CPD Guidance

to Assist You to Achieve and Maintain Your CPD Good Standing Status.

As a member of a leading professional body, you understand the value of life-long learning. Whilst there is an obligation to participate in continuing professional development (CPD) as part of your SAIPA membership, there are other, more integral reasons to maintain your CPD:

SAIPA has adopted the Output-based CPD approach which requires  that members are to demonstrate, by way of outcomes, that they have developed and maintained professional competence for example, an assessment on completion of the CPD activity.

SAIPA’s CPD Committee has issued the following guidance to assist you to achieve and maintain your CPD Good Standing Status.

  • it ensures you continually build the knowledge and skills you need to succeed in the competitive business environment;
  • it assists you in achieving your development and career goals;
  • it assists you to excel in your role, providing increased value to your organisation and/or your clients;
  • it provides transferable skills for increased employability;
  • it helps to build your reputation as a strategic business leader.

1. What is the difference between Verifiable CPD (Structured CPD) versus Non-verifiable CPD (Unstructured CPD)?

1.1. Verifiable CPD (Structured CPD)

Verifiable CPD (Structured CPD) refers to any learning activity that is verifiable; meaning members can answer “Yes.” to these four questions:

  • Did learning and/or professional development take place?
  • Was the learning activity relevant to your career or practice/business?
  • Can you explain how you applied the learning in the workplace or practice/business?
  • Can you provide evidence that you undertook the learning activity?

1.2. Non-verifiable CPD (Unstructured CPD)

Non-verifiable CPD (Unstructured CPD) is general learning not related to a specific outcome for which it is difficult to provide evidence. Non-verifiable CPD includes general reading, such as the Professional Accountant and technical articles in official newsletters and attending committee meetings and information sessions.

Any uncertainty should be discussed with our Compliance Team or Service Coordinators. Click here for contact details.

Member Enquiries

members@saipa.co.za

2. What evidence must be logged for attending learning programmes offered by other CPD Service Providers to earn hours for Verifiable CPD (Structured CPD) or for In-House Training?

Firstly, it is important to point out that SAIPA will not accredit, any CPD Services Provider. This does not prohibit members from obtaining their professional development from any reputable institution or organisation. However, hours logged by members for Verifiable (Structured) CPD offered by other CPD Service Providers will not be automatically  be approved,  these will  retain a “pending” status until it is manually reviewed and  verified by the Compliance Team.

The following evidence is reviewed during the verification stage:

2.1. A letter from the presenter and or HR representative or senior Partner or Principal at the Practice / ATC/Organisation confirming your attendance. Alternatively, you can upload your affidavit including details of 2.1.1.- 2.1.7 commissioned by a Commissioner of Oath.

2.1.1.    date of training,

2.1.2.    your name and surname,

2.1.3     your SAIPA membership number or ID number,

2.1.4.    topic of the webinar,

2.1.5.    duration of the presentation (Hours),

2.1.6.    biography/credentials of the presenter,

2.1.7.    summary of content discussed at the workshop,

Notes

  • “In- house training” is a formal course/programme conducted at your own offices or central venue (online or face to face).
  • The attendance of training for SAIPA trainees/learners is deemed to be Unverifiable CPD (Unstructured CPD).
  • SAIPA reserves the right to decline in-house training if it is not in line with SAIPAs CPD policy or any other CPD guidelines that may be produced from time to time.

Notes

“credible” means an individual who is appropriately qualified, expert in the field and topic that they are being appointed for, not be or linked to any negative reports in the media or in their organisations, have not been declined appointment in any of the SAIPA structures where applicable and is in good standing at their professional affiliation.

3. Are you required to upload certificates for attendance of SAIPA presented webinars/forums/seminars?

NO. SAIPA CPD hours for webinars/ seminars/forums are automatically allocated to your profile upon successful completion of the relevant assessment. You are kindly requested to avoid manually logging these hours and attaching these certificates as evidence as it will result in a duplication of hours. We would appreciate if you can delete any SAIPA webinar/forum that you have MANUALLY LOADED where a certificate was issued after successfully upon completion of the relevant assessment.

4. If you have met your target hours for Verifiable CPD (Structured Learning), are you able to carry the additional hours for Verifiable CPD (Structured Learning) to the following year?

Learning must be current for all mandatory hours i.e., IFRS, TAX & ETHICS, DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY. Therefore, any additional Structured Hours earned for the mandatory CPD categories will be carried over to the “Other” Category in the same year. Once “Other” is complied with, any additional Structured Hours will flow over into “Unstructured” in the same year.  If there are still excess Structured Hours after each of those categories have been complied with, a maximum of 10 Structured Other Hours will be carried over to the following year’s “Other” Category.

Please note that the CARRYING OVER of hours only happens at the end of each year (31 December), not at the beginning or during the year.

Examples:

EXAMPLE- TABLE 1

Category

Required hours

Uploaded

Overflow
IFRS 4 10 6
Tax 4 10 6
Ethics 2 10 8
Digital and Technology 2 6 4
Other 8 3 -5
Total (Structured) 20 39 24
Unstructured others 20 10 -10
Total for the year 40 49 9

Note as per the above table 1: The excess hours in the structured categories is a total of 24 hours. The shortage in the ‘Structured others’ category is 5 hours and ‘Unstructured Others’ is 10 hours. The excess  hours will be adjusted against ‘Structured Other’ and ‘Unstructured Others’. Remaining 9 hours will be carried forward to next year to the Other Category- **** these access hours will only be adjusted at the end of each year after all accumulated hours have been added.

Example Table 3 – Registered Tax Practitioner(SA)

Category

Required hours

Uploaded

Overflow
IFRS 4 8 64
Tax 10 32 22
Ethics 2 4 2
Digital and Technology 2 6 4
Other 2 2 0
Total (Structured) 20 52 32
Unstructured others 20 8 -12
Total for the year 40 58 20

Note to example 3: In this case, the member  is a registered Tax Practitioner hence his CPD requirements for Tax is 10 instead of the 4 . The excess 32 hours would be adjusted against ‘Structured Other’ if there were shortages, in this case there is none, or to unstructured other (-12).after the deduction of the -12 unstructured hours , only a maximum of 10 out of the 20 structured other will be carried forward to next year to accommodate the other category and unstructured category.

Lastly, please note that hours earned for Non-verifiable CPD (Unstructured Learning) CANNOT be carried over to a following year.

5. How can SAIPA assist you to meet your outstanding CPD requirements?

SAIPAs Online store offers a range of education programmes and learning opportunities, designed to help you develop and strengthen your skills.

SAIPAs webinar series cover CPD categories for Verifiable CPD (Structured Learning)  in Tax, Financial Reporting/ IFRS,  Ethics, Digital & Technology  etc. and can be viewed and/or purchased on the  MYSAIPA portal. Kindly follow the steps below to purchase the recordings.

  1. Log in to your profile with member number & password.
  2. Click on Menu
  3. Click on Shop
  4. Select the relevant year/category, etc
  5. Add to cart

6. What are the CPD requirements for members holding the Professional Accountant (SA) designation and other membership categories.

All SAIPA members, associates and technicians will be required to undertake and maintain a record of CPD activities. We encourage you to analyse and reflect upon their own personal training and development needs, and what the practical benefits (‘outputs’) are in relation to their professional activities. A list of the hours required, and mandatory competencies is available on the website.  You will notice that you are required to log evidence for “Digital & Technology Proficiency”, effective from January 2023. Click here. for more information.

7. How will my CPD Hours for webinars be assessed?

Assessments for webinar CPDs must be completed after each webinar before a certificate is automatically uploaded to your CPD profile and a copy is issued to you for your recording keeping.

You are only allowed three (3) attempts to successfully complete the assessments and you are encouraged to watch a webinar again after your second (2) unsuccessful attempt before making the final attempt to successfully complete the assessment.

Taking assessments again after three (3) unsuccessful attempts are not allowed and you must subscribe to a different webinar. Please note that if you are unsuccessful after the third attempt the same webinar is no longer available and you must select a different webinar.

8. What must I do to become CPD compliant after reinstatement?

8.1. Members who were Suspended are required to update their CPD records on the MYSAIPA portal upon receipt of payment of outstanding fees.

8.2. Members who resigned or who were Struck Off must:

  • pay the outstanding fees
  • need to complete an application as well as the Log a Request on the MYSAIPA portal
  • update their CPD record on their the MYSAIPA online profile
  • pay the administration fee (if applicable)

9. How to manage my CPD hours?

You can track your CPD hours in under the “Good Standing Report” tab on MySAIPA and get a quick overview of how you are progressing, and how many CPD hours you have undertaken at any point in time.

Queries can be referred to our Compliance Unit via compliance@saipa.co.za

Professional Learning and Development / CPD