12:00:10 Okay, to level off a bit. So we'll plan to start in about 2 min or so.
12:04:22 To questions in the Q&A for those that relate to content. If you have questions about technical issues within Zoom, please use the chat function.
12:04:30 I will be monitoring that and she is not, she is not really at all involved in the time limit extension process or in part and she will not be able to answer your questions.
12:04:39 So questions on content, please put it in the Q&A, questions on technical issues, please put it in the chat.
12:04:47 We will have time at the end of the, presentation for questions and just want to note now that we'll be combining those questions into common themes.
12:04:55 So, At the very end, you may not hear your exact question, but we do our very best to ensure that all issues and themes are addressed.
12:05:01 So please listen very carefully to all questions and replies to see if it addresses what you were looking for.
12:05:06 And if you don't get the answer you need today, please follow up with your practical experience team or with the school as appropriate after the presentation.
12:05:14 To ensure the presentation is of the greatest benefit for the entire group. We will not be addressing any questions related to your personal situation.
12:05:21 Even if you phrase it as a hypothetical. Questions about your specific situation should be discussed directly with the school or your practical experience to teach your practical experience team depending on whether it's experience or education related.
12:05:34 We have had questions on our past webinars regarding transcriptions and captions. If you would like to see captions throughout the presentation, you can choose show captions in your control panel.
12:05:43 For me, this shows up at the bottom of my screen. And we will also have a transfer available upon request after the presentation.
12:05:50 We will be recording the presentation and making it available on the CPA over the website, which is open to the public so you don't have to be a CPI Alberta candidate to have access to it.
12:06:00 So there's no need to furiously take notes and try to capture everything that I'm saying.
12:06:04 We'll be presenting a lot of information and not all of it will directly apply to you. So our intention and hope for you today is to give you an overview.
12:06:11 Hoping that you take away a few key points that relate to your situation and you can come back to the details later if needed.
12:06:19 And now I'm just going to turn my video off so you don't see me waving my hands and we'll dive into the actual presentation.
12:06:29 Hmm. Alright, so our agenda for today is pretty there's only 4 topics. But there's a lot within those.
12:06:38 So first we're going to start with a process overview, then we'll briefly discuss some regulatory considerations, some practical experience considerations and some tips to reduce revisions and then we will have time for questions at the very end.
12:06:52 So diving into our process overview. To set the stage for our discussion, it's important to understand what your timeliness are and why you might need a time limit extension.
12:07:01 You've been invited to this webinar today if you have a time limit extension coming up within the next year.
12:07:09 And we also extended it to people that already have active time limit extensions because we have not been able to offer this webinar.
12:07:18 So it's a bit of a mixed crowd, but most of you either have a time limit extension already or you have one coming up in the next year.
12:07:25 A requirement of the CPA program is that you complete the education and examination portion of the program within 6 years and the practical experience portion of the program within 7 years.
12:07:34 So to dig into these a little bit more, the clock starts ticking on your education deadline from the first day of your first pet module.
12:07:41 Or the date of your first exam if you're challenging a module upon entry to the program. Your practical experience deadline is 7 years and it starts the day that you are approved to enroll into PEP.
12:07:54 And this is called your CPA PEP registration date. Within practical experience, there is a per start date, which is different than the registration date that drives your overall experience timeline.
12:08:04 And I'll just demonstrate this with a quick example. If you made the choice to complete all of your modules in the CFE before addressing practical experience and the dreaded part which nobody wants to go into.
12:08:15 And you waited 5 years before you started to create, which nobody wants to go into. And you waited 5 years before you started to.
12:08:20 And you waited 5 years before you started to create it before you created your port profile. Your, you know, if you created that port profile in 2022, that doesn't mean that your experience deadline is 2029.
12:08:27 But rather you might have a per start date that is very close to your overall time limit deadline. If you're in this situation, if your time limit is your deadline is coming up quickly and you haven't yet set up a per profile that is your most immediate step after this webinar.
12:08:41 Get your pro profile up and running so that you can accumulate as much experience as possible before your time limit expires.
12:08:49 If you've been granted a temporary program leave during your original time limit, this will increase your overall time limit up to a maximum of 2 years.
12:08:57 And I'll just pop over to our definitions now, because that will help explain the temporary program leave a little bit better.
12:09:04 So our definitions, we have our time limit extension. So this is a very specific concept. It is not an extension on revisions to your practical experience reporting.
12:09:15 And it is not something that can just be. Granted by one individual over email. A time limit extension is a big deal.
12:09:24 It means that you as a candidate you're at risk of not completing the CPA program. And there is a very well-defined process and a very rigorous process to assess and to assess time limit extension requests.
12:09:36 Time limit extensions are not granted for the purpose of catching up on your practical experience reporting. We will mention this multiple times today, but having your practical experience reporting up to date is actually a prerequisite of having a time limit extension approved.
12:09:50 Time and extensions are granted for the purpose of gaining additional experience required and or allowing for additional CFI attempts.
12:09:57 A temporary program leave is essentially a pause and candidates education and experience. And these are granted through the school.
12:10:06 Under certain eligible circumstances, like as if you needed to take a medical leave or you were away from work on parental leave.
12:10:13 When a candidate has been granted a temporary program leave, they are not eligible to take any pet modules or accumulate any practical experience during the leave period.
12:10:22 And then as I know before, that temporary program leave will extend your overall time limit for both education and experience.
12:10:28 By the length of the approved leave. So if over the course of your initial 7 years you were granted a one-year temporary program leave your education deadline will bump out by a year and so will your practical experience deadline.
12:10:41 And the last definition we have on this slide here is special or extenuating circumstances. And what we're referring to when we talk about extenuating circumstances is the reason why you were unable to complete the program within the prescribed limits.
12:10:55 So for instance, if you broke your arm in September of 2023 and couldn't work for a few weeks at the end of your practical experience time limit that might explain why you couldn't get your reports completed on time.
12:11:05 But it doesn't explain why you were unable to complete the full practical experience requirements over the previous 6 and a half years.
12:11:11 So a very it's a very distinct concept. The extenuating circumstances relate to why you couldn't.
12:11:18 Meet the requirements of the program. Within the original deadlines. Please note that it will be at the discretion of the school or the provincial body to request documentation to support any extenuating circumstances that are in your time limit extension request.
12:11:34 So we will ask for doctors notes to support claims of medical conditions as well as the duration of impact.
12:11:40 Of heating your ability to complete the program. And again, that just goes back to the, if you broke your arm and couldn't type for a few weeks, that's that's not the the essence of what a time limit extension is for.
12:11:54 It's meant to be a serious medical condition that kept you away from work. It's meant to be a serious medical condition that that kept you away from work, it's meant to be a serious medical condition that kept you away from work or and away from your studies for an extended period of time.
12:11:59 So now, now that we've kind of laid the groundwork with some terms that you'll hear throughout the day.
12:12:06 We'll talk about the decision-making process. So you can see on the slide here, there's 3 parties involved in.
12:12:12 In assessing a time limit extension request. The first is the school, the Western CPA Western School of Business.
12:12:19 Their role is to provide details on the candidates educational status. They are also responsible for administering the time limit extension process, which is why we could not do this webinar without Lauren.
12:12:31 And the school is also responsible for obtaining documentation on extenuating circumstances. So they are the holder of all that information and administering the process.
12:12:40 Practical experience resides within your provincial body. So, I work in Alberta and my role is within CPA Alberta and the practical experience team assesses whether the candidate has met the definition of substantial progress with respect to the practical experience requirements and advises the decision makers on whether the candidate has a reasonable plan to complete the remaining requirements within 12 months.
12:13:05 And the decision makers, depending on which province you're in, is either the registrations committee, of, of the board of directors of your provincial body or it's the registrar for your provincial body.
12:13:16 And they are responsible for making the decision to approve or deny a time limit extension request. They will generally consider an extension of up to one year.
12:13:25 For candidates that are substantially complete in education and practical experience. These are also the people that are responsible for cancellation of the CPA candidates registration when that's a necessary action.
12:13:36 So and the reason that the decision rests with the provincial body is that those are the people that would ultimately be accepting accepting you into membership or in the event that the requirements can't be met, they would be the ones canceling the registration with the provincial body.
12:13:53 So in all cases, the decision makers are relying on input from the school and the respectable, the respective practical experience team to determine whether to grant a time limit extension.
12:14:04 The education input is relatively straightforward. It details whether the candidate has already passed the CP, how many attempts were made and when and how many attempts are remaining.
12:14:14 On the on the experience side, we work with Canada to understand all the work they perform to date as well as to.
12:14:22 Done whether they have the ability to meet the remaining requirements within a one year period. We refer to this as whether the candidate is substantially complete their experience requirements or not.
12:14:31 The definition of substantial completion differs slightly between provinces, so I'm just going to take a minute to note them here for you.
12:14:37 Saskatchewan and Manitoba have differently worded, but the same substance of a definition.
12:14:45 Which is that Substantial completion means you have made at least one CPP attempt within your original 6 year deadline and or you have less than 12 months of experience remaining to complete the program on the practical experience side.
12:14:59 And specific to CPA Manitoba, they very distinctly define that the 12 months is from the date of your time, your overall deadline, not the date from when the extension is approved.
12:15:10 Alberta's definition is similar to the other provinces, but allows candidates who are CP level that may have not yet attempted the CV to be considered as substantially complete.
12:15:20 So if you've completed all your capstone courses and haven't yet attempted the CPU within the first 6 years, the registrar will will consider that as needing the definition of substantially complete if your CV ready.
12:15:33 And as with the other provinces in Alberta, you need at 12 months or less to complete the practical experience requirements to support the approval of your extension request.
12:15:43 Your extension request has a much much much greater chance of being approved if you've met these definitions of substantial completion.
12:15:51 And while it's never an easy decision to deny someone's extension request, when this is the outcome, it has become is because all evidence is evaluated.
12:15:58 It's been determined that the candidate is unlikely to meet the full program requirements within the extension timeline. And we do not want to give the candidate false hope or collect any more fees if we know what the answer will be.
12:16:08 So if we know that there's no hope after we've collected all the information, we will be fair and honest with you.
12:16:15 As we go through the time limit extension process, it's really important that you as the candidate are engaged with the process.
12:16:22 We appreciate that being in this position is already stressful and there are many reasons why candidates succeed their program time limits.
12:16:29 However, without engagement from the candidate during this process, it is less likely that the extension request will be approved as we just won't have enough information to determine to determine whether we think the candidate can ultimately meet the exit requirements.
12:16:40 So the more information you give us, the more you work with us. The better we are able to support the case for approving the extension.
12:16:49 Being engaged in the process means we expect you to adhere to all deadlines and provide all information requested.
12:16:55 It is important that we can gather information and conclude on the extension request as quickly as possible so that you as the candidate know exactly where you stand and what you need to do going forward.
12:17:06 There are really only 2 possible outcome outcomes from the time limit extension process. Either your extension request is approved or denied.
12:17:13 If the request is denied, there is a 30 day notice period where before you are withdrawn from the PET program and then your registration with your provincial body is canceled.
12:17:23 In this 30 day period you can address the deficiencies that led to the denial of your request.
12:17:29 So for example, if your request was denied because there wasn't enough detail on your practical experience reporting, then you need to address this and update the reporting in that thirty-day window so that we can assess whether we made the appropriate conclusion.
12:17:43 Once a candidate is withdrawn from the program, they are removed from the school, lose access to all D to all materials and lose recognition for previously completed modules exams in the CV.
12:17:54 At this point the registration with the applicable provincial body is also canceled. Following the discussion in our previous slide regarding substantial completion, your chances of having a time limit extension approved is much higher if you can clearly demonstrate that you have almost met the requirements already.
12:18:08 So it's in your best interest to really understand the competencies and report all relevant work to you to us in your practical experience reporting.
12:18:16 More often than I'd like, I find that I will conclude on a candidates reporting. They don't like the outcome and then magically they find a bunch of examples and competencies to report.
12:18:24 This is extremely inefficient for both of us and it just serves to prolong the process and really adds additional stress for the candidate.
12:18:32 And it may not feel like we're on this same team as you, but we generally genuinely have the same objective.
12:18:37 We want you to succeed. We want to make a fair decision and we want to complete to the process as quickly as possible.
12:18:44 While also ensuring that our documentation standards are upheld and that our conclusion is appropriate based on the information that we have.
12:18:53 If your extension request is approved, conditions may be placed on it such as required practical experience for reporting deadlines during the extension period or sometimes there's a requirement to take the introduction to the profession course, which if you haven't already taken is available to everyone in a useful course to to take.
12:19:10 In most cases, if your extension requests is approved, you can expect to be asked to submit a CPA review in per during your extension period so that we can assess progress.
12:19:20 And this request may not come directly in the extension approval. But it may come from your practical experience team and they hold the same weight.
12:19:29 If you're required, if you're if it's requested that you update your reporting and submit a CPA review, you are required to do that as part of the extension approval.
12:19:37 And each extension approval will contain explicit wording that you would hear to requests from your practical experience team. We will often check in with candidates whether it's through email, a phone call, or requesting formal reporting throughout the extension period to assess programs against your plan.
12:19:52 And you're expected to participate in the process and provide any information we request. And now I'm going to hand it over to Lauren to provide a more detailed discussion of requesting a time limit extension.
12:20:05 So here we have just a simple graph of our risk profiles when it comes to education. So we develop this to help candidates gauge if they're offside with regards to education progress and we do.
12:20:19 Simply delineate when we consider candidates to be at risk. I won't go into too much detail on this chart with this group as this webinar has been explicitly developed for candidates to be to be at high risk of non-completion.
12:20:32 I would just like to draw everyone's attention to the first line. If you registered into the professional education program and chose not to take modules or exams, within your first year, you're automatically considered to be at medium to high risk of non completion.
12:20:49 As this means that your education deadline is defined by your experience completion date.
12:20:55 I'd also like to drive everyone's attention to the final line regarding safety first attempt date. Candidates are considered to be on track provided their first CP attempt is made within the first 4 years of registration.
12:21:07 Excuse me, into the program.
12:21:13 Attempting that safety with, sorry, can we go back one slide?
12:21:18 I can't think that's if you within your first 4 years of allows you sufficient time to make your 3 Cp attempts.
12:21:25 If you take a Cp each year as we recommend, if you do require extension on your education deadline and did attempt to see.
12:21:32 Did not attempt the CPU within 4 years of your start or did not rewrite the CP within one year of your previous attempt.
12:21:37 We do highly recommend that you address why these delays occurred even if delays were just because he did not feel you were prepared to write the CP at that time.
12:21:45 This should be included when you submit your request. For extension.
12:21:52 Next slide.
12:22:00 So this is just the extensions process. So first you will update your Pact to experience reporting. As mentioned, that is a key step for.
12:22:09 Beginning the extension process. If you've already met per on prior review, just check that you've.
12:22:16 All of your completed experience was completed within the last 7 years, so you're not using any qualifying positions that concluded over 7 years ago.
12:22:26 In other words, if you have met the practical experience requirements and are applying for an extension only to write this CP, then you are required to ensure our facto experience reporting remains current and all experience supporting the exit requirements is from positions ending within the last 7 years.
12:22:41 As earlier roles expire, you may be required to provide additional practical experience reporting from your current role to support the exit requirements.
12:22:50 For all other requests, reporting must be up to current date and the CPA would be submitted through part before an extension request should be submitted.
12:22:57 If there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from updating reporting, you can still submit an extension request but must provide documentation for the purposes of getting of submitting that extension request that supports why you were unable to update.
12:23:11 The documentation must be time sensitive related to the timing of your specific extension request.
12:23:19 Next slide.
12:23:23 So we do often get questions from candidates regarding when should I be applying for extension. For education requests, candidates are eligible to apply for extension when it becomes clear that you will not be able to write your final allowed Cpi within time limits.
12:23:37 So if for example you have a May 2024 deadline and withdraw from that May 2024 CP.
12:23:43 You should be applying for extension at the time of that withdrawal.
12:23:48 Or if you have a May, 2024, CP deadline and know that you will be unable to write the May, 2,000, and 24, CP.
12:23:56 Either do having outstanding education requirements or personal circumstances, you should be applying for extension. At this time. During the CPU registration period.
12:24:08 If you do write that final safety within your timelines and have attempts remaining, you will be contacted by the CPA Admission Services staff.
12:24:16 Regarding submission instructions for ensuring that you're able to write your next CPA attempt. We do contact all education outstanding candidates at the end of time limits by email either in a quarterly basis or following the CPU results release.
12:24:30 For those candidates with attempts remaining.
12:24:35 For experience extension requests. Candidates can proactively request extension on Experience Dublin if you've been reporting through Part and it's become clear that you'd be unable to meet completion requirements but you have a plan to meet slightly outside of those deadlines.
12:24:49 So this would be the one year consideration. For those that do not proactively apply for extension or for those that are unsure of if extra time is required.
12:24:58 The CPA WSB admission services team contacts all CPU passing candidates at the end of experience time limits.
12:25:05 On a quarterly basis and provides deadlines for extension submission at that time as well as instructions. We do not ever remove a candidate for violating time limits without first contacting and giving opportunity to apply for extension.
12:25:25 Now we just have some screenshots of how to apply for the time.
12:25:32 This shows the screenshot of where the timeline extension can be found on your MYCPA portal.
12:25:36 On the my CPA portal, go to program requests, time limit extension requests and select the category of your time limit extension.
12:25:47 Okay. So the first page of the request will ask you to specify what kind of extension are you requesting?
12:25:56 Is it education? Is it experience? You can select both. You will have questions regarding your specific selection on the next page.
12:26:07 For education if your request includes an education extension you will need to address why an extension is required. This includes addressing anything that impacted your ability to complete the program in the last 6 years, including addressing any large gaps of over one year between CFS.
12:26:24 You will need to explicitly identify when you next intend to write the CP. When planning your next CPU time to consider if the request is reasonable, if your request is to write the CP more than one year after your previous attempt.
12:26:36 You will need to show circumstances warranting that extension.
12:26:42 Also as part of the education request, you will need to include a study plan outlining how you will prepare for your next proposed Cp attempt.
12:26:49 The CPA WSP learner support team is available and happy to help any time when a candidate develop a study plan if you need.
12:27:02 For experience. If your request is for an experience extension, you will need to address why an extension is required.
12:27:08 What prevented you from completing experience reporting requirements in the last 7 years? And again, addressing any large gaps in participation in experience reporting.
12:27:17 You will also need to explicitly address when you believe you will be able to meet the requirements. When determining this date, again, consider how reasonable this request is.
12:27:27 If your request is beyond one year past your original completion deadlines, you will need to show circumstances warranting that extension.
12:27:34 You will also need to identify a specific reporting plan that will allow you to meet your proposed completion deadline.
12:27:40 You're provincial practical experience team is available and can help you develop a plan based on your specific situation.
12:27:51 You will also need to complete a series of declarations as part of the extension process. So you will need to confirm that you understand.
12:28:00 That as part of the submission of this extension request you have first brought your port fully up to date, meaning all reporting has been submitted through PERT up to the date you applied for extension.
12:28:10 Candidates approaching time limits are strongly advised to reach out to the practical experience teams while in advance of any upcoming deadlines to discuss their situation.
12:28:21 You will also need to confirm that you understand that all extension requests require supporting documentation and that you will at minimum.
12:28:28 Be providing a resume as part of your extension request. This is also required for education only extensions.
12:28:35 Lastly, you will need to confirm that you have made a truthful declaration of all facts and circumstances outlined in your peel.
12:28:47 The final, sorry, the final stage of submitting your extension request is submitting your supporting documentation. I was previously mentioned at minimum every request requires a resume.
12:28:59 When you complete your declarations, you will automatically be directed to the extension document upload page, which is separate from the document upload page on your my CPA portal.
12:29:08 You can upload documentation relating to your request immediately once your request has been submitted or. If you're waiting to receive documentation from another provider such as the doctor's note, you can upload the documentation.
12:29:19 Through the time limit request page by clicking view next to the pending request.
12:29:26 Documents relating to your request including your resume must be uploaded within 3 weeks of submission. Or your request will be cancelled.
12:29:33 If you're having difficulty getting your doctor sign off or getting any Supporting documentation within this timeline.
12:29:40 Please contact CPA WSB and we can discuss.
12:29:50 Alright, thanks so much Lauren.
12:29:55 Okay, I wasn't joking when I said she was a wealth of information. On the process.
12:30:04 So, now we're going to dive into a couple of slides on regulatory considerations just to bring to light a couple of really key issues.
12:30:11 That we find Canada's come up against. So as Lauren mentioned, when you apply for a time limit extension, there are some declarations to make, one of which is that your practical experience reporting is up to date.
12:30:22 From time to time, we have candidates declared that this is the case, but when we go into their port profile, they have not actually updated their reporting.
12:30:30 This is considered a false declaration and has regulatory implications. So we just wanna sit with this for a minute, make sure you are aware of exactly what you were signing.
12:30:40 And understand what is expected of you before you make the declaration. So reading here the wording is almost identical between all the provinces.
12:30:50 And it states that falsehoods. A registrant shall not sign or associate with any letter, report, statement, or representation relating to any application to the governing body.
12:31:02 Which the registrant knows or should know is false or misleading. So if you've never been into part or if you did your 12 month review 4 years ago.
12:31:12 And you click yes on that declaration we consider that to be a false application to CPA Alberta CPA Saskatchewan CPA manage hover and that is a direct contravention of the rules of professional conduct.
12:31:25 In Alberta and Manitoba, the applicable reference is rule 103. It's called the rules of professional conduct in Alberta and the code of professional conduct in Manitoba.
12:31:35 So you can look that up if you want some more information and guidance. In Saskatchewan, it's rule 221.1 of the rules of professional conduct.
12:31:43 And like I said, they're worded identically except for which governing body is inserted there.
12:31:47 So we consider this to be a serious offense. Any breach of the rules of professional conduct is a serious offense in in the view of the regulatory body and it may result in a complaint being filed against you through the disciplinary process of your provincial body.
12:32:02 So this is something not to take lightly. Not to just flippantly click yes, yes, yes, because you're doing your extension request at 1159 on the night that it's due.
12:32:12 And to really think hard about it and make sure that through this process and also everywhere else in your career that you're very carefully reading and understanding the requirements.
12:32:22 Before you sign something before you say yes you've done something and declared that it is truthful and complete.
12:32:30 So we will, I have it on this slide what it means to have your reporting up to date and we will dive into that a little bit.
12:32:36 A little bit later as well.
12:32:39 The second regulatory consideration that I we wanted to talk about is the requirement to adhere to all deadlines provided by your provincial regulatory body.
12:32:51 If you fail to do so that could result in your CPA review being canceled, and we just won't review it if you're not a adhering to our deadlines.
12:33:00 Failure to adhere to deadlines and failure to appropriately update your practical experience reporting could impact the decision on whether your time limit extension request is approved.
12:33:09 So if we have incomplete information because you've decided not to update the reporting or not fully answer all the revisions and requests that we've made.
12:33:22 We have at 1 point if if we deem that we're not getting any more valuable information through communicating with you, we can conclude that we have everything that we're going to get and in those cases, you know, if we don't have enough information and we don't think it's like the requirements will be met, we would have to recommend that the extension request be denied, which we as human beings don't like to
12:33:43 do. So a bit of a you are required to adhere to deadlines and also a plea to please adhere to deadlines so that we can help you.
12:33:52 Have the best chance of success as possible. If you've been given a deadline, whether through the school, through your practical experience team or through the time limit extension process.
12:34:03 And there are extenuating circumstances that prevent you from meeting the deadline you need to tell us and you need to tell us early as soon as it happens.
12:34:10 So if you had a deadline on Tuesday. And you knew the previous Wednesday that you weren't going to be able to make it because you had a family emergency or you got really sick.
12:34:21 Couldn't work and couldn't update it. You need to tell us about that on the Wednesday and not wait until the day that everything is due.
12:34:29 It is not a foregone conclusion that your, any extension to your revisions, or information requests will be.
12:34:36 Granted. There has to be extenuating circumstances. And so it's not, you know, often we'll see candidates who haven't done the work and will request an extension on the revision deadlines the day that they're due without what we consider to be.
12:34:51 Reasonable grounds for doing so. And then they're panicked, obviously, if we say no, you have to, you have to submit them tonight.
12:34:59 And also please keep in mind that we get hundreds and hundreds of emails. In into those practical experience inboxes and so sometimes it will take a day or 2 for someone to get to your email and respond to it.
12:35:11 So if you're leaving it till the last minute, you may not even have an answer and will have missed your deadline.
12:35:17 These are also, so the requirement to adhere to the deadlines provided are also included in the rules and code of professional conduct and it's titled The Duty or Requirement to Cooperate with your provincial body.
12:35:32 And now we're going to spend the rest of our webinar talking about practical experience. So it came through in the questions that everyone or that some of you submitted and in the registration process and was also on our radar as One of the biggest hurdles for candidates in reasons why they need a timeline extension and also one of the biggest hurdles in completing the time limit extension process.
12:35:55 And it is a very large part of your time limit extension request and also a large part of the recommendation as to whether we think an extension should be granted.
12:36:06 So we're going to take the next half hour or so to just walk through an overview of the reporting process.
12:36:13 We'll talk about some tips that will hopefully make your reporting easier for you to tackle. A lot of the extension requests that we've seen so far are because of overdue practical experience reporting.
12:36:24 And I like I just mentioned it that's what consumes most of the time needed to process a time limit extension request so the process is designed to work such that your experience is up to date and can be quickly evaluated and concluded on at the time that you submit your extension requests so that we can turn that request around and get a decision as quickly as possible.
12:36:46 If you have never reported before and you do submit all of your reporting in the same week that you submit your time limit extension request, it is.
12:36:54 A large burden on you the candidate to get all that reporting up to date. In general. When you are looking at, practical experience, the more you can involve your supervisor and mentor, the more successful we find, particularly when candidates are in jobs that aren't currently meeting the requirements.
12:37:16 I'm engaging your at your supervisors and your mentors in these processes and getting the practical experience done often helps helps you get there faster.
12:37:29 Before I dive into competencies and report the reporting within, I wanted to just talk about this practical experience plan.
12:37:37 We've referenced it a couple of times already in the presentation. And there wasn't really a natural place to discuss it earlier.
12:37:44 This is one of the documents that you will often be requested to provide to us in order for us to support our recommendation as to whether to approve the time limit extension request or not.
12:37:56 It's a pretty simple Excel spreadsheet. And what we ask you to do on this spreadsheet is to assess, on the, the column that says reviewer assessment, any proficiencies that you've already been awarded.
12:38:09 So we list all of the competencies that goes longer than what you can see on the screen. And so you fill out what's already been assigned to you.
12:38:21 If you're in the middle of a review process, me your reviewer will provide comments as well.
12:38:25 So let's just say for instance on FR 2. You are currently self assessing at level 2 and then the review is still ongoing.
12:38:32 It hasn't been concluded. The reviewer might put level one under the reviewer assessment and then provide a comment as to why they don't think the current documentation is going to support a level 2.
12:38:42 And then what we are asking you to really work on as part of developing a practical experience plan is these blue cells, the target and the action plan.
12:38:52 So what you'll do in there is you'll assess what's already been awarded or likely to be awarded or likely to be awarded or likely to be awarded based on your current recording.
12:38:59 And then you need to set a target for what you are planning to achieve over the time. Over the time limit extension.
12:39:07 So if you're granted a one-year extension, you are now going to target. Let's just say you know you're fine with that level one on FR 2 but you're still gonna target a level 2 over the next year so then on the target column you would put a level 2 and then provide us with an action plan as to how you're going to get there.
12:39:25 So we find this. To be a really helpful document. It is a living document. There is often some back and forth just like there is with the revision process.
12:39:36 And it's really to help us get a sense of is your plan reasonable. If you have only been awarded a few competencies to date and no level twos and suddenly you think you know you want to target 4 level twos within the next year.
12:39:50 But, you know, then give us a description of what tasks you already have and what tasks and projects you can take on to get there.
12:39:56 We might look at that and say we don't think that that's achievable within a year.
12:40:00 Or we might look at that and say, yeah, you know, if you could get those projects and if you could do this work to this depth.
12:40:06 It's likely that you'll get there so we will give you comments we will give you feedback and we'll give you guidance on what would be a level one versus a level 2 if we, it's not a abundantly clear that it's going to be a for sure you'll be able to get to that level too.
12:40:22 So I encourage you if you're asked to fill this out to really use it as a tool. It's designed to help you really understand what's left to do.
12:40:30 It's a good document for you to have those conversations with your supervisor. Make sure that you're getting the right work.
12:40:36 Sometimes it holds a little bit more weight if it comes back from our team that what you're doing doesn't meet the requirements.
12:40:43 Often we hear that supervisors assume that something is a level 2, but. But when we look at the map requirements, it's not a level 2 under the map.
12:40:52 And so if they can see that we are saying it's not a level 2 and why it's on a level 2 they might be able to help you find those tasks that would get you there and give you some more appropriate work to help you.
12:41:04 Implement your plan. So these do take usually a couple of rounds. The more information you give us to start the quicker it will be, but you don't have to fill this out in the same level of detail that you would fill out in purge.
12:41:20 So when you're filling out your practical experience reporting in PERT, we asked for very specific and detailed examples as as I'll discuss later.
12:41:27 You don't need to have those same very detailed examples in your in your PE plan. Your PE plan would be you know a list of the topics your projects that are coming your role are you leading it are you a team member are you leading it are you a team member the scope of the project but at a very high level just a few sentences but at a very high level just a few sentences so that we can kind of get a flavor for whether we think that work is
12:41:49 on track for your targeted proficiency or not. So this doesn't have to be a very daunting task.
12:41:56 But also if you only give us a couple of lines that say my supervisor guarantees that I will get this work, we won't accept that either because we need to actually help you assess whether the work that's going to be assigned to you is the right work to get you to the end goal of those exit requirements.
12:42:12 If you need assistance and how to map out your practical experience, we have a previously recorded webinar available on the, the CPA Alberta website.
12:42:22 I will give you the link at the end of the webinar. It's called I think it's called your practical experience plan.
12:42:27 It's a pretty obvious title. So I encourage you to go look there. If you would like this document, if you would like this document, even if you haven't been asked to fill it out, if you would like this document, even if you haven't been asked to fill it out, we are happy to share it.
12:42:40 We find it to be a very helpful tool so you can just contact your practical experience team and request it.
12:42:45 And we can send it off to you and you can just even use it as your own. Tool to map out your experience to date and your future experience so that you can really understand what's required of you in that time limit extension.
12:42:55 Process. We are always willing to have a discussion with you. So sometimes if you, we find candidates that are at the end of their time limits.
12:43:05 And they They're not quite there and they don't really see. Why their experience isn't meeting the requirements or they.
12:43:16 They're not sure what work they would need to take on in order to meet the requirements.
12:43:21 We are always available and happy. To help and talk that through. Our job is to know that competency map.
12:43:28 We see lots and lots of candidates a lot across. All the industries and employers, within your respective provinces.
12:43:36 And we have a fair amount of knowledge in terms of. Like what is required? We do a lot of work to interpret the competencies and we know that that's not your job.
12:43:46 That is our job. And so we are happy to share that knowledge with you so that you can then take it and apply it to your specific situation to understand what you need to do in your job in order to in order to meet the exit requirements.
12:44:00 However, if you're going to call and ask us for help, we respect to respectfully request that before you do call us that you have used all the written and video resources provided to you.
12:44:10 And this is to ensure that when we get on a call with you that we're focused on specific questions that you have on the specific duties that you've either already performed and how they fit into the map.
12:44:22 Or on future duties and projects that you could take on. It's not a good use of anyone's time for us to be regurgitating information that's already available to you through other means.
12:44:33 So yeah, you can always call us and ask us for help, but please make sure that you are prepared for the call to make the best use of everyone's time.
12:44:42 And as promised, will sit for a little bit, on what it means to have your experience reporting up to date when you apply for that time limit extension.
12:44:52 So in order to appropriately declare that your experience reporting is up to date when you apply for the extension, you must have all reports containing duties for all positions up to the current date or last date works.
12:45:07 Prepared and verified by your supervisor. So if you haven't I'm gonna keep using the example of not doing any reporting because I know there are a fair number of candidates that haven't and I don't want you to panic that you know it's game over or that it's a very daunting task.
12:45:22 So if you've been in the same job, you've never reported on it, you will get one report out, you will document all the competencies that you've worked on, examples of all the duties within those competencies.
12:45:32 You'll have it verified by your supervisor and that one report would suffice. If you've held multiple roles, even if it's within the same organization, you will need to create multiple, a report for each role.
12:45:44 In every case, every report has to be verified by your supervisor this before it's submitted to us, the supervisor verification is our control to make sure that what you're reporting to us is actually accurate.
12:45:57 They are not assessing your competency or proficiency, sorry. Or providing any insights that way.
12:46:05 What we're really looking for is for your supervisors to say, yes, this candidate did this work in this time period and in this role.
12:46:10 And then you have to have your CPA review requested. And on the next slides, I'm going to go into further detail on reports, experience reports versus CPA.
12:46:21 But in order to declare that everything is up to date and for that to be clear that everything is up to date and for that to be a truthful declaration you have to have all your reports completed showing all the work you've done to date.
12:46:29 You have to have those reports verified by your supervisor and you have to request a CPA review. Once you've requested that CPA review, then you can start the time limit extension.
12:46:40 Request process that Lauren went through earlier. So when we talk about having a reporting up to date that doesn't mean that the revisions process has been concluded.
12:46:53 So often candidates will panic and again like we do appreciate that this is stressful for everyone but let's just say for argument's sake that your experience deadline is coming up on March 30 first of 2024 it's already the end of February you only have a month left it is not possible for you to complete the entire port process in a month.
12:47:14 It just, it isn't. It takes time for you to write. It takes time for us to get to yours in the queue.
12:47:20 We have a long queue that is just grows every day with people submitting things. So it generally takes us a few weeks to actually pick it up in the queue.
12:47:29 Then we respond to you. We give you time to respond to us and then we take time to review it again and respond back to you.
12:47:36 So it can take a few months from start to finish to fully complete the revisions process. So if you have a revisions deadline.
12:47:44 Again, let's just say coming up really quickly like March 30 first and you haven't yet done it.
12:47:50 You can still truthfully declare that your reporting is up to date. If you prepare all the reports, have them verified and request the CPA review.
12:47:58 You don't have to have all the revisions completed and the review concluded. In order to declare that it's up to date.
12:48:06 And also noting that reporting is not considered up to date if the only reporting you have in part is safe from 3 years or 3 jobs ago.
12:48:14 You have to include reports for all the positions you've held and competencies gained up to your your time limit extension deadline or the current date if you're reporting before your deadline.
12:48:24 So it has to be all encompassing. And if you do submit it and there are only reports from say you know 5 or 6 years ago we will do we will we will deem that to be a false declaration.
12:48:37 And I'm just going to have a little bit of a note here that if you choose to update your practical experience reporting and submitted at the same time as you submit your time limit extension request.
12:48:49 We will expect a view that you will be completing that PE plan from the prior slide. To be, we will expect that to be updated concurrently with the revisions on your experience reports.
12:49:00 So that we can present decision makers with the full picture as quickly as possible. So this is another motivator to get your reporting submitted at least 4 to 6 months in advance of your deadline.
12:49:12 If possible, don't panic if you're not there, but if possible. Try to get your reporting submitted at least for to 6 months in advance of your deadlines so that you're not in a situation where you're dealing with work, your real life, per revisions, and creating a practical experience plan at the same time.
12:49:25 So as much as current you probably doesn't want to get into part and do that reporting future you will thank you if you do it.
12:49:33 This side. Focuses on the general reporting requirements. I've listed everything knowing that not all of you will have met all of those requirements.
12:49:44 And not to panic. So We find that many candidates requesting time and extensions have little or no reporting in port.
12:49:53 A lack of current reporting is also the number one reason why it takes us so long and so much effort to process extension requests.
12:49:59 And those of you that have active extension requests will feel this pain. It takes a long time and you're kind of stuck in limbo.
12:50:05 And this is because the provincial practical experience team cannot make a recommendation as to whether to approve your extension request without completed practical experience reporting.
12:50:14 And our decision makers don't want to make a decision that impacts your career unless they have all the information with which to make that decision.
12:50:23 So we are genuinely trying to be fair to candidates. We want to take the time to understand all the work you've been doing.
12:50:30 We want to gain enough information to support the highest level of proficiency possible. So that we can give you the best chance at successfully completing the program.
12:50:39 Similarly, we have Canada's telling us that they are done their experience but have not reported in Perth.
12:50:46 So they've assessed themselves as meeting the requirements, but they haven't ever reported to us until told us what they're doing.
12:50:51 For the purposes of completing the program if it's not reported and reviewed by us in port, we don't know that it happened and we cannot conclude on whether it is sufficient.
12:51:01 So our default conclusion in this case would be there is nothing for us to assess. Therefore, the practical experience requirements are not met and are unlikely to be met.
12:51:07 In the next 12 months. So if there's one thing that we'd like you to take away from the webinar.
12:51:13 There's a lot of things, but one of the main things is to really get started in part right away.
12:51:18 If you don't have a profile, one of the main things is to really get started in part right away. If you don't have a profile, go make one.
12:51:23 If you haven't reported for a few years, just get started on a report and get it submitted for review as quickly as possible.
12:51:26 Don't leave it until the last week or 2 before your deadline is it will just be so much more painful and genuinely just more painful for you.
12:51:32 It's a lot of work to do and there's a lot of stress when you're in that situation.
12:51:36 So we would like our ideal situation would be to be working with you to update your reporting. And the month leading up to your extension request.
12:51:44 And sometimes what we find is candidates just haven't done the reporting and when we get through the whole reporting process they're done and they've met the exit requirements and they don't actually need the time limit extension request.
12:51:54 So The earlier you can get that done, if we can determine that the exit requirements are met and you don't need an extension, great.
12:52:00 You don't have to bother going through the extension process. And if it is determined that you do still need to go get some more experience and we'll need an extension request.
12:52:09 This allows you to know exactly where your gaps are and what your plan is to achieve the remaining requirements.
12:52:15 And once you get to actually requesting the time limit extension, it's a pretty quick and painless process at that point.
12:52:20 If you've missed any of the reporting points in here, so you'll see that you're required to report a per report and a CPA review at completion of your experience anytime you change a job whether it's within the same organization or different organization.
12:52:36 And you're required to submit a report at 12 months of current experience. If you haven't done that yet, don't panic.
12:52:42 You can submit all of your reports, relevant reports to us in one CPA review. To support like now before you request that time limit extension.
12:52:53 Some provinces will assess penalties for missed reporting. And so you may, you may be, maybe given a duration penalty for not meeting all of these.
12:53:03 Requirements. But we will always review everything that you send in so that we can give you the best and fairest chance possible, to complete the program successfully.
12:53:14 Every candidate is required to have a mentor review documented in PERT with every 6 months. In order to request a mental review, you have to have a report that's either in completed status or verified status.
12:53:26 Failure to document mental reviews within PERT will result in one month of pet duration penalty.
12:53:36 So instead of 30 months, if you missed 3 mentor reviews, instead of 30 months duration, your minimum is now 33.
12:53:41 33 months. And resist the urge to catch up on all of your mental reviews in 6 consecutive months.
12:53:51 So we will only consider mental reviews for the purposes of calculating the penalty if they've occurred at least 3 months apart.
12:53:58 So the ideal cadence and the intended cadence is that you're meeting with your mentor once every 6 months.
12:54:04 If you do have meetings 4 months apart, we will count that as 2 meetings within that same year.
12:54:11 But if you hold 3 meetings within 3 consecutive months. We only count that as one meeting. So your meetings have to be at least 3 months apart and they need to be 2 per year.
12:54:21 So again, if you haven't been doing that, request a mentor review. It really is a helpful process, particularly if you have an engaged mentor and they can help you through the extension process as well.
12:54:34 So some port terminology we have experience reports and CPA reviews. A practical experience report is in this visual the piece of paper and that contains the detail of all the duties you perform to date to date.
12:54:51 There should be one report for each position or supervisor that you've held and again that doesn't matter if you've been promoted within your organization you should have a report for each position even though it's still the same employer.
12:55:02 If your supervisor changed, ideally you would have a, you should have a report for each supervisor as well so that they can verify the accuracy of the duties performed.
12:55:10 You have the option of creating a current experience report or a prior experience report. A prior experience report is for any experience you've gained prior to your per start date and you can be awarded up to 12 months.
12:55:24 Of duration for that experience. So even if you worked 3 years prior to your per start date. We will, we will take into account that you were in that role for 3 years when we're assessing proficiency but from a exit requirement perspective you will only be granted 12 months of duration.
12:55:40 And then your current experience report is for any experience gained after your per start date and your per start date shows up right when you log in to person on the left hand side it's very clearly stated there for you so you'll know what dates to use.
12:55:53 The CPA review then is basically workflow management. So I often will explain it as Picture that I've chosen, which is reports being a piece of paper going into an envelope.
12:56:04 So you can be working on your report on a weekly basis and we don't know what you're doing.
12:56:10 In order to tell us that you're ready for it to be reviewed, you need to request a CPA review or if you're in the revision process you need to.
12:56:17 Resubmit an active CPA review. And then similarly when we've done our assessment of the reports and reviewed everything and provided revisions, we will then send the CPA review back to you.
12:56:28 So a CPA review can technically contain multiple reports. However, and if you've kept up to date with your reporting over time, in theory, there would only be one report for each CPA review.
12:56:39 But if you're in a position where you have multiple positions to report on and you're at the end of your experience.
12:56:44 Or approaching that time limit extension deadline, you can have as many reports as necessary. You do not need to create a report for a 12 month position or report every 6 months.
12:56:55 If you've been in a role for 3 years and you've only, you've never reported on it yet, just give us one report.
12:57:01 For the full 3 years and we will just assess where you're at today. And Often candidates are confused.
12:57:34 Because they, they're not intuitive. So this slide is just a quick reference for you if you're ever confused about the report status or the CPA review status and what it means.
12:57:44 The CPA review status, so that workflow management, that envelope, the statuses that you'll see will be.
12:57:50 Follow up status. That means that the CPA review is with the candidate and that means we've given you revisions and you need to address those and send it back to us.
12:57:59 You will get every time we set a CPA review back to follow up you will get an email and that email contains the instructions on what you need to do next.
12:58:07 So We will tell you to address revisions if you have to change report dates if you have to. Address leave taken, anything of that nature we will put in that email.
12:58:18 As well as step by step instructions on. What to do with in part when it comes to, resubmitting the CPA review.
12:58:27 If the CPA review is in required status, that means it is sitting with us. And I've forgot to make this more generic, but it is with your provincial body with your, practical experience team.
12:58:39 So required status. Means the reviewer is looking at it. And completed status is what we will set it to when your CPA review is completely done.
12:58:48 The candidate reports statuses, so these are the statuses that you as the candidate can set. You can, when you first create a report, it will be a new status.
12:58:57 Once you're done the reporting, you can set it to completed status. You can use this completed status just to note for yourself that it's done, but not yet verified by your supervisor.
12:59:08 And once a report isn't either completed status or verified status, you will be allowed to request a mentor review.
12:59:14 So if you need to request a mentor review, you have to have a report that is in completed status or in verified status.
12:59:21 So that's something that you can set yourself having a report and completed status does not mean that your practical experience team has concluded on it.
12:59:30 It just means that you are done with the report as it stands right now. And then we have verification.
12:59:36 Or verified and verification requested. And these are statuses that are triggered with the supervisor verification process.
12:59:43 So we request that we require that all reports are verified by the supervisor before the initial submission. And then as directed by the reviewer.
12:59:52 So generally we only ask supervisors to verify the reports twice once before the initial submission and once before we finalize everything and conclude.
13:00:01 On the on the proficiencies. And this is, we don't want your supervisors to get fatigued by having to reread your reports, you know, 3 or 4 times during the revision process.
13:00:12 So we just have the key control at the beginning to make sure that before we review it that what we're reviewing is factually accurate.
13:00:19 And then at the end to make sure that the final product is still factually accurate. And then the report statuses that we will set for you as practical experience will be follow up status.
13:00:29 So when you submit your initial report, your initial CPA review to us, your report will be in verified status after we've looked at it in provided revisions, we will set it to follow up status.
13:00:39 And then we leave it in follow-up status throughout the revisions process. Once it's in follow-up status, you can go in and make all the revisions you want to what you've written unless we have already concluded and assigned a proficiency.
13:00:52 So we leave it there and then after you get that final verification and we're ready to conclude we will do one last review to make sure everything is okay and then set it to reviewed status and once it's in reviewed status those are the competencies or those are the proficiency levels that have been assessed that is considered complete.
13:01:10 We're often asked about timelines for reviews. So our initial reviews are triaged as they come in.
13:01:16 Completion reviews, so that is a CP pass and at least 30 months duration as well as candidates candidates with active time limit extension requests are given first priority and these are typically assessed within 4 weeks of submission.
13:01:29 All other review types. So a change of job or a 12 month review or just a student requested review.
13:01:35 Those timelines fluctuate depending on the time of year and the volumes that we have. But we do our best to keep those.
13:01:41 As low as possible. Regardless of your type of review, once we have a, once we've been assigned and assessed by a reviewer, we strive to return revisions within 2 to 3 weeks so that once your report is being actively reviewed we can complete the process in a timely manner.
13:01:57 We also request time limit extension candidates to complete revisions and resubmit to us within 2 weeks.
13:02:03 So this is another motivator for any one who's been procrastinating on practical experience. If you've already submitted a time limit extension request and you are still in the process of updating your practical experience, you will have 2 weeks to get your revisions back to us.
13:02:18 If you do it before your deadline and before you have to request that time limit extension, you will have 4 weeks to do your revisions.
13:02:25 So, it takes the pressure off of you if you do it earlier because in those cases we don't have the same urgency.
13:02:33 If you the urgency comes once we have to make a decision on that time limit extension. So the earlier get you reporting in the more breathing room you will have.
13:02:42 In order to complete it at your own pace as opposed to being driven by a much shorter turnaround schedule.
13:02:48 And then the other bonus of having your reporting completed, before you submit your time and an extension request is that you will get a much quicker decision on the request itself.
13:02:58 So from our perspective, this looks like a win-win, but candidates we find tend to leave that practical experience reporting until the day before they submit or the date of submitting their time limit extension request.
13:03:10 Time loan extension candidates are expected to adhere to all deadlines. Provided and we will only provide revision extensions on your revision deadlines on an exception.
13:03:21 So we expect that once you're in this process and you're in the situation of waiting on a time limit extension approval that you will complete your revisions within 2 weeks.
13:03:31 And it would be an exception for us to give you more time. There has to be a really sound, reason, for doing so and, and not just that you were busy at work, which I know is a real problem, but also it's it's a day-to-day problem and we don't consider that to be extenuating circumstances.
13:03:50 For the purposes of completing your your practical experience revisions.
13:03:56 So, alright, so now we'll just look at what the technical exit requirements are. Hopefully most of you are familiar with the concepts of core depth and breadth.
13:04:09 But these are the requirements for meeting the technical exit requirements. So core is in either financial reporting or management accounting.
13:04:21 You have at least 3 sub competencies at level one or greater. So if you look at this wheel, we have the 6 competency areas.
13:04:27 So financial reporting, management accounting, strategy and governance, taxation, finance, audit and assurance.
13:04:35 Within each of these are sub-competencies. So in order to meet her, you would have to have 3 sub competencies and it can be financial reporting and or management accounting.
13:04:43 So you can have 2 level ones in financial reporting and one level one in management accounting and will have met core.
13:04:49 So that is your lowest hurdle. In terms of the exit requirements. Next, we have depth, so that means within at least within one competency area, so let's just pick financial reporting.
13:05:01 Within financial reporting, you have a achieved level one on all of the sub competencies. And at least 2 of those are to level 2.
13:05:07 So there are 4 sub competencies in financial reporting to get depth and financial reporting, you would need a minimum of 2 level ones and 2 level twos within the financial reporting competency area.
13:05:18 And then breadth is that over across all of the competencies you need to have 8 competencies at level one proficiency.
13:05:25 And at least 4 of those have to be at a level 2. So 8 competencies overall and at least 4 of those are a level 2.
13:05:32 Your breadth is not in addition to depth. So. If we keep following the example of financial reporting, if you have depth in financial reporting with 2 level ones and 2 level twos.
13:05:43 Then you need to find 2 additional level ones and 2 additional level twos elsewhere. So you can pick those up in management accounting, maybe finance.
13:05:53 Maybe taxation depends on your role in your organization where you would pick those up but breadth is making sure that you have competencies.
13:06:00 Outside of your area of death.
13:06:03 Your proficiency levels on practical experience, you can be awarded a level 0, a level one, or a level 2.
13:06:10 Levels 0 typically represents what we call foundational experience. These are often the more clerical tasks. Some examples would be recording or processing journal entries or transactions.
13:06:20 Performing basic reconciliations or preparing non complex tasks, that are highly directed without any related analysis.
13:06:29 So just compiling information, calculating, without analyzing. Level one typically represents experience at a professional level.
13:06:38 So there is some analysis. Going on it is not just the recording of routine journal entries.
13:06:44 But that experience is lower than what we would expect of a newly certified CPA. So these can include tasks that are routine in nature.
13:06:52 That are a low level of complexity or our ex end or executed with a lower level of autonomy.
13:06:57 So at this level, you will be performing some analysis that would generally be provided to someone else who will then review and make the decision.
13:07:05 So that's if you're sitting there that tends to be level one. Level 2 typically represents the ability to complete tasks that are both complex and undertaken with autonomy.
13:07:15 Highly complex tasks undertaken with a moderate level of autonomy can also count as level 2 experience and here you're evaluating analysis prepared either by yourself or a junior staff member making decisions recommendations or conclusions.
13:07:28 It's important to keep in mind that level 2 proficiency means that you're operating at the level of a newly designated CPA and that the skills you've obtained are transferable outside of your present role in organization.
13:07:41 When we are assessing your proficiency level, we generally look at these 4 characteristics, frequency scope, complexity, and autonomy.
13:07:49 And they're arranged I didn't give you a nice like. Triangle diagram or anything, but frequency and scope are the foundations of this.
13:07:59 So with scope of work, we are looking for. How much of that work are you doing? So if you're doing financial statement preparation, are you responsible for one note and one line item on the balance sheet or are you responsible for preparing the entire set of financial statements.
13:08:16 And or all the notes. So what is the scope of work and it's generally compared to the overall work available.
13:08:24 So if you think financial statements, are you doing one line, are you doing a few sections? Are you doing the whole thing?
13:08:29 Frequency would be how often you do it. So you need to tell us, are you doing it monthly, weekly, quarterly, annually, maybe it's an ad hoc project that you've only done once.
13:08:39 But you need to just let us know how often you're doing it. So we rarely assign overall proficiency based on doing something once.
13:08:48 And so we have a concept when we're reviewing, of this can be a level one example, but it doesn't necessarily represent level one proficiency overall.
13:08:56 So doing something once doesn't automatically make you proficient. And then when we, so that really is frequency.
13:09:02 And scope are getting you into, making sure that you're at least at that level one and then determining whether it's level one or level 2.
13:09:10 We start to look at complexity and autonomy. So complexity can be complexity. Either with the subject matter itself, like just an inherently complex topic.
13:09:19 Or it can be complexity in terms of the work you had to do to gather all the information to make an appropriate decision.
13:09:27 Autonomy is more than just working with limited supervision because you can be doing very non complex routine tasks that don't require a bunch of analysis by yourself without any direction.
13:09:38 And that wouldn't be level 2. What we're looking at for autonomy.
13:09:42 Or the characteristics that I usually boil down to critical thought and professional judgment. So where there's an ambiguity and you have to make decisions with incomplete information or where you've proactively identified something.
13:09:57 As opposed to being highly directed. As to what to do you want to do it and how to do it.
13:10:03 So everything is on a continuum and we have we have to apply judgment when we are reviewing. There is no magic formula.
13:10:10 There is no template for these examples will always be a level 2 and these will always be a level one because you can have 2 people that are doing the exact same work and one can operate with autonomy and one.
13:10:19 Can operate with less autonomy. And I'm sure you've all seen that in your workplaces.
13:10:25 So when you are writing to us when you're reporting all of your experience. Do your best to hit all 4 of these and demonstrate to us why the work was complex, where you demonstrated professional judgment and critical thought in reaching your recommendation and conclusion.
13:10:41 And level 2, as we've noted before, we require you to be making recommendations. It doesn't have to be the ultimate decision, but you have to be evaluating evidence and reaching an appropriate conclusion and making a recommendation to others.
13:10:55 And then the enabling competencies. So, in order to meet the exit requirements, you have to have all 5 of the enabling competencies at level 2 proficiency.
13:11:04 So these are the personal attributes of the CPA. They are the essential skills that are pervasive to a Cpa's work environment and they allow a CPA to function as a competent professional in an increasingly complex and demanding environment.
13:11:17 So you can see that what they are on the on the screen, there are very directed questions within Perth that you have to answer to get to these.
13:11:24 And so I encourage you to go read them and understand what they are. Your enabling skills are not to be overlooked, for a few reasons, from very practical perspective.
13:11:33 Your best example for one of the enabling competencies. Can happen at any point in your career.
13:11:39 It's not always going to happen at the very end and it can be very difficult to remember all the best examples, 30 or 40 or 50 months down the road.
13:11:49 So it's important to just know what they are and keep an eye on them. But they're also just really important because this is what distinguishes us from, just a number cruncher, being a CPA means, you know, adhering to those rules of professional conduct and operating a certain way within the world.
13:12:07 And that's what you demonstrate through the enabling competencies. Okay, so I thought we were going to be done early, but as usual I have managed to fill most of the airspace.
13:12:16 So we just have a couple of slides left on how to reduce revisions. So a few of you have probably set up a little bit straighter because you like us want this to be as efficient as possible.
13:12:28 So the first thing I'm going to say is to really think about the review process as an interview process.
13:12:33 So we we genuinely want to help you support the highest proficiency level possible. But we can only assess what's written in perk.
13:12:39 So we are going to continue to ask you questions to draw out information to see where we think you should land.
13:12:45 And if we are still asking you for more information and revisions, it means that you haven't provided us with enough.
13:12:50 To conclude appropriately. So sometimes it'll be that you're we're not getting enough information but we think there might be enough there to support that level one or level 2 that you're targeting.
13:12:59 So we'll keep asking for it. And just to keep in mind throughout this process, like a lot of candidates really struggle with the process, but from, from a just a mindset shift in a perspective change.
13:13:12 We really are working as a team. So as the reviewers, we really know the competency map that is our job.
13:13:18 We spend a lot of time understanding the confidence, applying them in different situations. You as the candidate know exactly what work you're doing, how your organization operates, what your tasks are.
13:13:28 So it requires both of us working together to appropriately document whether the duties perform support the proficiency awarded. So it really is a team effort and that is what we're doing with revisions is trying to make sure that you have the best chance possible to get those those high level proficiencies.
13:13:44 So on the technical side of things, some tips for reducing revisions are here up on the screen. There's, there's no formula for how to respond to every competency and different competencies require different documentation.
13:13:59 But there's some common elements that you can include in your responses that will generally reduce the number of questions that are asked by a reviewer during the revision process.
13:14:07 So the first that you would generally do is describe the frequency and scope of duties within that sub-competency area.
13:14:13 So I am responsible for preparing. The entire set of financial statements and note disclosures under ASPE on a quarterly basis and they are audited annually by an external accounting firm.
13:14:26 Short and sweet. Then you need to provide at least 3 specific examples for the remaining requirements. So. So you give us a general statement and then you give us the specific example that meet each of the requirements.
13:14:39 For level 2 examples, we want you to focus on those examples that best demonstrate your ability to apply professional judgment and critical thought to evaluate complex issues.
13:14:48 So if you are targeting level 2, give us your most complex examples. And then maybe just give us a statement of some of the other less complex things that you've worked on to help support that that frequency and scope characteristic.
13:15:02 And you have to ensure that each requirement of the sub competency is explicitly addressed. If there are 3 requirements of the sub competency and your response only addresses 2, the discussion goes no further then you have to like your first revision is going to be you have to address that third requirement because if only 2 of the 3 requirements are met, it's an automatic level 0.
13:15:24 So we can only consider a proficiency if all requirements are met. So make sure that you know what the requirements are and that you're addressing them in that initial submission.
13:15:34 And then really take the time to understand what the. Requirements are before you do your initial submission.
13:15:39 Often we find candidates will just kind of throw in a few lines and just it almost looks like they're just kind of throwing, throwing duties out there and seeing where they fit and waiting for us to come back and explain the competency requirements.
13:15:52 But By that point you've already waited 4 weeks for us to pick up your review and then you're going to get a whole bunch of revisions that are going to take you a long time and you'll be really frustrated and you'll hate PERT and you'll have a bunch of negative thoughts about the people behind it.
13:16:05 Behind the review. So I really encourage you, we have lots of videos, webinars, there's guiding questions in PERT, there's information out there to help you understand the requirements.
13:16:15 And, and the, the requirements of the competency, but also the documentation requirements. And if you follow that and if you do that on your first submission, it will make a world of difference.
13:16:26 And how the process goes for you. And then on your enabling competencies.
13:16:30 With revisions we find that we're giving revisions because candidates tend to focus on the technical aspects of the example rather than the enabling competency.
13:16:38 So for instance, on problem solving, you'll, you know, the first part you're asked to give us a specific example and you'll the candidate will give us a specific example.
13:16:47 And let's just say it has to do with, I don't know, system implementation. And then they follow it through and they get to part C.
13:16:54 And part C is asking you to reflect on your problem solving. So what can you improve on your problem-solving skills and abilities?
13:17:01 But often candidates will reply to us on how they can improve the next systems in implementation. So be very careful in the enabling to read the questions and and give us the context on the technical issue, but focus the majority of your discussion on the enabling competency.
13:17:15 And it's really all laid out. So just answer each question honestly if you answer each question it becomes very apparent whether you're going to get that level 2 or not and really reduces your revisions.
13:17:27 And then with enabling competencies, I always recommend read them, know what they are and keep an eye out for relevant examples because you never know when they'll bubble up and you can always just drop them down on piece of paper in Word or even within PERT as they arise and it'll just make your end reporting that much faster.
13:17:43 So we are now done the official presentation. I have a screen. I'll leave this up for a second if anybody wants to take a quick screenshot of some.
13:17:53 And they will be available to you obviously when the. Presentation is posted. But.
13:18:00 Cpa Western School of Business has a time limit extension website with some FAQs and information on the process so you can get that URL for that information.
13:18:09 CPI Alberta has published practical experience videos and webinars. They are on a wide range of topics, some are general guidance, some are explanations for the technical competencies.
13:18:20 And those you can access through the CPA Alberta website on the practical experience page. There's the perk guide for future CPAs, which is available on your practical experience website for all of the provinces.
13:18:33 There is CPA assist if you are having if you're struggling in terms of stress, mental health, things of that nature, please reach out to CPA Assist.
13:18:42 They are skilled professionals and very good at what they do and they can help you just help you get you moving forward so that you can address the technical side of things.
13:18:51 And then career services so I took a look at Saskatchewan to Manitoba and I didn't see the same services that are offered in Alberta but you can always check with your province but in Alberta we do have career services so if you're having trouble finding a job if you need help with resume writing and things of that nature, we have a skilled team of people that are
13:19:10 always willing to help you. And then our very last slide is just the email address that everyone should know off by heart and that is their practical experience.
13:19:19 Inbox. And so these are manned and we try to get back to you as quickly as possible.
13:19:26 But if you have any general questions and don't already have a reviewer to talk to, you would submit here and they will get you to the right person.
13:19:34 And with that, I'm just going to go back to the resources tab while we address questions so people can jot those down if they want and We can get to some questions here.
13:19:45 If there are any.
13:19:45 Thank you so much, Stephanie and Lauren. This was fantastic. And we do have a number of questions ready.
13:19:53 So I will start off with one for you stuff. So what happens if I need another extension?
13:20:01 So that is that is considered on a very exception basis and on a case by case basis. The program is designed for you to complete it within your initial 6 and 7 year timelines.
13:20:14 The extensions are generally given for a year. If something prohibits you from executing the plan and actually, meeting the requirements within that one year time limit extension.
13:20:24 You can always apply, but just anecdotally, like your chances of approval, get slimmer and slimmer, as more time goes on.
13:20:30 So really do your best to come up with a really solid plan and execute it within that 12 months if you have a time limit.
13:20:38 Extension approved.
13:20:40 Thank you. Another question for you, Stephanie. In my organization, level 2 work is allocated to newly designated CPAs.
13:20:49 How am I supposed to get this experience?
13:20:51 Yeah, that's a common one, particularly in large organizations. And the unfortunate answer is that's your organization's choice.
13:21:00 So this is where it really helps to have your supervisors and your employers engaged. I know a lot of larger organizations that I've dealt with are genuinely wanting to help.
13:21:10 And we'll try to find rotations for candidates and ways for them to get experience outside of their outside of their role but sometimes there just are inherent limitations either in the job you have or in the organization's requirements.
13:21:23 And unfortunately in those situations, the map is what it is and the requirements. Our stated and they haven't changed and and there's not much we can do about that situation.
13:21:35 I don't know if you have anything to add there, Jenni.
13:21:37 No, I, I think that's good. You can do a lot of talking. So Carla is gonna take a couple of questions for you.
13:21:39 Okay. Brilliant. Thanks, Carla.
13:21:43 So, Carla, am I able to speak with someone for support on my experience?
13:21:50 Yes, there's a couple of options here. So if you haven't submitted an extension request yet and or and do not have an active CPA review with the reviewer, you can reach out to our practical experience inbox and they will be able to set up a call with a reviewer.
13:22:05 To discuss your situation. If you do have an active CPA review, what will happen when you submit your extension request is that your after the initial review of your experience your reviewer will reach out to you through email.
13:22:17 Just introducing themselves, giving them an overview of what is going to happen with the extension request. So for more directed feedback on your experience reports, you can reach out to your specific reviewer if you have an active CPU review.
13:22:32 Thanks, Carla. Another one for you. So is the 7 year deadline for experience does that also include the CPA review and the revisions?
13:22:43 Stephanie had touched upon this on an earlier slide, but we saw this question coming up quite a bit.
13:22:49 In our Q&A. So the 7 years for experience means that you need to have a CPA review submitted before the seven-year deadline.
13:22:59 This doesn't mean that you have to have all of your revisions completed and your CPA review and completed status.
13:23:05 This just means that you have to have all of your experience reports verified by your supervisor and have submitted a CPA review.
13:23:13 Thank you. Lauren, I have a question for you. So, year 6 of the education deadline, a student is writing the CV in May.
13:23:23 What happens if they fail? How do they go about getting an extension for another attempt and would they be able to have 2 additional attempts if this was their first write?
13:23:35 So extensions are considered to grant you your next attempt. So in the event that you were on. Successful on your first seat the attempt in year 6.
13:23:43 What would happen is that the CPA WSP admission services team would reach out to you and all candidates in that situation with instructions to apply for extension as well as the deadline for submission.
13:23:54 Your extension request should be for your next Cp attempt. So then if you were unsuccessful on that, you'd have an opportunity to apply again if required.
13:24:03 Thanks, Lauren. Carla. Do I have to have all of my jobs in Perth or only the ones I think meet the requirements?
13:24:13 So, this is Probably coming from a candidate who has not updated any of their experience within per yet and they're kind of looking at recording the last 7 years of experience within.
13:24:25 What I would recommend is starting with your most recent role. This is due to the fact that this is, you've likely progressed through the competency areas and you're going to be reporting your strongest experience on your most current experience.
13:24:38 From there I would work backwards and fill in any blanks in your experience that you have not achieved through your current role.
13:24:45 I understand that reporting on 7 years of experience, it means that you may have a number of different roles to report on and the reporting could be pretty onerous, but if you start what what you have currently and work backwards to fill in any blanks, that's what I suggest you do.
13:25:03 Awesome, thank you. So can you report your experience retrospectively? For instance, you created your experience retrospectively.
13:25:12 For instance, you created your per profile in 2020. But have not been able to report your experience.
13:25:14 Can you report your experience back to 2020? And it and use that to meet the 30 month requirement.
13:25:21 Yes, absolutely. And further to Carlo's comment, what we would suggest doing is start with your most recent experience.
13:25:30 Your most recent position. But yeah, we will review everything that you've worked with in or every role that you've worked with in the last 7 years to consider whether you've met the exit requirements.
13:25:41 Thank you. Lauren. If the extension is not approved and you're withdrawn from the program, do you have to apply again to enroll in PEP and start at the beginning.
13:25:51 And if yes, is there a time you have to wait before you're eligible to that?
13:25:57 So yes, if you are withdrawn from CPA, you would have to reapply to CPA PAP and re-qualify for CPA PAP.
13:26:05 So that would involve completing your transcript assessment, confirming PEP eligibility. And then, submitting an admission application under the category of readmission.
13:26:14 We're happy to accept your admission candidates, but you would be placed at the core one level with no recognition.
13:26:19 For your previous experience. In terms of time periods between withdrawal and re-enrollment, we don't have a wait period.
13:26:27 You could theoretically apply back to CPA PAP the same day you're withdrawn.
13:26:30 But just be aware that part of the transcript assessment process is assessing, your core prerequisites to see if they were completed within the last 10 years.
13:26:38 There is a risk with that assessment which show that you were no longer PEP eligible when you were previously PEP eligible on your withdrawal enrollment.
13:26:48 Thank you so much, Lauren. And, thank you again to Stephanie and Lauren for this, fantastic webinar.
13:26:56 Like Stephanie said we will be making it available on our website. Just please give us a few days to to get that up there.
13:27:07 And if you need a transcript please email practical experience at sepalbera. And if you need a transcript, please email practical experience at sepia.
13:27:14 And we will get that to you. We have a couple of minutes left, Stephanie Learner.
13:27:19 Is there any kind of final comments?
13:27:21 No, I was just scrolling to the questions as I was, Carla was kindly taking a few of those and just reiterating that there were some questions and their related people specific situations and you need to reach out to your CPA reviewer if you have one or to your practical experience team just at those generic email addresses, which I will pop up right now for you.
13:27:43 To get those answered. So we just aren't going to address those here because they're very specific to your situation and will require a discussion.
13:27:50 But yeah, other than that, I just wanted to think everybody. Thank Lauren for for coming and hosting this with us.
13:27:57 And for my our team in the background who was helping with questions and technical issues and to all of you for taking the time to come and learn about this.
13:28:04 And we genuinely hope that the process, if it hasn't been smooth so far, we hope that this helped to make a little bit smoother going forward.
13:28:11 So. Take care of everyone and I will you can hear my voice again when you listen to the recording.