California CPA CPE Requirements: Rules and Recommended Courses

To maintain an active status, all CPA licensee in California have to fulfill the CPE requirement on a biannual basis. Here is a summary for your reference:

California CPA CPE Requirements

The CPE credits have to be accumulated on the last date of your birth month. The counting is done every 2 years (you will get a reminder 90 days before the license expiration date). Within these 2 years, the CPAs registered in California should fulfill at least 80 hours of accounting continuing education, of which all can be self-study courses.

Specific Requirements

• Among the 80 hours in biennial cycle
• 40 hours must be in “technical areas” in each cycle
  • Minimum 12 hours each year
  • Maximum 40 hours of non-technical course
• Ethics CPE: at least 4 hours
• Regulatory review CPE: at least 2 hours
• Depending on the licensee’s role at work, they may need to fulfill a minimum of 24 hours in these “technical credits”:
  • accounting and auditing
  • Government auditing
  • If subject to Section 87(d) of the CBA Regulations, the licensee needs to take 8 hours of fraud CPE on detection and/or reporting of fraud in financial statements, in addition to the 24 hour requirement stated above.

For more info on which courses you can take, and how to ensure your CPE compliance, check out this video:

A Note On Self-Study Courses Under the rule in California, self study courses is granted CE credit  equal to the average completion time.

Further Information

If you are looking for CPA licensing requirements in California, please click here. You can contact California State Board of Accountancy for further questions:

• Address: 2000 Evergreen Street, Suite 250 Sacramento, California 95815-3832
• Phone: (916) 263-3680
• Fax: (916) 263-3675

Where Can I Take These Accounting CPE Courses?

When determining the best CPA CPE courses for you, consider the breadth of course offerings and the format that you enjoy the most. I recommend Becker CPE for the number of options they provide. You can watch or listen on your own time, or join weekly webinars with live Q&A sessions. Try the free course, and if you like it, use my Becker CPE discount to get half off a one- or two-year prime subscription.