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Short answer
It is the document SAICA uses to measure your CPD. You record what you need to learn (plan), what you did about it (act), and what changed as a result (reflect). Keep each plan for three calendar years, and submit it only if you are selected for monitoring. Since April 2021 it must also include an annual reflection on ethical values and attitudes.
The three phases
SAICA publishes a reflective plan template built around three phases. Each one has its own fields, and each builds on the one before it.
Planning
This phase sets out where you are and where you are going. You record your current position title, your roles and responsibilities, and how many years you have been in the role. You note the competencies your role expects, your current gaps, and any potential future roles, along with your career path or industry focus and where you see yourself within 12 months and beyond that.
For each learning need, the template asks for the course or activity name, the competency ID from the SAICA competency framework, and what prompted the need.
Action
This phase is an activity planner. Against each competency you list the course or learning activity, the type of activity, CPD hours if applicable, a planned date, a status, whether it carries certification, and the date it was completed. Every activity you log must link back to one of the development areas set out in phase one.
Reflection and reporting
Here you record the actual activities you undertook, the course status, your reflection on the learning intervention, any future learning that follows from it, and the date of your reflection. SAICA's template asks you to consider three questions for each activity:
- Did the activity address your learning needs to an appropriate level?
- Have you used this learning in the workplace?
- Did this activity lead you to new learning areas you would like to explore?
The ethics reflection is compulsory
Since SAICA's Circular 02/2021, an annual reflection on the competency area "ethical values and attitudes" has been compulsory for all SAICA members and associates. It must be recorded specifically on the reflective learning plan, not treated as a general note elsewhere. This applies to plans from 1 April 2021 onward.
The ethics competency area covers personal ethics, business ethics and professional ethics. Your reflection needs to include an evaluation of how well you meet those competencies, and a record of the learning activities you undertook to develop and maintain them.
When to write it
SAICA's own guidance treats the plan as a working document, not a form completed once a year and filed away. Learning needs come from several places: your performance reviews, changes taking place in the profession, the SAICA competency framework for your role, and any compulsory areas SAICA publishes.
The template's advice is to draft the plan in January each year, then adapt it as the year goes on. Your plan should reflect what is actually happening in your role and your learning, not a fixed list written once and never revisited.
Keeping and submitting your plan
Under Policy Statement 3 of the CPD Policy, you keep each reflective learning plan for three calendar years. You do not send it to SAICA as a matter of course: you submit it only if you are selected for monitoring.
Two situations call for extra documentation. Members who register five or more years after qualifying, or who reinstate their membership after an absence of three years or more, must submit both a declaration and a reflective learning plan. If you are on a career break, you are not excused from the plan either: you still record your reduced activities on it, even though the level of activity expected of you is lower.
Build the plan as you go
In CPDTracks the three phases are the app. You plan development areas against the SAICA competency framework, log activities against them as you complete them, and reflect at year end with ethics prompts built in. When you are ready, export the year as a PDF.
Get CPDTracksQuick questions
What must a SAICA reflective learning plan include?
Your development areas and the roles that drive them (planning), the CPD activities you undertook to address them (action), and your reflections on the outcomes (reflection), including the compulsory annual reflection on ethical values and attitudes.
Do I have to submit my reflective plan to SAICA every year?
No. You submit an annual declaration every year, but your reflective plan only needs to be submitted if you are selected for monitoring. Keep each plan for three calendar years.
Is there an official SAICA reflective plan template?
Yes. SAICA publishes a reflective plan template built around the three phases of planning, action, and reflection and reporting. You can use it, a spreadsheet, or an app such as CPDTracks. SAICA sets what the plan contains, not the tool you keep it in.
Sources
- SAICA, CPD Policy, Version 4.0 (approved 28 March 2023)
- SAICA, CPD Policy Explained (May 2023)
- SAICA, Circular 02/2021: compulsory reflection on "Ethical values and attitudes" (April 2021)
- SAICA, CPD Reflective Plan template (May 2023)
This guide summarises SAICA's published CPD requirements as at the date it was last reviewed. CPDTracks is an independent product of DAD The Accountant and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to SAICA, SARS or IRBA. Requirements change, so confirm the current position with SAICA before you rely on this guide.