ACCA CPD Requirements 2026: What Members Need to Know

Completing your ACCA qualification is a significant achievement — but it is the beginning of a professional obligation, not the end of one. As an ACCA member, you are required to complete Continuing Professional Development (CPD) every year to maintain your membership and demonstrate that you are keeping your knowledge and skills current.

This guide explains exactly what ACCA's CPD requirements are, how the outcomes-based system works, what counts as verifiable CPD, how to record it, and what happens if you do not comply.

ACCA CPD: The Basics

ACCA moved from a purely hours-based CPD model to an outcomes-based approach in 2013. This means ACCA focuses on what you actually learned and how it improved your professional performance — not simply how many hours you spent in training.

1 CPD unit = 1 hour of CPD activity. So the minimum is approximately 40 hours per year — less than 1 hour per week.

Planning and Reflecting on Your CPD

A point of precision first, because it affects how the requirement is measured. ACCA's scheme is input-based: Membership Regulation 4(4)(d)(i) requires at least 40 units per calendar year and defines one unit as one hour spent on an acceptable CPD learning activity. It is not an outcomes-based scheme, and ACCA sets no outcome a member must demonstrate. What the regulation does require, at 4(4)(d)(iv) to (vi), is that units are obtained in areas relevant to the member's work, that every member maintains competence in professional ethics and keeps their business and finance knowledge up to date, and that practising members obtain an appropriate proportion of units in their specialised areas. Planning and reflection are how members satisfy themselves of relevance, and most structure that work as a cycle:

Stage 1: Assess

Identify your development needs. What knowledge or skills gaps do you have? What changes in accounting standards, regulation, or technology affect your role? What are your career goals? Think about new IFRS standards or amendments, changes to tax legislation, technology skills gaps (data analytics, cloud accounting), and leadership development.

Stage 2: Plan

Identify CPD activities that will address your development needs. A good CPD plan is specific: "I will complete two modules on IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts by June" is more useful than "I will read more about accounting standards."

Stage 3: Action

Complete the planned CPD activities. As you do so, keep records — the activity, the date, the provider, and crucially, what you learned and how it applies to your work.

Stage 4: Evaluate

Reflect on the impact of your CPD. Did you learn what you intended to? How has it improved your professional performance? This reflection is what distinguishes ACCA's outcomes-based system from simple hour-counting.

Verifiable vs Non-Verifiable CPD

Verifiable CPD (minimum 21 units)

Verifiable CPD must be independently evidenced — you must be able to provide proof of completion if ACCA requests it during a CPD audit.

Non-Verifiable CPD (up to 19 units)

Non-verifiable CPD covers informal learning that cannot easily be evidenced but genuinely contributes to your professional development. Examples include reading technical accounting articles, informal discussions with colleagues or mentors, on-the-job learning through new projects or responsibilities, and personal reflection on professional situations.

Ethics and Your CPD

ACCA does not set a separate minimum number of ethics units. Its CPD guidance says that professional ethics lies at the heart of CPD, so ethics belongs in your plan. Examples of ethics-related CPD include:

• Courses or modules on professional ethics and the ACCA Code of Ethics
• Content on anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime
• Training on corporate governance
• Courses on fraud prevention and detection
• Content on ethical decision-making in professional practice

How to Record Your ACCA CPD

ACCA members record their CPD in the MyACCA portal (myacca.accaglobal.com).

What to log for each CPD activity:

• Activity type (course, conference, reading, etc.)
• Date completed
• CPD provider (if applicable)
• Number of hours / units
• Learning objective (what were you trying to achieve?)
• Learning outcome (what did you actually learn?)
• Reflection (how does this apply to your work?)

Best practice: Log CPD activities as you complete them — not all at once at year end. Retrospective logging is less effective and harder to evidence if you are audited.

ACCA CPD Monitoring and Audits

ACCA monitors CPD compliance through annual declarations and random audits. If selected for audit, you will need to share your CPD records (activity logs, reflection notes, and evidence of verifiable activities).

What auditors look for:

• At least 40 units completed, with at least 21 verifiable
• Reflection on learning — not just a list of activities
• Evidence for verifiable activities (certificates, attendance records)

What Happens If You Do Not Complete Your ACCA CPD?

If you are struggling to complete your CPD — for example, due to illness, parental leave, or a career break — contact ACCA proactively. ACCA has provisions for reduced CPD requirements in exceptional circumstances.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many CPD hours does ACCA require per year?

ACCA requires a minimum of 40 CPD units per year, with at least 21 of those being verifiable. Since 1 CPD unit = 1 hour, this equates to approximately 40 hours of CPD per year, of which at least 21 hours must be in activities you can evidence. No separate minimum; ACCA says professional ethics is at the heart of CPD.

What is the difference between verifiable and non-verifiable ACCA CPD?

Verifiable CPD is activity you can evidence with a third-party record — a course completion certificate, conference attendance confirmation, or similar. Non-verifiable CPD is informal learning that cannot easily be independently confirmed. ACCA requires at least 21 of your 40 annual units to be verifiable. Both types should be logged in your MyACCA CPD record with a reflection on what you learned.

Does ACCA CPD reset each year?

Yes. The ACCA CPD requirement is an annual obligation — you must meet the minimum 40 units in each calendar year. CPD units do not carry over from one year to the next, and a surplus in one year does not reduce the requirement in the next. Each year starts fresh.

Can Learnsignal courses count as ACCA CPD?

Yes. Learnsignal's accounting courses are verifiable CPD for ACCA members — you receive a completion certificate and course record that evidences your participation. Log each Learnsignal course you complete in your MyACCA CPD record with a reflection on your learning.

What happens if ACCA audits my CPD?

If ACCA selects you for a CPD audit, you will be notified and asked to provide your CPD records for the relevant year. You will need to show your activity log (at least 40 units, 21 of them verifiable), evidence for verifiable activities (certificates, completion records), and reflections on your learning. If your records are adequate, the audit closes without further action.

Meet Your ACCA CPD Requirements with Learnsignal

Learnsignal's ACCA and accounting courses provide structured, evidenced verifiable CPD for ACCA members. From financial reporting updates and tax refreshers to strategic professional-level content, our courses help you meet your CPD obligations efficiently while genuinely improving your professional knowledge.

Also useful: What is CPD for Accountants? | Best CPD Courses for Accountants

The 40 units belong to one of three routes

Membership Regulation 4(4)(b) sets out three ways a member may obtain CPD: with an employer holding approved CPD employer status from ACCA, by following the unit scheme, or by following the CPD scheme of another IFAC body of which the member is also a full member. The unit arithmetic above belongs to the second of those. On the ACCA Approved Employer route, ACCA's guidance states that members will not need to document or keep evidence of individual CPD units, demonstrating instead that they have taken part in their employer's development and appraisal process. A further route in ACCA's guidance covers members employed 770 hours or less in a CPD year, who set their own level of verifiable CPD. The annual declaration is owed on every route. Our breakdown of why ACCA's 40-unit rule applies to only one of three routes sets out the conditions and exclusions.

How this compares with other bodies

ACCA’s unit-based model is not the same shape as the hours-based regimes elsewhere, which matters if you hold a second membership. ICAEW’s requirements vary by whether you hold a practising certificate, and CPA Australia sets a triennium total instead. Whichever body you report to, the recurring question is evidence: see verifiable versus non-verifiable CPD.

Every figure above should be confirmed against ACCA's own rulebook and guidance before being relied on, since editions and paragraph numbers change between them: the member-facing statement of the requirement is published on ACCA's guide to CPD, and the binding obligation is in Membership Regulation 4(4) of the Chartered Certified Accountants' Membership Regulations.

Two further comparisons are worth knowing if you hold more than one membership. ACCA mandates no ethics quantum at all, only a duty to maintain competence in professional ethics under Regulation 4(4)(d)(v) — which puts it at one end of a range that runs to seven hours a year elsewhere, with the rule sitting in five different kinds of instrument depending on the body. And ACCA counts units equal to hours, which is an input measure: the international standard permits outcome-based measurement instead, and at least one national regulator sets no hours figure whatsoever. For the standard behind all of it, see where accountants’ CPD requirements actually come from.

The questions that come up once you start recording units

The requirement itself is the easy part. What catches members out is the detail that only becomes relevant once a cycle is under way — a session you left early, a year where you overshot, a review letter arriving. We have dealt with each of these separately and in depth.

• Can you carry CPD hours forward? — the answer varies sharply by body, and in at least one jurisdiction it is the shortfall rather than the surplus that carries over.
• Partial attendance: arriving late or leaving early — what you can legitimately claim when you did not sit through the whole thing.
• Selected for CPD review: what actually happens — the process, the evidence asked for, and what the published figures show about outcomes.
• CPD with two memberships — whether one programme can satisfy two bodies, and where the overlap is explicitly defined rather than left to you to argue.

Related reading for ACCA and CIMA members

Two threads come up repeatedly once you look past the headline unit requirement: who it actually applies to, and how it compares with the other body you might also belong to.

• The 40-unit requirement does not apply to everyone — the exemptions and reduced routes, which are more extensive than most members realise.
• The declaration deadline and what compliance means — the administrative half of the obligation, which is where most failures occur.
• ACCA and CIMA CPD compared — essential if you hold both, since the two schemes are structured quite differently.
• CIMA sets no hours, but has a fixed-penalty scheme — an outcomes-based requirement with a monetary sanction attached, which is an unusual combination.
• How ICAEW splits its hours by category — useful context for comparing UK bodies, which do not use a common unit.

CPD for skills that did not exist when the schemes were written

Artificial intelligence, data analytics and digital assets now appear in members' CPD plans, and the bodies have moved at different speeds in saying what counts.

• AI training for practice partners — what currently qualifies, and who in a firm the obligation reaches.
• Data analytics CPD — and where it sits against technical and non-technical classifications.
• CPD for accountants advising on digital assets — a competence question before it is a training one.