State Board Requirements
Basic Requirements
All license holders in Arkansas must have completed 120 hours within the prior 3 years or 40 hours within the one year preceding the expiration of the license.
All license holders shall complete at least 50% of the required hours in the areas of accounting, accounting ethics, attest, or taxation.
License holders engaged in any compilation or attest must complete 8 hours of the 40 required, or 24 hours of the 120 required, in the accounting/attest subject areas.
Combined credit awarded for individual study programs and publications of articles, books, or CPE programs shall not exceed 60% of the total CPE hours required.
Ethics Requirement
All license holders must complete at least 4 hours of CPE in the area of accounting professional conduct and ethics during the 3 years immediately preceding the expiration date of their current license. The ethics hours requirement does not go into effect for new CPAs until their first full calendar year of licensure.
ASBPA Specific Laws & Rules Ethics Requirement
Of the 4 hours of ethics required, one of the hours must have been earned through a course that focuses specially on the Laws and Rules of the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy (ASBPA). This requirement may be satisfied by completing a web based course via the Board’s website or attending group training taught by a board member, board staff member, or a designee of the Board.
CPE Documentation Requirements
Responsibility for documenting the acceptability of the CPE courses taken rests with the CPA, who must retain such documentation for 5 years following the end of the year of completion of the CPE hours.
Measuring CPE Credit
A 50-minute period will be considered as being equal to one hour. One-half CPE credit hours (equal to 25 minutes) are permitted after the first hour has been earned in a given course.
For a complete list of rules, please refer to the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy’s website: www.asbpa.arkansas.gov
If you have questions, you may call the Arkansas State Board of Accountancy @ 501-682-1520.