ACCA is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
To qualify, you have to take 14 out of 16 available papers covering (amongst other things) financial accounting, management accounting, tax, audit, law:
F1 - F9 - these are the foundation papers. You might be eligible for exemptions from some of them if you already have finance qualifications.
P1 - P3: these are essentials and must be taken
P4 - P7: You have to take 2 out of 4 of these papers.
Use to be that you had 10 years to complete all exams, after that you would be time-barred and unable to sit any more. As of this year you can take as long as you like to get through F1 - F9, but you need to pass the next 5 within a rolling 7 years. ie if you sit P1 this year and haven't passed all 5 of the required P level exams by 2022, then P1 would drop off the end and you would have to sit it again.
Whilst that is going on, you also need a minimum of 3 years work experience in a finance role and have to complete the ACCA personal objectives that need signed off by a qualified accountant - usually in your workplace. There's 13 of them and you can do them whilst studying or afterwards, but you have to achieve them all to qualify on top of passing all the exams. And there's an ethics module now that you have to do as well - you do that online whenever you want, so it's probably the lesser of the evils.
As for the cost of it, it all depends. Employers aren't obliged to fund anybody, but many do and will cover the cost of you going through the exams via day release, evening, weekend or self-studying.
You don't have to have an employer pay for you though - anybody can do these exams. You can register with ACCA as a student and go though the exams yourself. To get the PER objectives though, you're going to have to either be in, or get yourself into a finance role, but to do the exams, you can study for them on your own if you want to.
