Who to use for CPE's?

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  • #852687
    Track55
    Participant

    I’ve heard the following places have unlimited online CPE’s for like $200/yr:

    Becker, Gleim, Checkpoint, the AICPA, masterCPE.

    My company will pay; I just have to pick one. Of course there are those in-person ones, but we would have to pay for those on our own. But it would be simpler to get 10 hrs in one weekend rather than one hour here and there.

    AUD - 74, 99 !!
    REG - 74, 92
    BEC - 83
    FAR - 73, 86

    Studying for Ethics exam

    California candidate
    Business and Industry

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  • #852750
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    There's more, too, that offer similar services if you Google. I used thecpediscountstore.com and wasn't impressed with them, but I think they changed ownership or something like that midway through the time I was using them, because they did seem to improve slightly, so might be better now. However, my experience with them was not positive.

    I would suggest looking at the courses offered through all of these unlimited providers and find one that offers courses that interest you. Do you want to learn about retirement plans, about non-profit accounting, or about fraud auditing? Of course some of your CPE requirements are set in stone (at least in most states – x hours of ethics, etc.), but some are “electives”, so find a provider that offers courses that look interesting to you, then go with them.

    When I did my CPE through CPEDiscountStore, I was interested in learning more about retirement plans for personal benefit, and I had also fairly recently started a job in a non-profit, so I took CPEs related to retirement and non-profit accounting for all the “electives” that I had. Given that my state does CPE on an every-2-years basis, that was quite a few electives. 😛 However, I enjoyed the CPE more since it was topics that interested me, instead of “Oh, I get to study FAR again, 1 CPE hour at a time…”

    P. S. Especially for the online/self-study methods, I preferred courses that were many credit hours to courses that were a few, so you might want to look for someone that offers larger courses. CPEDiscountStore seemed to basically have x many questions on the exam for each credit hour of materials provided, so a 16-CPE-credit course had an exam 16x as long as a 1-CPE-credit course. I preferred to spend 16 hours studying 1 set of materials than to spend 1 hour on one topic than 1 hour on another etc. Don't know if you'll be the same, but might want to at least find a provider with variety of course sizes so that you can try both approaches.

    #855196
    Track55
    Participant

    Thank you for the reply. I never thought of it that way. I was just going to take audit/accounting classes to keep my skills sharp, and estate planning classes as I'm 40 and have a bit to give away (should I have an unfortunate accident). You're right though- I will look into other topics I could take for personal benefit.

    Yes, I'd rather knock out a half-day worth of CPE's rather than an hour at a time.

    Why did you decide to study Finance? I only ask as that was my plan, but at my company a master's won't help like certifications do. They are big on law degrees though. I want to go for the CIA after I rest for a year.

    AUD - 74, 99 !!
    REG - 74, 92
    BEC - 83
    FAR - 73, 86

    Studying for Ethics exam

    California candidate
    Business and Industry

    #855204
    taxgeek83
    Participant

    CCH and WesternCPE are another couple of good ones. If you're in the tax realm, they have (or used to have) a tax library for $200/year, and another $4/credit hour for exam grading and CPE credit. Some courses are upwards of 18-20 credits, so you could easily knock those ones out over a weekend. I really like the CCH webinars – I haven't taken their accounting ones, but most of the tax instructors are really good. Either way, I'd suggest making sure that whoever you choose is NASBA certified and that your state board will accept the credits. 🙂

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