Accounting firms in Ontario, since 1989
A small firm should not have to settle for a smaller programme
Professional development is where a practice decides how good it intends to be. But a season of senior presenters costs the same whether four people attend or four hundred, and most firms are not large enough to justify one alone.
So Ontario firms buy one together. PD Consortium plans the season, books the presenters, runs every course and keeps the record, for a group that has done this every year since 1989.
How one season covers your requirement
Illustrative. The areas and the balance are set with the group before each 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 |
| Scheduled in a season | 39 |
CPA Ontario asks for 20 hours a year, 10 of them verifiable. One season covers that, and roughly a third of the three year requirement.
How it works
One group, one plan, one record for the season
A consortium is not a buying club with a discount attached. It is a single programme, designed once for the firms in it.
- 01
Firms buy the season together
One strong course costs about the same to run for twenty people as for four hundred. Sharing a season across a group is what puts a full programme of senior presenters within reach of a practice that could never fill one alone.
- 02
An industry expert builds the programme
The group is asked what it needs, and our curriculum lead designs the season around it: the topics, the presenters, the balance of hours. It is planned before anything is booked, and shared with the group before it is fixed.
- 03
Attendance becomes the evidence
Every course is live, and participation is observed and reconciled as the season runs. Your firm sees where each person stands at any point, in the form a CPD declaration asks for.
What a firm gets
A finished programme, and the evidence behind it
A programme designed for your group
13 live courses across the fall season, planned by someone who knows the field and knows the presenters. Not assembled from whatever happened to be available.
The compliance mix built in
Ethics, assurance and topic coverage are designed into the schedule against what CPA Ontario requires, so the hours add up without anybody auditing them afterwards.
Presenters worth the diary time
Senior practitioners taking real questions, sourced and briefed by our curriculum lead. Recordings exist for anyone who misses one, as a backup rather than the product.
Records you can rely on
Hours credited from observed attendance, reported per person and per firm, and correctable if something looks wrong.
What gets taught
Five areas an Ontario practice works across
The season is built for accounting firms, and the weighting shifts each year with what the group says it needs. Tax lands with the filing year, and ethics is scheduled early rather than left to the last 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.
Who it is for
Practices whose people carry a CPD obligation
Ontario accounting firms, from four-person practices to large partnerships. The person we usually speak to is a partner or practice manager who has ended up responsible for the firm’s CPD.
Smaller firms gain the most, because the group is how they reach a programme and a rate that would otherwise need a hundred people to justify. Larger firms join for the curation, and to stop running a training function of their own.
Tell us who needs CPD
Your firm, and how many people carry the obligation. If you are small, we place you with firms that want the same programme so you reach the better rate.
The group sets the agenda
Everyone is surveyed on what they need covered, and the calendar is built around the group's own busy periods rather than ours.
The season runs
Live courses with question time and materials. Your people attend. Nobody at your firm organises anything.
You hold the record
Credited hours per person, visible all season, so a shortfall is a conversation in November rather than a problem in the spring.
The record
Firms are free to leave every summer, and they stay
A season has to be worth re-booking on its own merits each year, with no contract holding anyone in place. Some of the firms in the group today were in it when it started.
- 95%+
- Of firms renew each year
- 270+
- Courses delivered
- 6,000+
- Professionals accredited by CPA Ontario
- 23
- Member firms today
What attendees say
Partners prefer the online format more than anyone else does
The reasonable worry about live online delivery is that it suits juniors and loses partners. Two full seasons of evaluations say otherwise: partners prefer it at a higher rate than the room as a whole.
- 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.
What it costs
The rate falls as the group grows, and the group has a ceiling
Every firm that joins brings the cost per person down for everyone already in. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why we would rather place a small firm than turn one away.
It stops at 500 seats. Past that a course is a broadcast rather than a session anyone can put a question to, which is the opposite of what a firm is paying for. The ceiling is how we keep the saving from coming out of the programme itself.
Per person, per season
$600 to $800
For 13 courses, about 39 hours of verifiable CPD. At the larger end of a group that works out near $50 a course.
- You pay for seats, and nothing else
- Seats can be added mid-season
- Smaller firms are grouped to reach the better rate
Questions firms ask
Before you book a call
What is a consortium, in practice?
A group of Ontario accounting firms that buys one season of professional development together. The cost of the programme is shared, so every firm in it gets a stronger season at a lower price per person than it could buy alone. Your firm holds seats and decides who fills them.
How do we know what will be covered?
The group is surveyed before the season is built. Our curriculum lead then designs the schedule and books the presenters, and shares the plan with the group before it is fixed. You are not buying a catalogue that already exists.
Will it satisfy CPA Ontario?
The season is designed against what CPA Ontario requires: 20 hours a year with 10 verifiable, 120 across three years, and 4 verifiable hours of ethics in every three-year period. 13 courses come to roughly 39 verifiable hours, so a single season clears the annual minimum with room and covers close to a third of the three-year total. CPA Ontario sets the requirements and grants the designation; we schedule against them and report the hours each person earned.
When do the courses run?
Across the fall season. The calendar is built around the group's own busy periods, so courses are scheduled away from filing deadlines rather than dropped on top of them. Setting its own timetable is one of the practical advantages of a group.
Our firm is small. Can we still join?
Yes, and it is the normal case. Tell us your headcount and we bring together firms that want the same programme, so the cost is shared. You do not need to arrive with a group of your own.
What if someone cannot make a course?
Every course is recorded, and watching the recording still counts as participation, so a client deadline does not cost somebody their hours. The recording is the backup though. The value is being there while the presenter can still answer you.
Who delivers the programme?
Attendell, a professional development provider, runs delivery and reporting for the consortium. The curriculum, the presenters and your firm relationship sit with us.
Talk to us about the coming season
Fifteen minutes is usually enough. Tell us how many people at your firm carry the obligation and which areas matter most, and we will come back with the shape of a season and a price per person.
Or email admin@pdconsortium.com with your firm and headcount, or call +1 (416) 306-2072.