Lessons · Accounting · the ethics step that changed shape
The ethics step, which changed shape
There has always been an ethics requirement. What changes is its form and its position: it can be an examination sat before the licence is issued, or a course completed after licensing, at the first renewal. California has moved from one to the other.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a qualified accountant. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
It is the clearest live example of everything on this road's second stage. The requirement did not disappear and it did not get harder; it moved to a different point in the sequence. Anyone working from a description written before the change will be preparing for a step in the wrong place, and anyone working from a description written after it may not realise a thing they already completed still has value.
How to think about it
Establish which form applies to you using the cut-off and its verb, exactly as before. Then place it correctly in your sequence -- before the licence, or after it -- because that decides whether it is something to do now or something to diary.
Worked example
An ethics examination before licensureThe older shape. Done before the licence is issued.
An approved course at the first renewalThe newer shape. Done after licensure, on the renewal clock.
Which applies is decided by a cut-off and its verbAnd here the verb is about when the licence is issued.
Something already completed under the old shape may still count for somethingTransition provisions often say so, and summaries often omit it.
Your turn
Name what changed about the ethics requirement, given it neither disappeared nor got harder.
The ethics requirement changed its form and its in the sequence
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Hearing that an examination was removed and concluding the requirement was dropped. It was relocated. A licensee who believes it was dropped meets it again at their first renewal, with a deadline attached.