Continuing Professional Education for CPAs

By: JohnReiling | Posted: 31st May 2011

Continuing Professional Education for CPAs
In all but 5 states, Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are required to earn CPE accounting credits to maintain active licenses. The primary objective of continuing professional education for CPAs is to maintain and/or increase professional competence. The process of finding continuing education credits for CPAs that satisfies the requirements of an individual state can be challenging…but there are solutions.

The National Association of State Boards Accountancy (NASBA) serves as a forum for the 54 U.S. boards of accountancy. NASBA maintains a National Registry of CPE Sponsors, a program that recognizes sponsors that are approved to offer CPE accounting in accordance with nationally recognized standards. It is universally known among state boards, CPAs and firms that NASBA approved CPE program sponsors provide a higher standard of CPA continuing professional education.

NASBA’s rules for sponsors
As of January 1, 2004, a tougher requirement threshold went into effect for NASBA’s CPA CPE sponsors in order to ensure the high quality of continuing professional education for CPAs. In order for continuing education to be approved by NASBA for CPE credit, it must adhere to the following criteria:

• Courses must meet specific guidelines regarding development, presentation, measurement and reporting to qualify for NASBA approval.

• Once these technical guidelines are met, sponsors must pilot each course with at least three CPAs who are independent of the program development group, before the course can be approved for CPE credit.

Web Learning Portal Support
With online CPE training combined with a robust Learning Management System (LMS), course-takers can access NASBA-specific progress reports to monitor CPE progress and can print certificates on demand for completed courses to submit to their state accounting boards toward CPA renewals.

Which states accept NASBA-approved CPE training?
Almost all states accept NASBA approved continuing professional education for CPAs. However, certain state boards of accountancy (specifically Florida, Tennessee, Minnesota, Oregon, or South Carolina) only accept CPE credits from self-study training (including online training) if the training provider is a “QAS sponsor”.
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CPE Training Online (www.cpetrainingonline.com) sells online training approved by NASBA in the 18 NASBA CPA "Fields of Study", acceptable in all but five states.


John Reiling provides hundreds of NASBA-approved CPA Continuing Professional Education for CPAs online training courses on the site CPEtrainingonline.com. John has earned multiple licenses and certifications - licensed Professional Engineer (PE), several IT certifications, and current Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB). He provides additional professional online training under PROtrainingonline.com
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Tags: measurement, objective, accounting, public accountants, january 1, threshold