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Board panel approves broadening nontechnical CE subjects and technical clarifications, including excess fraud‑hours use
Summary
The Committee on Professional Conduct unanimously approved staff direction to propose rule changes broadening acceptable nontechnical continuing education (CE) topics and to allow excess fraud CE hours to count toward ANA requirements; staff also recommended removing the Board's separate 24‑hour governmental auditing CE requirement as duplicative of GAGAS.
The California Board of Accountancy’s Committee on Professional Conduct voted unanimously March 20 to direct staff to include multiple changes to continuing education subject‑area rules in a future rulemaking package.
Sarah Benedict, manager of the License Renewal and Continuing Competency unit, said staff and a CE work group reviewed current CE categories and recommended several clarifications: remove the Board’s separate 24‑hour governmental auditing CE requirement as duplicative of Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards (GAGAS or the “Yellow Book”), continue to require four hours of fraud CE for licensees performing attest work, expand nontechnical CE to include workplace harassment and workplace violence prevention, workplace stress management, employee wellness and world languages, rename “industry accounting” to “specialized industry knowledge,” and state that excess fraud hours may be applied to ANA (accounting and auditing) CE requirements.
The work group reviewed other states’ practices (staff identified Florida and Oregon as the only states with governmental auditing CE requirements) and recommended modest changes intended to reduce duplication and clarify acceptable subject matter. Committee members queried whether some nontechnical items such as personal‑growth courses should be accepted; Benedict said CE reviewers evaluate courses case‑by‑case and that qualifying nontechnical CE must directly contribute to professional competency.
Jason Fox, representing the conference side of CPA, stated he had no issues with broadening nontechnical CE and supported the technical clarifications but said practitioners were closely reviewing alignment between Yellow Book/GAGAS and licensure requirements to avoid gaps.
Chair Doug Aguilera moved the staff recommendation as amended to include explicit language allowing excess fraud hours to count toward ANA requirements; Nancy Corrigan seconded. Roll call recorded unanimous approval. The motion directs staff to draft regulatory text for formal rulemaking; no regulatory change is effective until rulemaking is completed.
