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Managing your Continuing Education Credits

Best Practices on Managing your Continuing Education Credits

Managing your Continuing Education Credits
Imtiaz Munshi, CPA
  • Apr 13, 2021 07:00 PM EST
  • | 1287 Views

As a progressive professional, you would value the time you dedicate to webinars, online courses, and other learning modules. After all, you channelize valuable time and effort to earn your CPE Credits. For professionals who acknowledge the value of continuous education, reporting and tracking the credits may be challenging. You keep acquiring knowledge throughout your career, struggling to retain proof. Again, you need to report the same when required.

This post will talk about continuing education credit management for CPAs or any other domain relevant to your profession. Even if you are a CMA, SHRM, HRCI, CITP, or CFF, you will find this guide beneficial. Here are some of the best practices for managing your continuing education credits

Research on the credit provider

Before you shell out any money for continuing education credits make sure to do some homework on the provider. It would be logical to check the accreditation of the provider. Make sure that your state board accepts those credits. Although professionals do not face any issues in general, it’s wise to research before you invest.

2. Diversifying the course models

It pays to enjoy a diverse course model, given that professionals strive to diversify their learning experiences. You might look out for providers offering the following learning modules:

  • Live Webinars
  • Self-study courses (On-demand Courses)
  • Live Conferences
  • Packaged Courses complying with your continuing education requirements (Popularly known as CPE Packages)
  • Certified Courses

All these course modules offer different benefits. Besides, you may attend live or recorded webinars. Conferences and seminars are ideal for professionals willing to mix and match their learning and networking opportunities. If you prefer learning during your off-hours, self-study courses would be suitable for you.

Managing your credits at one place

As you continue with your knowledge-hunting, you always find it difficult to manage & keep track for your CPE credits. Particularly, the proof of attendance comes in different formats from each host. In case you prefer maintaining hard copies, get a closable folder for these credits. Label the folder and store it in a secure place. When you acquire your next certificate, simply keep it in the folder.

However, considering safety and greater accessibility, it is always wise to store your documents in Google Drive. Besides, you have other virtual cloud platforms to store your credentials. Alternatively, you can opt for myCPE credit management module where they keep track of your continuing education credits your earned on their platform. This makes CPE credits management amazingly easy. Even when you are outdoors, you would be able to access the credits details from your device.

Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for long term - Jack Welch

4. Maintain a running list

At times, you might be carrying out calculations on the overall value you have earned. Accordingly, you would set your goals, focusing on credits that you still need to earn. In this regard, it would be wise to maintain a running list of all the credits. Here, you can enter data under the following categories:

  • Name of the event
  • Location of the event (both online and offline)
  • Date of completing the event
  • Event provider
  • Your study domain, if applicable
  • Number of credits
  • Total number of credits

Carrying this list on your device ensures that you would have ready answers to all the questions related to your credits. From time to time, you would also benefit from self-assessment as you check out the list and assess your goals.

5. Decide how you look forward to benefiting

This is a part of your goal-setting approach. Besides attending free CPE webinars, you might also want to enroll in paid courses at reputed platforms. Once you start maintaining the list of credits, it would become simpler to establish your goals. Some professionals hunt for additional credits for maintaining their credentials as per the state’s requirements. Others commit themselves to broaden their competencies and deliver value to their clients. With reputed learning platforms offering generous online courses, you should be strategic with your approach and, accordingly, go for the right credits. Therefore, the way you manage your credits largely depends on your aspirations and ambition.

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Managing your Continuing Education Credits

Imtiaz Munshi, CPA

CFO, AZSTEC LLC

The author Imtiaz Munshi is a Certified Public Accountant and CFO at Azstec, LLC. He is Business Strategist, Tax Planner, Entrepreneur and Advisor to "HNEs" (High Net Worth Entrepreneurs).