What must an ICF coaching log contain? Templates and a worked example

Keep private records that support your eligible coaching hours and client count. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) asks you to report totals and attest that they meet its standards, not submit a detailed client coaching log with your application. Even during an audit, ICF says you will not be asked to submit coaching logs directly. Follow the specific verification instructions you receive.

For individual clients, record consented names and contact information, relationship dates, and paid/pro bono hours. Groups and confidential organisational work have different documentation requirements. The templates below cover each route and show how to reconcile the evidence.

This is an editorial resource for Associate Certified Coach (ACC), Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Master Certified Coach (MCC) applicants, using the September 2026 source record. It is not an ICF form, an approved export format or an eligibility decision.

Obtain consent before adding client information

Document consent before storing identifying details in your log, and handle the records in line with applicable privacy and data-protection law, including GDPR where relevant. If a client does not consent, omit their name; ICF warns those sessions could not be verified in an audit. Omitting the name does not resolve that verification problem.

Audio recordings for performance evaluation are separate evidence. Before recording, obtain written permission to record and use the session for performance evaluation. Consent to store log details does not by itself grant permission for that use. See the evaluation requirements.

ICF's experience guidance also requires accurate reporting. False or misleading information can lead to denial or revocation and a reapplication bar of up to five years.

Record the fields for the client type

For each individual client, ICF asks for:

• The client's name.
• The contact information you use to reach them, such as an email address or phone number.
• The start and end dates of the coaching relationship.
• The paid and pro bono hours you coached them.

Keep team and group engagements separately. Record one participant's name and email, the engagement start/end dates, paid and pro bono hours, and the number of participants. ICF does not require all participants' names or the group's name.

In group coaching, participants must set the agenda and interact with you in real time. Teaching, training and workshops do not count as client coaching. Only groups of 15 or fewer count unless co-coached; split time between co-coaches. Each participant counts as a client, but time is not multiplied: coaching 15 people for one hour gives one experience hour, not fifteen.

Internal and third-party clients use the individual or group record unless an organisational confidentiality policy prevents logging their information. Where it does, use a signed reference letter on company letterhead instead of confidential identities. The letter must include:

• Your name.
• The organisation contact's name and contact information.
• A description of the contact's role.
• A description of your role.
• Confirmation of the organisation's confidentiality policy.
• Confirmation of hours coached, number of clients and the period covered.

Retain a reference to the letter and its supporting evidence. Letter-supported hours and client counts enter your totals too. Do not collect confidential identities merely to make the spreadsheet look complete.

Check eligibility before calculating totals

Count real-time coaching you delivered to a client who hired you specifically as their coach. Experience must follow the start of qualifying coach-specific education. ICF's experience page uses a course of at least 30 hours with at least 24 Core Competency hours; the ACC, PCC and MCC candidate guides give programme-type and 80% competency-content conditions. For a longer course, 24 competency hours alone may be insufficient. Confirm borderline education with ICF before counting from its start date.

Received coaching, feedback, admin, roleplay and AI rehearsal do not add delivered client-coaching time. ICF excludes mentor coaching, supervision and reviewing assessments with clients. Training-programme coaching, or coaching students, trainers or mentors, must be outside the classroom, with a real client and separate from training credits to count. Coaching your direct reports is excluded.

Money or agreed barter can make eligible coaching paid. Internal coaching as part of your employment can be paid; third-party coaching can be paid when an organisation pays you to coach a client. Organisation-arranged volunteering without compensation is pro bono. An incomplete or unclear exchange needs ICF clarification before you treat it as paid; see the paid peer-coaching examples.

Paid minimums are 75 hours for ACC, 450 for PCC and 2,250 for MCC. They are not caps on donated coaching. Additional pro bono hours do not reduce them. The complete experience targets are 100 hours/eight clients for ACC, 500/25 for PCC and 2,500/35 for MCC. ACC requires 25 hours and PCC 50 hours within 18 months before application, paid or unpaid. The experience page states no equivalent MCC recency minimum. These are experience checks only; use the application worksheet for the other requirements.

Copyable working templates

Use a session ledger to produce the client summary. Session dates, notes, eligibility status and evidence references are working aids beyond the individual-client fields ICF names. Copy the tables into a spreadsheet and fill them from your records, or use ICF's official sample log.

Session ledger:

Delivered hours = qualifying delivered minutes ÷ 60. Enter zero qualifying minutes for received coaching, feedback or other excluded activity; put elapsed time in Notes if useful. Keep ineligible and unresolved rows outside application totals. For co-coaching, record your allocated time rather than every coach's combined time.

Individual-client summary:

Group and team engagements, kept separately:

Confidential organisational evidence register, kept separately from named client records:

This register is a working aid, not a substitute for the signed letter. Confirm payment classification from the arrangement. A letter's broad engagement period may not establish how many hours occurred within the recency window; obtain suitable evidence or ask ICF rather than allocating hours by guesswork.

Application totals:

Worked example

These entries are fictional. Assume qualifying education has begun, the coaching is eligible and client consent is documented. Names, dates and addresses are invented; example.com is reserved for examples. Never publish real client details in a worked example.

Session ledger:

Individual-client summary:

The month contains 2.25 delivered hours across two clients: 1.25 paid plus 1.0 pro bono. The calculation is (45 + 30 + 60) ÷ 60 = 2.25. Received coaching and feedback contribute zero. Use delivered minutes rather than the booked slot.

ICF gives 30 minutes = 0.5 hours as its partial-hours example. The same arithmetic gives 15 minutes = 0.25, 45 minutes = 0.75 and 90 minutes = 1.5. This example is not a complete ACC-ready log.

Reconcile before you attest

1. Check eligibility, education start, client type, training-credit boundary and compensation. Exclude ineligible or unresolved activity from application totals.
2. Reconcile the ledger, client summaries, group records and organisational letters. Each supported hour enters the total once; a ledger and a letter may describe the same coaching.
3. Sum qualifying delivered minutes and divide by 60, adding eligible letter-supported hours that are not already represented. Split co-coached time; never multiply group time by participant count.
4. Sum paid and pro bono hours from all applicable evidence, including letters. Their sum should equal the eligible total.
5. Reconcile distinct clients across individual work, group engagements and letter-supported counts. Count repeat people once. Use only the consented information needed; do not collect every group member's identity to fill the template. If confidentiality prevents establishing overlap, resolve the count with ICF rather than adding potentially overlapping counts.
6. Calculate eligible hours within 18 months of the intended application date for ACC/PCC. Include letter-supported recent hours only when the evidence establishes their timing. A broad start/end period does not provide that allocation.
7. Check documented consent or an applicable organisational letter for the claimed records. Resolve remaining uncertainties before attesting to your totals.

For enhanced mentoring under the announced 2027 ACC/PCC Portfolio process, retain Session Observation Forms separately. ICF's announcement says these are required if that application is audited.

If you use Robin, consult the existing logbook Help article for operations. Review recorded call duration against qualifying coaching time and reconcile the figures yourself. Robin does not approve credential hours, and an export does not replace eligibility, consent or documentation checks.

Related guides: Full application requirements · Paid peer-coaching classification · Planning the first 100 ACC hours · Coaching accreditation explained.