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California CPE Courses for CPAs |
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The Last Self-Study CPE Website You Will Ever Need (Click for Subscriptions) |
According to BLS, California is one of the top-paying states for accountants, with an annual mean wage of $92,840 (as of May 2021). This means “The Golden State” offers good opportunities to CPAs who want to expedite their career growth.
Needless to say, good pay packages and attractive perks available in the state have made it more difficult for CPAs to stand out from the crowd. Fortunately, if you can pursue California CPE more diligently than your fellow CPAs, you may be able to outperform them.
However, California CPA CPE requirement is slightly more complex than many other states. And if you want to strengthen your position as a California CPA, you must have an absolutely clear comprehension of California CPE requirements for CPA. This will help you plan your CPE in the most efficient manner and expand your skills and knowledge as per your interests and professional requirements.
With that in mind, we’ve created this page where you’ll get all the details related to CPA CPE requirements California. To facilitate easy understanding, we’ve divided CPE requirements for California CPAs into four sections.
Let’s start with new licensees.
· You’re required to complete 20 hours of California CPE for every six-month period starting from the date of issuance of your license to the next date of your license expiration.
· If you need to complete A&A or government auditing, you must finish six hours of continuing education in the right subject matter as part of your every 20 hours of CPE.
· If you need to finish preparation engagement CPE, you’re required to finish two hours of CPE in the right subject matter as part of your every 20 hours of continuing education.
· If the duration between the date of issuance of your license and your next date of license expiration doesn’t complete six full months, you don’t need to pursue any additional CPE to renew your license.
· If you’ve obtained your license for less than a complete two-year period, you aren’t required to complete the regulatory review course, or the ethics course, or fulfill the 20-hour annual CPE requirements for CPA California on your first renewal.
Now that we’ve discussed the CA CPA CPE requirements for new licensees in the state, let’s see the California CPE requirements CPA for active license holders.
· You’re required to meet your California CPE requirements biennially.
· You must complete at least 20 hours of California CPE every year during your biennial license renewal period. This includes 12 CPE hours in technical subjects.
· To meet your CA CPE requirements, you must complete four hours of California ethics CPE.
· If you’ve finished a California board-approved regulatory review course more than six years ago, you must complete two hours of CPE by taking a board-approved regulatory review course. Note that, as per the guidelines of the CA board of accountancy CPE requirements, you cannot interchange this course with your ethics course.
· If you’re required to meet A&A or government auditing CPE for California CPAs requirement, you’ve to finish 24 hours of continuing education as outlined in those sections. You’re also required to complete four hours of CPE in fraud.
· If you’re required to fulfill the preparation engagement CA CPA CPE requirement, you’ve to finish eight hours of CPE as outlined in that section. You’re also required to finish four hours of fraud CPE.
· You can choose approved technical or non-technical subjects to complete the remaining hours to meet your California CPA renewal CPE requirements. However, you can do so only after completing at least 40 CPE hours in technical subjects.
· According to the guidelines of the California CPE foundation, you’re not allowed to carry over your CPE hours from one renewal period to another one. This means if you finish additional CPE hours before the date of license expiration in your current renewal period, those additional hours won’t get counted in your next license renewal period.
The following are the California board of accountancy CPE requirements that you’ll have to meet when you’re converting your status to active within 90 days or more than 90 days of your next date of status expiration.
You must complete 80 CPE hours in total within two years prior to status conversion. Here’re the things that you need to keep in mind when meeting this CA CPE requirement.
· You must complete at least 20 hours of CPE within the one-year period that starts immediately prior to status conversion. This includes 12 CPE hours in technical subjects.
· You’re required to complete four hours in CPE California ethics.
· If you’ve finished a CA board-approved regulatory review course more than six years ago, you need to complete two CPE hours in a board-approved regulatory review course. You’re not allowed to interchange this California CPE course with your ethics course.
· If you’re required to meet preparation engagement California CPA CPE requirement, you’ve to finish eight CPE hours as mentioned in that section along with four CPE hours in fraud.
· If you need to meet A&A or government auditing California CPE requirements for CPA, you must complete 24 CPE hours as mentioned in those sections together with four fraud CPE hours.
· You can choose qualifying non-technical or technical subjects to complete the remaining hours to meet your California CPE requirements as long as you’ve completed 40 technical CPE hours.
· Once your license has become active, you’ve to complete 20 CPE hours for every complete six-month period starting from the date of conversion of your license to the next date of your license expiration.
· If you’re required to meet A&A or government auditing CPA CPE requirements California, you must finish six CPE hours in the right subjects as part of your every 20 CPE hours.
· If you’re required to fulfill preparation engagement CPE requirements for California CPAs, you must complete two hours of continuing education in the appropriate subjects as part of your each 20 CPE hours.
· If the duration between the date of conversion of your license status and the next date of your license expiration hasn’t reached six full months, you’re not required to pursue additional California CPE to renew your license.
· You’re not required to fulfill the annual 20-hour CPE requirements for CPA California or complete the regulatory review course or the ethics course on your first renewal after converting your status if the inactive status of your license hasn’t reached two complete years.
These are the credit limitations pertaining to ethics and approved modes of learning.
· Ethics
The length of the courses you take to meet your California ethics CPE requirement has to be a minimum of one hour. Or, if a course includes multiple subjects, it must have an ethics component and its length has to be a minimum of one hour.
· Self-study courses
Self-study courses have to contain an interactive delivery method. If you take a self-study course to meet your regulatory review California CPE requirement, it has to come with a final exam. You must clear the exam with a minimum score of 90 to meet the requirement.
· Instruction
You’re allowed to meet up to 50% of your total California CPA CPE requirement through instruction. Note that you’ll only receive credit for repeat presentations as long as there are significant changes in the program material.
· Published materials
You can meet up to 25% of your total California CPE requirements for CPA by writing Uniform CPA exam questions or instructional materials or books or articles. Note that your credits for publications or authorship will only be accepted as long as you don’t have any control over the publisher.
· Non-technical subjects
You’re allowed to earn up to 50% of the credits required to meet your CPA CPE requirements California by taking courses on subjects like word processing, marketing, sales, communication skills, negotiation skills, motivational techniques, practice management, office management, and personnel management.
· Technical reviewing
You can earn credits on an hour-for-hour basis by carrying out instructional materials’ technical review. However, the continuing education program, for which you’re carrying out the technical review, needs to meet the requirements of Section 88.2, Section 88.1, and subsection (a)(1).
· Fields of study
The California board of accountancy has limitations related to technical and non-technical fields of study. Here’re the technical fields of study that you can choose from to meet your CPE requirements for California CPAs.
o Accounting (governmental)
o Accounting
o Auditing (governmental)
o Auditing
o Business law
o Behavioral ethics
o Finance
o Economics
o Computer software & applications (word processing isn’t allowed)
o Management services
o Information technology
o Taxes
o Specialized knowledge
o Regulatory ethics
Here’re the non-technical fields of study that you can choose from to fulfill your CPE requirements for CPA California.
o Communications & marketing
o Business management & organization
o Personal development (will not be accepted if doesn’t contribute to professional competence)
o Statistics
o Production
o Personnel/HR
Here’s how you should calculate your credits when meeting your California CPE requirements.
· Partial credit
You can receive half credits after the initial hour.
· Instruction
Your credits will be equal to your actual presentation hours. You may also claim a maximum of two additional CPE hours for your actual preparation time for every hour of your presentation.
· College/university credit
You can earn credits to meet your CA CPA CPE requirements by enrolling in approved college or university courses. In that case, you should calculate your credits in the following manner:
o 15 CPE hours for one semester hour
o 10 CPE hours for one quarter hour
o One CPE hour for one hour of non-credit classroom presentation
We’ve already discussed all the important factors related to California CPE requirements CPA. However, the CA board of accountancy has some other policies that you must keep in mind to pursue California CPE efficiently.
Here’re the overviews of those policies.
· In California, you’re not allowed to earn CPE credits in certain areas. Some of these include self-realization, personal growth, personal fitness and/or health, spirituality, foreign languages & cultures, and sports & recreation.
· You may choose to teach or learn the use of accounting software, but your credits will be counted as general CPE credits in the technical field of study. They won’t be counted as credits in accounting and/or auditing.
· You need to join a CPE provider listed in NASBA’s National Registry of Sponsors to meet your California CPE requirements.
Perhaps you’ve already noticed that we’ve repeatedly mentioned A&A, government auditing, preparation engagement, and fraud in the first four sections related to CA CPE requirements.
Here’re brief overviews of the circumstances when you’re required to meet those requirements.
· A&A (Accounting & Auditing)
You’re required to meet this requirement when you’re engaged in planning, approving, directing, and carrying out significant portions of the work, or you’re reporting on a compilation, attestation services, review, or audit of a non-governmental entity.
You’re required to fulfill this requirement when you’re engaged in directing, planning, performing significant portions of fieldwork, or you’re reporting on compliance or financial audits of a government agency.
· Preparation engagement
You’ll need to meet this requirement when you only carried out preparation engagements as your highest level of service.
· Fraud
You’ll need to meet this requirement when you already have an active license or you’re converting its status to active. If you’re subject to government auditing, A&A, or preparation management CPE requirements, you’ll need to earn CPE credits in fraud.
We hope that this page has been successful in providing you with all the important information related to California CPE. If you want to start meeting your California CPA CPE requirement immediately, you can start checking our collection of relevant courses. If you have any more questions related to California CPE requirements for CPA, we’ll be happy to answer them.
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