By Adam Batchelor, PICPA vice president - member program and strategy 

There has been an abundance of uncertainty within the accounting profession through 2020 and into 2021, but one thing that has remained consistent and immovable is the Pennsylvania CPE reporting period for CPAs. CPAs will be required to renew their licenses and report their required CPE hours by Dec. 31, 2021, as scheduled. Just a bit more than halfway through the biennial period, now is a great time to review the Pennsylvania requirements, learn what’s new, and create a plan to make the most of this year’s learning options.

CPAs in Pennsylvania are required to complete 80 hours of CPE during the current two-year period. Four hours must be in ethics and at least 20-hours must be completed in each year. CPAs performing attest functions must also complete 24-hours of accounting and auditing credits. A full, detailed list of the requirements can be found here.

One change, however, will not so much affect the reporting period but rather how you approach the acquisition of your credits. Accommodations were made early in the COVID-19 pandemic by Gov. Tom Wolf and the department of state to eliminate the maximum allowable self-study CPE credits for this reporting period. For this period only, CPAs can take as many credits as they would like via self-study.

With the limitations on in-person gatherings due to health and safety guidelines and a commitment to keeping our members healthy and safe, CPE hasn’t been the same over the past year and likely won’t be for the immediate future. At the PICPA, we are planning a robust offering of CPE programs for 2021, most of which will be offered online. All of our conferences will go on as scheduled with industry-leading speakers and an ever-growing list of topics using our state-of-the-art online platform. If you haven’t attended a conference in the past year, I encourage you to check one out. Similarly, we will continue to offer dozens of live seminar webcasts so members can go deeper into the topics that matter most to them.

In September 2020, the PICPA acquired CPA Crossings, a national online CPE provider. This partnership has enabled our webinar offerings to grow tremendously. Thanks to CPA Crossings and other webinar providers, we’ll have in excess of 4,000 webinars on hundreds of topics at times convenient to your schedule.

Our work with CPA Crossings will drive a major upgrade in our CPE offerings in May 2021 when we launch the PICPA CPE Academy – a new platform for video-on-demand learning. The CPE Academy will launch with more than 100 self-study courses on diverse topics, including ethics, A&A, tax, and technology. Members will be able to purchase unlimited access to the CPE Academy for just $299. Also, access to CPE Academy will be included in every Value Pass Plus purchase, providing unlimited webinars and self-study options. Value Pass Plus is members-only and $599 until June 1, 2021. Stay tuned for more information, including an option to purchase access to CPE Academy or a Value Pass Plus when you renew your membership, enhancing the value of belonging to the PICPA with unlimited CPE!

As always, the PICPA team is available for all your license renewal and CPE reporting questions. As the world moves into a brighter future, we are proud to support the CPAs who will lead the recovery in Pennsylvania and beyond.

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