How to get life-changing results from your CPD

Two AAT award-winners have taken continuing professional development (CPD) to the next level, making real changes to their lives. From improving as a boss to saving millions of pounds for clients, find out how they’ve done it.

Whenever the words ‘continuing professional development’ (CPD) crop up in the workplace, it’s all too easy to dismiss it as another pointless box-ticking exercise from HR; an unnecessary distraction from the realities of your day-job.

Given that CPD is ongoing, generally not urgent, and relies upon you alone to complete (rather than a boss breathing down your neck), this often means it gets shunted to the bottom of to-do lists… 

However, done properly, CPD can reap real benefits.

We often acquire skills, knowledge and experience in our jobs without even realising. Keeping a document of these skills – either in a Word document, software such as Trello/Xero or a physical folder – is a brilliant way of keeping track of your progress.

It helps identify any weaknesses and set achievable goals. And in the ever-changing world of accountancy, it’ll help you keep up-to-date with important legislation, technological developments, or even the latest Making Tax Digital news.

Best of all, at some point during your continuous professional development, you’ll see exactly how much you’ve improved. It’s a massive confidence boost.

CPD enhances professional skills, making you more employable. Here are two AAT members on how CPD empowered massive changes in their lives.

“CPD helped me become Xero-certified and save millions of pounds for my clients” – Gina Gardner

Gina Gardner MAAT, 23, is a corporate tax accountant for Gloucestershire-based Randall & Payne. CPD has empowered Gina’s career progression so far, leading to Xero certification and helping her clients save £15m.

Gina says: “You don’t expect to generate business chatting to a stranger on the 07:42 train to Bristol Parkway…

But a random conversation with a self-employed woman on a train led to us keeping in touch on LinkedIn, eventually resulting in her referring clients on to us at Randall & Payne.

I doubt I would have been as confident to strike up that conversation, and develop it into business, without having done CPD first and extended my knowledge beyond my normal study leave.

How CPD led to Xero certification

Aside from developing networking skills, I’ve also learned Xero through CPD. The cloud-based accounting platform changes every few weeks, so it’s important to keep abreast of these so I can engage with my clients.

I’m tested on Xero via multi-choice questions, which give credits. These credits count towards my Xero certification on an annual basis, and contribute to my AAT CPD record.

I have maintained my Xero-certified adviser status for two years. Having this knowledge has really helped me in my job, especially when explaining how to operate Xero to individual clients.

Recently, I received a LinkedIn recommendation from a client saying I had restored his faith in accountancy!

The ‘continuing’ element of CPD

Most people think CPD only involves training courses. We do attend these, but it’s a mistake to think that this is the only thing that counts towards your CPD.

So many other things can contribute. Whenever I receive a query within the corporate tax team that I need to research, I include that within my CPD, as it’s increasing my knowledge within a particular area.

I also watch webinars and read AAT magazines to keep up-to-date on relevant topics. Not many people think sitting around reading a magazine can count towards CPD, but it does!

Development in my job role

CPD has led to me picking up new work responsibilities, such as being involved in share transactions and investor relief submissions. But largely specialising in R&D.

As a Corporate Tax team, we have helped save our clients £15m in R&D savings, over the last five years.

Together with my studies, CPD is enabling me to progress towards an end goal of becoming a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser. Without CPD, I would not have had the growing confidence to assist my clients, as my knowledge would have been limited to previous exams – which isn’t enough.”

Gina’s advice:

Use CPD as a way of keeping track of developments within your industry, whether it’s new tax legislation or technological developments within Xero. Your knowledge will make you more employable and aid career progression. It’s definitely worth spending an hour a week on it.

“CPD helps me improve as a boss” – Farid Gasanov

Farid Gasanov MAAT, 30, is Founder and CEO of London-based Q Accountants. CPD has delivered some great results for both his staff – and himself. He’s also set up an effective method of keeping track of it…

Farid says: “As a business-owner, I believe CPD is absolutely vital. When meeting clients, it’s important to know what’s going on with the accounting industry and any legislation changes. Accounting, such as VAT, is changing so much that a large chunk of knowledge you have from three years ago isn’t relevant now.

CPD enables you to refresh your knowledge and learn something new.

Encouraging CPD among your team

I’ve got a team of nine staff at Q Accountants, and I regularly send them HMRC updates on payroll changes, or links to webinars, so they can stay ahead on CPD. Each member of staff also gets an annual training allowance of £600 to attend any CPD course they want, whether it’s money laundering, Citibank training, or improving presentation skills.

One course we always attend every year is Xerocon, which covers trends and features guests such as cyclist Chris Hoy; it’s essentially three days full of CPD activities!

How to track your CPD

But CPD is ultimately managed by the employees themselves, not the boss. So, you need good e-learning software. At Q Accountants we use project management app Trello with each member of staff receiving their own board for tracking CPD. My board consists of three columns:

• Coming. This is a list of the events/webinars/mastercourses that I’ve signed up for.
• Attended. When I attend events, I move the card to ‘Attended’. This information is useful in case AAT ever ask for it! After each event, you can also put your observations and takeaway points here.
• Potential. Here I put the events I’ve heard of, jotting them down on-the-go through Trello’s mobile phone app. If it’s worth attending, I’ll put them into ‘Coming’.

These Trello boards are particularly useful when it comes to performance reviews and seeing what people have achieved over the last year, and what new skills they want to acquire.

There are always areas to improve my own CPD too. I attend the AAT tax update mastercourse once a year, which covers changes within the tax industry and is also a great chance to meet other accountants.

We have lots of startup clients at Q who go through fundraising and have complex share structures, so I’m currently working on enhancing my technical knowledge too. Accountants rarely deal with details of transactions, but the more I know about share capitals and corporate restructuring, is a big help.”

Farid’s advice:

Sometimes it’s a struggle to find time to do CPD. However, what I’ve found useful is learning on your commute. Even if you’re driving, it’s still possible to listen to audiobooks that could increase your personal development.

In summary

There are a huge number of ways you can accomplish your continuing professional development, ensuring you continue to grow and advance in your career. But even though CPD is a requirement of maintaining your AAT professional designation, don’t let it turn into a box-ticking exercise.

Follow in the footsteps of our previous AAT award winners above; identify challenges you face and potential areas for growth, and set out to make a real change. This is a fantastic opportunity to expand your communication skills, develop your staff to fill business needs, improve your networking to generate more business, and so much more.

Read more on how to make an impact with your continuing professional development;

• What is CPD and why is it important for your career?
• CPD for AAT Members: What counts as CPD?
• How can finance managers develop their employees?

Christian Koch is an award-winning journalist/editor who has written for the Evening Standard, Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph, The Independent, Q, The Face and Metro. He's also written about business for Accounting Technician, 20 and Director, where he is contributing editor.