Is Vivo Mandatory for Quebec CPAs? What You Need to Know About CPE

Introduction

A Quebec CPA finds a course that fits exactly what their practice needs, then hesitates: isn’t all of this supposed to go through Vivo? The hesitation is understandable. Since September 1, 2025, Vivo is where every member declares and tracks continuing education hours. That change can make it seem as if all CPE must also be purchased through Vivo. It does not.

It isn’t. Vivo plays two different roles, and confusing them is where the compliance mistakes start. One is the Order’s own training catalogue, which competes with every other training organization. The other is the member’s regulatory file, the place where hours land no matter who taught the course.

This article separates the two. It explains what Vivo is mandatory for, whether Quebec CPAs can use external CPE providers, how the four-hour professional ethics requirement works, and what to check before claiming an outside course.

The Requirements Vivo Is Measured Against

Every CPA in Quebec falls under at least one of two regulations on compulsory continuing education, depending on whether they hold a public accountancy permit. The summary below is the context you need for the Vivo question; for the full picture, see our guide to CPA Québec CPD requirements.

The baseline is the same for both groups: a minimum of 120 hours of continuing education activities per three-year reference period, with a minimum of 25 hours in each reference year. The reference period is fixed rather than rolling, and the current one runs from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2028.

The Order assesses compliance retrospectively across the full three years, while still expecting the annual minimum to be met each year. CPA Québec’s own practical advice is to complete 40 hours a year so the three-year total takes care of itself.

Two annual deadlines matter: hours must be completed by August 31, and declared by September 30.

Requirements by Member category 

For permit holders, the 60 structured hours must relate to financial reporting and to updates of generally accepted audit and review standards. Only the first four ethics hours count toward that public accountancy total; anything beyond that is recorded under general practice of the profession.

Additional obligations apply to CPAs authorized to use the CPA•EJC or CPA•TI designations and to CPAs accredited as civil and commercial mediators. Retired members have their own reduced thresholds. Members who believe their circumstances justify relief can apply for an exemption, which is granted for a maximum of 12 months at a time.

Is Vivo Mandatory for Quebec CPAs?

The accurate answer has two parts.

No. Vivo is not the only place Quebec CPAs can complete professional ethics training. CPA Québec lists the 3-hour Formation obligatoire sur le Code de déontologie des CPA and, for CPAs who provide services to third parties, the additional 1-hour course on Vivo. However, the four required professional ethics hours can be satisfied through other qualifying structured ethics activities as well, provided the activity meets the Order’s eligibility rules.

CPAs who provide services to third parties, including services to family and friends, paid or unpaid, are also required to complete the additional 1-hour ethics course listed by CPA Québec on Vivo. This does not make Vivo the exclusive source for all four ethics hours.

These are Order-produced courses that CPA Québec makes available on Vivo. They are separate from the broader four-hour professional ethics requirement, which can include qualifying ethics training from an external provider.

Where a course specifically teaches the CPA Code of Ethics or Rule 204, check the Order’s prior-approval requirement before claiming those hours.

For everything else: no. CPA Québec’s page on eligible learning activities states plainly that the Order offers a wide range of training on Vivo, but that members may choose an entirely different training organization if the activity meets the eligibility criteria.

It goes further: “Vous n’avez donc pas à demander à l’Ordre de préapprouver vos activités.” You do not need to ask the Order to pre-approve your activities.

So Vivo is mandatory for declaring and tracking continuing education hours, but it is not mandatory as the source of your 120 hours or your professional ethics training. The key compliance question is whether each activity meets CPA Québec’s eligibility criteria.

What Is the Vivo Professional Development Portal?

Vivo is CPA Québec’s professional development portal, hosted at vivo.cpaquebec.ca. Members sign in with their six-digit CPA member or client number and the password they use for their online file with the Order. The platform itself is operated for the Order by SVI eSolutions.

Vivo does three jobs at once, which is precisely why it gets misread as a mandate:

• A training catalogue. In-class sessions, online courses, partner-delivered training, and tools. Courses are purchased individually; the Order runs periodic promotions on them. Members should check current pricing on Vivo directly, since it varies by course and offering.
• Order-produced ethics courses. CPA Québec makes its own Code of Ethics courses available on Vivo, alongside other professional development offerings. This does not mean members must purchase all ethics training through Vivo.
• The member’s continuing education file. Since September 1, 2025, declaring and tracking continuing education hours happens in Vivo. This applies to every member, including those who train exclusively elsewhere.

Point three is the crux. Every Quebec CPA uses Vivo. That does not mean every Quebec CPA has to buy training on Vivo.

Can Quebec CPAs Take CPE From Other Providers?

Yes. CPA Québec permits members to take continuing education from the organization of their choice. What the Order regulates is the activity, not the vendor.

The general eligibility criteria

To be admissible for compulsory continuing education purposes, an activity must:

• be directly related to the fields in which you practise as a CPA;
• allow you to maintain, update, improve, or deepen your skills and knowledge;
• be relevant, with effects that are measurable and verifiable.

CPA Québec summarises this as: the activity must let you acquire knowledge that helps you practise better as a CPA, with observable and measurable effects. You must also be able to demonstrate your participation and retain supporting documentation.

The ethics carve-out worth knowing

Structured ethics training must address the Order’s rules of professional conduct, your organization’s rules, or ethics-related subjects such as ethical decision-making. Admissible topics include ethical dilemma identification, ethical leadership, workplace harassment, diversity and inclusion, whistleblowing, corporate social responsibility, and independence rule 204.

One condition catches people out: a course specifically on the CPA Code of Ethics is admissible only if it has been approved in advance by the Order, with independence rule 204 excluded from that condition.

In other words, an external provider can deliver ethics training on the broader subject matter, but cannot deliver the Code itself as qualifying training without the Order’s prior approval.

Several topics are explicitly not admissible as ethics hours, including confidentiality, cybersecurity and data protection, regulatory compliance, professionalism or civility, preparation for professional inspection, and how a professional order functions.

Format and limitation rules that apply to any provider

• Distance learning with an assessment requires a minimum grade of 60% for the hours to count. Preparation and study time is not recognized.
• Distance learning without an assessment requires proof you completed it: a connection log, an attestation, or similar.
• Recognized duration is the shorter of the trainer’s reasonable time estimate and the actual duration of the activity.
• Repeats don’t count. An activity already taken during the same three-year period is inadmissible unless the content has been substantially revised.
• Self-study is an admissible category of continuing education and is capped at 15 hours per year. However, self-study hours do not count toward the four structured professional ethics hours or public accountancy hours. Examples include podcasts, technical reading, reading legislation, software learning in the course of work, and videos.
• Office-suite and videoconferencing software courses (Word, Teams, Zoom, PowerPoint) are capped at 14 hours per year and are not admissible to public accountancy hours. Language courses carry the same 14-hour cap and must be tied to professional activity.

Vivo vs. an External CPE Provider: What Actually Differs

Note the column that never changes: responsibility for eligibility sits with the member either way. Choosing Vivo reduces administrative friction. It does not transfer the compliance obligation.

How Does CPD Reporting Work?

Since September 1, 2025, declaration and tracking both happen in Vivo. Under the applicable regulation, every CPA is responsible for declaring their hours annually before September 30 and for retaining the supporting documents for activities taken and declared.

Order training on Vivo is credited automatically. Unless the course description says otherwise, and the Grand Rendez-Vous is one stated exception, all activities in the Order’s professional development program are recorded in your file without manual entry. That includes partner-delivered training.

Timing varies by supplier. Where the supplier is the Order itself, hours typically appear within minutes. Where the supplier is a partner, allow up to 30 days, and send the attestation to the Order if that window passes or if a default deadline is close.

External training is not credited automatically. You enter it in Vivo yourself, and you keep the evidence.

How Should Quebec CPAs Document External CPE?

The regulatory obligation is to retain supporting documents for 12 months following the end of the three-year reference period concerned, because the Order can request any information or document needed to verify an activity’s admissibility. For the period ending August 31, 2028, that means holding records until August 31, 2029.

Practical file per external course:

• Course title and full course description (this is what the Order asks for if you seek a ruling)
• Provider name
• Completion date
• Number of learning hours claimed, and the trainer’s stated duration
• Whether the activity was structured or self-study
• Subject area claimed: general practice, ethics, or public accountancy
• Proof of completion: attestation, certificate, connection record, or assessment result showing at least 60% where an assessment applied

Everything above the “proof of completion” line is good practice for defending a claim. Retention of supporting documents and the ability to demonstrate participation are the parts the regulation actually requires.

What Should CPAs Check Before Buying From an External Provider?

• Is the subject directly related to your fields of practice?
• Are the learning effects measurable and verifiable, or is this an informative activity? CPA Québec excludes activities that only keep participants updated without transferable effect on practice. That exclusion covers, pointedly, presentations on the continuing education requirements themselves.
• If you need ethics hours: does the content meet both ethics criteria, and does it avoid teaching the CPA Code of Ethics without the Order’s prior approval?
• If you hold a public accountancy permit: does the topic sit inside the permitted list of audit, review, compilation, quality management standards, CPA Canada Handbook accounting standards, IFRS S1 and S2, US GAAP, and financial statement fraud and internal control?
• Is there an assessment, and can you meet the 60% threshold?
• Will the provider give you documentation you can actually produce on request?
• Have you already taken this activity during the current three-year period?
• Have you diarised the manual declaration in Vivo?

If any of that is unclear, the Order’s compulsory continuing education team will validate admissibility on receipt of the full course description, at declaration@cpaquebec.ca. That is a validation service, not a pre-approval requirement.

Two Scenarios

Scenario A: Marie, no public accountancy permit. Marie needs 40 hours this year. She completes four hours of qualifying structured ethics training. Some or all of those hours may come from an external provider, provided the activities meet CPA Québec’s eligibility criteria. If she takes an Order course through Vivo, those hours may be posted automatically to her file.

She then takes 30 hours of tax and technology training from an external provider. She checks each course against the criteria first, saves the attestations, and enters the hours in Vivo herself. Her remaining 7 hours come from technical reading, declared as self-study within the 15-hour annual cap.

Scenario B: Jean, public accountancy permit holder. Jean needs 15 structured hours in public accountancy this year. He buys an external course on Canadian quality management standards, squarely inside the admissible subject list, passes the end-of-course assessment at 78%, and keeps the certificate.

He declares the hours in Vivo under public accountancy. He does not attempt to claim his 10 hours of self-study toward the public accountancy total because autoapprentissage hours are not admissible toward public accountancy hours. Those hours may still count toward his overall continuing education requirement, subject to the applicable annual cap.

These are illustrative examples, not documented cases.

Common Misconceptions

Myth: All Quebec CPE must be taken through Vivo.

Reality: CPA Québec explicitly permits any training organization whose activity meets the eligibility criteria.

Myth: Because ethics training is mandatory, all ethics hours must be completed through Vivo.

Reality: CPA Québec makes its Order-produced Code of Ethics courses available on Vivo, but the four-hour professional ethics requirement can also be met through other qualifying structured ethics activities. A course specifically covering the CPA Code of Ethics or Rule 204 may require prior Order approval.

Myth: The Order maintains an approved-provider list.

Reality: It does not. The Order regulates activities against criteria, not vendors, and no pre-approval step exists.

Myth: If a provider says its course is CPA Québec-eligible, that settles it.

Reality: Only CPA Québec can determine whether an activity is admissible under Quebec’s regulation. The Order has publicly warned that some external training organizations circulate inaccurate information about CPA obligations or imply an affiliation with the Order. Treat any communication about your obligations as authoritative only if it comes from CPA Québec.

Myth: External hours appear in my file automatically.

Reality: Only Order and Order-partner activities post automatically. External hours are declared manually.

Myth: Once declared, I can discard the paperwork.

Reality: Supporting documents must be kept for 12 months after the end of the reference period.

Which Option Is Right for You? 

There is no universal answer, and the decision usually splits by category of hours rather than by provider loyalty.

• Professional ethics training: qualifying structured ethics activities may be completed through Vivo or another provider. For courses specifically covering the CPA Code of Ethics or Rule 204, confirm whether prior Order approval is required.
• Public accountancy hours: whichever source has genuine depth in the permitted subject list, since the topic restrictions are tight and an inadmissible course is an expensive mistake.
• General practice hours: open field. Weigh subject fit, cost, format, and the quality of the completion documentation.
• If administrative simplicity outranks price: Vivo’s automatic posting is a real advantage.
• If breadth or specialisation matters more: an external provider may cover ground the Order’s catalogue does not, at the cost of manual declaration.

Conclusion

The question “do Quebec CPAs have to use Vivo for CPE?” is easy to misread because Vivo serves as both a training catalogue and the system for reporting continuing education. Since September 1, 2025, all members declare and track their hours in Vivo, but the 120 hours themselves are not not limited to Vivo. CPA Québec allows members to use other training organizations when the activity meets its eligibility criteria. The same principle applies to professional ethics training, with a specific approval condition for courses covering the CPA Code of Ethics or Rule 204.

For practitioners and firm learning managers, that reframes the work. The compliance question is never “is this provider approved?” It is “does this activity meet the criteria for the category of hours I’m claiming, and can I prove I completed it?”

Answer that before you register, keep the documentation, and declare on time.

Accounting professionals evaluating outside CPE options should confirm each activity against their applicable CPA Québec requirements before registering, and contact the Order’s continuing education team where anything is unclear.

Continuing education requirements change. This article reflects CPA Québec’s published guidance as of the current 2025 to 2028 reference period; members should verify current requirements directly with CPA Québec and in their own Vivo file.

FAQs

About the Author

Imtiaz Munshi, CPA

CFO, AZSTEC LLC

Imtiaz Munshi, CPA (US), is the CFO at Azstec, LLC and a trusted advisor to high-net-worth entrepreneurs. A seasoned tax planner and a business strategist with his 25 years of experience, he helps businesses grow smarter and stronger. Imtiaz specializes in guiding entrepreneurs and enterprises through complex financial decisions with clarity and confidence. His passion lies in simplifying strategy, optimizing tax outcomes, and driving sustainable growth. Through his work and thought leadership, Imtiaz continues to empower CPAs and business owners to stay ahead in an evolving financial landscape shaped by AI, ESG, and data-driven change.