How to Set Up a CPD Programme for Your Firm

A structured continuing professional development (CPD) programme turns a scattered set of individual obligations into a single, managed system that develops your people and keeps the firm compliant. If your finance team is meeting their CPD requirements in isolation, you are probably paying for overlapping courses, leaving skills gaps unaddressed and discovering compliance problems only at year-end. This guide walks through how to design and run a firm-wide CPD programme, step by step.

Whether you lead a practice, an in-house finance function or an L&D team, the principles are the same: understand the requirements, map them to your people, choose the right activities and build evidence as you go. For a deeper look at the leadership angle, see our guide to CPD for finance directors and CFOs, and explore the full range of continuing professional development options as you plan.

Start by understanding what each body requires

Most finance teams are a mix of qualifications, and the bodies do not all measure CPD the same way. Before you build anything, map out who holds which qualification and what each body expects.

• ACCA members on the unit route complete 40 units of CPD a year, of which at least 21 must be verifiable and up to 19 can be non-verifiable. Verifiable CPD is activity that is relevant to your role and can be demonstrated with evidence.
• CIMA uses a competence-based, output-focused approach with no prescribed number of hours. Members assess their own development needs against their role; a common benchmark is around 20 hours a year, but the emphasis is on outcomes rather than a fixed total.
• AAT applies an output-based policy that focuses on the benefits of learning rather than a set number of hours, while encouraging members to undertake roughly 20 hours a year measured by outcomes.

For context, the global IFAC benchmark is roughly 120 hours over a rolling three-year period. The practical takeaway for an employer is that a single fixed target will not satisfy everyone. Your programme needs to accommodate both the unit-counting approach (ACCA) and the competence-based approach (CIMA and AAT).

Step 1: Assess needs and competence gaps

A good CPD programme is built around real development needs, not just compliance minimums. Start with a simple skills and competence review:

• List the core competencies your finance function needs now and in the next 12 to 24 months, for example financial reporting, tax, audit, data analysis, ESG reporting or leadership.
• Map each team member's current strengths and gaps against those competencies, drawing on appraisals and manager input.
• Identify shared gaps across the team (these become group programmes) and individual gaps (these become personal plans).

This step also makes your CPD spend defensible. When learning is tied to an identified gap and a business objective, it is far easier to show that an activity is relevant, which is exactly what verifiable CPD demands.

Step 2: Map activities to each body's requirements

Once you know the gaps, translate them into a plan that satisfies each qualification represented on your team. A practical approach is to design one core programme and tag each activity by who it counts for.

For ACCA members, make sure enough activity falls into the verifiable category to clear the minimum of 21 units. For CIMA and AAT members, focus the records on outcomes: what the person can now do differently and the benefit to their work.

Step 3: Allocate time and budget

CPD fails when it is treated as something people do in their own time. Build it into the working year:

• Set a protected annual learning allowance per person, expressed in hours or days, and put it in the calendar.
• Agree a per-head budget that covers a course library, exam-linked study where relevant and any live training.
• Decide where a shared, multi-body course library is more cost-effective than buying individual courses ad hoc.

A single subscription that is recognised across multiple bodies usually beats piecemeal purchasing, both on cost and on the admin of tracking it. Learnsignal's CPD is recognised by more than 20 professional bodies, which lets a mixed ACCA, CIMA and AAT team learn from one library.

Step 4: Assign ownership

Every programme needs an owner. Decide who is accountable for the programme overall (often an L&D lead or finance director), who signs off individual plans (line managers) and who maintains the records. Without clear ownership, evidence slips through the cracks and the annual declaration becomes a scramble.

It also helps to give people a single point of contact for questions about what counts and how to record it. Learnsignal provides corporate clients with a dedicated success manager for exactly this reason.

Step 5: Evidence and review as you go

The hardest part of CPD compliance is not doing the learning, it is proving it. Capture evidence at the point of completion rather than reconstructing it months later. Good practice includes:

• Recording the activity, date, duration and learning outcome immediately.
• Keeping certificates and attendance records in one place.
• Adding a short reflective note linking the learning back to the person's role, which supports the relevance test for verifiable CPD.
• Reviewing progress at least quarterly so nobody approaches year-end short of their target.

An admin dashboard that shows per-learner progress and produces exportable, per-regulator compliance reports removes most of this burden. It also gives you pass-rate and progress trends across the team, so you can see whether the programme is actually working. You can review how this fits a corporate setting on our corporate training options page.

FAQs

Do all our team members need the same number of CPD hours?

No. ACCA sets a unit target on the unit route, while CIMA and AAT use output-based approaches without a fixed number. Design your programme to suit each qualification rather than applying a single target to everyone.

What makes CPD verifiable?

For ACCA, verifiable CPD must be relevant to your role and capable of being demonstrated with evidence such as a certificate, attendance record or reflective note.

Can one course library cover a mixed-qualification team?

Yes. A library recognised across multiple bodies lets ACCA, CIMA and AAT members draw from the same resource. Learnsignal's CPD is recognised by more than 20 professional bodies.

How often should we review the programme?

Review individual progress at least quarterly and the programme as a whole annually, so you can adjust for new skills gaps and keep everyone on track.

A well-run CPD programme protects compliance, develops your people and makes your training spend work harder. If you would like help building one for a finance team, explore Learnsignal For Teams to see how a recognised course library, an admin dashboard and a dedicated success manager can support your programme.