CIMA PER: Recording Experience, Evidence and Sign-Off

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To become a CIMA member and use the CGMA designation, you need at least three years of relevant finance experience. You record it online, write up eight short work examples (CIMA calls them STAR templates) and have each part signed off by a PER supervisor who knew your work. You can start keeping notes from your first finance job, long before you are allowed to submit. This guide covers what counts, who can sign off, how to write a clear achievement example, what to do when you change jobs, and a checklist for before you press submit.

CIMA rules on this page were checked against the official AICPA & CIMA pages on 9 November 2026. Advice marked "OpenTuition's advice" is ours, not CIMA's.

What experience counts for CIMA PER?

You need three years of verified experience, full-time equivalent, in a finance role, in any industry or size of organisation. CIMA does not keep a list of approved job titles: it looks at what you actually do. Your application must also show three of five core work activities and all five professional skills and behaviours.

CIMA rules: the requirement at a glance

Item	CIMA rule (checked 9 Nov 2026)
Time	At least 3 years, full-time equivalent, verified by a PER supervisor
Part-time or part-finance roles	Count pro rata. CIMA's example: 2.5 days a week means 6 years to equal 3 years full time
Consecutive?	No, the three years do not need to be continuous
Experience before you registered	Counts
Exemption from PER for another accounting qualification	None: everyone completes PER
Written examples	8 STAR templates: 3 of the 5 core activities, plus all 5 skills and behaviours
STAR length	Aim for 500-750 words each; CIMA says a 10% variation is acceptable
Role and organisation overview	The current PER FAQ advises 250-300 words for the overview of each role and organisation. Follow the instructions in your live application form if its fields specify a different limit.
Language	English only
Application fee	GBP 199 (official fees page). Paid when you are invited to upgrade to membership, after you pass SCS and PER is approved
Decision time	CIMA's FAQ says 2-3 weeks after you submit
Apprentices	Separate route: the end-point assessment, with the application fee waived

Does my job count for CIMA PER?

CIMA lists the areas where relevant roles usually sit: management accounting, financial accounting, financial planning and analysis, finance business partnering, performance management, financial and management reporting, financial management, audit and assurance, taxation, treasury, banking, risk management, business intelligence and data analysis, and professional services and consulting.

CIMA's guidance says a suitable role lets you regularly do most of the following: produce accurate financial and non-financial information for decisions, understand the business and give advice that adds value, work with people inside and outside finance, take ownership of your work, use data and digital tools, and act ethically. You can sit outside the finance team (for example, embedded in a project or commercial team) as long as the work is finance work.

CIMA's PER FAQ answers the common cases like this:

Experience	Counts?
Current or previous finance role (including at a company that no longer exists)	Yes, if a PER supervisor can verify it
Secondment, graduate programme, voluntary role	Yes
Internship	Yes, if the role gives relevant experience
Part-time work, or finance as part of a wider role	Yes, pro rata
Experience from 10 or more years ago	Yes, if it meets today's criteria; CIMA may ask how you have kept up to date
Non-finance work	No
Training courses or study	No: every example must come from your job
Parental leave or other career break	No: record it as "career break" with dates
Lecturing or academic work	Ask CIMA about its academic route

The core activities and skills you must show

The five core activities are written as "I can" statements, and you choose three:

A. "I can evaluate opportunities to add value"
B. "I can implement strategic decisions"
C. "I can manage performance and costs to aid value creation"
D. "I can measure performance"
E. "I can manage internal and external stakeholders"

You must show all five skills and behaviours: ethics and integrity; leadership; growth mindset; professional scepticism; and communication.

CIMA's guidance links the core activities to the Management case study, so your Management level study gives you the vocabulary for them. CIMA advises against writing up more than three core activities; spend the time making your best three strong instead.

When should I start collecting evidence, and when can I submit?

Start a simple evidence log as soon as you are in a finance role, even before your first exam. CIMA lets you record experience from before, during and after your studies, and it recommends reviewing your progress against PER every six to 12 months. You can submit once you have three relevant full-time-equivalent years and have passed, or been exempted from, the Management Case Study. CIMA membership also requires a Strategic Case Study pass and approved PER.

When you can submit

The dedicated PER FAQs, checked 9 November 2026, allow submission after MCS pass or exemption once you have three years of relevant experience. Membership is granted after SCS is passed and PER is approved. General pathway pages describe PER as a final step after SCS; do not read that description as a ban on earlier submission.

OpenTuition’s advice: keep your log from day one, draft during Management level and arrange supervisor reviews as you go.

An evidence log you can copy

CIMA does not require a log. It is our suggestion, because when you come to write a STAR template two years later you need the dates, the numbers and the name of the person who saw the work. Keep it in a spreadsheet or notebook and add a line whenever something worth writing up happens.

Date(s)	Role and employer	What happened (one sentence)	My own actions	Result, with a figure if possible	Core activity or skill it could show	Who saw it (possible supervisor)	Confidential details to anonymise
e.g. Mar 2026	Assistant management accountant, [employer]	Monthly report showed one site's margin falling	Built a site-level KPI; traced the fall to waste	Waste down; KPI adopted in monthly pack	D measure performance; professional scepticism	Finance manager	Site names, exact margins

OpenTuition's advice for the log:

Write down specific occasions, not duties. "I prepare the monthly variance report" will not make a STAR; "In March I found that the variance report hid a problem at one site" might.
Record what you did, separately from what the team did. Assessors look for individual actions.
Note the result while you still know it: money saved, time saved, a decision made, a process changed.
Record who saw the work. That person is your future PER supervisor for this example.
Every six to 12 months, read the log against the eight requirements. Any gap (often leadership or stakeholders) is something to raise with your manager now, not in year three.

Who can sign off CIMA PER?

Your PER supervisor must be someone you work for now or worked for before, who had direct knowledge of your work and was more senior than you. Ideally it is your line manager. They do not need to be a CIMA member or a qualified accountant, but they cannot be a relative or you.

CIMA rules on PER supervisors

You need at least one supervisor. You need more if no one person oversaw all three years and all eight examples.
Each section of your employment history can have only one supervisor. If two managers covered one job, split the period and allocate each part.
Different examples can go to different supervisors: each signs off only what they directly saw.
A previous manager can sign off even if they now work elsewhere or have retired. They give their current contact details and explain the relationship.
Someone senior to you who is not your line manager can sign off, if they had enough oversight of your work.
A supervisor cannot approve a STAR template that does not meet all the "achieved" criteria. They send it back with feedback, and you redraft.
Self-employed: a long-standing client, your external accountant or your business bank manager may verify your time in the role. A client may sign off STAR templates for work you did for them. If no one suitable can sign off your examples, CIMA's FAQ says it will assign an assessor to review them.
Your local CIMA office can advise on PER applications.

CIMA publishes guidance for PER supervisors. Send it to your supervisor before you ask them to sign.

Supervisor discussion checklist

OpenTuition's advice: have this conversation early, ideally while you are still in the role, not when you are ready to submit.

Ask permission to name them as your PER supervisor. CIMA's guidance requires this before you submit their details.
Agree which periods of your employment history they will verify.
Agree which examples they will sign off. They must have seen each piece of work directly.
Walk through the self-reflection questions in CIMA's guidance together, and ask which of your examples they think are strongest.
Agree how much detail you can share. Anonymise clients, products and sensitive figures; you do not attach company documents.
Ask them to read the "achieved / not achieved" criteria in the supervisor guidance, so feedback comes before submission, not as a rejection.
Confirm the email address they will use. The sign-off request arrives by email.
If you are leaving the job, collect a personal contact you can still use later (see the employer-change section below).

How do I turn a work example into a clear achievement statement?

Pick one specific, significant piece of work that you personally did, then answer CIMA's four STAR prompts: Situation, Task, Action and Result. Most of your words should go on your own actions and on the business result. A general description of your job will not pass.

What CIMA's assessors look for

CIMA's guidance for applicants sets out the "achieved" standard. In summary, an achieved STAR template:

uses a situation big enough to show the achievement (not a trivial task);
clearly fits the core activity or skill it is claimed against;
describes the task and your role in it clearly;
explains the actions you took, not what "we" did;
discusses the result of your actions and how they added value for the organisation.

Write as if for a stranger: an assessor outside your company will also read it. CIMA publishes two sample STAR responses with assessor comments in the resources on its PER page (sign-in needed to download).

Originality, and using AI

CIMA's rules here are strict, and breaking them can lead to disciplinary action.

Your examples must be true, and must be your own words. CIMA uses plagiarism software and compares applications with each other and with its sample answers.
You may work on the same project as a colleague, but each of you writes it up separately, about your own actions.
Do not copy sample STAR templates, guides (including this one) or a colleague's application.
No one else may write or edit your application for you. You may revise it after feedback from your supervisor.
CIMA's originality guidance (updated November 2025) allows AI to help with language and structure if you check and edit the result. It does not allow AI to exaggerate your experience, invent figures or create situations that did not happen.

Two annotated examples (fictional)

These examples are invented to show the difference between weak and strong writing. They are much shorter than the 500-750 words CIMA expects, and they are not your experience. Copying or adapting them would break CIMA's originality rules. Use them to check your own drafts.

Example 1: Core activity D, "I can measure performance"

Weak version:

In my role as assistant management accountant I am responsible for monthly reporting. I prepare variance reports and KPIs for the management team and help explain the results. This helps the business understand its performance.

What is wrong: there is no specific occasion, no individual action and no result. It describes a job, not an achievement. An assessor cannot tell what you did, or whether it mattered.

Stronger version (excerpt):

Situation: In spring 2026 our bakery chain's monthly pack showed gross margin falling at one of our 12 shops for three months running, but the shop-level report only showed total costs. Task: My manager asked me to find out why and suggest how we could spot problems like this sooner. Action: I split the shop's cost of sales into ingredients, waste and staff, using till and stock data, and compared it with the two most similar shops. Waste was almost double theirs. I proposed a weekly waste-to-sales KPI for every shop, built it into the reporting file and explained it to the area managers at their monthly meeting. Result: The area manager changed that shop's afternoon baking schedule. Within two months its waste was back in line with the other shops, and the KPI is now reported weekly for all 12 shops and summarised in the monthly pack, so area managers can investigate waste before it appears in the monthly margin figure.

Why it works: one occasion with a date; "I" throughout; a measurement tool chosen and explained; a result with a business effect. To reach the full length, the writer would add which techniques they considered and why, the figures (anonymised if needed), and what they would do differently.

Example 2: Skill, professional scepticism

Weak version:

I always check data carefully before using it and challenge numbers that look wrong. I am known in my team for attention to detail.

What is wrong: these are claims about personality, with no evidence. Scepticism means questioning a specific number or assumption, and the write-up has to show it happening.

Stronger version (excerpt):

Situation: While preparing the 2027 budget for a warehouse expansion at the logistics firm where I work, I was given a sales forecast from the commercial team that assumed volume growth of 15% a year. Task: I was responsible for the financial model and the payback calculation in the business case. Action: The growth figure was much higher than our last three years. I asked the commercial team how they had arrived at it and found it was based on one new customer's best-case volumes. I rebuilt the model with three scenarios, agreed a base case with the commercial manager, and showed the finance director that payback lengthened from three to five years in the base case. Result: The board approved a phased expansion instead of a single build. The first phase went ahead without new borrowing. Reflecting on this, I now ask where key assumptions come from before I build anything on them.

Why it works: a specific assumption was questioned, the evidence for it was checked, the writer's own actions led to a different decision, and there is a short reflection on what they learned. Reflection helps the skills and behaviours templates in particular.

OpenTuition's advice: one project can support more than one template, but CIMA warns against copying text between templates and wants to see a breadth of experience. Use different examples where you can.

What happens when I change employer?

Your experience does not disappear when you leave. Experience from previous jobs counts, as long as a supervisor who saw that work is still willing and able to sign it off. The risk is losing touch with that person, so plan the hand-over before your last day.

CIMA's rules (PER FAQ and guidance):

You can record one role or several, at different employers. The only time requirement is three years of relevant experience in total.
A former manager can sign off the time and examples from when they managed you, even if they have since moved company or retired.
If your old company no longer exists, say so in your employment history and try to contact your former manager.
If there is a long recent gap from finance work, or your verified experience is more than 10 years old, CIMA may ask how you have stayed professionally up to date.

Before you leave a job (OpenTuition's advice):

Bring your evidence log up to date for that role while the details are fresh, including figures and dates.
Agree with your manager which examples they would sign off, and ask whether you may contact them later.
Take a personal email address or professional networking contact for them, not only their work address.
Draft the STAR templates for that job's strongest examples now, while you can still check facts with colleagues. Write them in your own words, without taking confidential documents with you.
Note your exact start and end dates and your working pattern (full or part time), because part-time periods are counted pro rata.
In your new job, tell your new manager early that you are working towards PER, so they can help you fill any gaps.

What should I check before I submit?

Check that your three years add up, that every role and every example has a supervisor who has agreed to sign it off, and that all eight STAR templates are specific, about your own actions, and the right length. Then submit each section for sign-off. CIMA reviews the application once every section is signed.

How the online application works (CIMA)

Open the PER dashboard from your CIMA account. CIMA's pages variously call this your My Profile or exam dashboard.
Complete the employment history and allocate a supervisor to each part.
Complete three of the five core activities and allocate supervisors.
Complete all five skills and behaviours and allocate supervisors.
Complete the declaration, confirming the application is true, accurate and your own work.

You can save each section as a draft. When you submit a section for sign-off, its supervisor gets an email. Once every section is signed off, you are emailed to confirm CIMA will review it. If something does not meet the standard, CIMA asks for more information and you can resubmit. If your application is deferred, you can resubmit at any time unless the assessors give a date, after updating it in line with their comments.

Pre-submission checklist

Based on CIMA's requirements; the checklist itself is OpenTuition's.

Three years of relevant experience, full-time equivalent, with part-time periods calculated pro rata and career breaks recorded as such
Every role that you use for an example appears in your employment history, with one supervisor per section
Each supervisor has agreed, has a working email address and directly saw the work they will sign off
Role and organisation descriptions explain the company's purpose, products or services, sector and size, plus a website link, in plain words for a stranger (check the word limit shown on your form; the PER FAQ advises 250-300 words)
Three core activities chosen for your strongest examples, plus all five skills and behaviours
Each STAR is one specific occasion, written in "I", with a clear result for the business, and is 500-750 words (within about 10%)
No text copied between templates, from samples or guides, or from a colleague
Any AI help limited to language and structure, with every fact and figure checked by you
Confidential names and figures anonymised in a way your supervisor has agreed
Written in English
At least three years of relevant full-time-equivalent experience verified and MCS passed or exempted; membership also requires SCS passed and PER approved
Budget for the GBP 199 application fee, paid at the membership upgrade (apprentices on the end-point assessment route pay no application fee)

What to do next

Start your evidence log today, using the table above.
If you are at Management level, revise with OpenTuition's free notes and lectures for E2, P2 and F2. Their language is the language of the core activities.
Practise for the case studies with OpenTuition's free full mock exams for the Management case study and the Strategic case study. Each is a three-hour, 100-mark exam, AI-marked and set on the current pre-seen, with model answers and a marking scheme when you finish. Sign in to start.
Watch the short video on how the CIMA case studies work.
Costs and timings in brief: CIMA FAQs. New to CIMA: What is CIMA?
Ask other students about PER in the CIMA forums.
Official sources: CIMA PER page and resources and PER FAQs.