ACCA SBR Question 1: Spreadsheet Technique That Saves Marks (June 2026)
If you're sitting SBR in June 2026, the biggest risk isn't your technical knowledge — it's your spreadsheet. The recent examiner reports are blunt: candidates who knew the standards still lost marks because markers couldn't follow their workings.
What the examiner is actually seeing
Across the Sep/Dec 2024 and Mar/Jun 2025 SBR sittings, the examining team repeatedly flagged poor spreadsheet technique as a top reason for lost marks on Question 1. Candidates buried adjustments inside single cells, mixed signs, or dumped every number into one column. The maths was often right. The presentation made it unmarkable.
Question 1 is worth 30 marks and is almost always consolidation-based. But the examiner is clear: you will not be asked to build a full set of consolidated accounts. You'll be given figures (often wrong on purpose) and asked to identify errors, correct adjustments, and explain the accounting treatment. It's a spot-the-mistake exercise dressed up as a consolidation.
The single change that recovers marks
Use one column per adjustment. Not one column for "adjustments" — one column for each one. Goodwill impairment gets its own column. The fair value uplift gets its own column. The intra-group sale gets its own column. Then a final column totals across.
Show workings below the spreadsheet in clearly labelled rows — never hidden inside a cell formula. Markers cannot award method marks for logic they cannot see.
Wrong vs right
Wrong: a single "Adjustments" column containing =50-12+8-3. The marker sees a number. They don't see your goodwill impairment, your URP, or your fair value movement. Method marks: gone.
Right: four columns — Goodwill, FV uplift, URP, Intra-group — each with a single signed figure, a label at the top, and a working shown underneath. The marker ticks each one. Even if your final total is wrong, you collect most of the marks.
Written marks are where the exam is won
Significantly more marks are allocated to written answers than to numbers. Use state, apply, conclude: state the standard briefly, apply it to the scenario facts, conclude with the impact. Generic IFRS knowledge pasted in without linking to the scenario earns almost nothing.
Three things to do this week
1. Do one past Question 1 under timed conditions on the ACCA Practice Platform — not on paper. The CBE spreadsheet behaves differently and you need the muscle memory before 1 June.
2. Rebuild the worked answer using one column per adjustment. Compare against the examiner's solution layout, not just the final number.
3. For every numerical adjustment, write one sentence explaining why, citing the standard. This is how you turn a 22/30 into a 26/30.
The numbers
SBR pass rates sit between 45% and 55%. The June 2026 exams run 1–5 June. Most candidates who fail don't fail on knowledge — they fail on presentation and written application. Fix the spreadsheet, fix the pass rate.