Quick reference Cycle close is the end-of-year process that seals your CPD record. A guided wizard walks you through five steps: resolving open activities, reviewing remaining objectives, writing your overall evaluation, a pre-flight summary, and a final confirmation. Once confirmed, the cycle becomes a permanent read-only record. The process takes 20–40 minutes for a well-maintained cycle.
9.1 What cycle close is
Closing a cycle is the “Evaluate” step of CIMA’s 6-step CPD process. It is your end-of-year accounting: reviewing what happened, writing an overall evaluation of the year, resolving anything still open, and sealing the record.
Once closed, the cycle cannot be edited. This permanence is what makes it audit-ready — CIMA’s monitoring team can have confidence that what they are reviewing is an accurate, unaltered record of your CPD year.
The close process is designed to be guided, not daunting. If you have kept your activities and quarterly reviews reasonably up to date, closing a cycle should take 20 to 40 minutes. If the year has been less tidy, CPDFlow surfaces everything that still needs attention and walks you through it step by step.
9.2 When to close
There is no automatic trigger — you decide when to close your cycle. Most members close when:
- The cycle’s end date has passed, or is approaching
- Their Q4 quarterly review is done (or nearly done)
- They are ready to start the following year’s cycle
You do not have to close on the exact end date. It is common to close a few weeks into the new year, after activities from the final weeks of the old cycle have been logged and reflected on.
9.3 The readiness checklist
Before starting the close wizard, review the readiness checklist on your cycle detail page. CPDFlow shows you what still needs attention:
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Open inbox items | Captured items that haven’t been promoted or dismissed — review them before closing so nothing is lost |
| Open activities | Planned or In Progress activities still unresolved — the close wizard will ask you to finalise them |
| Q4 review | Your Q4 review should be at least started before closing |
None of these are hard blockers — you can begin the close wizard regardless. But working through the checklist first means the wizard itself will be quicker and cleaner.
9.4 The close wizard — step by step
From the cycle detail page, select Begin Cycle Close (or Resume Cycle Close if you have started and not yet finished). The wizard opens in a full-screen guided layout.
The wizard has five steps. You can move back and forth between steps freely. Your progress is saved automatically.
Step 1 — Activity Finalisation
This step surfaces every activity in your cycle that is still Planned or In Progress. For each, you choose a final status:
| Option | When to use |
|---|---|
| Mark Completed | The activity was done — either fully or substantially |
| Cancel | The activity will not happen — it is abandoned |
| Leave as Planned | The activity was planned but not done — keep the record honest |
“Leave as Planned” is always valid. Your CPD record should reflect what you intended as well as what you achieved. A planned activity that didn’t happen is informative — it shows your thinking at the time and is honest about what changed.
If your activities were well maintained through quarterly reviews, this step may be short or empty.
Step 2 — Objective Review
This step presents any objectives that still need a final disposition — typically those marked “Defer to Cycle Close” in your Q4 review, plus any objectives that have not been resolved through the quarterly review process.
For each objective, you choose:
| Disposition | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Completed | The objective was achieved |
| Carry forward | The objective is incomplete but still relevant — it will be offered for bring-forward when you start the next cycle |
| Cancelled | The objective is abandoned — not to be carried forward |
For objectives you want to carry forward, you can add a note explaining where you got to and what still remains. This context will be useful when you bring it forward into the next cycle.
Step 3 — Reflective Evaluation
This step captures your overall evaluation of the year — the free-text field that maps directly to Step 6 (Evaluate) of the CIMA form.
There is no required format, but a useful evaluation typically covers:
- Overall assessment — did the year go broadly as planned? What were the highlights?
- What changed — key differences between your original plan (v1.0) and how the year actually went
- Development achieved — what you can do now, or understand better, that you couldn’t at the start of the year
- Looking ahead — what you would prioritise differently, or carry forward into the next cycle
The plan snapshot comparison is a useful input here. Before writing your evaluation, open the plan snapshot viewer (available from the Reviews page) and compare v1.0 (your baseline plan) with the most recent version. This gives you a structured view of what changed during the year — objectives deferred, completed ahead of schedule, added mid-year — which is exactly the kind of narrative the Evaluate step is asking for.
The text field respects CIMA’s 3,000 character limit for the equivalent field on the CIMA form. A word count indicator shows how much space remains.
Step 4 — Draft Declaration
This step presents a summary of your cycle before you seal it: key statistics, objective completion rates, hours logged, and a preview of what will appear in your CIMA Declaration.
CPDFlow generates a draft declaration at this step — a suggested text for your CIMA submission based on your objectives, activities and reflections. This draft is:
- Optional — you can ignore it and write your own in the CIMA form
- A starting point, not a final submission — review and edit it before using
- Marked as draft — the final, polished version is generated after close via the Reports page
An amber notice is shown if the draft is based on data that may have changed since it was generated. Use the refresh option to regenerate if needed.
You can proceed to Step 5 without engaging with the declaration — this step is informational and does not block the close.
Step 5 — Confirm & Close
The final step. Review the summary, then select Close Cycle.
Closing the cycle:
- Finalises all objective dispositions from your Objective Review choices
- Seals all objectives, activities and reviews as read-only
- Takes a final snapshot (v1.4) of the plan at the point of sealing
- Creates the permanent v2.0 plan snapshot — your closed-cycle record
- Marks the cycle as Complete
The closed cycle is immediately available for CIMA Declaration generation from the Reports page.
This action cannot be undone. The closed cycle is a permanent record. If you realise after closing that something was missed, it goes into the next cycle’s record — not the closed one. Take a moment on this step to confirm you are satisfied with the record as it stands.
9.5 After closing
Once closed, your cycle appears in the Cycles list as Complete. You can:
- View the full record at any time by selecting the cycle from the cycle selector
- Generate your CIMA Declaration PDF from the Reports page — select the closed cycle and generate (see Chapter 10 — Reports & CIMA Form)
- Start a new cycle — go to Cycles and create your next cycle. Carry-forward objectives from the closed cycle will be offered in the bring-forward panel.
9.6 Frequently asked questions
Can I close a cycle if I haven’t done any quarterly reviews? Yes. Quarterly reviews are not required to close a cycle. The close wizard handles everything a quarterly review would cover — final activity resolution, objective dispositions, overall evaluation — as a single process. A cycle with no quarterly reviews but a well-completed close is still a valid CPD record.
What if I close too early and realise I missed something? Once closed, the cycle cannot be reopened. Any activities or learning from the tail end of the year that were not captured in time go into the next cycle’s record, logged with accurate dates. If the missed item is significant, add a note in the next cycle’s evaluation explaining it.
Do I have to close my cycle at the end of the year? No. You can run multiple years on a single open cycle if circumstances require — extended leave, a career break, or simply not getting around to it. However, for compliance purposes, CIMA expects a cycle to be completed at least annually. An unclosed cycle from two years ago is harder to defend at audit than a closed one.
Can I generate my CIMA Declaration before closing? Yes — you can generate a declaration for an Active or Evaluating cycle. The PDF will include whatever data exists at the time of generation. Generating from a Closed cycle gives you the complete, final record. See Chapter 10 — Reports & CIMA Form.
What’s next?
With your cycle closed, the next step is generating your CIMA Declaration PDF for submission. See Chapter 10 — Reports & CIMA Form.
When you are ready to start the new year, return to Cycles to create your next cycle and bring forward any objectives you want to continue working on.