Easy Ways to Keep Your License Current

By Michael A. Thompson, CPA

October was very active in Sacramento, with the governor signing four bills impacting CPAs: SB819 (150 hours); AB138 (mandatory peer review), AB117 (license status disclosure); and AB129 (taxpayer privilege). Below, I offer my comments on CalCPA’s homegrown source for CPE, which helps us maintain an active license. But first I will touch on our upcoming volunteer event and let you know that we are soliciting applications for members to sit on the chapter’s board of directors.

Second Harvest Food Bank: Join us Wednesday, Nov. 18, when we volunteer to sort food that was donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos—and we need three more volunteers! This will be the third consecutive year for chapter members to work together to directly help those in need within our community. We expect to sort 18,000 pounds of goods during our evening shift. The sorted items are then individually bagged for delivery to those in need in our community. Some say we live in an affluent community, however, this is not true for everyone, and this is your opportunity to experience where the need is in our local community.

Chapter Board Nominations: If you are interested in serving the chapter as a board member or committee chair, then please contact Jane Dunbar so she can schedule appointments with the Nominations Committee. Director responsibilities are to:

1. Be familiar with issues affecting the profession
2. Attend all meetings and be prepared to discuss agenda items
3. Recruit and orient new board members
4. Assess board performance
5. Support CalCPA’s mission and purpose
6. Ensure adequate chapter resources
7. Manage financial resources effectively
8. Determine, monitor and strengthen programs and services
9. Enhance CalCPA’s public standing
10. Ensure legal and ethical integrity and maintain accountability

CPA Inactive: As of Jan. 1, 2010, if your California CPA license is inactive, you will have to disclose that status whenever you use the CPA designation by placing “inactive” immediately after CPA on business cards, stationery, résumés, websites or other business communications. I recommend bringing your license current by taking continuing professional education offered by the CalCPA Education Foundation. The Education Foundation supports CPAs in business and industry through its courses tagged “Financial Leadership Forum.” Many of the offerings are developed in California, so here’s what to look for:

Education Foundation Conferences: These eight-hour conferences provide updates and overviews of industry issues and current topics. Upcoming conferences include Tax Update and Planning (Nov. 23-24) and International Tax and Business (Dec. 8).

Education Foundation Courses: The eight-hour CPE courses tend to focus on in-depth technical training for specific topics.

Education Foundation Webcast: You can attend courses and conferences via live webcasts, which are ideal for those of us who have to stay in the office.

Education Foundation Self-Study: You register for self-study CPE courses online, and then you print the material. You have the next year to study the material and take the online exam. The benefit of downloading the material and taking the exam online is that the results are immediate. I print the material because I like to scribble notes on paper. I find that I spend somewhat more time than the CPE hours given, but I’m fine with that, because the material is fantastic.

You can search for upcoming conferences, courses and webcasts online.

I encourage employers to reimburse their employees for CPA license fees, CalCPA membership and CPE and to allow staff time to attend CPE events. The Education Foundation can even bring CPE and MCLE to your business with customized training. Since California now places importance on an active CPA license, I believe corporate executive management should feel compelled to do its part to comply with the intent of this legislation. In addition, your external auditors should be able to place a greater reliance on in-house work when you present them with employee expense reports documenting professional reimbursements. The recently signed legislation is good for California, and therefore is good for the public.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.