ICAEW shares answers to the most commonly asked questions from members about ICAEW's CPD Regulations and their requirements.
CPD requirements
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How can I check my CPD requirements?
ICAEW’s CPD Regulations divide professional roles into six categories. The category you fall into determines the minimum amount of CPD you need complete each year and for how many hours you need to provide evidence of completion.
The default category is 3, which has the lowest CPD requirements, however, working for certain organisations, or delivering particular services, can place you into a higher category. For example, those leading external audits for a public interest entity fall into practice category 1.
ICAEW has created an online CPD self-assessment tool where you spend a few minutes answering questions about your role and it will determine which CPD category you fall into.
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I gained membership part way through the year - can I pro-rate my CPD hours?
Yes.
Those who fall within the scope of the CPD Regulations for the first time after the start of a CPD year are required to undertake the minimum number of hours for the CPD category most appropriate to the work you do on a pro-rata basis for the time left in the CPD year.
For example, if you are in CPD category 3, and you qualify as a member with three months of the CPD year remaining, you will have to carry out at least five hours of CPD before 31 October.
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My role has changed - what does this mean for my CPD requirements?
If you change role during the CPD year and, as a result, move between CPD categories, then you should continue to comply with the CPD requirements of the CPD category you started the year in.
You should, however, reflect on whether you need to do more than the minimum CPD hours for that category given the change in your role.
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I've had an absence from work - what does this mean for my CPD requirements?
Expected absence from work
If you know that you will be absent from work for a long period during a CPD year, for example, because you are going on maternity/paternity leave or have a planned sabbatical, then you will be expected to carry out at least a pro rata amount of the minimum number of CPD hours for your CPD category, based on the period from the start of the CPD year to your date of absence.
Unexpected absence from work
If you are absent from your role for a significant period of the CPD year, and your absence was not expected or foreseeable, then you would not be required to have undertaken a pro-rata amount of CPD in the year for the period(s) you were working.
In such circumstances a single long period of absence, or a series of short absences which together are a significant part of the CPD year, will be treated the same.
If you are selected for a check of your CPD activity for that CPD year, then you should provide proof of any CPD that you did undertake in the periods that you were working. The fact that you had been absent for a significant part of the CPD year would be taken into account.
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I work part time, do I pro-rate my CPD requirements?
No. The minimum hours requirements with the CPD Regulations apply regardless of whether you work part time or full time.
The decision was made to not prorate CPD hours as those working part-time need to be as technically up to date and as competent as their full-time colleagues. It doesn’t matter if someone is working two days a week or working five, they need to keep abreast of technical issues and changing requirements that relate to the accounting responsibilities they undertake.
There is, however, a "de minimis" amount of earnings below which members do not have to complete a minimum number of CPD hours.
If an individual's total gross income from accountancy and finance services is less than £1,000 per annum, then they can also choose to reflect on their development needs and undertake any necessary training.
Exemptions
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I am retired/life member, am I exempt from CPD requirements?
If you are fully retired during a CPD year then you are completely exempt from the CPD Regulations for that year.
You may fall into the regulations if you undertake voluntary accountancy work, are a trustee of a charity, or statutory director of a company (whether paid or not). The requirements for charity trustees and company directors are outlined in the question below.
If you undertake voluntary accountancy and finance work in any other capacity, whether for a charity, any other organisation or individual, then you should reflect on the nature of this work and your professional development needs and ensure your CPD addresses these needs. There are, however, no minimum hours of CPD that you have to complete.
Retiring during a CPD year
If you retire during a CPD year you will be expected to carry out at least a pro-rata amount of the minimum number of the CPD hours for your CPD category based on the period from the start of the CPD year to your retirement date.
De minimis
If you undertake some paid accountancy and finance services, but the total gross income from those services is less than £1,000 per annum, then you can also choose to reflect on your development needs and undertake any necessary training. This is instead of completing a minimum number of hours of CPD.
Please note: If you are providing paid accountancy and finance services under the CPD de-minimis level of £1,000, you would still be required to hold a practising certificate. There is no longer a de minimis level of work for the purposes of the practising certificate rules. For further details on this please see our statement on engaging in public practice.
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I do not work in a financial role – am I exempt from CPD?
If you are an ICAEW member, someone regulated by ICAEW for certain activities, or a reciprocal member, you remain within the scope of ICAEW's CPD Regulations if:
- you undertake accountancy or finance work, or reserved or non-reserved legal services, or
- you are a company director, trustee, or hold a role with an equivalent level of legal or financial responsibility.
Any work that you do that relates to the profession of accountancy is likely to be considered accountancy and finance work. The scope of such activity is wide and would include work undertaken in practice and outside of practice, such as working in the finance department or the management of a business, charity or public sector organisation.
See a list of services that are regarded as accountancy or finance work.
Directors
If you are an executive or non-executive statutory director of a company you are within the scope of the CPD Regulations.
If you hold a similar role for another type of entity, you should consider whether that role has an equivalent level of legal or financial responsibility to that of a company director. If so, you too would fall within the CPD Regulations.
Statutory directors of micro entities are within the scope of the CPD Regulations but are not required to complete a minimum number of CPD hours. Micro entities are defined by the Companies Act as those that meet two out of the following three criteria:
- turnover less than £632,000;
- gross assets less than £316,000; and
- fewer than 10 employees.
If being a statutory director of a micro entity is the only role that brings you within scope of the regulations, you should reflect on the nature of this work and your professional development needs and ensure your CPD addresses these needs.
Trustees
If you are a trustee, then this brings you within the scope of the CPD Regulations. However, if you do no other work, and the only trustee role(s) you hold are of a low-risk, personal nature then you may be exempt from the requirements of the CPD Regulations.
The trustee roles that ICAEW considers are of a low-risk or personal nature are as follows:
- Will trusts – acting in a personal capacity/as an unpaid executor.
- Trustee of intestate estate – acting in a personal capacity/as an unpaid executor.
- Bare trusts – including to open a bank account for a child.
- Parental trusts.
- Pilot trusts with less than £100.
- Co-ownership trusts to hold shares of property.
- Insurance policies.
- Personal injury trusts/special needs trusts.
Please note: That all other types of trustee roles would remain in scope of the CPD Regulations, including trustees of general mixed discretionary or accumulation trusts; and paid trustee/executor roles for will trusts and estates (including intestate estates). There are special provisions, however, for charity trustees.
Recording CPD
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Do I have to use the ICAEW CPD record?
No, you can choose to record your CPD in any way that suits you and you don’t have to use your ICAEW CPD record. However, you are expected to record your professional development needs each year and the activities you completed to meet those needs.
If you are selected for monitoring by ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department, you must provide evidence that you have met your CPD requirements.
Your CPD record should include the following information:
- A detailed description of your role and responsibilities:
- Include all roles held during the CPD year (1 November to 31 October), including the relevant CPD category. - A detailed description of your development needs. This must cover:
- changes to your role;
- technical aspects;
- ethics and professional scepticism; and
- professional skills and development. - A list of all CPD activities you have undertaken and how long they have taken.
- for activities contributing to your verifiable CPD hours, you will need to keep records of the evidence of the completion of these activities. - Outline the impact of those actions.
- Detail any matters carried forward to next year.
- Your reflections for next year.
- A detailed description of your role and responsibilities:
Using ICAEW's digital CPD record
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How do I use the ICAEW digital CPD record?
When you log into to your record you have options to:
- Add your CPD category.
- Write and save a reflective plan for a CPD year.
- Add CPD activities and evidence (for verifiable activities).
- View and amend previous activities.
- See activities which have automatically been added to your record (for example, completion of ICAEW Ethics CPD Course modules)
- Download information on existing activities and annual records.
Every time you add an activity within the record, you’re prompted to include details, such as:
- when you undertook the activity,
- how long it took,
- why you chose the activity, and
- what you learned from it.
These details will be used to calculate how much CPD you have to complete for the rest of the year and demonstrate how each activity is relevant for your professional development.
If you are short of time or don’t have all the information you need to hand, you can save activities and come back later to add more detail or to upload verification evidence.
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How do I access my digital CPD record?
To access your record, log into icaew.com and navigate to ‘My dashboard’. You will see ‘CPD record’ as an option in the navigation bar at the top of the screen.
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My evidence meets the requirements, but is not being accepted – how can I upload this?
The file types that you can upload as evidence to the CPD record are:
- Word documents (docx),
- PowerPoint presentations (pptx),
- PDFs,
- Excel sheets (xlsx),
- Audio files (mp3, wav), and
- images (png, jpg, jpeg).
You can also add emails as evidence if they are saved as images or PDFs. Please note, that for each CPD activity there is a combined maximum file size of 10MB.
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I have attended a course/event, will this be automatically updated on my CPD record?
If you have completed any modules on ICAEW’s Ethics CPD Course, you won’t need to add this activity to your record. Module certificates automatically transfer across and appear as a verified CPD activity that contributes to your ethics requirement.
Many other ICAEW elearning courses also automatically add CPD certificates to the ICAEW digital CPD record upon completion. For the remaining courses, you can download a certificate from the elearning portal and upload it as evidence, as you would with other CPD activities.
If you attend a face-to-face ICAEW event you may see a QR code at the venue that you can scan to add the event as a verified CPD activity on your digital record, rather than having to create activities manually and then upload evidence.
Those attending webinars, or watching them on demand, may also see these QR codes or links in slide decks.
Attendance emails are sent out after live and virtual events, which may also include such links.
Verified CPD
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What counts as evidence for verifiable CPD?
Evidence verifying a CPD activity has been completed must be:
- objective - fact based, rather than based on personal perspectives;
- corroborated - can be confirmed to be accurate by an independent source; and
- retained - in a format that can be included in your CPD record (see FAQ 9).
Independent evidence can be provided for a wide-range of actions from your day-to-day work, from attending peer discussion groups and consulting experts, to on-the-job research of technical areas and writing academic articles.
Examples of evidence to verify an CPD activity, could include:
- an email confirming attendance at a webinar from the organiser;
- records of on-the-job training from a mentor, manager or tutor;
- a certificate of completion for a course, or
- correspondence with an expert in resolving technical issues.
As part of ICAEW's online CPD record, the AddCPD tool verifies your engagement with articles, videos and podcasts on icaew.com for CPD purposes. AddCPD enables you to add the page you're browsing to your online CPD record and verifies that activity.
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Do I have to collect evidence of verifiable CPD when I'm doing it?
There is no requirement to collect evidence of a CPD activity at the time of completion or within a set timeframe afterwards. However, evidence must be provided of verified CPD activities if you are selected for monitoring and this is most often easiest to collect at the time or shortly afterwards.
For example, if you are completing on-the-job training, which requires a senior member of staff to attest that you have completed the CPD, then it is best to do so when it is easy to recollect details about the activity. A gap of several months between completion and attestation could result in additional questions from ICAEW’s Quality Assurance Department during the monitoring process.
CPD resources
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Can you help find suitable courses/events to meet my CPD requirements?
CPD is not restricted to activities focused on technical accounting or finance. The development of non-technical skills, such as communication, leadership and change management, are equally considered professional development.
ICAEW provides a range of courses and events which might be relevant to your professional development.
You can browse upcoming events and webinars, and filter by topic on events.icaew.com.
Meanwhile, our A-Z of CPD courses offers a comprehensive list of study options, covering in-person, virtual, self-study and elearning options.
ICAEW membership include the option to join all of our communities, as well as our Audit and Assurance, Corporate Reporting and Tax Faculties. Which also provide regular webinars and technical guidance.
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Can I count non-ICAEW events/courses towards my CPD requirements?
Yes, as long as that activity is contributing to your professional development, and you can demonstrate in your CPD record how it is relevant to your role and how it has helped meet your learning needs.
CPD is not restricted to activities focused on technical accounting or finance. The development of non-technical skills, such as communication, leadership and change management, are equally considered professional development.
CPD deadline
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What is the deadline for completing my CPD?
The ICAEW CPD year runs from 1 November to 31 October.
However, we understand that firms may have different CPD years and we will consider the firm’s CPD year in our monitoring.
This is reflected in the members’ annual declaration wording, which states: “Where your employer’s CPD year is different to ICAEW, you confirm that you have complied with Principal Bye-law 56 throughout your employer’s CPD year to 31 October 2024 and will complete the required CPD by the end of your employer’s CPD year."
CPD resources
ICAEW membership includes a significant range of online content, including webinars, podcasts and insights. Members also have access to content created by our faculties and communities.
More support
See the full list of CPD categories and use the CPD self-assessment tool to help you understand your obligations.
CPD categoriesFind out your categoryGet in touch
If you have any questions about CPD, don’t hesitate to contact us. Phonelines and webchat are available between 09:00-17:00 (UK time) Monday to Friday and 10:00-17:00 on Wednesdays (excluding UK bank holidays).