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Jag's Journey

Sharing my life experiences including the Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) qualification

ICAEW Case Study Made Easy – How to Pass ACA Case Study

What was my first impression of the ICAEW Case Study? Weird. This exam is completely different to the 14 ACA exams prior which actually have new content to learn. The ICAEW Case Study was completely unknown to me until I came to study for this exam. It was not really an exam that was spoken about at all beforehand. For this reason, I have written this blog to give others an insight into the ICAEW Case Study exam with tips to pass . If you would like to know how much preparation is needed for the ICAEW Case Study, click here .

I will also share a few of my ‘ help sheets ‘ for free to those of you who have kindly joined my journey. These sheets can be tailored to your ICAEW case study, printed out and taken into your exam as it is open book. It isn’t too late – join now! You will receive these within three/four days of joining at 6pm (UK).

Check out my  YouTube video  if you would prefer watching to reading!

Table of Contents

Introduction to the icaew case study, icaew case study materials, icaew case study exam format, executive summary, requirement 1, requirement 2, requirement 3, different ways to fail the icaew case study exam, icaew case study marking key and timings, make it easy.

To reiterate, there is no new content that you need to learn to pass the ICAEW Case Study. Passing this exam is more skills based than anything. According to ICAEW , students need to demonstrate they “ can provide advice on complex business issues in the form of a written report “. In order to do so, you will have to analyse both financial and non-financial data as well as portray ethical awareness to form conclusions and recommendations.

In terms of difficulty , the calculations involved are quite basic such as percentage change and there is minimal technical knowledge required. You will even already know roughly 40% of the exam that is going to come up. The remaining 60% is somewhat predictable too based on the case study information you are given.

If you are reading about the ICAEW Case Study for the first time, you are probably thinking “ this is great! “. I know I was. However, hold your horses as you might start to smile slightly less as you continue to read on.

The way the ICAEW Case Study works is that prior to the exam (roughly a month before I think it was) you should get sent the Advanced information (AI) . This is 40-50 pages of information – it is everything we need to know about the client before the current financial year. Do not worry about researching the industry outside of the AI as there is plenty of information including prior year financial statements and a few news articles within this. My case study was during COVID-19 and there were not many extra marks available regarding this.

Using this AI, you can really get to know the fictional client. You should understand the history of the company, the products the client sells, the pricing, competitors, opportunities, etc. Furthermore, you can perform a SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis and all sorts.

The surprise aspect of the ICAEW Case Study comes in the exam where you will get 10-15 pages of new information. However, this information is unlikely to be a total surprise as the AI will point towards this. For example, my ICAEW Case Study was about a magazine company. The AI mentioned the possibilities of exploring different consumer markets, different prices for magazines, a different type of magazine, etc. In the exam, out of all of these options price changes was one of the questions which came up so I was somewhat prepared.

The way I see it is that the AI is historical and the exam information is like meeting with your client for a new financial year and they update you on how it went. You will get the latest financial statements, hear of actual potential strategies and opportunities as well as get provided some newer news articles.

Every ICAEW Case Study will have the same exam format as follows:

For more information regarding each of these key exam areas, see the tabs below. As this is a report, your ES and requirements will need to be numbered throughout. My ‘help sheet’ will assist with this.

This first thing to do before even reading the exam question is to start the executive summary. You will need to address the external report to the client from your accountancy firm as per the Case Study. Following this, you should also write a disclaimer regarding liability. Doing this will get you a tick in the overall assessment criteria and my ‘help sheet’ has this all set out.

The purpose of the ES is to provide a balanced summary of all the three requirements. If someone did not have the time to read your full report, they should be able to pull out all the key information from this executive summary. The ES is standard for any ICAEW Case Study exam and is part of the 40% where you know what will come up.

You cannot simply copy and paste the conclusions from your requirements otherwise you will not get any marks . This could also result in you failing, see below. The ES needs to be slightly more detailed than the conclusion.

The ES is on a separate tab in the ICAEW software to the requirements so there would be a fair bit of flicking back and forth between the tabs to do this properly. The way I went about doing this was copying each of my requirement answers into sticky notes/comments on the exam exhibits. I would then paste these into the ES, remove less important information and reword parts to ensure I gained marks.

Timing is key in this exam so I would recommend to avoid leaving the ES until the end. Write it up after each requirement when the points are fresh in your mind.

Requirement 1 is part of that 40% where you know what question will come up. There is a small part of this requirement that is unknown but using the case study you can form an educated guess for what might come up.

The first thing you will need to do for every requirement is to create an appendix . These will be fairly basic calculations using information from the exhibits. Requirement 1 is all around financial statement analysis , in particular financial performance.

You already have the financial statements for the year prior to the exam statements in the AI. This will be used for the YOY comparison which is essentially what this R1 appendix is. You will need to have a movement column (£) and a % change column.

The software can be a pain when it comes to this requirement. This is because once you have produced the appendix, you will need to discuss the movements in the year and explain why this has happened using information in the exhibits. Again, this is fairly predictable and you can for example prepare reasons for increase/decrease in revenue beforehand. However, given the software you would need to keep scrolling up and down to see the numbers.

This is why my ‘ help sheets ‘ are useful as one addresses this issue. See a preview below. I took this in with me printed out as part of my open book file. As I was populating the appendix in the software I was writing all the numbers out too. This prevents having to scroll constantly and if you practice, it will save you more time than it wastes.

The less obvious aspect of this requirement will relate to a proposed financial adjustment. For example, a stock write off, bad debt issue, to do with cash flow or more. Do not worry too much as the AI will hint towards the potential issues.

As stated in requirement 1, you will need to produce an appendix made of fairly straightforward calculations. This should be the calculations behind evaluating a potential strategy or opportunity. For me, this was the potential revenue for different magazine pricing strategies. This was somewhat predictable so I had practiced calculations beforehand.

The rest of requirement 2 tends to have the same structure :

• Is the strategy or opportunity is worthwhile given your numbers?
• The assumptions would then need to be assessed. There will be benchmarks given in the AI and in the exam which you can compare these assumptions to.
• Commercial and ethical considerations based on the exam information would be made. For example, does this strategy align with the client’s values as per the AI.
• Conclusions and recommendations would need to be made.

Always state “any changes in the assumptions will affect the results of the model” for any ICAEW case study – it is an easy, guaranteed mark!

The shortest appendix will be needed for this requirement. It should be a few simple calculations to assess a potential strategy or opportunity. In all honesty, sometimes the lines can get slightly blurred between what could come up in requirement 2 or requirement 3.

As with 2, requirement 3 has roughly the same structure from ICAEW Case Study to Case Study:

• Financial impact using these calculations
• Strategic and operational issues
• Business trust and ethical issues
• Conclusions and recommendations

The recommendations can be quite straightforward such as carrying out market research. If there is another company involved, carry out due diligence on them.

Within all requirements , wider business context points are required to be sprinkled in throughout. These can be gathered from the AI and prepared beforehand but then ensure to add them in where relevant.

This is probably the most horrible aspect of the ICAEW Case Study. Either this or the fact that it is 4 hours long. What surprised me is that you can still fail this exam even if you achieve the actual pass mark. Yes, you read that correctly. Even if you reach the 50% pass mark, you can be failed for any of the other reasons outlined below .

• As mentioned, achieving less than the 50% pass mark.
• For not having complete coverage of the requirements – for example, if you scored 100% on R1 and R2 but then 0% on R3 or have a missing ES this would be seen as an incomplete report and you will fail. This is why time management in this exam is crucial which I touch on later and the ‘help sheet’ should help with.
• Achieving less than 50% in each individual requirement and being deemed insufficiently competent often. Not only do you need 50% overall but you need to pretty much be passing each requirement. You really need to show you can produce a strong report here.
• Missing out parts of requirements across the ICAEW Case Study. If you score above 50% in all requirements but have missed out 4-5 skills assessment boxes, you will fail. There cannot be gaps in the report. A fail could also be for writing poor conclusions and recommendations throughout.

Essentially, the examiner wants to see that you can write a complete report properly. If you do not do as ICAEW say in this exam you will be punished and you will fail.

I could honestly spend a very long time talking through the marking key. However, I do not want to get too bogged down with this in this blog. You will go through this in a LOT of detail once studying for this exam. I will therefore cover this at a high level. If you want further details about the ACA ICAEW Case Study marking key, click here where I have delved into this much more.

The main thing to know is that there are skilled assessment boxes (total of 40): ES (6); each of the three requirement (11); and one final box for the overall assessment criteria. The mark per each box is 0-6 so the maximum mark is 240 for this exam (40 x 6). Each box will have six points/’diamonds’ that need to be made. For example, one point/’diamond’ is stating revenue increased by x amount/(y %) based on the case study numbers. This will make more sense once you start studying for ICAEW Case Study.

From the table above you can see you do not benefit for hitting six points/’diamonds’ rather than four. You waste time but then it is difficult to know whether a point you make is in the skills assessment box or not. Through these boxes you demonstrate that you can: assimilate and use information; structure problems and solutions; apply judgement and form conclusions and recommendations.

You may be slightly confused as the marking key is unlike any others. There are no predetermined correct answers . In fact, only after assessing the first 100 say papers are the skills assessment boxes points/’diamonds’ put together. You need to write what everyone else writes so state the obvious and work together when preparing beforehand!

To briefly touch on timings, the ICAEW Case Study is four hours as mentioned. Believe it or not but it is very time pressured . There are many different ways to plan your time. I will share how I did it on one of my ‘help sheets’.

This blog title is definitely not click bait. These ‘help sheets’ will definitely give you a good idea of how to approach the ICAEW Case Study.

In addition to this, people do say you cannot revise for this exam given there is no content. However, I do definitely think you can prepare and you will need to go through the AI beforehand. Like I said though, do not go overboard with this as the AI should have all the information you need. Find out exactly how much preparation is needed to pass here . You should also familiarise yourself with the ICAEW software beforehand.

Practice for this exam to master the technique and timing. You may be wondering how and you probably will not like the answer. I would recommend practicing mock exams , as in previous ICAEW Case Study exams. This is tough as sitting one four hour exam is bad enough. Additionally, you would have to read AI’s that are not relevant to your exam and it is a lot of work. It is worthwhile though to do a few!

Another way to practice is through ACA Simplified / Paradigm Shift . Once the AI is released, this company will use the AI to predict around 5 different exams for your case study. It is fairly expensive but if you do want to practice on your own case study it is worthwhile. You can take the mark schemes in with you too as it is open book so this can potentially help in the exam if a similar question comes up. I mentioned above that requirement 2 and 3 have simple calculations but these can actually sometimes be tricky depending on the case study. ACA Simplified can help with this.

And there you have it! This was a very lengthy blog so if you found this useful it would be great if you could leave a comment 🙂

I thought I would also throw in a video of my final ICAEW exam day (Case Study) in November 2020 – I am sure many of you can relate to these feelings!

20 comments

It’s all just come screaming back to me, great summary! Excited to see what your helpsheet is like!

Thank you for reading Abs and I hope you like them!

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A very informative blog for someone starting to prepare for Case Study! Now I know more about what I’m in for, lol. Thank you for the tips and helpsheets!

You are welcome Anne – I am glad to help!

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Thank you for providing the information relating to Case!

I was wondering what made you use ACA Simplified/Paradigm Shift compared to ACA Masters to help with your analysis of the AI?

Hi Guv, you are welcome – others I knew who had sat Case previously used ACA Simplified/Paradigm Shift and highly recommended them. At the time of my studies I actually wasn’t that aware of ACA Masters. They also have great reviews though!

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Loved this post. Very informative.

I was wondering what you think is the best way to use the ACA simplified mocks? Obviously sitting the other 2 advanced level exams, there isn’t a lot of time to practice all the mocks to time so I was wondering if you have any tips?

Also, is it possible for me to have your help sheets?

Thank you!!!

You are welcome and in terms of the mocks, I scanned through them and at the time was able to print them out and take in with me. I think this may have changed since I sat them so not sure if this is possible now. I would advise really running through the calculations and understanding them for requirement 2 and 3 – write these out in a way that is easy to understand and could be applicable to your real exam. Definitely is unmanageable trying to do them all but it is worth going through them and seeing if you would be on the right track if similar questions came up in the exam. I have mistakenly just emailed you the audit notes – in terms of the help sheets you will need to join my journey at http://www.jagsjourney.blog/contact and they will be with you in a few days. All the best!

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ACA Advanced

ACA Advanced will build on the knowledge you gained in the Certificate and Professional Levels. Coupled with the experience you gain in work, you’ll attain a deeper understanding of accountancy and finance within businesses, and become eligible for chartered accountancy status upon qualifying.

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Do you prefer face-to-face learning? Online learning in your own time? Have family or work commitments? We have study methods that suit different learning styles, to fit around your life. You’ll benefit from award-winning tutors, practical learning methods, and ongoing support, even after your exams.

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Timings and working towards a sitting

The ACA qualification is made up of 15 exams, advancing your knowledge across accountancy, finance, and business. When you complete the qualification, you will be an ICAEW chartered accountant.

You can take the exams in any order, apart from the Case Study, which needs to be attempted last, in the final year of an ACA training agreement. However, we recommend starting from the Certificate Level units first, then finishing with the Advanced Level exams.

At the Advanced Level, exams are computer based, and there are two exam sittings a year - July and November. Generally students sit three subjects together, or split between (Corporate Reporting (CR)/Strategic Business Management (SBM) July, Case Study (CS) November).

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ICAEW exam software

ICAEW’s exam software has been developed to ensure the ACA reflects modern accountancy practices. This includes:

• Spreadsheet software that reflects commonly used applications. The spreadsheet contains standard functionality that allows you to make your calculations and adjust them if needed, just as you would in the workplace
• A word processor that auto-adjusts to the size of the response that you are writing, and allows you to copy in the data from the spreadsheet as part of the report (only the word processing section will get marked)
• Digital copies of relevant permitted texts such as the tax tables within the exam so that you can easily search for the content that you need.

The Corporate Reporting (CR) exam also includes Data Analytics software .

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Advanced Case Study resit courses also include:

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You then attend a 5 day Exam Preparation course and get:

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ICAEW workbook

Examining body (ICAEW) workbook of all technical content that could be examined.

ICAEW question bank

Examining body past exam questions that are set in class.

£86.00

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This book is required to assist you in your studies for the Corporate Reporting subject.

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Audit standards book, £40.00, delivery costs.

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Andrew Karolyi and John Tobin-de la Puente

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In June, the Colombian subsidiary of Spanish banking group BBVA announced that it was issuing what it described as the financial sector’s “first biodiversity bond”, in order to finance habitat conservation and restoration projects in the South American country. 

The $50mn initiative — backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector-focused arm of the World Bank, as structurer and investor — marks a turnaround for a nation recovering from half a century of violence and guerrilla activity. It also places Colombia among a select group of pioneers, including the Seychelles and Belize, that are using the financial markets to support the conservation of nature.

While the green bonds market has seen explosive growth in the past decade, the capital it has raised has overwhelmingly been invested in climate mitigation, alternative energy, and green transportation projects. Minimal amounts go to biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration projects. 

In financing nature, explicitly and directly, this Colombian bond breaks new ground, with metrics linked to objectives to benefit the environment. Invest ors will be repaid through a mix of funding sources including a carbon tax, the government budget and donors .

Test yourself

This is the sixth in a series of monthly business school-style teaching case studies devoted to responsible-business dilemmas faced by organisations. Read the piece and FT articles suggested at the end (and linked to within the piece) before considering the questions raised. 

About the authors: Andrew Karolyi is professor and dean, John Tobin-de la Puente is professor of practice and co-director of the Initiative on Responsible Finance, both at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

The series forms part of a wide-ranging collection of FT ‘instant teaching case studies ’ that explore business challenges.

The question for those concerned about the destruction of the world’s natural habitats is whether this pioneering structured bond will be effective, and whether it could help to inspire a broader range of similar instruments aimed at countering loss of biodiversity around the world. 

Meanwhile, the question for investors is whether the vehicle is sufficiently attractive and robust to attract a new and growing class of funders that may share an interest in environmental issues but also seek competitive returns.

Located at the northern end of the Andes, Colombia straddles the Equator, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean, and the Amazon basin. It has the second-highest number of species on the planet after Brazil, and the highest species diversity when measured per square kilometre, according to the World Wildlife Fund . Colombia is home to more than 1,900 species of birds — on a par with Brazil and Peru.

Colombia will be on the frontline of biodiversity losses

But global warming threatens to cause dramatic harm to this biodiversity . Colombia will be on the frontline of these losses because it will be disproportionately affected by climate change compared to countries with fewer species that are more widespread.

Now, though, it could also be in the vanguard of new financial models to reverse the trend.

In 2016, a historic peace agreement between the government and leftist guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) marked the end of five decades of armed conflict. Despite continuing violence, the peace process has greatly improved the lives of citizens. However, it has also increased pressure on natural ecosystems. The political violence had meant large areas were shielded from illegal deforestation and degradation of the habitat.

Five years after the peace deal, Colombia became the first Latin American country to issue a green bond in its domestic market : a 10-year $200mn offering aiming to finance a variety of projects intended to benefit the environment — including water management, sustainable transport, biodiversity protection, and renewable energy. High investor demand meant the final amount had been increased by half again.

Finance minister José Manuel Restrepo described the structured bond as an “important step” in finding new ways to finance investment in environmental projects: it would help develop a domestic green bond market and attract a wider range of investors. His ministry identified another $500mn in eligible projects that could be financed through green bonds, including a $50mn Colombian “blue bond” — financing focused on marine habitats and ocean-based projects that generate environmental co-benefits. This was successfully placed in 2023 with the help of BBVA and the IFC as structurer.

Now, the announcement of BBVA Colombia’s biodiversity bond marks another step forward. It focuses on reforestation, regeneration of natural forests on degraded land, mangrove conservation, and wildlife habitat protection.

In the case of green bonds, only a minuscule share of the money raised is spent on nature conservation, in part because few such projects generate cash flows from which to repay investors. Another reason is that it is harder to measure how effectively deployed resources dedicated to conservation — such as for monitoring species population growth — are, or to track activities that help to reach certain conservation target goals over time, such as for restoring degraded ecosystems.  

Using private, financial return-seeking capital to finance the sustainable management and conservation of natural resources is viewed by many experts as the most realistic solution to the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change — given the magnitude of investment needed. 

Yet there is growing political pushback against environmental and social initiatives, most notably in the US. 

Regulators and consumer groups have also launched legal actions to challenge green objectives. Large corporations, including Unilever, Bank of America and Shell, have in the past year dropped or missed goals to cut carbon emissions. And there has been disillusion with the ability of sustainability-linked bonds to meet their objectives. 

By association, that raises fresh questions about continued progress on biodiversity.

In biodiversity finance, doing deals is inherently more difficult

In tackling the climate crisis, the trajectory seems clear: the set of solutions needed is more or less agreed, and a good part of it makes economic sense. But, in biodiversity finance, doing deals is inherently more difficult.

It is more complex to structure transactions that generate proceeds to protect wildlife, restore ecosystems and fund other activities that may not generate cash flows, all while ensuring investors are repaid. Early successes — such as Belize’s blue bond are encouraging — but the potential for real scale is still unclear.

Questions for discussion

How companies are starting to back away from green targets (ft.com)

Green bond issuance surges as investors hunt for yield (ft.com)

Sustainability-linked bonds falter amid credibility concerns (ft.com)

Consider these questions:

1. How critical is the role of the IFC as structurer of the BBVA Colombia biodiversity bond deal in validating its legitimacy and providing investors with assurance? How important is it that IFC is also a co-investor in the biodiversity bond issuance?  

2. What are the pros and cons of the fact that the $50mn BBVA Colombia biodiversity bond deal has been launched following Colombia’s successful placement three years earlier of its sovereign green bond, and following its newly announced “green taxonomy”?  

3. What does the Colombian experience say about the likelihood of rapid change in how countries manage their biodiversity and climate impacts? Does Colombia demonstrate that such change is possible, or is its experience unique and unlikely to represent a model of rapid action for other countries?

4. Can biodiversity bonds meaningfully help to address biodiversity loss? And is this transaction the start of a trend? If not, why would BBVA Colombia have executed this transaction? Is it a gesture of goodwill and a recognition of its own corporate responsibility, or a means to greenwash some of its other less appealing investments?

5. Considering the economic and social context following the peace agreement between Colombia and the Farc forces, how might the shift from conflict to peace affect the country’s ability to balance economic development with environmental conservation?   

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Author: ICAEW Insights

Published: 06 Aug 2024

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The UK has signed up to the Organisation for Economic Development (OECD) model’s reporting rules for digital platforms. These rules started in the UK from 1 January 2024. 

In broad terms, a digital platform is an app or website that connects sellers to customers to supply goods or services. Examples of services include:  

• taxi and private hire; 
• food delivery; 
• finding freelance work; and 
• the letting of short-term accommodation. 

Under these rules, a digital platform operator must collect and check information from sellers and send an annual report to HMRC. The first report will cover the year to 31 December 2024. It must be submitted to HMRC by 31 January 2025.  

HMRC has published guidance on the reporting rules for digital platforms . This includes guidance on:  

• the meaning of ‘digital platform’; 
• who needs to make a return; 
• the information the operator should collect and report to HMRC; 
• the deadline for submitting a return; and 
• the penalties which may apply if the rules are broken.  

HMRC is continuing to develop the online service that will be used to submit the return.  

HMRC has also published guidance for sellers on digital platforms . This explains why a digital platform operator may ask them for information, and what information may be requested. It also includes guidance on the seller’s own tax position, for example, whether their activities are likely to amount to a trade.  

Further information 

• The Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023, SI 2023/817
• OECD’s Model Rules for Reporting by Platform Operators with respect to Sellers in the Sharing and Gig Economy   

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