Mentor coach tools for the April 2027 ICF documentation requirements.
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Early access opens before public launch. The first cohort helps shape the form templates against real session work. We'll email when a slot opens for you.
What changes for ICF mentor coaches in 2027
ICF is replacing the candidate-submitted performance evaluation with enhanced mentor coaching. Effective January 1, 2027 for ACC and April 2027 for the PCC Portfolio path, the mentor coach is the determining factor in whether a candidate is ready for the credential. ICF assessors no longer review submitted recordings for those paths.
Two artifacts are now required from the mentor coach for each engagement:
- Session Observation Form, completed for each observed session. Competency-by-competency rating, evidence cited from the session, mentor commentary, areas for development, and a signed attestation.
- Competency Review Form, completed at the end of the engagement. A cumulative summary of how the candidate has demonstrated each of the 8 ICF Core Competencies, the mentor's readiness determination, and a signed attestation.
The exact field structure is published in the ICF MCQ Handbook (April 2026). CredentialPrep's templates are built directly against the Handbook spec.
- January 1, 2027: ACC mentor coaching requirements take effect
- April 2027: PCC Portfolio path mentor coaching requirements take effect
- Source: ICF announcement
The documentation burden, before and after
Today, most mentor coaches document sessions in Word or Google Docs. The cycle goes something like this. Listen to the recording, often more than once. Take notes against the ICF Core Competencies, longhand or in a doc. Type up commentary by competency. Format the document. Send to the candidate. The end-to-end time per session is typically a couple of hours of focused work, sometimes more if the recording is dense.
Across a book of candidates, that is a meaningful share of a working week, before you have done any actual mentoring.
The 2027 requirements add a standardized form per session (the Session Observation Form) and a cumulative form per engagement (the Competency Review Form). The volume goes up, the structure becomes prescriptive, and the audience expands: ICF reviews these documents as part of the candidate's application.
You can absorb that load by working more hours. Most mentors do not have more hours.
What CredentialPrep does differently
CredentialPrep treats the transcript evaluation as the primary unit of work and builds the rest of the mentor workflow around it. The AI does the first pass of competency identification on the full transcript: every marker, with evidence and observation, across all 8 Core Competencies. You review. You edit, override, or delete any annotation the AI got wrong. You add your own annotations the AI missed. Voice notes too, if a written comment is the wrong shape for what you want to say.
Once the evaluation is finalized, the Session Observation Form pre-populates from your annotations: ratings derived from your strength/gap distribution, evidence pulled from the quotes you tagged, mentor commentary from the notes you wrote. You read it, edit anything that needs editing, sign, and export to PDF or Word in the ICF-required format.
The Competency Review Form aggregates across every Session Observation Form for that candidate. By the time you are writing the final readiness determination, the supporting evidence is already organized for you.
The mentor's job is the judgment call. The AI's job is the typing. We are not trying to replace the assessment. We are trying to remove the documentation tax that comes with it, so the time you spend on a candidate is time you spend thinking about their coaching.
Two evaluation modes
AI-assisted (Mode A). The AI runs first, you review and override. Fastest path through documentation when you trust the AI's read on simpler sessions.
Pure manual (Mode B). No AI pre-fill. You listen to the recording independently, build your own annotations from scratch, and run the AI afterward as a calibration check. The AI assessment shows up as a side-by-side comparison, not an override. This is the right professional workflow for higher-stakes evaluations, and the comparison view is unique to CredentialPrep.
The full feature set
Full AI competency evaluation
All 8 Core Competencies, marker-level, with evidence and observation per moment. Not just section highlighting.
Mentor annotation interface
Highlight any span, assign competency and sub-marker, mark strength or gap, add text or a 30-second voice note.
Candidate-facing layer
Candidates see what you choose to share, ask questions on specific annotations, flag moments they didn't know what to do with. The conversation lives in the document.
In-app messaging
One persistent thread per mentor-candidate relationship. Annotation references are first-class. Replaces the email back-and-forth about session feedback.
Session Observation Form
Auto-populated from your finalized evaluation. Ratings, evidence, commentary all pre-filled. Export PDF or Word in ICF-required format.
Competency Review Form
Cumulative across all sessions for a candidate. Trend data per competency, organized evidence, your readiness determination.
Candidate management portal
Multi-candidate dashboard. Competency health at a glance, last/next session, unread annotations and messages. One view for your whole book.
Reviewer collaboration
Invite a peer or supervising mentor by email to view and comment on a specific evaluation. No org account required.
CredentialPrep vs RaeNotes
RaeNotes is the established mentor coach tool. The differentiation is genuine, not marketing spin. There are categories where RaeNotes is ahead and categories where CredentialPrep is ahead.
| Capability | CredentialPrep | RaeNotes |
|---|---|---|
| AI competency evaluation | Full evaluation, all 8 competencies, marker-level evidence | Section finder; mentor still tags manually |
| Time saved per session | 2 to 3 hours on assessment itself | Roughly 30 min on documentation |
| Candidate-facing layer | Yes, annotations and Q&A | Mentor-only tool |
| In-app messaging | Yes, dedicated thread per relationship | Comment threads on documents |
| ICF Session Observation Form | Pre-populated from evaluation | Word doc from manual markup |
| Competency Review Form (cumulative) | Auto-aggregates across sessions | Manual |
| Synchronized audio playback | Roadmap (parity target) | Yes, mature |
| Multi-assessor / peer review | Reviewer invite v1; calibration mode v2 | Yes, mature |
| Custom rubrics beyond ICF | ICF only in v1 | 10+ models, custom upload |
| Full-text search across transcripts | Roadmap | Yes |
| Exam prep integration | Yes, weak competency surfaces relevant practice questions | Not available |
| Pricing model | Subscription | Per-minute (around $0.15/min, bulk lower) |
If you need: AI that does the actual evaluation work, candidate engagement inside the same tool, ICF form auto-population, predictable subscription cost. CredentialPrep.
If you need: mature multi-assessor workflows for a coaching school, custom rubrics across multiple coaching frameworks, full-text search across years of transcripts. Currently RaeNotes.
Why this exists, and who built it
I am a PCC working toward MCC. I am in the credentialing process now, recording sessions, working with my own mentor coach, preparing my MCC submission.
The mentor coach features came out of watching the documentation problem from the candidate side. My mentor's time is expensive. I could see how much of it gets eaten by paperwork. When I read the April 2026 MCQ Handbook and saw the new forms, the math was uncomfortable: the same mentors are about to be asked to produce substantially more documentation per candidate, with no new tools to do it.
I am not a mentor coach building tools for myself. I am a candidate who noticed where the bottleneck would be, and built something that should make my own future mentor work, and any mentor's work, materially less heavy.
CredentialPrep is not affiliated with ICF or Pearson VUE. It is not a certification program. It is not a replacement for mentor coaching. It is the documentation and evaluation workflow underneath it.
Pricing and early access
Mentor tier pricing is being finalized. The pricing model is subscription, not per-minute, with a target structure that is competitive against RaeNotes at typical mentor session volumes. Early access pricing for the first cohort will be lower than public launch pricing, in exchange for feedback on the form templates and workflow.
The mentor tier rolls out in phases:
- Private alpha with a small cohort of practicing mentors, before the form export goes live.
- Closed beta with the ICF form generators turned on.
- Public launch ahead of the April 2027 PCC Portfolio path deadline.
The waitlist is the way into the alpha cohort.
Get early access before public launch
Drop your email and we'll get in touch when a slot opens for you. The earliest cohort gets the most influence on the form templates and the lowest pricing at launch.
Frequently asked questions
What is changing for ICF mentor coaches in 2027?
The candidate-submitted performance evaluation is being replaced by enhanced mentor coaching for the ACC and PCC Portfolio paths. The mentor coach now determines credential readiness. A Session Observation Form is required per observed session, and a Competency Review Form is required at the end of the engagement. Effective dates: January 1, 2027 for ACC, April 2027 for PCC Portfolio.
Is the MCC path affected by the same changes?
The 2027 changes are confirmed for ACC and PCC Portfolio. MCC path documentation requirements are tracked under the MCQ framework but the operational details for MCC mentor coaches differ in places. Verify against the ICF MCQ Handbook before treating the requirements as identical.
Will my candidates need their own CredentialPrep account?
A candidate invited by a mentor gets a free account that lets them view, annotate, and ask questions on shared evaluations. They cannot run their own AI evaluations on the free invite. If they have a paid candidate account already, accounts link rather than duplicate.
How is this different from RaeNotes?
RaeNotes is a manual mentor tool with an AI section finder. CredentialPrep runs a full AI competency evaluation across the transcript, then lets the mentor review, edit, or override. CredentialPrep also includes a candidate-facing annotation layer, in-app messaging, ICF form auto-population, and integrated exam practice. RaeNotes leads on multi-assessor workflows, custom rubrics, and full-text search across transcripts.
Will the mentor tier be ready before April 2027?
The build target is well before April 2027, with private alpha starting earlier. Early access opens before public launch.
What does early access cost?
Early access pricing is being finalized. The early cohort will pay less than public launch pricing in exchange for feedback on the form templates and workflow. The pricing model is subscription, not per-minute.
Is CredentialPrep affiliated with ICF or Pearson VUE?
No. CredentialPrep is independent. The form templates are built against the published ICF MCQ Handbook to meet credential application standards, but the tool is not endorsed by, approved by, or affiliated with ICF or Pearson VUE.