ACCA SBR September 2026: Why Current Assets in Your CGU Kill the 8-Mark Impairment

Current assets do not belong in the carrying amount of a cash-generating unit. Put them in, and every number after that is wrong.

SBR passed 47% in June 2026 — its lowest since December 2022. And the impairment question keeps landing in Question 3, which the examining team describe as often the worst performing question on the paper.

Where the marks actually went

In the September/December 2025 sitting, the CGU impairment sat in Question 3 part (b) and was worth 8 marks. Most candidates got there. The examiner reports that a majority spotted the words "cash-generating unit" and "value in use" and correctly identified an impairment scenario. Most scored for defining recoverable amount, referring to a pro-rata allocation, and stating the loss goes to profit or loss.

Then they built the carrying amount wrong, and the calculation marks disappeared. The examiner's list of common errors starts with including current assets in the carrying amount of the CGU, and allocating the loss to current assets as well as non-current assets.

The like-for-like rule

IAS 36 requires the carrying amount of the CGU to be determined on the same basis as its recoverable amount. Value in use is the present value of the cash flows generated by the unit's non-current assets. Inventory and receivables are measured separately under IAS 2 and IFRS 9 — they are already tested for impairment in their own right. So they come out.

Liabilities are the opposite trap. IAS 36 says you exclude recognised liabilities, unless recoverable amount cannot be determined without considering them. In the D25 scenario, value in use had been calculated net of the provision's cash outflows — so the provision had to be deducted from the carrying amount. The examiner lists failing to include the provision as a common error.

Wrong answer vs right answer

A CGU contains goodwill 2,000, property, plant and equipment 8,000, a brand 3,000, inventory and receivables 4,000, and a recognised legal provision of 1,000. Value in use is 10,000, measured net of the provision's outflows.

Wrong: carrying amount = 2,000 + 8,000 + 3,000 + 4,000 = 17,000. Impairment loss = 7,000, spread pro-rata across everything including inventory.

Right: strip out the current assets, deduct the provision. Carrying amount = 2,000 + 8,000 + 3,000 − 1,000 = 12,000. Impairment loss = 12,000 − 10,000 = 2,000.

Allocate it to goodwill first. Goodwill is 2,000, so goodwill is written off in full and nothing is left to allocate to PPE or the brand. Had the loss exceeded goodwill, the balance goes pro-rata across the remaining non-current assets on carrying amount — never below the higher of fair value less costs of disposal, value in use, and zero.

Two numbers on the page. 7,000 and 2,000. One of them earns marks.

The other half of the requirement

The requirement was explain, with supporting calculations. A significant number of candidates provided only calculations with no explanation. Those who did explain often performed very well.

Worse: the examiner notes candidates who correctly wrote that the loss should not be allocated to current assets — and then allocated it to current assets anyway. Your words and your numbers have to agree. Markers read both.

What to do before 10 September

Build the carrying amount as a labelled column before you touch the loss. Line by line: goodwill, each non-current asset, then the provision if — and only if — recoverable amount was measured net of it. Current assets never appear.

Read the verb and stop there. "Calculate" means calculate; the examiner notes candidates who explained a pure calculation requirement earned no marks and wasted time. "Explain, with supporting calculations" means both, every time.

Time-box Questions 1 and 2. The examiner is explicit that weak Question 3 performance is driven by over-running earlier. One mark, 1.95 minutes. Leave Question 1 on the bell whether it is finished or not.

Bottom line

SBR sits on Thursday 10 September 2026, with results on 19 October. 47% passed in June. The impairment question is not testing whether you know what a CGU is — the examiner confirms most candidates do. It is testing whether you can build a carrying amount that compares like with like.

Get the column right and the rest is arithmetic.