EVR FAQs

Experience Reports

The Practical Experience Requirements Start Date (PER Start Date) is the day you begin to accumulate qualifying practical experience. Your PER Start Date will be calculated during your initial pre-assessment by CPA Alberta. 

The PER Start Date is calculated in PERT when you meet the following three conditions:

  1. You are registeredas a CPA candidate with the CPA Western School of Business (CPAWSB)
  2. You are working in a qualifying position, as outlined in CPA PER Section 2.6.
  3. You have a CPA mentor, as outlined in CPA PER Section 2.7.

You must submit all of the required information, including any mandatory attachments and CPA mentor information, within 90 days of either the date you registered as a candidate with CPAWSB or the date you started employment (whichever date occurred later). Once approved, the PER Start Date will be calculated to the date you registered as a candidate with the CPA Western School of Business (CPAWSB) or started in a position (whichever date occurred later). Otherwise, your PER Start Date will be the date you logged in to PERT and provided us with the required information.

You will create a profile in PERT and submit a 'Pre-Assessment'. You must create a profile in PERT within 90 days of registering as a CPA candidate and also request a Pre-assessment by the 90-day deadline. You will be required to attach your Job Description on a company letterhead with your pre-assessment and you will need to input your mentor’s email. You will not need to complete any sections in the technical and enabling competencies for the pre-assessment. Once your pre-assessment is reviewed by CPA Alberta, you will be notified automatically through PERT.

Once you have your pre-assessment reviewed, you will receive instructions to create a new experience report. Reporting in PERT requires you to keep track of your competency development and progress by keeping your experience report up to date. You must update your experience report at least semi-annually before each meeting with your mentor. You must also ensure that your Mentor Reviews are completed in PERT semi-annually. For detailed instructions on how to fill out a report and request a Mentor Review in PERT, please refer to “User Guide-Quick Reference” posted to your PERT portal.

To have your duration and competency achievement recognized, you must request a Profession Assessment through PERT. Once a candidate has submitted a complete report and the report has been verified by the candidate’s supervisor, the candidate can request a Profession Assessment through the Profession Assessments tab in PERT. A Profession Assessment may only be requested once a report has been verified by the Supervisor.

A Profession Assessment is when the CPA reviewer assesses your experience report(s) and credits you with any competencies and/or duration gained. The date when an EVR candidate is required to request a Profession Assessment will be determined by the CPA reviewer and can be found in your PERT portal. For detailed instructions on how to fill out a report and request a Profession Assessment, please refer to “User Guide-Quick Reference” within you PERT portal. Please note that duration or competencies are not credited in pre-assessment reports.

If you are registered with the profession, setting up a PERT Profile is a very important step. For this reason, you may set up your profile as an unemployed student/candidate. 'Unemployed' can be a temporary profile state for intermittent or temporary periods.

When you submit a completed report, an email will be sent to the email address provided in the 'Supervisor Email' field of an experience report. This email will contain step-by-step instructions for supervisor verification, as well as a link to access your experience report in PERT. Once the supervisor agrees to the content of the report, the report status will change from 'Verification Requested' to 'Verified'. You will then be able to request Profession Assessments and Mentor Reviews through PERT.

If you are changing jobs, you need to close off your experience at your current position before you can change your employment within PERT. That will mean requesting supervisor verification of your current experience report and requesting a Profession Assessment. You should select 'change of job' as the reason for your Profession Assessment. Once your Profession Assessment is complete, you will be able to switch your experience path (if required) and employment in PERT and your MyCPA portal.

Yes, the CPA Practical Experience Requirements allows for Candidates to change experience paths. Your competencies and duration credited through your original experience path will be consolidated with the duration and competencies credited in the new experience path. You cannot change the experience path in your PERT profile until all experience reports submitted through the original path have been assessed by CPA Alberta.

A catch-up report is a specially-designed report that enables transitioning candidates to report their previously recognized legacy experience. If you have previously recognized legacy (CA, CMA, CGA) practical experience and would like to report it via a catch-up report in PERT, please contact PracticalExperience@cpaalberta.ca for further information. You should only use a catch-up report if instructed by CPA Alberta.

The CPA Alberta Public Accounting Chargeable Hours Submission Form is only to be completed by CPA candidates who are reporting CPA practical experience through PERT, are employed with a registered public accounting firm, and need to report chargeable hours for the purpose of seeking a right to practice public accounting.

Prior Experience Reports

Use a Prior Experience Report. Once you have your profile created in PERT and your PER Status is set to 'In Progress', you will be able to create a Prior Experience Report and submit it for verification. If you are no longer employed at that position, we suggest that you create your prior experience as soon as you can and have it verified by your former supervisor. Once your report is verified, it will be reviewed once you submit your next CPA Review request. 

The maximum duration is 12 months. To qualify, the period of experience must be of at least three months duration and you must have achieved a minimum of one technical subcompetency to a Level 1 proficiency. If you are currently employed in the position that you are seeking to have recognized before the PER Start Date, the three-month restriction will not apply.

If your supervisor is no longer employed at your previous employer, then please contact the CPA Alberta Practical Experience team via email at PracticalExperience@cpaalberta.ca to determine the next steps regarding verifying your report. We may require additional verification steps to be completed before we can recognize your experience.

Only positions that ended in the preceding five and a half years from the PER effective date will be assessed. If you are currently employed in the position you are reporting via Prior Experience report, the three-month restriction will not apply.

You should submit your prior experience report(s) for supervisor verification as soon as you complete the report(s). Once your prior experience report is verified, it will be reviewed with your next CPA Review. 
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