Most accountants do not fall behind because they are bad at their job. They fall behind because they treat CPD as a box to tick instead of a strategy to stay relevant. The profession does not wait. If your knowledge is outdated, clients feel it, employers notice it, and your confidence slowly fades. This article explains why CPD is not admin, why ignoring it costs you more than you think, and why CIBA CPD is designed to keep you sharp, trusted, and in demand.

Compliance is easy to ignore when nothing is going wrong. Deadlines feel routine, forms look familiar, and “we’ll do it later” sounds harmless. Until a SARS letter arrives, a company is deregistered, an employee cannot claim benefits, or a data breach exposes client information. Missed compliance deadlines are not small admin errors. They trigger penalties, audits, reputational damage, and in some cases, the end of a practice. This article explains why compliance discipline is no longer optional, where accountants get caught out most often, and how making deadlines non-negotiable can protect your clients, your reputation, and your income.

Every January, your rational brain knows this isn’t sustainable.
But your emotional brain (the one that fears losing clients, income, credibility) takes over and says: “Just survive. Push harder. Don’t rock the boat.”

So you say yes.
You absorb the chaos.
You work longer, sleep less, and tell yourself it’s temporary.

And for a few weeks, that emotional brain wins.

Until February arrives with exhaustion, mistakes, resentment and the quiet question you avoid every year:

Why does this keep happening if I’m supposedly a professional?

This article is for that moment.