Active Status Renewal
What you should know
The California Board of Accountancy (CBA) mails a license renewal application to each licensee's address of record approximately 90 days prior to the license expiration date. Licensees must complete the license renewal application and Continuing Education (CE) Reporting Worksheet, documenting completion of the required CE hours listed below and submit it along with the renewal fee in the envelope provided. All license renewals are required to pay a $280 renewal fee.
The CalCPA CPE Tracker allows members and customers to keep track and print a record of their CPE in the format prescribed by the California Board of Accountancy.
Requirements
To renew your license in an active status, submit the completed license renewal application, including the license renewal fee and documenting completion of the required continuing education (CE).
A total of 80 hours of qualifying CE must be completed during the two-year period immediately preceding license expiration, including:
A minimum of 40 hours in technical subjects. To renew a license in active status, you must complete a minimum of 50 percent of the total required CE hours in technical subject areas. Specific information can be found on page 3 in the CBA License Renewal Handbook.
4 hours of ethics education. Specific information can be found on page 4 of the CBA License Renewal Handbook.
24 hours in Government Auditing CE or Accounting Auditing (A&A) CE and four hours of CE specifically related to the prevention, detection and/or reporting of fraud affecting financial statements (Fraud CE). Specific information can be found on pages 4-5 in the CBA License Renewal Handbook.
A two-hour Board-approved Regulatory Review course if more than six years have elapsed since you last completed a Board-approved Regulatory Review or Professional Conduct and Ethics (PC&E) course. Specific information can be found on pages 5-6 in the CBA License Renewal Handbook.
The remaining 40 hours may be completed in qualifying technical or nontechnical subject matter of your choosing, so long as a minimum of 40 hours are completed in technical subject matter.
The license renewal fee can be found on page 1 of the Licensing Renewal Handbook.
Note: Licensees renewing a license in an active status must complete a minimum of 20 hours in each year of the two-year license renewal period, with a minimum of 12 hours in a technical subject matter.
First Time Renewal-Active Status
To renew a license in an active status, you are required to complete 20 hours of CE for each full six-month interval from the date the license was issued to the license expiration date. This method is used to calculate the total CE hours; it does not require that 20 hours of CE be completed within each six-month period. If the initial license period is less than six months, no CE is required to renew the license. Specific information can be found on page 11 in the CBA License Renewal Handbook.