Lessons · Accounting · the renewal clock
The renewal clock, which starts the day the licence is granted
A licence is held on a cycle and renewed against continuing professional education reported to the board. The obligation begins with the licence; the hours, the cycle dates and any specifically required subject such as ethics are set by the state.
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 requirement that outlasts every other one on this road, and the one people meet least carefully, because by then the hard part feels finished. A lapse is not a quiet administrative matter: it can mean the title cannot be used and the reserved acts cannot be performed until it is cured, and curing it can cost more than meeting it would have. Credit also has to be of the kind the board accepts, so hours genuinely spent learning can fail to count.
How to think about it
Learn your cycle and your required subjects in the first year rather than the last, and record credit as you earn it with evidence of what kind it was. Am I on track for this cycle, and is every hour of the kind my board counts? Boards set these rules and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here or from somebody who qualified in a different year.
Worked example
Renewal runs on a cycle the board setsYour obligation begins with the licence, not with a reminder.
Credit is reported to the boardAnd the board decides what it accepts.
Kinds of credit differA specific subject such as ethics is often required separately from the total.
Hours can fail to countLearning that does not meet the board's description is learning the board does not credit.
A lapse stops the reserved actsAlong with the title, until it is cured.
Your turn
Say what event starts the renewal cycle.
The obligation to keep earning credit begins when the licence is
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Waiting for a reminder to start counting. Your obligation runs from the grant whatever dates the board sets its cycle on, and credit of a kind the board does not accept fails to count even though the hours were genuinely spent learning. Boards set these rules and change them, so any figure you plan around has to come from your own board's page rather than from here or from somebody who qualified in a different year.