Ontario, since 1989
PD Consortium designs and delivers CPD programmes for accounting firms
We plan the curriculum, commission senior practitioners, deliver every course live and maintain attendance records throughout. Each programme is designed around the requirements of its member firms and of CPA Ontario.
Your firm joins a consortium to share the cost with practices requiring a comparable programme. We find and assemble the group.
What a full season can cover
One example. Length, areas and balance are all agreed with your group before a season is built.
| Requirement area | Hours |
|---|---|
| Tax | 12 |
| Assurance and quality | 9 |
| Practice and professional standards | 8 |
| Technology and risk | 6 |
| Professional ethicsNever reduced | 4 |
| In this example | 39 |
CPA Ontario asks for 20 hours a year, 10 of them verifiable. A full season clears that with room to spare.
The case for a consortium
A group gets better teaching at a lower cost per person
- 01
Every firm that joins lowers the cost for the rest
A senior presenter charges the same fee whether twenty people attend or four hundred. Split across a consortium, the same programme costs each firm a fraction of what it would pay on its own, and the rate falls again each time another firm joins.
- 02
A bigger group can afford better presenters
Shared cost reaches specialists, and a range of subjects, that a mid-sized practice would never fund by itself. The result is a broader programme than a firm puts together course by course.
- 03
We find the other firms
Tell us your headcount and the subjects that matter to your work. We place you with practices wanting a similar programme, or form a consortium around you.
Already in place
A new consortium inherits a curriculum lead and a presenter roster
A consortium needs three things: a profession under a CPD obligation, enough firms to share the cost, and a curriculum lead with the standing to decide what a practice should be covering this year. In Ontario accounting the first two are everywhere. The third is what we bring.
A consortium formed this year joins an operation already in its 37th year.
- A curriculum lead, already appointed
- The scarce part of any group programme is somebody with the standing to decide what a practice needs to learn this year. Ours is in place and has been building these seasons for years.
- A presenter network built over decades
- Senior practitioners who already teach on our programmes and come back season after season. A new group inherits that roster rather than starting a search.
- The delivery and reporting already running
- Sessions, attendance reconciliation and per-person records are handled by Attendell on infrastructure that runs live programmes today. Nothing has to be built for your group.
Scope
Your group decides how much it covers
Some consortia commission courses across the whole of the fall season. Others take a handful in the areas that matter most to them. Both are routine, and the choice belongs to the firms in the group.
Subject weighting follows what the consortium asks for. Tax is timed to the filing year; ethics is scheduled early rather than left to the final year of a three-year period.
- Public practice
- The issues that come up in practice management, client work and professional standards.
- Assurance
- Audit and review engagements, quality management, and documentation that stands up to inspection.
- Ethics
- The verifiable ethics hours CPA Ontario requires every three years, scheduled so nobody is counting in May.
- Tax
- Personal, corporate and cross-border developments, timed to the filing year.
- Technology
- The tools changing practice work, and the risks that arrive with them.
What a member firm receives
Every programme includes four things
A curriculum built to the consortium's requirements
We survey the firms on what they need covered. Our curriculum lead designs the programme against those answers, selects the presenters, and circulates the plan before it is fixed.
Your CPA Ontario hours, designed into the calendar
Ethics, assurance and topic coverage are structured against CPA Ontario's requirements, so the hours reconcile without a firm auditing them afterwards.
Live delivery by practising specialists
Presenters who work in the field and take questions in the session. Anyone who cannot attend watches the recording and it still counts, but the value is being there while the presenter can answer you.
Records that hold up in a CPA Ontario audit
Hours are credited from observed attendance, reported per individual and per firm, and kept open to correction where something has been recorded wrongly.
The record
95%+ of member firms renew every year
Our established Ontario consortium holds 23 firms, several of them since it began. Membership runs a year at a time, so each programme earns the next one on its own merits.
It is why we can tell you what a new consortium will be like rather than guess.
- 95%+
- Of firms renew each year
- 270+
- Courses delivered
- 6,000+
- Professionals accredited by CPA Ontario
- 1989
- Delivering continuously since
Attendee evaluations
Partners prefer the online format more than junior staff do
The reasonable objection to live online delivery is that it suits junior staff and loses partners. Two full seasons of evaluations say the opposite: partners prefer it at a higher rate than everyone else.
- 98%
- Rate it at least as good as in person
- 71%
- Prefer it to attending in person
- 96%
- Rate instruction Very Good or Excellent
- 98%
- Would attend the same presenter again
From 4,406 post-course evaluations across 24 courses, September 2024 to February 2026. Figures rounded down.
Fees
Seats are priced per course, and the price drops as a group fills
A firm buys seats. A seat is one person’s place at every course the group runs, plus the recordings and their attendance record. The more seats a group holds, the lower the rate for everyone in it, which is why we would rather place a small practice than turn it away.
A consortium closes at about 500 seats. Past that nobody gets to ask a question, which is the thing a firm is paying for, so we open another consortium rather than overfill one.
Per person, per course
From $50
At the upper end of a consortium’s size. Smaller groups pay more per seat, which is precisely why the consortium exists. A full season works out at $600 to $800 per person.
- Seats may be added during a programme
- Smaller practices are grouped to reach the better rate
- A full quotation follows an introductory call
Procedure
Four steps from enquiry to delivery
Registration
Your practice, the number of people carrying a CPD obligation, and the areas that matter to your work.
Placement
You join an existing consortium where capacity allows, or we assemble one from firms with comparable requirements. This is the step a practice cannot readily take for itself.
Setting the programme
The consortium settles the extent, the subject areas and the calendar, scheduled around its own working year. Our curriculum lead then commissions the presenters.
Delivery and reporting
Courses run, attendance is reconciled, and credited hours remain visible throughout, so a shortfall is addressed during the programme rather than discovered at declaration.
Questions firms raise
Before you get in touch
Is there a consortium to join, or must one be formed?
Either. Our established Ontario consortium admits firms where it has capacity, and we assemble new consortia where it does not. Forming the group is the part of this a practice cannot readily arrange for itself, so it is not something a firm needs to bring with it.
How large is a programme?
As large as the consortium determines. Some fill the fall season; others commission a handful of courses in the areas they are behind on. The extent, the subject areas and the calendar are settled with the firms in the consortium rather than presented to them.
Will a programme satisfy CPA Ontario?
Programmes are structured against CPA Ontario's requirements: 20 hours annually of which 10 must be verifiable, 120 across each three-year period, and 4 verifiable hours of professional ethics in every such period. A full season clears the annual minimum with margin. CPA Ontario sets the requirements and confers the designation; we schedule against them and report the hours each individual earned.
When are courses delivered?
Most consortia run across the fall season. The calendar is constructed around the group's own working year, so courses are positioned away from filing deadlines rather than over them. Setting its own timetable is one of the practical advantages of a consortium.
We are a small practice. Is this appropriate for us?
Small practices benefit most, and they constitute most of the firms we place. Independently, a four-person practice cannot justify a senior presenter for a day. Within a consortium it can, at a rate per person a large firm would recognise.
Do you operate only in Ontario?
Every consortium running today is in Ontario, and that is where the record sits. We will discuss forming a consortium with firms elsewhere in Canada, but we do not claim a presence we have not yet established.
What happens if someone cannot attend a course?
Every course is recorded, and viewing the recording counts as participation, so a client deadline does not cost an individual their hours. The recording is provision for absence. The value is attendance while the presenter can still answer a question.
Who delivers the programme?
Attendell, a professional development provider, conducts the sessions, reconciles attendance and produces the reporting. The consortium, the curriculum, the presenters and the relationship with your firm sit with us.
Tell us about your practice
Fifteen minutes is generally sufficient. We will tell you whether a consortium has capacity, or what forming one around your firm would involve, and what a seat would cost.
Or email admin@pdconsortium.com with your firm and headcount, or call +1 (416) 306-2072.