CPE General Information and Requirements

New Reporting Requirements for CPAs/CFPs

The CFP Board is encouraging CFP® certificants to complete their biennial 30-hour continuing education (CE) requirement through programs provided by CE sponsors registered with the CFP Board. CE sponsors will be required to have their programs reviewed by the CFP Board for a fee per program. Beginning January 1, 2006, CE sponsors registered with the CFP Board will be required to electronically report attendee lists to the CFP Board within 30 days of a program’s delivery, and CFP certificants will receive automatic notification when CE programs have been reported for them. The AICPA and Surgent McCoy have registered their appropriate programs with the CFP Board. All registrants must inform the LCPA at the time of registration that they require CFP credit. They must request, complete and turn in, a CFP Sign In Sheet at each designated program. The LCPA will forward this information onto the AICPA and Surgent McCoy who, as the program sponsor, must forward it onto the CFP Board. There will not be any additional charge for CE credits for AICPA and Surgent McCoy registrants, as they have absorbed these costs.

Due to the financial commitment incurred by the LCPA to be a CFP sponsor versus the need shown by our membership response, the LCPA has decided that, as of the year 2008 forward, not to register as a CFP sponsor for any LCPA developed programs.

The CFP Board will continue to allow certificants to report CE programs taken from non-registered programs, but non-registered programs completed on or after January 1, 2006 will be subject to a $20 processing fee per program. The non-refundable processing fee must be paid online when the non-registered CE program is submitted to CFP Board, and the fee will cover the costs of reviewing the non-registered program to ensure that it meets CFP Board’s CE requirements.

These new requirements will benefit CFP® certificants by significantly reducing the burden of reporting and recordkeeping. Documentation of programs completed will no longer be needed because hours reported electronically by the approved CFP sponsor are not subject to audit.

LCPA Professional Development & Training Registration Rules

Take advantage of early registration discounts. Registrations, cancellations and transfers that are received too close to a course can create manual, meal counts, and facility problems.

Charges and fees are assessed on the basis of when registrant transactions are RECEIVED, not when the item was mailed or postmarked. The cutoff date listed on all course descriptions is based on the date that is 10 working days before the course date (excluding LCPA holidays), not including the actual course date.

If registering less than a week before the deadline, members should register on our Web site, FAX the registration to (504) 469-7930 or call and register. Registrations received after the deadline date will be charged an additional $25.00 fee per course. While we prefer payment at the time of registration, this is not mandatory.

Credit card payments are now being accepted for CPE registrations. Online registrations will now require credit card payment at the time of the transaction.

1. Non-Member Surcharges: $100.00 per 8-hour; $50 per 4-hour and $25 per 2-hour course. This applies to all CPAs who are not members of the LCPA or a reciprocal state, along with non-CPAs who do not work for an LCPA member. Non-certified staff of LCPA members and LCPA applicants will not be charged the non-member surcharge. Upon registration, the staff member or CPA applicant must identify themselves as such.
Non-Reciprocal States: Members of societies in these states must pay the non-member surcharge: AK, FL, GA, Guam, MN, MO, UT, Virgin Islands. The reciprocal state registrant cannot reside in Louisiana.

2. Late Registration Fee: An additional $25.00 per course will be applied if members’ registrations are received by the Society 10 working days or less prior to the course date (excluding the course date). To pay the discounted early registration fee, LCPA must receive the registration prior to the cut-off. Postmarks are not considered.

3. Cancellation Charges: We realize that problems can occur that may necessitate registration cancellations, including those necessitated by illness, and work/personal situations. While we are sympathetic, we must, for economic reasons, assess fees to cover the cost for pre-ordered materials and facility guarantees for meals, etc. A fee is incurred for all cancellations. Listed below are the fees and explanations.
• $10.00/$5.00 fee per course: A $10.00 fee is charged when cancellation is made more than 10 working days prior to the course date for an 8-hour or more course/$5.00 for 4-hours or less.
• $35.00/$20.00/$10.00 fee per course day: When registrants cancel during the 10 working days prior to the course, a $35.00 fee per 8-hour course/$20.00 per 4-hour course/$10.00 per 2-hour course is charged to cover the costs of pre-ordered materials.
• NO REFUND: When registrants do not cancel prior to the course and fail to show up, no refund will be given and they will be charged for the course. By not canceling before the date of the course, you hold a registration slot which could be utilized by other potential attendees.

4. Transfer Charges: Anytime a transfer is made from one course to another, a fee is incurred. All transfers will be charged a flat rate of $10 per 8-hour course and $5 per 4- or 2-hour courses. These fees are based on the course the person is transfering from. Late fees will apply if the course transfering into is within 10 working days of the date of transfer (same as it would be for a late registration).

5. Substitutions: When registrants substitute another person for their registration, a $10.00 per 8-hour course fee applies or a $5.00 per 4- or 2-hour course fee applies. A two-day conference registration can only be substituted by another two-day conference registration. Note: Substitutions can only be made for registrants who have the same employer.

6. Educator’s Discount: Full-time accounting educators can attend CPE courses at a 50% discount by meeting the following requirements:
• Society Membership.
• Employment as a full-time instructor in a Louisiana institute of
higher education
• Those educators eligible for a discount cannot have a
part-time practice

7. On-Site Coordinator Discount: Most seminars need coordinators, who receive a discount, to assist with administrative details. Conferences and selected workshops do not qualify for the coordinator discount. Those interested in being a coordinator should contact the Society office. Coordinators receive this discount:
• 50% of the course fee: This discount is for all course locations, including the LCPA Training Facility in Kenner.

Attendance at an AICPA sponsored program allows AICPA members to receive a $30 rebate. Once attendance is verified, attendees will be sent a $30 rebate.

Course Costs

CPE is a significant cost for CPAs in Industry and public practice. But few people understand the reason for CPE costs. The Society strives constantly to hold down costs for CPE. We are proud that the Society's registration fees, on average, are lower than those of our surrounding comparable state societies, as well as other vendors.

Fees are increased as a result of several factors. Vendors increasing their fix per person fees as well as their honorarium fee must be figured in.

Another factor to consider is transportation. While Society policy is to offer a single price for a particular course, the same course taught in one location can be much more expensive when repeated in a different city. Due to increases in air travel costs and hotel room costs, speaker costs have seen significant increases.

Overhead for administering the CPE program is still another factor. The LCPA administers hundreds of different courses each year and processes over 27,000 registrations per cycle. In addition, the Society maintains required information for both Society and chapter courses. Other factors include printing, postage and facility costs. Rising paper prices have increased the cost of producing manuals and promotional materials. Since Hurricane Katrina the combined costs of facility, meals and refreshments have increased significantly per participant per day.

CPE Requirements (AICPA, State Board, Yellow Book, Ethics)

The LCPA has no CPE requirements. However, the State Board of CPAs of Louisiana has a three-year reporting cycle for all CPAs licensed in Louisiana. The current cycle began January 1, 2007 and will end December 31, 2009. The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has staggered three year cycles, while the GAO’s Yellow Book rules are on a two-year cycle.

STATE BOARD
During this current cycle, all CPAs licensed in Louisiana must meet the State Board’s requirement of 120 hours of CPE. A copy of the current CPE rules under effect for this three year cycle can be found on our website. Please read the entire set of rules to make sure that you are in compliance. Some special areas of interest include:

Qualifying subject category descriptions: Accounting
and Auditing, Consulting, Taxation, Management, Specialized Knowledge, Personal Development, and Professional Ethics. All CPE taken must be able to be linked back directly to maintain or increase the competencies needed in the job that you perform.
Certificate holders who participate in attest engagements must complete at least 20% of their required hours in the Accounting and Auditing category.
Personal Development hours cannot exceed twenty-five percent of the total qualifying hours.
Included in the CPE hours for this 2007-09 CPE reporting period is an Ethics requirement. In the effort to make the Ethics requirement more applicable to the licensed CPAs’ line of work, the State Board of Accountancy will allow CPAs to choose from an assortment of various preapproved programs pertinent to industry, taxpractices, general ethics principles, and ethical issues dealing with non attest services. The State Board has approved the following 4 hour live programs:
- Louisiana Professional Ethics for CPAs in Business and Industry • AICPA
- Louisiana Ethics for Tax Professionals: Circular 230 and SSTSs • AIPCA
- Louisiana Ethics: Non-Attest Services, Integrity, and Objectivity • AICPA
- Cases in Corporate Ethics: Discussion of
Real Life Conflicts • Executive Education, Inc.
- Personal and Professional Ethics for Louisiana CPAs • Dr. Raymond Clay

The three AICPA programs are also available in a self-study online version as well as an in-house version presented for 30 or more CPAs at one time. All licensed and newly licensed CPAs must take one of the approved four hour courses in order to satisfy their 2007-09 professional ethics requirements. Reinstatements must take two of the approved programs within the 2007-09 cycle.

AICPA
All AICPA members are subject to the Institute’s CPE requirements as stated on their website.

YELLOW BOOK
The GAO’s Yellow Book rules apply to individuals who perform or work on governmental audits subject to the Yellow Book, and require 80 hours of CPE credits during the two-year cycle, with at least 24 hours of credit specific to the government area. The GAO has posted on its website guidance related to the Yellow Book’s CPE requirements. Taxation courses will no longer count towards the Yellow Book’s 80 hour CPE requirements. To view the statement go to www.gao.gov/govaud/ybk01.htm and under "What’s New" you will find Paragraph 46 of the Interpretation of Continuing Education and Training Requirements (April 1991) amended.

On April 22, 2005 the GAO released a document entitled Guidance on GAGAS Requirements for Continuing Professional Education that will be effective for CPE measurement periods beginning on or after June 30, 2005 (with earlier adoption encouraged). The document provides guidance to auditors in meeting the CPE requirements contained in the Yellow Book and replaces the predecessor 1991 CPE Interpretation. The document is a must read for any firm conducting or contemplating Yellow Book engagements and any CPE provider that works with them. The document itself is available at www.gao.gov/govaud/ybPDT2005.pdf and a two page summary of changes document is also available at www.gao.gov/govaud/PDTmc2005.pdf. The document contains more significant changes than were anticipated based on the related exposure draft issued last year. Included in the significant changes are the following:

More staff members will be subject to the 24 hour CPE requirement – In the past staff members not involved in planning, directing, or reporting on the audit or attestation engagement, and who charged less than 20% annually of their time to audits and attestation engagements following GAGAS did not have to comply with the 24-hour PDT requirement. Now, these staff members will be subject to the 24hour PDT requirement but exempt from the remainder of the 80-hour requirement. The effect is that some staff will now be able to take less overall PDT to meet the Yellow Book requirements but these same staff will now have to take courses that meet the 24 hour requirement (which they were exempt from previously).
Clarifies that CPE programs should have learning objectives.
Provides new guidance on what topics do and do not qualify for Yellow Book CPE. This guidance includes the following:
Related to the 80 hour requirement – In paragraph 23 the document provides additional guidance on the taxation topics that may and may not qualify. Probably the most significant development here (from the 2004 guidance) is if the analysis of an entity’s tax return is useful and relevant in performing an audit, auditors would be able to claim GAGAS CPE for the related training.
Related to the 24 hour requirement – The courses that qualify for the 24-hour requirement may have been broadened subject to how you interpret the document. Included in the new language is a discussion that the Yellow Book may be/will be used in conjunction with professional standards of other authoritative bodies and if that was the case training in the other standards would be relevant. Professionals will want to be careful in how they interpret and apply this wording. The courses will need to be standards based and not vague or generic auditing type courses.
Related to both the 24 hour and 80 hour requirement – In paragraph 26 the document provides a listing of topics that generally would not qualify towards the Yellow Book CPE requirements. Included in the listing are: certain training in taxation, personal financial planning and investment, taxation strategies, estate planning, retirement planning, practice management, etc.

Mandatory Continuing Legal Education

The Louisiana State Bar Association charges LCPA $50 to administer MCLE credits for attorneys. Therefore, an additional $50 must be added to the registration fee. In addition to completing the LCPA CPE credit form, you must ask the LCPA course coordinator for the MCLE form. At the conclusion of the course, both forms must be turned in to the LCPA course coordinator. Forms cannot be turned in after the course.

The Louisiana Supreme Court recently approved a move to convert MCLE credit hours from a 50 minute to a 60 minute basis. Therefore, LCPA PDT 16 hr CPE credits = 13.33 MCLE credits, 8 hr CPE credits = 6.66 MCLE credits, 4 hr CPE credits = 3.33 MCLE credit.

Online CPE Registration Instructions

The LCPA is pleased to provide 24-hour online CPE registration to make it fast and convenient to sign up for the courses you want.
In order to view the “Professional Development & Training – Scheduled Group Training” section, you must first Login using your Login Name (Login Name = Your Member ID Number) and Password (see Login Names & Passwords section to the right for details; your member join date impacts your assigned login name and password).

Once you have logged in to “Professional Development & Training – Scheduled Group Training,” you will be taken to the “Meeting Registration” page which includes your personalized welcome and profile information. From this page, all profile information can be easily updated by clicking on the “Profile Information” link above your address. If any changes are made to the Personal Profile page, please be sure to hit “Submit” in order to save your changes before exiting.

If you have previously registered for any upcoming LCPA CPE events, those courses will be displayed directly under your profile information on the Meeting Registration page. Any changes to confirmed registrations, must be done through Member Services.

Below your existing registrations (if any), is a listing of all Upcoming CPE courses and events in date order. You may view all courses in date order, or you can filter courses by knowledge type (A&A, Taxation, Management, etc.) or location using the drop down “Filter” menu.

When you see a course you want to register for (or just to view the description), simply click on the course title link. You then are able to view the “Meeting Information” (course description, location, date, member price). To register for that course, click on the “Register Now” red-check icon.

A “Registration Summary” screen will appear. From the summary page, you can update your Registrant Information if needed. After reviewing the Registration Summary, you have the option of selecting “Complete Registration” or “Cancel Registration”. When selecting Complete, you then will view a “Checkout Summary”.
Review your Checkout Summary to be certain that you have registered for the correct course(s). At this point, you can choose to “Continue with Checkout”, “Cancel the Entire Transaction”, or “Continue Shopping”.

“Continue with Checkout” – When you have completed your course selection, click Continue with Checkout. You will get a “Confirmation” screen listing the courses currently in your shopping cart. Please print a copy of this Confirmation receipt for your records. You may pay for your registrations using this Confirmation receipt. Mail your Balance Due along with a copy of your receipt to the Society office. An e-mail confirmation also will be sent to your e-mail account on record.

“Cancel the Entire Transaction” – Cancel the Entire Transaction will cancel all courses you’ve registered for on that visit’s Checkout Summary. If you wish to only cancel one course on the summary list, hit the “Remove” button to the right of the course title you wish to delete. All other courses you’ve previously registered for will remain.

“Continue Shopping” – The Continue Shopping option returns you to the Meeting Registration page and allows you to add more courses to your shopping cart. This user-friendly feature enables you to log in once and register for as many courses as you wish.
When you’ve made all your selections, click on Continue with Checkout. A “Confirmation” screen will appear as noted above in the “Continue with Checkout” paragraph. Your transaction is successfully completed, and you are prompted to print a copy of your Confirmation for your records. Any changes to confirmed registrations must be handled through Member Services and cancellation fees will apply.
On your next visit, your personalized Meeting Registration page will reflect all your CPE registrations in date order.
All shopping is secure. We will never ask for a credit card number or require you to confirm profile information via e-mail or the Internet.

Login Names & Passwords
Members with a Join Date Prior to 5/1/2006, ID Numbers Less Than 41954:
• Login Name is your Society-issued Member (User) ID/Constituent ID (without leading zeroes)
• Password is the last four digits of
your Social Security number
(All reset logins will revert to the Default Password – see details below.)

Members with a Join Date After 5/1/2006, ID Numbers Greater Than 41954:
• Login Name is your Constituent ID
with leading zeroes (a seven position number)
• Default Password is the first three letters of your last name plus your Constituent ID, where the first letter of your last name is capitalized.
Example: John Jones (Constituent ID – 0041955)
Login Name = 0041955
Password = Jon0041955
Member Services can provide you with your existing Member ID/Login Name.

E-Mail Addresses
The e-mail address that appears on your Profile Information (the address used for all e-correspondence) will be used as your primary contact. Your preferred e-mail address is now the universal means of identification and primary mode of information delivery (CPE confirmations). It is essential that you provide us with a preferred e-mail address for this purpose and alert us of any changes to ensure prompt delivery of information.

If you experience any difficulty logging in, please contact a Member Services Representative, 1-800-288-5272 or (504) 464-1040. Do not proceed to add a new record, as you will create a duplicate record.