December 1, 2022
I recently renewed my CPA license. It was set to expire at the end of November this year. Normally, renewing your license is not something to write about; however, this year was very different, in a good way.
I am licensed in the state of California. I’ve had my license since 2005, so I’ve been through a number of renewal cycles. Not only did the California State Board of Accountancy recently revamp their website, but they also made the license renewal process completely online. No longer are the days of receiving the renewal application in the mail, manually filling out the application and CPE worksheet, writing a check and sending the application via certified mail. Goodbye paper trail! The renewal application took me less than an hour online and my license showed as renewed within a couple of days. To say I was pleasantly surprised by the new process is an understatement.
The renewal application was the easy part. Unfortunately, the CPE requirements have not changed. My state requires 80 hours of CPE over the two-year period to maintain Active Status, with at least 20 hours completed in the first year. I don’t necessarily need to have Active Status since I don’t actively engage in public accounting, but I like to have the option. While not all of the CPE needs to be accounting-specific, I always choose to do accounting and auditing courses due to the nature of my job. I am also a procrastinator, so I will usually load up on CPE right before my license is due for renewal.
There is no shortage of CPE available. CPE comes in all formats (online, group, self-study, etc.). The real issue with CPE is making time for it as well as the cost. 80 hours is quite a time commitment. If you work at a public accounting firm, you will likely get CPE through your work in the form of trainings. If you work in industry, your company may reimburse you for the cost of attending an accounting conference or seminar if it’s directly related to your job. Accounting conferences aren’t cheap, so it really depends on your manager, your company and whether they have the budget for it. The best accounting conference that I’ve attended was back when I worked at a large public tech company in the Bay Area. I was lucky to have a manager and the controller who realized the importance of keeping up-to-date and getting your CPE. Every year, the controller, my manager and I would attend the SEC institute annual reporting conference in San Francisco. It was a great conference in terms of content, quality of the speakers and also the location and food. In the good old days, there would be hundreds of people that attended and there would be mingling and networking time during the lunch and after the conference.
Now that I’m a part-time consultant, I’m on my own in terms of CPE. I still attend a big conference once a year. I live in Boston now, and I’ll sign up for the Financial Accounting and Reporting Update conference put on by Accounting Conferences and Seminars, which is usually in June. I used to go in-person, but after COVID, they have made it a virtual conference. I like the fact that it is virtual because I save time not having to commute into Boston and find parking. The fee is also cheaper than attending in-person. However, there’s something to be said about being there in person and interacting with other people in your industry. I also tend to get distracted when I am at home. The conference is over two days and is about 17 hours of CPE. If I do two conferences, I will get a big chunk of my CPE done. To me, it is worth the cost to attend the conference because it keeps me up-to-date and forces me to get my CPE done. I also sign up for the PwC quarterly accounting update webcast, which is 1.5 hours. The Big 4 all offer free webcasts that give CPE, so this is a great way of knocking off some CPE hours. Lastly, I’ll sign up for an annual self-study pass at one of the online CPE websites. It allows you to do up to 40 hours of CPE at your own leisure and expires after a year. I typically take an Accounting and Auditing Update course for 11 CPE hours. They also occasionally have sales on the self-study pass.
What are your experiences with renewing your license? Which CPE do you guys take? I would love to hear about your experiences and if you have any tips for CPE.
