What To Expect In CPE For CPA

By Tameka Ware


Even after finishing a course in any profession, professional are supposed to reassess themselves with continuing education. The accounting profession is one of the professions which will require the accountants to update their skills from time to time. This will depend on the type of certification. Units are used to measure CPE for CPA Qualifications.

There are several and diverse kinds of certification that exist for accounting profession and each will need different progressive education. You can choose to work as a certified management accountant or public account if you are willing to specialize in public accounting. Accountants can also specialize to be internal auditors. Each of these disciplines of accounting will need to be certified by the relevant accounting bodies.

To keep the profession up to date with the current issues and ensure that they are competent, ongoing education is necessary. The units that are on offer are different and teachers will be there to train you. Self studies are also available to those who are not willing to have face to face tutorials. There is a stipulated time for each session and you will take equal time if you are using a tutor or not.

You must get approval from the certification bodies before you can start taking the sessions. This way, you shall be able to get credits for the time taken for CPE. The bodies will ensure that records that are maintained for each individual. They will then perform random audits to ensure that you have met the requirements.

The organizations that are responsible for certification are the one that determines the units that members should undertake in a year. Those who are members of the management accountant bodies shall be required to complete thirty units of which two should be on ethics. Those that are in the CIA are required to complete eighty units in a year.

The units that can be undertaken by a certified public accountant in a year will depend on the provision of each state. You will find a state that will need a specific number of units to be undertaken within a year. Others will stratify the units into several categories and then demand that the accountant should do a number on each category. These categories will include tax, auditing or financial reporting.

CPE has several specialized topics that are available for you. The topics are divided in ethics, accounting, managerial and industrial training.The specialized accounting topics that will be availed to you will include Sarbanes Oxley, reporting on fixed assets and updating of FASB. Managing of project and lean organization are the specialized topics for management training. For every year, consistency need to be observed.

Topics on industrial training will depend on a industry that a person is specializing in. Those in the banking industry will take different topics from those who are in utility industries. Training on ethics will be concerned with case study reviewing and ways of resolving ethical dilemmas. Accountants shall be better positioned in the profession if they have undertaken CPE for CPA. This is because they are well versed with all the change that might have occurred in the profession.




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