
| Tax accountant | £40,000 – £60,500 |
| Audit manager | £55,550 – £76,000 |
| Financial director | £75,000 – £104,000 |
| Chief financial officer | £91,500 – £146,000 |
How ACCA compares to other qualifications
Hays' 2026 guide also breaks London salaries down by qualification at the finalist and part-qualified stage. The standout finding: ACCA and CIMA finalists earn identically in London, and both sit well ahead of CIPFA and ACA at the same career stage.
| Qualification | Finalist (London) | Part-qualified (London) |
|---|---|---|
| ACCA | £60,000 | £48,000 |
| CIMA | £60,000 | £48,000 |
| CIPFA | £48,000 | £39,000 |
| ACA | £46,000 | £39,000 |
| AAT | — | £30,000 (student/trainee) |
If you're weighing ACCA against CIMA specifically, salary at qualification isn't the deciding factor: it's identical. The real differences are in exam structure, cost, and which side of the profession each one leans toward. See the full ACCA vs CIMA comparison →
So, is ACCA worth it?
On the salary data alone: qualifying typically moves you from a trainee salary starting around £22,000 to £45,000–£65,000 as newly qualified: a step-change most other routes into a finance career don't offer on a comparable timeline. The ceiling is high too, with Group CFO packages reaching £500,000 in Hays' data.
That said, salary is one input, not the whole answer. The real cost is 36 months of practical experience plus however long the exams take you, and the return depends heavily on sector, location and the specific role you move into afterwards: the range at every stage above is wide for a reason. This page gives you the market data ACCA and Hays publish; whether the trade-off is worth it for your own circumstances is a personal call, not one a salary table can make for you.
Whichever stage you're at, every ACCA paper on GoQualified has 150 free practice questions with worked explanations and a timed mock exam mode. Start practising →
Career-stage and qualification-comparison figures: Hays' 2026 UK Salary & Recruiting Trends guide, as reported on ACCA's own "How much does an accountant earn?" page (accaglobal.com, last reviewed June 2026), since Hays' own guide requires registration. London-premium figures: Robert Half's 2026 UK Salary Guide (roberthalf.com), published openly and re-verified role by role in July 2026; Robert Half states these draw on its own placement data plus over 350,000 live job-posting data points across 24 UK cities. National averages: Michael Page's Salary Comparison Tool (michaelpage.co.uk), re-verified July 2026. Role-specific ranges: ACCA Careers' Role Insights (June 2026), as cited on ACCA's own page; these are the one set of figures here we could not re-confirm independently, so treat them as indicative. Reed's 2026 accountancy and finance guide covers 12 UK regions but its figures require a download, so nothing here is sourced from it. Salaries vary by region, sector and employer: treat all of these as guides, not guarantees. GoQualified is not affiliated with ACCA, Hays, Robert Half, Michael Page or Reed.