ACCA FM — Financial Management Syllabus 2026
FM at a Glance
FM (formerly F9) is the corporate finance paper of the Applied Skills level. It covers the financial management function, investment appraisal, working capital management, financing decisions, risk management, and valuations. It's a quantitative paper requiring both speed and accuracy.
Complete FM Syllabus 2026 — Section by Section
Section A — Financial Management Function
- Objectives of financial management: shareholder wealth maximisation.
- Stakeholder theory and agency problem; management incentive schemes.
- Financial markets: money markets, capital markets, debt and equity.
- Treasury function: centralised vs decentralised treasury.
Section B — Working Capital Management
- Working capital cycle: cash, receivables, payables, and inventory.
- Overtrading and its symptoms; working capital funding strategies.
- Inventory management: EOQ model, Just-In-Time, reorder levels.
- Receivables: credit policy, factoring, invoice discounting, early settlement.
- Cash management: Baumol and Miller-Orr models.
Section C — Investment Appraisal
- Payback period, ARR, NPV, and IRR — advantages and disadvantages.
- Relevant cash flows: tax, capital allowances, working capital, inflation.
- NPV in inflationary environments: real vs nominal rates (Fisher equation).
- Capital rationing: profitability index, divisible and indivisible projects.
- Risk: sensitivity analysis, expected value, simulation.
- Adjusted Present Value (APV) and base-case NPV.
Section D — Business Finance
- Sources of finance: equity (rights issues, IPOs), debt (bonds, bank loans), and hybrids.
- Cost of equity: CAPM, DVM (Gordon Growth Model).
- Cost of debt: pre-tax and post-tax yield to maturity.
- WACC: calculation, assumptions, and limitations.
- Capital structure theories: Modigliani-Miller (with and without tax), pecking order.
- Dividend policy: relevance vs irrelevance, dividend signals, scrip dividends.
Section E — Business Valuations & Risk
- Business valuation methods: asset-based, P/E, dividend yield, DCF/EVA.
- M&A: synergies, bid premium, EPS dilution.
- Interest rate risk: forward rate agreements (FRAs), interest rate futures, options, swaps.
- Foreign exchange risk: transaction, translation, economic exposure.
- Hedging with forward contracts, currency futures, options, and money market hedge.
Download FM Resources — Free
Get the official ACCA FM syllabus or our study notes with formula sheets and worked examples.
FM — Frequently Asked Questions
Is FM maths-heavy?
Yes — FM is one of the most calculation-intensive papers in ACCA. You'll need speed and accuracy with NPV, WACC, capital structure, and hedging calculations. Regular practice with past papers is critical.
What formula sheet is provided in the FM exam?
ACCA provides a formulae sheet and present value/annuity tables inside the exam. You should still practise using them fluently — searching for the right formula under time pressure costs valuable marks.