Any Chartered Accountants out there who do a tiny bit of work and can advise me on CPD

[wheelybug]

I have been on a career break for 3 years where I have done no work whatsoever so have also done no CPD (I checked this was ok with ICAEW and it is).

A friend and I are starting up a small business (tiny in fact !) which may or may not take off. I am obviously dealing with the business side of things so will presumably have to have shown some form of CPD by next year. Currently the work, particularly the business/financial side of things is going to take hardly any time at all (an hour a week I reckon if that).

Any ideas what I need to do ? I know I should call ICAEW but just wondered whether anyone was in a similar position and what they have done?

You can have reading as CPD. A lot of my hours are made up that way. I joined the ICAEW FInance and Management faculty so get their mailer every month - it's quite good actually. Has a technical update and employment/legal/tax update and other articles etc. all of which I find useful.

I can't remember how many hours we're supposed to record but I always seem to be near enough them.

SO maybe if I read stuff on small businesses and accounting for them that would be enough ? I used to work for a big4 in Corporate restructuring so small business accounting etc is quite a different area (so therefore it'd probably be quite useful too !)

FOr what it is though, and the fact it may very well come to nothing I don't want to have to go off and do courses/seminars and stuff (thats why I gave up work )

yes, I went from big4/multinats to working for a smaller company and it was a HUGE eye opener. I have learnt so much in 6 months. Just the mere fact that I don't have a tax/HR/legal department to fall back on for a start.

Yes, I reckon you'll find you're on quite a steep learning curve and you'll end up reading up on a lot of topics anyway - all of which can count towards your CPD.

I don't know if ICAEW has rules about how much has to be external etc.

thanks - maybe I'll give them a call. From teh website it seems to just say you should just do what you think supports what you are doing IYSWIM, so I think it would be ok.