How to get your annual CPD hours for free

Continuing professional development (CPD) is a yearly obligation for most qualified accountants. ACCA members, for example, complete 40 units a year, of which 21 must be verifiable. Many people pay for CPD courses they could have got for free.

First, understand the two types. Verifiable CPD is anything you can prove you learned from, a course with a certificate, or a structured webinar. Non-verifiable CPD is informal: reading technical articles, listening to podcasts. You usually need a mix, and you keep the certificates as evidence.

Your own professional body is the first free source. ICAEW runs free webinars and a free CPD Conference, plus a free Code of Ethics course. ACCA members get free webinars, on-demand learning and technical articles through myACCA. AICPA & CIMA run free CPE webinars too.

The Big 4 are a goldmine of free, CPE-eligible learning. Deloitte Dbriefs, PwC, EY and KPMG all run free webcasts on tax, audit, accounting and regulation throughout the year, register with your email and keep the certificate.

For technical CPD with a certificate, Deloitte's IFRS e-learning is excellent: over 45 free modules, no registration needed to study, and you simply add your name before the assessment to earn a certificate. Dedicated platforms like accountingcpd.net and Learnsignal also offer free verifiable courses.

The hard part is keeping it organised. We've gathered the best free, verifiable CPD sources in one place, sorted by type, with how to access and log each one, so you can hit your annual hours without spending anything.