CPD for Accountancy and Finance Training Providers
If you're setting up CPD accreditation for accountancy training and you're not sure whether your certificates will hold up when a member submits them for revalidation, that's a reasonable thing to worry about. ICAEW and ACCA don't require third-party accreditation for CPD to count, and neither body endorses a particular accreditation scheme, what they actually ask is that the learning is relevant and verifiable. That's a standard your certificates can meet directly, without going through an affiliation programme built for large organisations.
What CPD accreditation actually means for an accountancy and finance training provider
The accountancy bodies structure CPD differently from each other. ICAEW requires 120 hours over three years with no fixed annual minimum, ACCA requires a minimum 40 CPD units a year, CIMA runs an outcomes-based framework rather than an hourly target, and AAT has its own less prescriptive but still evidence-based requirement. None of them mandate third-party accreditation for the CPD itself, what they need is that a member can demonstrate relevance and evidence their learning, whichever body they belong to.
That's exactly what an aims-skills-outcomes structure is built to do. Instead of a generic stamp, it states what your tax update, IFRS session, payroll workshop, or AAT exam preparation course actually covered, and what a learner can now do, the kind of specificity a member needs when a body asks them to evidence their CPD during a monitoring exercise.
Independent accountancy trainers typically run periodic cohorts, a half-day workshop here, a quarterly update session there, rather than a continuous course catalogue. CPD hours flex to match: you set them per session against genuine contact time, using the same one-point-per-hour principle throughout, so a quarterly payroll update and a longer IFRS refresher are both represented accurately.
Open CPD offers a simple 3 step process for you
Run your tax, IFRS, payroll, or AAT preparation session as you already do.
Log in, set up the course profile, outcomes, hours, delivery mode, and accredit with one click.
Branded CPD certificates and digital badges are generated instantly for every learner.
What members and their bodies actually check
A certificate from an unknown provider, with no reference standard behind it, is difficult for a member to present confidently during a monitoring exercise, and formal affiliation with ICAEW or ACCA is designed for larger organisations, not a specialist independent trainer running a handful of cohorts a year.
A permanent, checkable verification link solves the underlying problem directly. It confirms the course details, the learning outcomes, and the delegate's attendance independently of the trainer, so a member can point an auditor to a verifiable record rather than relying on a PDF that could have been produced by anyone.
Each certificate resolves to an achievement page anyone can open, no login, no PDF attachment.
Your logo and course name lead. Certificates are powered by Open CPD, issued by you.
Once issued, the record is stored immutably and stays tamper-proof, the date and detail cannot drift.
How this plays out for accountancy and finance providers
Accountancy professionals are required to keep CPD records and many are subject to monitoring by ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA, or AAT directly. A verifiable certificate from a self-accredited provider isn't a workaround to that system, it's a legitimate, practical way for an independent trainer running tax updates, IFRS sessions, or payroll workshops to give delegates something they can actually use when their body asks for evidence.
Open CPD does not replace ICAEW, ACCA, CIMA or AAT membership, it documents the CPD they ask members to evidence
Open CPD isn't ICAEW or ACCA affiliation, and it doesn't need to be, neither body requires third-party accreditation for CPD to count toward a member's requirement. What Open CPD provides is a verifiable certificate a member can use as that evidence: the course content, the CPD hours, and the outcomes, checkable independently of the trainer who issued it, sitting alongside whichever body's framework the learner is already working within.
Accredit your first accountancy course this week
Ready to see exactly how the structure comes together, aims, skills, outcomes, and the verification record that ties it all together? [How It Works](https://open-cpd.com/how-it-works/) walks through the full mechanism. Or [start now](https://open-cpd.com/opencpddemo/) and set up your first accountancy course profile in minutes.