How do I maintain my certifications?

To keep things simple, we have a single approach to maintain ALL of your certifications.

Scott Mitchell avatar
Written by Scott Mitchell
Updated over a week ago

!! IMPORTANT !!
We are not able to make exceptions to this policy. Our accreditation with various certifying bodies requires strict adherence to this policy.

This information is taken from our website at https://www.oceg.org/certifications/maintain/

Maintaining ALL of your certifications is simple and straightforward. We use a single CPE program for all of our certifications. You must BOTH:

  1. Maintain an All Access Pass, and

  2. Complete 8 hours of continuing professional education every year for each certification.

Benefit of Double Credit: Our continuing education offerings are designed to be efficient. Many of our webinars and courses are applicable to more than one certification. This means you can earn credits for multiple certifications through a single learning experience. In other words, one webinar or course can fulfill the CPE requirements for several of your certifications simultaneously. One experience. Multiple credits.

Rules for OCEG Certifications (accredited by GRC Certify)

OCEG offers a number of certifications accredited by GRC Certify. All of our certifications follow the same unified program rules:

  1. Initial Certificate Validity: Upon successfully passing the exam, your certificate is valid for one full year, starting from the date you passed the exam. You may use the designated "letters" after you name to indicate the certification exam you passed and your status as a professional. For example, after you pass the GRC Professional exam, you are able to use GRCP after your name so long as you stay in compliance with this Unified Certification Maintenance program.

  2. First Year CPE Exemption: In your first year after passing the exam and earning the certification, you are not required to complete any Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits. This exemption is due to the minimum of 8 hours you have already dedicated to preparing for and taking the exam.

  3. CPE Requirements from Second Year: Starting from the beginning of your second year of certification, you are required to earn a minimum of 8 CPE credits each year. These credits must be in subjects relevant to the certification you hold.

  4. Certificate Renewal Conditions: Your certificate will automatically renew for another full year on its expiration date if BOTH of the following two conditions are met: a) You have an active All Access Pass (also known as a Pro Membership). b) You have fulfilled the required CPE credits for that year.

  5. Non-Renewal and Grace Period: If your certificate's expiration date arrives and you have not met both the conditions (active All Access Pass and required CPE credits), you will enter a 90-day grace period. During this time, you must fulfill BOTH conditions to maintain your certification.

  6. Certification Termination Post-Grace Period: If you fail to meet BOTH conditions (active All Access Pass and required CPE credits) by the end of the 90-day grace period, your certification will be removed from our records. After this point, you will no longer be able to display or claim the certification.

    !! IMPORTANT !!
    We are not able to make exceptions to this policy. Our accreditation with various certifying bodies requires strict adherence to this policy. If your certificate expires and the grace period passes, you will need to pass the exam once again.

Viewing CPE Status

You may view your current CPE status on your Certification Dashboard at any time.

Applying Credit to OCEG Certifications

  • AUTOMATIC TRACKING. When you attend events and view recorded resources on the OCEG platform, your time and attendance are automatically tracked. You will see the related certifications and credits indicated on the event or resource description page.

  • MANUAL TRACKING. You may manually add CPE credits from other sources as well. These events must be related to GRC topics and you must indicate which of your certifications each should apply to.

  • ERRORS. If there is an error with automatic or manual tracking, please add the corrected event manually to your CPE Transcript and notify our team at [email protected] to remove any errors.

  • OMISSIONS. If there is an omission with automatic or manual tracking, please add the corrected event manually to your CPE Transcript. You do not need to notify our team.

Auditing

  • All CPE activities, whether automatically tracked or manually entered through our system are subject to periodic audits.

Applying OCEG Credits to External Certifications (accredited by NASBA)

  • OCEG is accredited with NASBA. NASBA has served as a forum for the nation’s 55 State Boards of Accountancy, which administer the Uniform CPA Examination, license more than 650,000 Certified Public Accountants, and regulate the practice of public accountancy in the United States. NASBA-accredited CPEs are accepted by most professional organizations associated with accounting, auditing, and finance. Other professional organizations (such as local and state bar associations), often accept NASBA-accredited CPEs.

  • Not all of our events are eligible for NASBA credits due to the rules around tracking.

  • Events that are eligible are marked "NASBA" and can be found on our resource center and event listing.

NASBA Accredited External CPEs

When an event is NASBA accredited, it uses this additional information.

Field of Study: Management Service

Prerequisites: None
Advanced Preparation: None
Program Level: Basic
Delivery Method: Group Internet Based
CPE Credit Notice

This is a group internet-based event for NASBA-authorized continuing education credit. OCEG webinars are free for anyone to attend, but only Attendees who have an OCEG All Access Pass will receive a Certificate of Completion for the webinar indicating 1 hour of CPE credit.OCEG is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have the final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org. For information regarding administrative issues such as complaints or refunds, please contact OCEG at [email protected].

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