Prolaera CPE Compliance Guide

An Introduction to Prolaera’s Compliance Engine

Our team at Prolaera works hard to continuously find ways to make managing your CPE compliance easier, simpler, and less frustrating.  While adding new courses is fairly straightforward, gathering the required information to apply your course credit to over 70+ (and growing) different regulators can, at times, require a little assistance.

The following guide will help with some of the more nuanced considerations to keep in mind to ensure your credits are applying properly.  It will also provide tips and tricks to help you resolve any questions you may have.

Entering Course Information

The first step to adding a new course is to add the high-level course information.  The title of the course, the completion date, and delivery method are required.

The completion date will determine which reporting periods your course will apply to. The delivery method is important because many regulators have limits on how many self-study, instruction, and/or publication hours which may qualify within a given reporting period.

The location and sponsor name are not required for Prolaera to calculate your credits, but are great to include for completeness, particularly for reporting purposes.

Adding Subject Areas / Fields of Study

Below the course information you’ll see a set of fields to add your fields of study.

1. The “hours” box is where you enter the number of credit-hours earned for the subject area selected for each line.
   
2. Under the subject area dropdown, select the applicable subject area(s) that are listed on your Certificate of Completion.
   
3. Finally, select any special topics that may apply to each selected Subject Area by clicking the dropdown under the “Special Topics” field. The Special Topics field is designed to help apply credits to special requirements that don’t match specifically to one of the NASBA-defined Fields of Study.
   
4. For example, if you complete a course with a subject area listed as “Auditing” that’s focused on Employee Benefit Plans, check the box next to “Employee Benefit Plans” in the Special Topics dropdown.
   
   Other examples will be covered later in the guide, and include “Federal Taxes” for Enrolled Agents or “Fraud” for California CPAs/CFE licensees, Yellowbook Proficiency credits, and more.

Adding Multiple Subject Areas / Fields of Study

If your course includes more than one field of study, you may add more by selecting the blue “+” button to the right of the first Subject Area.  You may repeat as needed until you have enough fields for all Subject Areas.

Before

After

Removing a Subject Area / Field of Study

If you’d like to remove a Subject Area that you’ve previously added, simply select the red “minus” button next to that row and it will be removed.

Uploading Course Certificates

Uploading a Certificate when adding your course

Step 1:  Click the “Select” button

Step 2:  Select the file

Step 3:  Click the “Upload” button

Uploading a Certificate to a course that’s been previously added

Step 1:  Navigate to the course you’d like to add a certificate to and click the “Action” dropdown button

Step 2:  Click the “Manage Files” button

Step 3:  Click the “Select” button

Step 4:  Select the file

Step 5:  Click the “Upload” button

Removing a Certificate from a course that’s been previously added

Step 1:  Navigate to the course you’d like to add a certificate to and click the “Action” dropdown button

Step 2:  Click the “Manage Files” button

Step 3:  Click the “Remove File” button

Provider Sponsor Numbers

Including provider Sponsor Registration numbers is always a good idea for completeness of your records.  The Sponsor Registration numbers will be found on your Certificate and may usually be found on the Provider’s website.

However, for some States or regulators, a Sponsor is required to be registered with NASBA or with the State themselves.  For those regulators (listed in more detail below), you’ll need to select the checkbox of the respective required Sponsor Registration fields and, if available, enter their Sponsor Registration Number(s).

States Which Require Direct Sponsor Registration

The following States require Sponsors to Register directly with the State for their courses to qualify for CPE credit.

You must select the State-Specific checkbox (or enter corresponding Sponsor Provider Number) for these courses to apply automatically to a their respective regulators.

• New York
• Texas

States Which Require NASBA Registry Sponsor Registration

The following States require Sponsors to be registered with NASBA for courses to qualify for CPE credit.

Either the “National Registry”, “QAS”, or State-specific Provider checkboxes must be selected for the following States for credit to automatically apply.

• Arkansas
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• Florida
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• Guam
• Hawaii
• Iowa
• Illinois (State-specific Sponsors also apply)
• Minnesota
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• Mississippi
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• New Jersey (State-specific Sponsors also apply)
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• Pennsylvania
• Puerto Rico
• South Carolina
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• Tennessee
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study
• West Virginia
  • NASBA QAS for Self-Study

Customizing Credit Values by Regulator

By design, Prolaera can accurately apply credit across a wide range of regulators and licenses automatically.  However, there may be cases where you’ll desire the flexibility to manually set the credit value for a course for one or more regulators.

Common reasons for customizing credit values might be applying credit to specialty regulators, adjusting credit to accommodate specific regulator rules that don’t match the default values, or, in rarer cases, if a course has been rejected by a State Board.

To override a regulator, first, enable the option by clicking the toggle button next to the “Advanced Options” label.

Now that the Accreditation Customization window is open, you may select one or more regulators from the left menu by clicking the regulator name.  Once clicked, the regulator will be listed in the right panel and the values for the regulator’s categories will be shown below.  You may select all regulators by clicking the “>>” button.

Now, for each selected regulator you’d like to customize, you may enter the values you’d like to set for each category.

You may remove the customized values and revert to the default values for any regulator by selecting the name from the right panel.  It will then return to the left panel under the default listing.  You may remove all of them by clicking the “<<” button.

Submitting your hours

Now that you’ve filled out the course’s information and made any customizations, simply click the “Submit” button at the lower-right part of the page to add the course to your account.  You may view, edit, and manage your course any time by visiting the “CPE Certificates” page from your My Dashboard panel in the left navigation bar.

 Deleting a Course

Should you need to delete a course you’ve entered (maybe it’s been entered twice, for instance), you may do so by navigating to “CPE Certificates” from the left-hand navigation menu.  Locate the course you’d like to remove, click the “Action” dropdown button, and then select “Delete.”  Note that this will permanently delete the course & certificate and it will need to be re-added should you have the desire to do so.

Working with Yellowbook

The Yellowbook requirements are often difficult to interpret and can be a bit frustrating.  We’ll cover a few key details here to ensure you’re able to quickly and easily track Yellowbook credits.

There are two different varieties of the Yellowbook requirement:  A 24-hour requirement and an 80-horu requirement, depending upon the level of involvement in Yellowbook audits.

The distinction is largely defined by an Auditor’s role in the engagement.  Those who are assigned to “planning, directing, performing field work, or reporting on GAGAS audits or attestation engagements should meet both the 80-hour and the 24- hour CPE requirements.”

24-hour Requirement

The 24-hour requirement applies to “Auditors who are only involved in performing field work but not involved in planning, directing, or reporting on the audit or attestation engagement, and who charge less than 20 percent of their time annually to audits and attestations conducted in accordance with GAGAS4 should comply with the 24-hour CPE requirement to take training in each 2-year period in subjects and topics directly related to government auditing, the government environment, or the specific or unique environment in which the audited entity operates but are exempt from the remainder of the 80-hour CPE requirement.”

For qualifying credit, from the GAO:  “The 24-hour requirement calls for auditors to obtain at least 24 hours of CPE in subjects and topics directly related to the government environment, government auditing, or the specific or unique environment in which the audited entity operates.  The 24-hour requirement is a subset of the 80-hour requirement for CPE that directly enhances the auditor’s professional proficiency to perform audits or attestation engagements.”

Applying credit for the 24-hour requirement

In most cases, the subject area(s) which meet the 24-hour requirement are either Governmental Auditing (Auditing – Governmental) or Governmental Accounting (Accounting – Governmental).  These Subject Areas will automatically apply to the 24-hour requirement for both types of Yellowbook you may be tracking.

Should the Field of Study not be either of those listed above, you may also use the “Customize Accreditation” feature to manually set the value for the 24-hour requirement to the appropriate amount, as described in the earlier section.

80-hour Requirement

The 80-hour requirement applies to “Auditors assigned to planning, directing, performing field work, or reporting on GAGAS audits or attestation engagements should meet both the 80-hour and the 24- hour CPE requirements.”

In addition to the 24-hour requirement described in more detail above, the remaining 56 hours may be earned by completing:

“CPE that would satisfy the remainder of the 80-hour requirement under GAGAS should be in subjects and topics that directly enhance the auditors’ professional proficiency to perform audits or attestation engagements but may not qualify as government-related, as described in paragraph 18. The interpretation of the 80-hour requirement can be broad, based on individuals’ roles, responsibilities, professional and technical development, and the subject matter of audits or attestation engagements. The audit organization is ultimately responsible for determining whether a subject or topic qualifies as acceptable CPE for its auditors.”

Applying credit for the remainder of the 80-hour requirement

As mentioned above, Governmental Accounting or Auditing will automatically apply to both types of Yellowbook requirements.  For the remainder of the 80-hour requirement, you may also the “Special Topics” dropdown to select “Yellowbook Proficiency” as an option.  This will then automatically apply those hours to the 80-hour Yellowbook requirement.

Should you desire a higher level of control for applying Yellowbook credits, you may also use the “Customize Accreditation” feature to manually set the value for the 24-hour requirement to the appropriate amount, as described in the earlier section.

Have more questions?

We’re happy to help!  Drop us a note at support@prolaera.com or use our Contact Form to send the Prolaera team a message.

Happy CPE-ing!