Florida CPE Courses for CPAs

Essential Things You Need To Know About Florida CPE

Whether you’re an experienced Florida CPA or have obtained your license recently, you must meet the Florida CPE requirements to be able to deliver professional services in the state. Diligently meeting Florida CPA CPE requirements will also help you enhance your knowledge and skills, letting you accelerate your professional growth.

However, as each state and jurisdiction has its individual board of accountancy, CPE requirements significantly vary from one state to another. On this page, we’re going to take a closer look at Florida CPE requirements.

We hope that the following information will make your journey of pursuing Florida CPA continuing education requirements (CPE) slightly easier and more convenient.

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The Basic Florida CPE Guidelines

Florida has a biennial CPA license renewal period. And as a Florida CPA, you’re required to obtain 80 CPE credits every two years. Your CPE reporting period will be from July 1st to June 30th biennially.

Your credits must include these:

• At least eight CPE credits in accounting and auditing-related subjects.
• At least four Florida CPA ethics CPE credits. You must obtain these credits by taking an ethics course approved by the Florida Board of Accountancy. It’s also important to note that if you use two modules to meet your Florida CPE ethics requirements, you must use one CPE provider to obtain all four credits.
• You cannot obtain more than 20 CPE credits in behavioral subjects.
• If you conduct audits that are governed by certain government auditing standards, you’ll also need to obtain 24 credits in governmental CPE.
• While there’s no limitation on credits that can be earned in the technical business category, you’ll not be able to carry forward the additional credits to your next reporting period.

The Categories That Can Be Used When Meeting Florida CPE Requirements for CPA

In Florida, you can use four main categories to fulfill your Florida Board of Accountancy CPE requirements. These are:

• Accounting and Auditing
• Behavioral
• Technical Business
• Ethics

Overview of Subjects That You Can Focus On When Fulfilling Your Florida CPE Requirements

Here’re the category-wise subjects that you can master when pursuing Florida CPE. However, the categories aren’t limited to the following subjects only.

Accounting and Auditing

Two accounting-related subjects are:

• Financial accounting
• Accounting for specialized industries

Two auditing-related subjects are:

• General auditing theory and practice
• Auditing for specialized industries

Behavioral

Some behavioral-related subjects include:

• Human resources
• Time management
• Employee supervision
• Effective speaking
• Leadership and motivation

Technical Business

Some of the subjects that are covered by the technical business category include:

• Taxation
• General business
• Business valuation
• Budgeting and asset management
• Financial planning

Ethics

Your Florida CPE ethics course needs to cover the following subjects:

• A review of Florida Statutes, Chapters 455 and 473, and associated administrative rules.
• The course may also include subjects such as ethical conduct, professional responsibility, core values and competencies, etc.

Other Important Guidelines to Remember When Pursuing CPE in Florida

The Florida Board of Accountancy doesn’t accept certain activities as methods to meet your Florida CPE requirements. Some of these include:

• Basic mathematics courses
• Authorship of articles or books
• Foreign language courses
• Social functions and business meetings
• Committee service

You can take self-study courses to pursue Florida CPE for CPA. However, sponsors of self-study courses in accounting, auditing, and technical business categories have to be approved by the QAS program of NASBA.

CPE Reciprocity and Florida Ethics CPE

If you don’t live in Florida but are seeking license renewal here, you may be granted CPE reciprocity by the state board. However, in that case, you must meet one of these requirements.

• You must have met the CPE requirements in your last completed reporting period in your state.
• If your state doesn’t have any CPE requirements, you must fulfill the Florida CPE ethics requirements. And the programs have to be QAS-approved (in case of self-study), board-approved, contain a review of the laws and regulations of Florida, and be taken from a single CPE sponsor.

Other Policies Related To Florida Board of Accountancy CPE Requirements

In this block, we’ll discuss the grace period available at the Florida Board of Accountancy and its credit calculation methods.

Grace Period

If you don’t meet your CPA CPE Florida requirements by June 30th, you’ll get an automatic Florida CPE extension until September 15th. However, you’ll need to obtain an additional eight CPE credits in accounting and auditing subjects.

You’ll also receive another automatic extension until December 31st. For this, you’ll have to obtain an additional 16 credits in accounting and auditing subjects.

Credit Calculation Methods

Here’re the methods you need to use to calculate your credits when pursuing Florida CPE.

• College/University

For every quarter hour, you’ll get 10 CPE credits and for every semester hour, it’ll be 15 CPE credits. If you take non-credit courses, every classroom hour will let you obtain one credit.

• Partial credit

Florida Board of Accountancy accepts half credits.

• Instruction

For your first presentation, you’ll get credits two times your presentation. For your second presentation, you’ll get credits equal to your presentation. For your third and subsequent presentations, you won’t get any credits. If you give repeat instruction on material that’s significantly altered, it’ll be considered your first presentation.

Topics You May Want To Explore In Addition To Florida CPE Ethics

Every licensed CPA needs to have a solid comprehension of their ethical responsibilities. By meeting your Florida ethics CPE requirements, you’ll be able to maintain the ethical standards of the accounting profession.

While Florida CPE ethics courses help you understand the rules and regulations of the Florida state board of accountancy, you can also take other CPE courses to master specific ethical topics. Some of these topics include:

• Corporate ethical culture
• Conflicts of interest
• Applying ethics to real-life examples
• Applying ethics within a particular organization type or industry
• Independence rules

How to Choose High-Quality Florida CPE Courses?

Since Florida CPAs need to obtain 80 CPE credits every two years, many of them tend to choose Florida CPE courses that they can complete as quickly as possible. However, doing this won’t help you much in the long run.

By choosing high-quality Florida CPE courses, you can get significant mileage in your future career. It’s important to mention here that high-quality courses don’t necessarily need to be expensive. You can find both free and affordable courses that can help you enhance your skills and knowledge significantly.

Here’re some effective methods to choose high-quality courses when meeting your Florida CPE requirements for CPA.

• Search for free courses and webinars that help you master introductory information

Taking free Florida CPE courses and webinars is one of the best methods to learn introductory information about a subject. Once you master it, you can take paid courses to improve your competence in a particular topic. And the best thing is that you may be able to obtain one or two credits by joining the right CPE sponsor.

• Choose courses that are relevant to your present professional position

The objective of CPE is to help CPAs remain up-to-date and prepare them for their future careers. Therefore, if you want to make the most out of your time and money when meeting Florida CPE requirements, choose courses that are most relevant to your present professional position. Not only will this help strengthen your current position but also prepare you for the next step in your career.

• Consider your future goals as well

When choosing CPA CPE Florida courses, be sure to take your future goals into account. For instance, if you want to establish your own accounting firm down the road, you may want to prepare yourself by taking courses in human resources or leadership and motivation. Similarly, if you want to be in the management team of your present organization, these courses may help you climb the ladder quickly.

Reporting Tips to Remember When Meeting Florida CPE Requirements for CPA

Many CPAs sometimes fail to meet Florida CPE requirements. For a CPA who needs to earn a significant number of CPE credits every renewal period, it may become difficult to maintain proper Florida CPE reporting methods.

Here’re two mistakes that you need to avoid when reporting your Florida Board of Accountancy CPE credits.

• Reporting an incorrect number of credits

There are several reasons why CPAs sometimes only get partial credits or don’t get any credits at all. CPE sponsors need to have an evaluation method for self-study courses. When it comes to live webinars, they’re required to monitor attendance.

If a CPA fails to pass the self-study evaluation or doesn’t answer a predetermined number of polling questions during a live webinar, then they either get partial credits or don’t get any credits. Reporting these credits to the state board is considered misreporting.

• Reporting an incorrect date

To meet your Florida Board of Accountancy CPE requirements, you must obtain the required credits within your Florida CPA CPE deadline. If you report a wrong date for a course taken after the deadline, it’ll be considered misreporting.

How to Keep Good Records of CPE Credits When Fulfilling Florida CPE Requirements

In addition to taking high-quality Florida CPE courses, it’s a must to keep good records of your CPE credits. This is because state accounting boards regularly conduct audits to make sure that licensed CPAs are meeting the CPE requirements.

If a CPA is selected for audit, they need to submit the documents within a specified timeframe. Therefore, it’s best to track your CPE credits regularly so you can gather all the necessary information quickly if you’re selected for audit.

Whether you prefer to use an online Florida CPE tracker or maintain a physical list, be sure to include the following information.

• The sponsor of the program
• Program title
• Number of credits obtained
• Duration of the program

These pieces of information along with your name should also be mentioned on your certificates of completion issued by your CPE sponsor. Sometimes, you may also need to provide the board with other information such as the delivery method of the program and the address where you attended it.

Why Should You Choose an Online CPE Platform When Pursuing CPE in Florida?

While there are several methods to meet your Florida CPE requirements, online CPE platforms have emerged as the most sought-after choice. Here’re the reasons behind the huge popularity of online Florida CPE courses.

• You can complete the course materials on your own time

Convenience is perhaps the biggest reason every CPE strategy needs to include a reputable online CPE platform. With such a platform by your side, you can complete the course materials whenever you want. Be it weekends or evenings, you get complete control over your study schedule.

• You get access to a large number of courses

Reputable CPE sponsors like CPEThink.com have hundreds of high-quality courses covering every field of study. You get to browse the details of all the courses from the comfort of your home or office. Whatever course you want to take, you can review all the details and make an informed decision.

• You get to pursue CPE in an affordable manner

While some online CPE platforms charge steep prices for their courses, there are platforms like CPEThink.com that offer programs at pretty reasonable prices. And then there are subscription packages that will help you pursue Florida CPE at a much cheaper price. You can also choose unlimited subscription packages to obtain all the credits required to meet your Florida CPE requirements for CPA.

Closing Thoughts

When devising the strategy for your Florida CPE, be sure to consider both the quality and affordability of the programs to get the most out of your effort and time. If you want to join an online CPE platform that ticks these boxes, CPEThink.com is your go-to option.

If you want to get more information about how we can help you meet your Florida CPE requirements for CPA, feel free to contact us.

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