It’s time to check your progress toward completing the required continuing professional education (CPE) for the upcoming reporting period. In six months, the State’s licensing staff will notify licensees to report the CPE credit hours earned during the period 7/1/2007 through 6/30/2009. As a refresher, the Accountancy Licensure Act requires Michigan CPAs, as a condition of license renewal, to annually complete a minimum of 40 qualifying credit hours of CPE. Additionally, CPAs must self-report (on forms provided by the Department) the completion of this requirement to the Michigan State Board of Accountancy biennially by July 31 of the odd years.

The annual CPE requirement consists of a minimum of eight credit hours in accounting and auditing, a minimum of two credit hours in professional ethics, and the balance of the credit hours earned in an approved subject. Since the reporting period is biennial, a minimum of 80 CPE credit hours must be completed by the reporting date, which includes 16 credit hours in accounting and auditing, and four credit hours in ethics. No more than 50 percent of any requirement may be completed through self-study courses or instruction. Credit hours cannot be claimed for repeating a course or taking a second course similar to one previously taken within the same reporting period.

The State’s licensing staff audits select licensees’ CPE reports after each reporting period ends. The licensee is responsible for providing documented evidence to support the CPE credit hours earned and reported when notified of a CPE audit. It is important that licensees ensure that all courses claimed are qualifying courses. For example, the CPE audit in 2007 discovered that some licensees claimed professional ethics credit hours for non-qualifying courses.

Since we are on the subject of ethics, it is important to note that while a course contains the word “ethics” in its title, the course may not qualify to fulfill the professional ethics CPE requirement established by Rules R 338.5210(2) and R 338.5255(j) of the State Administrative Code. This means the ethics course must be oriented towards CPAs, where the CPA is learning about exercising professional judgment in ethical matters. A course based solely on reviewing compliance with the statutes and rules will not qualify as professional ethics credit, nor will a course geared toward ethics in a state other than Michigan. However, credit hours earned in compliance counts toward general CPE if the course contributes to professional competency in a field in which the licensee has responsibility. While the state licensing staff does not pre-qualify CPE sponsors or courses, and you have a question about a specific course, we would be happy to evaluate it and provide you a determination.

In addition to accounting, auditing and professional ethics for CPAs, other CPE qualifying subjects listed in Rule R 338.5255 of the State Administrative Code are: management advisory services; information technology; mathematics including statistics, probability and quantitative applications to business; economics; finance; business law; business management; taxation; financial advisory services; and, business valuations.

Finally, while timely fulfilling the CPE requirement to renew a license is the law, there are many benefits to the CPA, their employers, customers/clients and other stakeholders. The intrinsic benefits include increased customer confidence, enhanced skill and problem-solving flexibility for today’s marketplace with rapidly changing circumstances. The extrinsic benefit is increased regulator and public confidence in licensees who make the effort to enhance their professional competence, maintain critical professional skills and are serious about maintaining the public trust. These extrinsic benefits will be evidenced by a decreasing number of complaints filed by the public as well as increased public confidence in Michigan’s CPAs.

If you have questions about CPA licensing or CPE, please contact Stacie Bayes, Assistant Licensing Administrator for Accountancy at 517.241.9219 or bayess@michigan.gov. Information regarding Accountancy Licensing is at www.michigan.gov/accountancy.

Top