ACCA FM Financial Management

FM is quite a technical paper, requiring complex calculations and application of techniques used in business scenarios.

You are required to understand the role of the financial manager responsible for the finance function of a business, relating to issues affecting investment, financing and dividend policy decisions.

The key syllabus areas are:

The financial management function
Impact of the economic environment on financial management
Working capital management
Investment appraisal
Business finance
Business valuations
Risk management

The FM exam is a 3 hour computer based exam. All questions are compulsory and will cover numerical and discursive elements. Some questions will adopt a scenario/case study approach.

Section A comprises 15 objective test questions of 2 marks each.
Section B comprises three scenarios consisting of 15 objective test questions of 2 marks each.
Section C contains two 20 mark questions.
The two 20 mark questions will come from working capital management, investment appraisal and business finance areas of the syllabus.

The section A questions and other questions in section B will cover any area of the syllabus.

Candidates are provided with an online formulae sheet and tables of discount factors and annuity factors.

There will, inevitably, be a lot of time pressure in this exam. You must try not to spend too long on the computational side to the detriment of the written areas.

FM prepares those candidates who decide to go on to study Advanced Financial Management (AFM) at the professional level.