Philippines CPA CPD Requirements 2026: 120 Units Per 3 Years

Philippine CPAs need 120 continuing professional development units for each three-year period of their Professional Identification Card, according to the Board of Accountancy's Resolution No. 27 of 2024. The requirement rests on the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016, which makes CPD a condition of renewing a professional licence. This guide sets out what the 2024 resolution says, how carry-over works, the competence areas, the history of the requirement and what we could not confirm from the sources we could read. For comparison with other bodies, see our CPD for accountants guide.

At a glance

What Resolution 27 says

Resolution No. 27 of 2024 sets out suppletory guidelines for implementing the Board of Accountancy's earlier accreditation resolution, and it requires applicants to show 120 CPD units. The units are applied up to the expiry of the accreditation, which is tied to the birth month and year printed on the applicant's Professional Identification Card. The resolution was issued on 8 May 2024. The scanned copy we read has a blank effective-date field and a partly illegible publication stamp, which appears to read around 10 May 2024.

How carry-over works

The resolution distinguishes two kinds of accreditation approval. For approvals under one section, unused CPD units are credited when the accreditation is renewed, and the applicant submits only the remaining balance needed to reach 120. For approvals under the other section, the 120 units must be those issued within the three years before filing, counted from the date the Professional Identification Card took effect. If you are renewing, check which type of approval you hold before you collect certificates.

Competence areas

The Board's forms ask for proof of CPD units showing compliance with the required competence area. A 2017 Professional Regulation Commission article on the change from thematic areas to competence areas lists three: Technical Competence, Professional Skills, and Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes. Resolution 27 itself does not define the areas or give a numeric split, so we do not state one. That 2017 article is old, so confirm the current areas with the Board.

Accounting teachers

For CPAs accredited in education, the first renewal requires proof of 120 CPD units including 12 units of professional education. Later renewals require 120 units without the specific 12-unit requirement. If you teach, keep the education units separate from the others.

How the 120 units came about

A Board resolution of 2016 raised the requirement for CPAs from 60 to 120 units, phased in by renewal year, and a PRC notice dated 2017 says the requirement reached 120 in 2019. The 2024 resolution is therefore a guideline on how to apply the 120 units, not a new increase. We found no later increase.

The legal basis

The Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016, Republic Act 10912, makes CPD a condition of renewing the Professional Identification Card. The PRC's implementing rules were approved on 15 February 2017 and took effect on 15 March 2017. A third-party copy of the Act says it provides for suspension or revocation of registration for fraud in CPD, but we could not read the full text from an official source, so check the Act before relying on that.

What we could not confirm

We could not confirm how many of the 120 units must fall in each competence area, whether a set number must be ethics units, how provider and programme accreditation works or whether any change is planned for 2026 or 2027. Several PRC pages on these points were blocked to our research tools, and we did not work around that. Check the PRC and Board of Accountancy pages directly.

Keeping your records

Keep the certificate of each CPD activity with the provider's name, the title, the date, the units and the competence area. Because the 120 units are counted against a three-year card period, label each certificate with the card period it belongs to. That makes a renewal application a matter of adding up a folder.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPD units does a Philippine CPA need?

120 CPD units for each three-year Professional Identification Card period, according to Board of Accountancy Resolution No. 27 of 2024.

Can I carry over unused units?

For some accreditation approvals, the resolution says unused units are credited at renewal and only the balance needed to reach 120 is submitted. Check which approval type you hold.

Is there a separate ethics requirement?

We found no ethics-specific unit figure in Resolution 27. A 2017 PRC article lists Professional Values, Ethics and Attitudes as one of three competence areas.

Did the requirement increase in 2024?

No. The requirement was raised from 60 to 120 units in a phase-in that reached 120 in 2019. The 2024 resolution sets out guidelines for applying it.

Where do I check the current rules?

Check the Professional Regulation Commission and Board of Accountancy pages, because several of the relevant pages were not available to our research.

Finding courses that count

Learnsignal publishes accounting, tax, audit, ethics and finance courses in its CPD and CPE library. Before you pay for any course, check the awarding body's own rules on what it accepts, and keep the certificate and the course details. For a wider view of Asian bodies, see our MIA Malaysia CPE guide.

Source: Professional Regulation Commission and Board of Accountancy Resolution No. 27 (series of 2024), PRC articles on CPD units and competence areas (2017) and on the CPD Act implementing rules (2018), and a third-party copy of R.A. 10912, checked October 2026.