Candidate PPR FAQs

No, you are required to update your experience reporting on a semi-annual basis following the Next Experience Report Date.

Once your employment has been confirmed by your Program Manager, your Next Experience Report Date will automatically be set for six (6) months after your PER Start Date; however, this date can be edited at any time by viewing your profile in PERT. You should update this date to make sense for your reporting.

You are required to meet with your mentor after you have updated your experience reporting and have your mentor record the details of that meeting in PERT on a semi-annual basis.

You may meet with your mentor more frequently if you choose. Please note that mentor meetings only count if they are three (3) months apart in duration.

No. The requirement is to update your experience reporting semi-annually and discuss that reporting with your mentor. This can be done by re-opening the experience report you have already created, updating your self-assessment against the pre-populated technical competencies, and entering in any new enabling competency development.

Your Program Manager may ask that you complete separate experience reports for each reporting period or use the one report method.

All CPA candidates are allowed to claim up to 20 weeks (100 days) of leave within their 30 months of practical experience. Leave represents any time away from work for any reason, including vacation, sickness, professional development, and study days.

If your leave taken exceeds the allowable 20 weeks, your required duration will increase by the amount of leave taken in excess of the 20 weeks.

Relevant technical competencies have been pre-populated in PERT when you create an experience report. Select a Self-assessed Proficiency level (0, 1, 2) for all populated sub-competencies. Select Level 0 if you have had no exposure to a particular sub-competency during this reporting period.

Reporting is cumulative so if you previously self-assessed at Level 1 in a particular sub-competency area, you will remain at or self-assess higher in the next reporting period depending on the work completed over the last reporting period.

When you create an experience report, you will report your enabling competency development on the Enabling Competencies page.

There are five (5) competency areas containing three-part questions. You are not expected to document all five enabling competencies semi-annually. Only document the enabling competencies that most reflect your professional development obtained during this reporting period.

All five enabling competencies must be at a Level 2 proficiency by the time you request a Completion CPA Review.

We recommend you use the reporting templates when completing your experience reporting, as the templates are tailored to the specific reporting requirements.

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 completing your experience reporting up to the last day in your position. It is recommended you schedule a final mentor meeting once you have updated your reporting to your last day.

Once all of your experience reports have a status of VERIFIED, you will need to request a Change of Job CPA Review. Follow guidance in the Changing Jobs While Reporting Guide, found in the Resources section of PERT.

Once your Change of Job CPA Review is complete, you will be set to UNEMPLOYED. If you are in a new position, you will then need to update your experience route and document and submit your new employment information in PERT. 

We do caution CPA candidates that who change jobs that it may take longer than 30 months to meet the overall technical and enabling competency requirements, especially if the change results in a significant shift in competency development.

Yes, the CPA Practical Experience Requirements allow for CPA candidates to change experience routes.

You cannot change your experience route in PERT until all experience reports have been reviewed and approved by CPA Alberta through a Change of Job CPA Review.

Your competencies and duration achieved through your original experience route will be consolidated with the duration and competencies achieved in the new experience route. 

We do caution CPA candidates that change experience routes that it may take longer than 30 months to meet the overall technical and enabling competency requirements, especially if the change results in a significant shift in competency development.

Use a Prior Experience Report. Once you have your profile created in PERT and your Reporting Status is set to 'In Progress', you will be able to create a Prior Experience Report to capture your experience from before your PER Start Date.

If you are no longer employed at that position, we suggest that you document your prior experience as soon as you can and request a CPA Review. If your prior experience is from a different PPR or from the experience verification route, a separate CPA Review is required first, so we recommend you do this as soon as possible.

If your prior experience is from a different PPR, you will create a Prior PPR report, self-assess your technical competency development against the populated sub-competencies, and then verify the experience report by clicking COMPLETE on the Summary page.

If your prior experience is from the experience verification route (EVR), you will create a Prior EV report, document your competency development and then have it verified by your former supervisor. 

Once your prior experience report has a status of verified, you will request a Student Requested CPA Review to have your prior experience reviewed and approved by the profession. In the Review Reason Details, indicate you are requesting a review of your prior experience. This should be completed as soon as possible.

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 sub-competency 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 you are in a PPR, once you complete the Practical Experience Requirements, a Completion CPA Review must be requested.

• If you change programs or employers, a Change of Job CPA Review must be requested within 90 days of the change.

• There are no penalties associated with missing the 90-day requirement. If you miss the 90 days, this will result in a delay in getting you feedback on your progression to date and updating your employer.

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 completing your experience reporting up to the last day in your position. It is recommended you schedule a final mentor meeting once you have updated your reporting to your last day.

Once all of your experience reports have a status of VERIFIED, you will need to request a Change of Job CPA Review. Follow guidance in the Changing Jobs While Reporting Guide, found in the Resources section of PERT. 

Once your Change of Job CPA Review is complete, you will be set to UNEMPLOYED. If you are in a new position, you will then need to update your experience route and document and submit your new employment information in PERT. 

No, you will need to discuss with your mentor your self-assessed technical and enabling competencies based on the work completed as of your departure date. This will be approved by your Program Leader before being reviewed by CPA Alberta.

Any approved technical and enabling competencies will be considered in combination with any future competencies achieved in meeting the overall practical experience technical and enabling competencies.

• Ensure that your experience report dates do not overlap.

• Leave days should be reported accurately.

• Ensure that your experience reports have a status of verified.

• All mentor meetings should be documented.

• If self-assessing at a Level 2 in an enabling competency, all three parts of the question need to be answered fully.

• If you are at completion, all technical competencies are appropriately self-assessed to the target proficiency set by the organization.

• If you are reporting a change in job, all technical competencies are appropriately self-assessed to the proficiency level you had achieved upon departure.

• If working in public practice, the chargeable hours form should be signed by the Program Leader and attached to the last experience report in PERT.

• When you request a CPA Review, the review is first sent to the Program Leader for certification.
  • Please ensure that all experience reports have a status of ‘verified’ before you request your CPA Review. Any experience reports that do NOT have a status of ‘verified’ will not be included in the CPA Review request.

• When the Program Leader certifies the experience reports through the CPA Review, it is then sent to CPA Alberta for review and approval.

• If you are working in public accounting, you must ensure the Chargeable Hours Form is completed, signed, and attached to the last experience report in PERT.

When you request a CPA Review, the status will be ‘Data Check’ or ‘Certification Requested’. 

• Data Check: your CPA Review is with your Program Manager for verification.
  • If your CPA Review is in ‘Data Check’ status and you have questions on when your CPA Review will be verified, you will need to reach out to your Program Manager.

• Certification Requested: your CPA Review is with your Program Leader for certification. 
  • If your CPA Review is in ‘Certification Requested’ status and you have questions on when your CPA Review will be certified, you will need to reach out to your Program Leader.

The CPA Review status will change from ‘Certification Requested’ to ‘Assessment Requested’ once your Program Leader has certified your experience report(s) and the review has been sent to CPA Alberta.

The CPA Review status will change from ‘Assessment Requested’ to ‘Required’ once your review has been assigned to a CPA Alberta reviewer.

If applicable, the CPA Review status will change from ‘Required’ to ‘Follow-up’ if revisions are requested.

If applicable, the CPA Review status will change from ‘Follow-up’ to ‘Required’ when you resubmit your CPA Review after addressing your revisions in your experience report(s).

When you request a mentor meeting in PERT, your mentor will be required to input the date of the meeting, and they can backdate to the date the meeting actually occurred.

If you have a few missed mentor meetings to record, you can only make one request at a time. Once your mentor has recorded the details of one of the missed mentor meetings, you will need to make another mentor meeting request for them to record the details of the next missed meeting.

Directly through your My CPA Portal.

Once you successfully complete the evaluation on D2L (regarding the Practical Experience Student Orientation webinar), you should have access to PERT the next business day.
Once you log in to My CPA Portal, you can click on 'Practical Experience' and access PERT.

If you cannot log in to My CPA Portal, please contact the CPA Western School of Business.

If you are experiencing difficulty accessing PERT once you have logged in to My CPA Portal, please contact CPA Alberta’s Practical Experience team via email at PracticalExperience@cpaalberta.ca and indicate “PERT login issues” in the subject line.

Generally, if you have an Action Item in PERT, that means you have something to do.

The system may have flagged that you are overdue for a mentor meeting, or that your Next Experience Report Date has passed and you have not yet created the experience report.

If you have any action items you are unsure about, contact us at practicalexperience@cpaalberta.ca.

• Pending Enrolment: you are waiting for employment confirmation from your Program Manager in PERT.

• In Progress: Once employment has been confirmed by your Program Manager, the status will change to ‘In Progress’ while you are actively reporting in your program.

• Unemployed: You are not currently employed or you do not have a qualifying position to report in PERT.

• PER Standard Met: You have met the overall Practical Experience requirements.