Recording your Continuing Professional Development

Every time you complete a CPA Australia professional development course or attend an event such as CPA Congress, seminars, workshops or a CPA Australia training session, your record will be automatically updated.

Activities such as courses, discussion groups and webinars that are not provided by CPA Australia will need to be manually recorded in your CPD Diary.

We recommend you regularly update your CPD Diary to make sure all relevant activities are recorded.  

CPD activity categories and descriptions

You’ll need to select the appropriate category for each type of activity when it’s recorded in your CPD Diary.

If you're selected for a CPD review you will be requested to provide a record of your CPD activities. This includes the nature, date, time expended, and topics covered for CPD undertaken. As such, you must keep your CPD records for 12 months after the end of your triennium.

CPD for health and wellness

Members that undertake learning to improve their understanding of the importance of health and wellbeing, or to develop skills that support health and wellness in the workplace for staff and clients can claim up to 4 verifiable CPD hours per year under category F Appropriate Developmental Activities. This may include activities such as attending a webinar or seminar about mental health first aid, physical first aid, managing stress, building resilience etc.

Please note the CPD undertaken (to be claimable) needs to be relevant to your role/career path with demonstrated learning outcomes which contribute to developing professional competence. Activities such as fitness classes, yoga classes, meditation, and mindfulness activities such as aromatherapy will not be considered.

An exception to this is Members who undertook The Counting on U training program who will be able to claim the CPD hours undertaken which is to a maximum of 15 hours in total.

Maximum CPD hour limits

Both "reading, video or audio" (CPD activity code J) and "Mentoring" (CPD activity code K) are limited to 10 hours each year unless COVID-19 concessions below apply.

Claiming CPD for health and wellness (CPD activity F) is limited to 4 hours each year.

Claiming CPD for working at a Recognised Employer (CPD activity L) is limited to 40 hours each year.

Covid-19 concessions

CPA Australia is providing members with the following COVID-19 concessions, recognising the extraordinary impact of the pandemic on the way members undertake CPD:

• ‘Activity J – structured reading, video and audio’. During the 2020 – 2021 calendar years, the maximum cap of 10 hours per year is being lifted for this activity type. All CPA Australia members are eligible to claim a maximum of 40 CPD hours per year for structured reading, video and audio undertaken that is relevant to their current or future roles.
• ‘Activity F – appropriate developmental activities’. During the 2020 – 2021 calendar years, all CPA Australia members working in Public Practice (including PPC Holders) are eligible to claim a maximum of 40 CPD hours per year for appropriate development activities undertaken that is relevant to COVID-19 regulatory changes. Members will be required to quantify all hours completed and can record the aggregated hours in their CPD Diaries as a single entry entitled, “COVID-19 regulatory changes”.

In accordance with CPA Australia’s by-laws, members must maintain detailed records of CPD undertaken for a 12-month period after the 2019 – 2021 triennium has ended. Members should be able to produce CPD records for inspection if requested.

Please note, the CPA Australia CPD COVID-19 concessions do not override a member’s regulatory and/or legislative obligations or other professional membership requirements.