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Online CPE for CPAs |
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The Last Self-Study CPE Website You Will Ever Need (Click for Subscriptions) |
As a CPA, you certainly know the importance of CPE in helping you advance your CPA career. CPE programs not only help you maintain your CPA status but also bring you critical learning opportunities that help you master valuable skills. Often, these skills become the real differentiator between you and many other CPAs.
Broadly, there are two ways to pursue CPE: in-person CPE programs and CPE online programs. While the most effective way to earn CPE credits largely depends on the learning style and schedule of a CPA, CPE online courses have gained much more popularity than their in-person counterparts.
If you’re wondering why countless CPAs prefer to take CPE courses online, just continue reading this guide. Here, we’ll also discuss things like how to get the most out of your online CPE courses, what skills you should try to develop when pursuing online CPE for CPAs, how to stay motivated during your CPA CPE online journey, and more.
Unparalleled flexibility and the ability to save a significant amount of money are certainly two major factors, because of which a large number of accountants choose to pursue online CPE CPA. However, there are also other important aspects of CPE online CPA programs that cannot be overlooked.
Let’s take a look at these aspects.
· They offer unmatched accessibility
CPE online enables you to complete your study materials from anywhere in the world. With CPE online courses, following a rigid schedule or commuting from one location to another become a thing of the past.
If you’ve got a stable Internet connection, you can continue your online accounting CPE journey from anywhere. Whether it’s going through the study materials of a self-study program, attending a live webinar, or participating in a conference/seminar, you’ll enjoy unmatched accessibility.
· They make you more self-disciplined
When it comes to earning CPE credits, often procrastination becomes the biggest obstacle. Many CPAs overlook the importance of CPE programs until the deadlines for renewing their licenses appear.
However, when you take online CPE courses for CPA, you know, right from the beginning, that nobody is there to tell you to earn your credits on time. Here, the motivation to study comes from you. You learn to plan your study routine and essentially become an individual for whom learning is highly valued.
· They let you access course materials repeatedly
In an in-person program, it’s simply impossible to revisit a section even if you feel that it’s required. However, study materials of self-study programs and recorded webinars can be revisited and rewatched as necessary.
In other words, with some ways to pursue CPE online, you can take as much time as you want to internalize the concepts.
When you take CPE online courses CPA, following some strategies can greatly help you in making your journey slightly easy. Here’re three effective strategies that you may want to follow.
· Choose a subscription package
If you’re at the beginning of your license renewal period and need to earn a large number of credits, choosing a CPE online subscription package will help you earn CPE credits in a cost-effective manner.
Depending on your CPE sponsor and subscription package, you should be able to access many different CPE courses online for a certain period of time. And when taken using a subscription package, these courses become available at prices much lower than their actual ones.
If you don’t want to buy a subscription package, usually, you’ve got two options. First, you can opt for a subscription package that’ll let you access a certain number of courses from your CPE sponsor’s course library. And second, you can choose a subscription package that’ll allow you to access your sponsor’s entire course library and earn a certain number of credits depending on your package.
Ideally, you should choose the latter type of package because you’ll be able to take different CPA CPE online courses as per your requirements and preferences. Whether it’s a course on a new topic or an updated one encompassing a fundamental topic, you’ll be able to take any course you want.
· Take short CPE courses
If you need to earn just a small number of credits to meet your CPE requirements, your ideal strategy should be taking some online CPE courses for CPAs that offer a small number of credits and can be completed easily.
At this stage in your CPE journey, you may want to choose courses on topics that you already know. If you want to explore a new field of study, you should select a topic that requires no to little prior knowledge. This will help you earn your remaining credits quickly and easily.
· Attend a seminar or conference
If you want to earn a large number of CPE credits in the fastest manner possible, attend a virtual seminar or conference. You’ll be able to earn a significant number of credits by attending a one or two-day event.
However, it’s important to note that when it comes to CPE online programs, seminars or conferences are generally considered the most expensive method. Attending a two-day event may need you to pay well over five hundred dollars.
Ideally, you should only choose this option when you’ve got the budget or your company is willing to pay your CPE cost, either partially or in full.
With your CPA credential, you can explore different types of challenging and exciting jobs. You can also join a diverse range of industries or run your own accounting firm. However, apart from the industry-specific ones, there are some skills that you should always focus on improving.
Here, our experts have rounded up those skills to help you select CPE online courses wisely.
· Keep your tax knowledge up-to-date
In the accounting world, tax is perhaps the field that undergoes changes most frequently. Successful accountants must always stay up-to-date with the latest tax laws and updates. Whether you work as a tax consultant, financial planner, or payroll administrator, be sure to take CPE online courses on taxation.
· Develop your business acumen
The further you advance in your workplace, the more likely you’ll be asked to guide the management in the right direction. You may need to provide the team with big-picture perspectives so that it can take the right decision. The better you understand the way different departments of an organization operate, the more efficient you’ll be in your present position. This will also help you expedite your career growth.
· Sharpen your presentation skills
For a successful CPA, one of the must-have skills is to be able to present complex information in an easily comprehensible manner, particularly to people who don’t belong to the accounting field. Remember that anyone can read straight from PowerPoint slides, but a competent CPA is able to tell a story around that information.
· Develop your skills in accounting software
These days, accounting automation software is revolutionizing finance and accounting work. If you want to future-proof your career, focus on taking online CPE courses related to ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems, SQL (structured query language), QuickBooks, and business intelligence software. You may also want to learn things like advanced analytics and machine learning.
· Get additional training in auditing
Almost all CPAs have a good knowledge of auditing because it’s one of the four sections of the Uniform CPA Exam. But if you want to help organizations evaluate their performance and processes more efficiently, you should take additional CPA CPE online courses in auditing. Not only will this help increase your efficiency, but also help you master the skills of managing risks and evaluating business processes.
· Build leadership and management strength
If you want to reach the management level at your organization quickly, it’s a must to develop your management and leadership strength. Apart from taking CPE online courses related to these fields, you should look for opportunities that’ll let you supervise a team or project. If you want to run your own accounting firm down the road, these skills will greatly help you in leading it more efficiently.
In the last section, we talked about the skills that will help you throughout your professional career. Now, let’s see how you can easily find the specific areas that you need to focus on improving when pursuing online CPE CPA.
· Talk to the management of your organization
One of the easiest methods to find areas for development is to talk with the management of your present organization. See if they’re willing to let you know of the upcoming changes in the company, based on which you can choose your CPE online courses.
· Join an online forum of active CPAs
Joining an online forum of active CPAs is another highly effective method to gain valuable insights into the industry and get suggestions from fellow CPAs. This may also help you get information about new opportunities that may not be available to you otherwise.
Following these tips can help you reach your career destination quickly while increasing your job satisfaction.
When it comes to pursuing CPE online, many CPAs get bogged down in monotony and boredom. Fortunately, it’s possible to keep your motivation level high by following some simple strategies.
Let’s take a look.
· Choose programs as per your interests
In the world of online CPE CPA, you can take many different courses that fit your interests. When you feel passionate about learning a topic, it becomes easy to stay motivated. If you find it difficult to figure out what exactly you want to learn, consider buying a subscription package that offers courses on different topics. Furthermore, if you can relate a topic to your job, you’ll be more likely to stay motivated.
· Set practical goals
Setting realistic goals right from the beginning of your CPE online CPA journey will help you stay on track throughout your license renewal period and meet your CPE requirements conveniently. Just be sure to break your goals down into smaller ones, so you don’t find them difficult.
· Choose the right learning method
When you want to pursue CPA CPE online, generally, you can choose from self-study courses, webinars, and virtual seminars/conferences. Try to find out which one of these best matches your learning style by taking a couple of self-study courses and webinars. You can also mix these methods to stay motivated.
· Set aside time for CPE courses
Even when you’re taking CPE online courses, the study materials should never be something you only go through in your free time. Instead, it’s a must to set aside time dedicated to your professional development by completing online CPE courses on time. This initially may mean sacrificing your time but they’ll help you gain more knowledge and skills which will only crease your employability.
· See if you can apply the knowledge you’ve gained
When you finish a CPE online course, think about if you can apply the knowledge gained from it to regular work life. Maybe you can use it in a project or share it with your colleagues. By using your new knowledge and skills regularly, you’ll be able to retain them for a longer period of time.
In addition to these, you can choose CPE courses online that cover materials you aren’t familiar with. This will help you think critically about different concepts and make you more well-rounded. One of the primary objectives of pursuing CPE is to continue learning new things and speeding up your professional growth. Therefore, select online CPE courses that’ll challenge and expand your professional knowledge.
If you want to pursue CPE online in the best and most effective manner, CPEThink.com is your go-to option. We have a continuously growing catalog of high-quality CPE online courses on many different financial, accounting, and soft skills topics. All of our online CPE courses are developed by industry-leading authors and they’re available in different learning formats.
Talk to our team today to learn more about our CPA CPE online courses.
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