As a professional accountant, I am happy and obligated to record and report on my Professional Development (PD).  This was easier as a CMA as I have always liked the Certified Management Accountants Competency Map.

The biggest challenge I have had over the years is the best way to record PD!  I have tried spreadsheets (an accountant’s best friend), online databases and just about everything in between. 

LinkedIn seems to offer a solution (discussed in a previous Blog: LinkedIn – Do I have a Deal for YOU!) but I also hate to leave my professional reporting obligations in the hands of an American company. 

I Promise to Do My Best…

In the end, I have landed on a simpler solution – put them on my website. So, dear brand new Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada/Alberta;

Starting January 1, 2014; I promise to record my PD activities on my website (Phrankisms > Phrank’s CPLD) and make them publicly available.  I further promise to use this webpage to promote the concepts and benefits of PD within in my community.  Finally, I encourage my friends and colleagues to gently remind me when I fail to follow through on the above promises in a timely manner.  A libation of their choice (coffee, tea, stronger) is the incentive to identify PD that I have missed.

How about you?  Do you have PD reporting obligations and if so, how do you tracking and manage them?  Send me comments, email, etc.  with your strategies.  And keep your eyes open to see if I have missed any PD!