CA Diary changes are coming soon - get ready! 

The way that trainees create/modify CA Diary entries will soon be changing. This will provide a streamlined way for you to categorise and detail your work experience/engagements.

Do you need to do anything now?

If you have saved a record of experience offline – YES

If you have been maintaining CA Diary entries offline (e.g., on Word), with the intention of uploading them onto the online diary at a later date, you need to act now! The current description box will not be available to you - for any new entries - after the new features go live. This will mean that you would have to reconstruct any (offline) entries before you can save or submit them, using the new features.

Action: To get ready for the change and avoid having to re-work your entries after go-live, you must upload all entries into the system and submit to your mentor for approval as soon as possible. See below for further information on the system enhancements.

When will the new changes come into effect?
It is anticipated that the streamlined diary page will be available to all trainees in late March. When we have a confirmed date, we will be contacting all trainees and training firms/organisations to communicate this. 

How will this impact on you as a trainee?

• Once we go live, you won’t lose any of your existing diary entries and will still be able to modify and submit any entries that originated in the current functionality.
• Your mentor will still be able to review, lock (and unlock) entries in the normal way
• New entries, created after the go-live date  will be recorded using the new functionality
• Supporting guidance and webinars will be available to all trainees on the new features
• Any online entries that have a status of 'With Student', 'Submitted to Mentor' or 'Unlocked' can be edited using the current description text box, if they are online before the changes come into effect.

Further information will be communicated to you and your training organisation in the coming weeks.

About the CA Diary

As well as passing the Institute's exams, students are required to undertake a period Recognised Experience for Qualification (REQ). The REQ period is determined by your educational background. For example, the REQ period for students with a Undergraduate degree is 3.5 years. 

During the REQ period you will learn to apply the functional/technical knowledge to real-life situations; your broad-business skills will be developed and you will adopt the values that befits a prospective member of the profession. You are required to (regularly) record all relevant work experience on the CA Diary. This experience must be approved - at least twice a year - by an approved mentor. 
If you are a newly assigned Mentor or an existing Mentor looking to refresh your knowledge please take a look at our dedicated Mentor – CA Diary page.

How to access the CA Diary dashboard

User ID 

Students: your user name will be your allocated student number. 

Mentors:  if you were a mentor in the old CA Diary system, you will have to use your old user ID to log into the website. This is activity is normally carried out on a profile which is separate to member profiles.

Mentors who are also Training Partners: if you are a Training Partner and a mentor, do not use your TP1 login to complete mentor activity, as you will not be able to view the Mentor CA Diary dashboard in Current Students. Instead, use your member ID (or your non-member ID if you were a mentor in the old CA Diary system). 

Online tutorials 

A series of short, on-line tutorials on CA Diary functionality are available for trainees and mentors. These tutorials supplement, rather than replace, the PDF documents that are available on this page; Please therefore ensure that you have read all guidance, relevant to you, before commencing any CA Diary activity/updates.

Accessing the tutorials - trainees

Accessing the tutorials - mentors

Have a query? 

For general queries regarding the CA Diary, please contact Trainingsupport@charteredaccountants.ie or call 01 637 7202