Articleship: registration, rights and getting the most out of it

Chartered Accountancy (CA (ICAI)) · Training, practice and careers · free study notes for exams, placements and interviews

In short

Articleship is the compulsory on-the-job practical training that an ICAI student serves under a practising chartered accountant (the "principal") after passing both groups of CA Intermediate. Under ICAI's New Scheme of Education and Training (effective 1 July 2023) it runs for 24 months, down from three years under the old scheme, and it is governed by the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 and the Chartered Accountants Regulations, 1988 — chiefly the articled-assistant Regulations covering registration, stipend, leave, secondment, industrial training and termination. It is the bridge between the syllabus and real audit, tax and compliance work, and the source of almost everything a fresher can actually claim in an interview. It is examined directly in commerce and CA-course papers on "professional ethics and training", and it is the first thing recruiters at CA firms, Big Four member firms and industry probe in a technical round: which Standards you applied, which returns you filed, which clients you handled.

Explained

Where articleship sits in the CA course

Route: Foundation → Intermediate (both groups) → ICITSS → 24 months practical training → AICITSS and self-paced modules → Final.
Training may begin only after passing both groups of Intermediate and completing ICITSS (orientation and IT courses — covered in their own note). Direct-entry graduates follow the same gate.
A student who starts training is an articled assistant; one who trains with a member in industry for the permitted last stretch is an industrial trainee.
Under the new scheme a student becomes eligible to sit for Final after completing the 24 months plus a six-month study period; Final is no longer written while still serving articles.
Training is a statutory *trainee* relationship, not employment: there is no employer–employee contract, so PF, ESI, gratuity and bonus do not arise, and the stipend is treated as an amount to meet the cost of education, exempt as a scholarship (formerly section 10(16) of the Income-tax Act, 1961; the corresponding exemption continues under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which replaced the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026).

Registration: who can train you, which forms, which dates

Who may be a principal: a member in practice (or a firm of such members) holding a Certificate of Practice. Eligibility to take articled assistants, and the maximum number per principal, depends on membership class (ACA/FCA) and years of continuous practice; ICAI has revised these caps upward, so read the current Regulation/announcement rather than an older table.
Form 102 — Deed of Articles: the training contract, executed on stamp paper; the principal keeps the original and must give the articled assistant a copy. Insist on your copy; it is your proof of terms.
Form 103 — Statement of particulars: the actual registration with ICAI, to be filed through the Self Service Portal (SSP) within 30 days of commencement of training. Late filing needs condonation and a fee; very late filing can push your training-commencement date forward and delay your Final attempt.
Form 112: prior permission to pursue any other course of study (for example B.Com or a distance-mode degree) concurrently. Without it, the concurrent study is irregular and can cost you training credit.
Form 104: registration as an industrial trainee. Form 107: secondment. Form 109: termination/transfer of articles. Form 108: completion certificate from the principal, to be filed within 30 days of completing training — nothing (Final attempt, membership) moves without it.
All of these are now routed electronically through SSP; keep PDF acknowledgements of every submission.

Terms of training: hours, leave, stipend

Hours: the principal's office hours for training must be not less than 35 hours a week, excluding lunch, normally about seven hours a day on working days. Training is not to be imparted in the late night hours; ICAI's guidance fixes a normal window roughly between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Excess hours: in exigencies (peak audit or statutory deadlines) an articled assistant may be required to work beyond 35 hours, subject to an outer weekly ceiling (ICAI's guideline caps it at 45 hours a week); hours worked above 35 must be compensated by compensatory leave or additional stipend, not absorbed silently.
Leave (Regulation 59): entitlement is one-sixth of the period actually served, excluding leave already taken — which works out to about 104 days over 24 months. Examination leave counts against this entitlement. Leave taken beyond entitlement does not cancel training; it extends the completion date day for day.
Stipend (Regulation 48): a minimum monthly stipend is prescribed on a slab basis — three bands by the population of the city where the principal's office is situated (broadly 20 lakh and above, 4 lakh to under 20 lakh, below 4 lakh) crossed with the year of training. ICAI revised the slab amounts along with the new scheme, so quote the current Regulation 48 table; the statutory minimum is a few thousand rupees a month, and market stipends at large firms are several times it. Industrial trainees have a separate, higher prescribed minimum.
Mode of payment: stipend must be paid monthly, through banking channels (crossed cheque or direct credit to the articled assistant's account) — cash payment is not compliant, and the bank trail is the student's only evidence in a stipend dispute.
Other occupation (Regulation 65): an articled assistant must not engage in any other business, occupation or employment — including part-time jobs, freelancing, or running a firm — during training, except with ICAI's express permission.

Transfer, termination, secondment and industrial training

Transfer (Regulation 56 and ICAI's announcements): during the first year of training, transfer is permitted on application; after the first year it is allowed only on specified grounds — medical grounds of long duration, transfer of the parent's place of posting, misconduct or closure/non-availability of the principal's office — supported by documents and approved by ICAI. The exact grounds and documentation list are set out in ICAI's current announcement.
Mechanics of a transfer: principal signs Form 109, the student registers afresh with the new principal through Forms 102 and 103, and the period already served is counted towards the 24 months. A gap between termination and re-registration is simply lost time.
Death of the principal: training stands terminated by operation of the Regulations; the period served counts, and the student must register with a new principal.
Secondment (Regulation 54): the principal may second the assistant to another member in practice so the student gets exposure the home firm cannot give (for example, bank audit, transfer pricing, insolvency work) — intimated in Form 107. The secondment is counted as training. The maximum secondment period was framed for the three-year scheme; confirm the current cap for the 24-month scheme.
Industrial training: permitted with a member in employment in an approved industrial/commercial/financial establishment, towards the end of the training period (traditionally the last year; the exact window under the 24-month scheme is set by ICAI's current announcement). It requires at least three months' prior notice to the principal and registration in Form 104.
Industrial training trade-off: it pays better, gives corporate-side exposure (Ind AS reporting, internal financial controls, treasury, SAP/Oracle, MIS) and often converts into a pre-placement offer; it costs you the breadth of a practice office and is a weaker base if you intend to start a practice.

Rights, duties and grievance redressal

Rights: a copy of the deed; the prescribed minimum stipend, paid monthly through a bank; leave as per entitlement; training limited to the prescribed hours with compensation for excess; genuine training across the prescribed work areas rather than only clerical work; transfer on the permitted grounds; Form 108 on completion; and confidential grievance redressal.
Duties: regular attendance; obedience to lawful instructions; absolute confidentiality of client information (a continuing obligation that survives the training); no other occupation without permission; no holding out as a chartered accountant and no signing of reports or certificates; maintaining the work records/diary and completing ICAI's online assessment of practical training where it applies to your batch.
Grievances: take it up with the principal first, in writing; then to the Articled Assistants / Training section of ICAI's Board of Studies and the regional council. Common complaints that ICAI entertains: stipend below the minimum or paid in cash, refusal to sign Form 109 or Form 108, denial of leave for examinations, and deployment on non-professional work.
A principal who denies the prescribed stipend or training exposure is in breach of the Regulations, and persistent breach is a matter for disciplinary action under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949.

Getting the most out of 24 months

Insist on rotation across the main work areas: statutory audit, internal and concurrent audit, tax audit, direct tax (computations, returns, TDS, assessments and appeals), GST (registration, returns, reconciliations, refunds, audits), accounting and Ind AS, company law and ROC filings, and consultancy/valuation work. Two years in one vertical makes a narrow fresher.
Learn the authorities by using them: Standards on Auditing and CARO reporting, Schedule III presentation, Ind AS/AS, the Companies Act, 2013, the Income-tax Act, 2025 (which renumbered the sections you learned as 1961 Act sections), the CGST/SGST Acts with the current 5%/18%/40% rate structure in force from 22 September 2025, and FEMA where the firm has cross-border clients.
Own documentation. Working papers, audit programmes, management representation letters and a clean audit file are what distinguish a trained article; be the one whose file an engagement partner can sign off.
Build the two-year CV while training: a client list by industry, a list of statutes you have actually filed under, software used (Tally, SAP/Oracle, Winman/Genius, CompuTax, ERP, advanced Excel), and specific findings you reported.
Choose the firm for what you lack: Big Four member firms give process, documentation and large-client scale but narrow verticals; mid-size and small firms give end-to-end ownership, direct client contact and tax breadth with less structure.
Protect exam preparation: plan leave around attempts, use the entitlement deliberately rather than exhausting it early, and keep the six-month post-training study period in your timeline.

Key points

Articleship - compulsory practical training under a practising CA, now 24 months under the New Scheme effective 1 July 2023 (three years under the old scheme).
Entry gate - both groups of Intermediate passed plus ICITSS completed before training commences.
Form 102 - deed of articles on stamp paper; student is entitled to a copy.
Form 103 - registration with ICAI through SSP within 30 days of commencement; delay needs condonation.
Form 112 - mandatory prior permission for any concurrent course of study.
Form 104 / 107 / 108 / 109 - industrial training / secondment / completion certificate / termination-transfer.
35 hours a week - minimum training hours excluding lunch; excess hours (outer ceiling 45 a week) earn compensatory leave or extra stipend.
Leave (Regulation 59) - one-sixth of the period actually served, about 104 days in 24 months, inclusive of exam leave.
Excess leave - never forfeits training; it extends the completion date day for day.
Stipend (Regulation 48) - statutory minimum by city-population band and year of training, payable monthly through a bank, never in cash.
Not employment - trainee status; no PF/ESI/gratuity, and the stipend is exempt as an amount to meet the cost of education.
Transfer - freely on application in the first year; thereafter only on specified grounds with ICAI's approval.
Secondment (Regulation 54) - training with another member for exposure the principal's office cannot provide; counted as training.
Industrial training - with a member in employment, in the last stretch of training, on three months' notice and Form 104; higher prescribed stipend.
Regulation 65 - no other business, occupation or employment during articleship without permission.
Confidentiality - a continuing professional obligation on the articled assistant, surviving completion of training.
Final eligibility - completion of the 24 months plus a six-month study period, with AICITSS and the self-paced modules as separate requirements.
Form 108 is the key to everything after - no completion certificate, no Final attempt and no membership.

Formulas and examples

Practical training period P = 24 months (New Scheme, from 1 July 2023), served after passing both Intermediate groups.

Maximum leave: L ≤ (P − L)/6 ⟹ L = P/7 (P and L in days)
P = total elapsed period of articles in days; L = leave days permitted.

Extension of training = Leave actually taken − Leave entitlement (in days, only if positive).

Minimum weekly training hours = 35 (excluding lunch); permitted excess hours = assigned hours − 35, compensated by equal leave or extra stipend, subject to a 45-hour weekly ceiling.

Total minimum stipend = Σ over years i of (months served in year i × prescribed monthly rate for the city-population band and year i).

Earliest CA Final eligibility date = date of completion of practical training + 6 months.

Example 1 — leave entitlement and the two-year number. Take P = 730 days (24 months). L = 730/7 = 104.29 → 104 days. Check against the Regulation: period actually served = 730 − 104 = 626 days; one-sixth of 626 = 104.33 days ≥ 104 ✓. The same formula gives the familiar old-scheme figure: 1,095/7 = 156.43 → 156 days for three years.

Example 2 — excess leave pushes the completion date. Training commenced 1 August 2024; nominal completion 31 July 2026. Leave taken = 130 days. Entitlement = 104 days → excess = 130 − 104 = 26 days. Revised completion = 31 July 2026 + 26 days = 26 August 2026. Earliest Final eligibility = 26 August 2026 + 6 months = 26 February 2027, so the first attempt on or after that date.

Example 3 — net training hours and the real value of the stipend. 24 months ≈ 730/7 = 104.3 weeks. Leave 104 days ≈ 14.9 weeks → effective weeks ≈ 89.4. Training hours = 89.4 × 35 ≈ 3,130 hours. If the prescribed minimums applicable to the band were ₹4,000 in year 1 and ₹5,000 in year 2 (verify the amounts against the current Regulation 48 table), total minimum stipend = 12 × 4,000 + 12 × 5,000 = ₹1,08,000, i.e. 1,08,000/3,130 ≈ ₹34.5 per training hour. A firm paying ₹15,000 a month pays 24 × 15,000 = ₹3,60,000, about ₹115 per hour.

Example 4 — excess hours in audit season. In four consecutive weeks of statutory audit the assistant is required for 44, 46, 42 and 40 hours. Week 2 at 46 hours breaches the 45-hour ceiling and is not permissible. Permissible excess = (44 − 35) + (45 − 35) + (42 − 35) + (40 − 35) = 9 + 10 + 7 + 5 = 31 hours, to be given as compensatory leave (31/7 ≈ 4.4 working days) or paid as additional stipend.

Example 5 — industrial training notice date. Training 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2026. The student wants industrial training for the last 12 months, from 1 August 2025. Notice of at least three months must reach the principal by 30 April 2025, and Form 104 must be filed with ICAI on commencement. The period already served (12 months) plus industrial training (12 months) = the full 24 months.

	Articled assistant (practice)	Industrial trainee
Principal	Member in practice holding a COP	Member in employment in an approved establishment
Stage of training	Whole period	Last stretch of the training period
Registration form	102 and 103	104 (after 3 months' notice)
Typical work	Statutory/tax audit, GST, income tax, ROC	Internal audit, IFC, Ind AS reporting, MIS, treasury
Stipend	Regulation 48 minimum by city band	Separate, higher prescribed minimum
Best for	Practice, broad statute exposure	Industry placement, PPO prospects

Aspect	Old Scheme	New Scheme (from 1 July 2023)
Duration	3 years	2 years
Commencement	After Intermediate Group I (with ICITSS)	After both Intermediate groups and ICITSS
Final attempt	Written in the last months of articles	After training + 6-month study period
Leave entitlement	~156 days	~104 days

Where it is used

CA firms and Big Four member firms: audit teams at Deloitte Haskins & Sells, S.R. Batliboi/SRBC (EY network), Price Waterhouse/PwC network firms, B S R & Co. (KPMG network) and Walker Chandiok (Grant Thornton Bharat) build their resourcing around articled assistants; mid-tier firms deploy them on tax audits, GST and ROC compliance.
Bank and PSU audits: statutory branch audits, concurrent and stock audits for public-sector banks are largely executed by articled assistants under a signing partner — a staple of the second year.
Industrial training placements: finance and internal audit functions at large corporates, NBFCs, banks and IT companies, and shared-service centres, where trainees work on Ind AS reporting, internal financial controls and ERP-based month-end closes.
Job roles that credit it directly: audit associate/executive, tax associate (direct and indirect), finance executive, internal audit analyst, risk and controls associate — selection rounds are built on the articleship work profile.
Compliance practice: income-tax return and TDS work under the Income-tax Act, 2025, GST returns and reconciliations under the current 5%/18%/40% structure, Companies Act, 2013 filings and CARO reporting — all first learned in articles.
Own practice later: the client-handling, documentation and peer-review-ready file discipline acquired in articles is the base for setting up practice (a separate topic).

Interview questions

Q: How long is practical training under the New Scheme and when can it start? A: 24 months, commencing only after passing both groups of CA Intermediate and completing ICITSS.
Q: What is the difference between Form 102 and Form 103? A: Form 102 is the deed of articles — the stamped training contract between principal and assistant; Form 103 is the statement of particulars filed with ICAI to register the training, due within 30 days of commencement.
Q: How much leave can an articled assistant take? A: One-sixth of the period actually served excluding leave — about 104 days over 24 months — and examination leave counts within it.
Q: What happens if leave exceeds the entitlement? A: The training is not cancelled; the completion date is extended by the excess days, which also pushes the Final attempt.
Q: Is stipend paid to an articled assistant taxable? A: No — it is treated as an amount received to meet the cost of education and is exempt as a scholarship; the exemption that stood as section 10(16) of the 1961 Act continues under the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Q: Can an articled assistant take a part-time job or do freelance accounting? A: No. The Regulations bar any other business, occupation or employment during training except with ICAI's express permission, and a concurrent course of study needs Form 112.
Q: When can articles be transferred? A: Freely on application during the first year; after that only on specified grounds such as long medical illness, transfer of the parent's posting, or closure/non-availability of the principal's office, with documents and ICAI approval.
Q: What is secondment and how does it differ from a transfer? A: Secondment temporarily places the assistant with another member for exposure, with the original articles continuing and the period counted as training (Form 107); a transfer ends the articles with one principal and starts fresh with another (Form 109 plus 102/103).
Q: Why would you choose industrial training over continuing in a firm? A: For corporate-side exposure — Ind AS reporting, internal financial controls, ERP-based closes — a higher prescribed stipend and a route to a pre-placement offer; the cost is breadth of statutory and tax work.
Q: What is Form 108 and why does it matter? A: It is the principal's certificate of completion of training, to be filed within 30 days of completion; without it a student cannot be treated as having completed training for Final or membership.
Q: An assistant is made to work 50 hours in a week with no compensation. What is the position? A: Training hours must be at least 35 a week and ICAI's guidance caps exigency working at 45; 50 hours breaches the ceiling, and hours above 35 must be compensated by leave or additional stipend — a matter the student can raise with ICAI.
Q: If the principal dies mid-training, is the period served lost? A: No. The articles stand terminated under the Regulations, the period served counts towards the 24 months, and the student registers with a new principal — minimising the gap matters, since idle time is not credited.
Q: Can an articled assistant sign an audit report or a certificate? A: Never. Only a member in practice may sign; an articled assistant may prepare and document the work but must not hold out as a chartered accountant.

Common mistakes

Filing Form 103 late and assuming the training commenced on the joining date — the registered date governs, and a late filing can delay the Final attempt.
Starting a degree or any other course without Form 112 permission, then finding the concurrent period questioned.
Accepting stipend in cash or irregularly, so that there is no bank record when a stipend dispute reaches ICAI.
Treating leave as unlimited, or forgetting that exam leave is inside the one-sixth entitlement, and discovering an extension at the end.
Expecting a transfer on demand after the first year — the grounds are specific, documented and approved, not a matter of preference.
Leaving a firm without a signed Form 109, or finishing without Form 108, and losing credit for months actually served.
Spending 24 months in a single vertical (or only on data entry and bank reconciliations) and having nothing statute-specific to describe in a technical round.
Quoting old-scheme facts in an exam answer — three years, Final written during articles, 156 days of leave — all superseded for students under the New Scheme.