Guidance

This guidance applies to the statutory requirement in the Accountant Act Section 3-4 and replaces Circular 11/2012.

1. Requirements for Continuing Education

The law's minimum requirement for continuing education applies to every state-authorized accountant, even if the accountant does not practice approved accounting services. The accountant may only count continuing education hours that are documented in the manner prescribed by law. If the accountant fails to comply with the continuing education requirement, the Financial Supervisory Authority may revoke the approval, unless the accountant deposits (surrenders) the approval. Depositing the approval means that the approval is deleted, and new approval can be obtained by fulfilling the continuing education requirement and the fitness requirement.

2. Purpose of the Statutory Continuing Education Requirement

The main purpose of the statutory continuing education requirement is to contribute to state-authorized accountants being professionally qualified to be responsible for accounting assignments and to be appointed as responsible for quality management in accounting firms. The statutory requirement ensures a documentable minimum level of professional updating. The statutory continuing education should constitute a competence enhancement or updating of existing knowledge. Therefore, the same course with the same content cannot be counted more than once. Each state-authorized accountant must, beyond the documentable minimum requirement, ensure sufficient competence adapted to their area of responsibility and assignment responsibility.

3. Statutory Minimum Requirement for Continuing Education and Documentation

The Accountant Act Section 3-4 requires a minimum of 80 documentable continuing education hours over the last three years. At least 60 of these hours must be "structured training," i.e., course hours completed with a professional course organizer who can confirm actual participation.

Up to 20 hours may consist of developing teaching materials, articles, and other professional content, participation in professional-technical committee work, examination grading, and equivalent activity.

One continuing education hour must constitute a minimum of 45 minutes of activity. This implies a requirement for at least 45 minutes of continuous and effective training. Half a continuing education hour must constitute a minimum of 30 minutes. A course with a duration shorter than 30 minutes cannot constitute statutory continuing education. For e-courses, the organizer's calculated completion time is used as the basis.

The fulfillment of the statutory minimum requirement must be documented in a way that allows the Financial Supervisory Authority to control the continuing education of the individual, see Accountant Act Section 3-4, fourth to sixth paragraphs.

4. Requirement for Ongoing Continuing Education

The accountant must have at least 80 continuing education hours at each year-end. The continuing education hours must have been completed during the last three years. The accountant must therefore plan for continuing education so that the minimum requirement is met before the year-end.

The continuing education requirements must first be fulfilled from and including the fourth year-end after the accountant received approval. This means that if one receives approval as a state-authorized accountant during the year 20x0, the continuing education requirement must first be fulfilled from and including January 1, 20x4. In this first period, the accountant may count continuing education hours completed from the time the approval was granted.

5. Continuing Education as Part of the Competence Requirement When Applying for Accountant Approval

This guidance on the continuing education requirement applies correspondingly when applying for and granting approval. When the guidance states "accountant," it should be understood as "applicant." In this context, the continuing education hours are a condition that must be fulfilled at the time of application. There are no exceptions to this condition, not even during parental leave or illness.

If the last exam in the accountant education was taken more than five calendar years ago, the person applying for approval as a state-authorized accountant must document 80 continuing education hours for the last three calendar years, or for the current year and the two last calendar years. After the approval is granted, the accountant must next be able to document that the continuing education requirement is fulfilled at the fourth year-end calculated from the approval decision.

When an accountant voluntarily gives up approval under the deposit scheme, the Financial Supervisory Authority shall grant approval as a state-authorized accountant if the person fulfills the fitness and continuing education requirements. Hours can be calculated from the last three calendar years, alternatively the current year and the two last calendar years. After new approval is granted under the deposit scheme, the accountant must fulfill the continuing education requirement on an ongoing basis. This means that the accountant must have at least 80 continuing education hours over the last three years at each year-end.

6. Professional Content and Statutory Subjects

Statutory continuing education must have a professional content that is part of the professional circle in formal education that provides the basis for approval as an accountant. It is a prerequisite that the professional content is both within the professional circle for accountant education in Norway and relevant for the practice of accounting services. Even if the training has relevant professional content, the accountant must additionally assess whether the course constitutes a professional addition to their own competence.

A sufficient part of the continuing education must be within subjects that constitute a central part of accountant competence. At least 40 hours of continuing education must be within the statutory subjects: financial accounting, tax and VAT law, corporate law, and accounting, and all subject areas must be covered. The subject of accounting includes the Accountant Act, Good Accounting Practice (GRFS), and risk management.

Training in administration, social economics, business economics, auditing, public accounting principles, methodology, and ethics is only relevant continuing education under the Accountant Act if the training is relevant for the practice of business under the Accountant Act. Such training will not cover the statutory subjects of financial accounting, tax and VAT law, corporate law, and accounting.

Sustainability is part of the professional circle for accountant education and is relevant as a subject. Training in sustainability can cover the statutory subjects of financial accounting and corporate law when the training is directed towards, respectively, accounting reporting and current sustainability legislation. Attestation of sustainability reporting under the Auditor Act does not cover the statutory subjects of financial accounting, tax and VAT law, corporate law, or accounting. Money laundering rules are a relevant subject under the Accountant Act. Training in money laundering rules can cover the statutory subject areas of accounting and corporate law when the training is directed towards, respectively, accounting assignments and money laundering legislation.

Training in the use of tools with concrete, professional issues related to accounting can be counted within the relevant statutory subjects. Introduction and training in the general use of software does not constitute professional updating, even if the software is necessary for the practice of the profession. Such training cannot be counted as continuing education under the Accountant Act.

7. Structured Training – Training with a Professional Organizer

At least 60 of the 80 continuing education hours must be structured training.

Structured training is all types of courses arranged by professional organizers or organizers who are at the same level as a professional course organizer. Such an organizer must presuppose ensuring a high professional level and good quality in the implementation. The organizer must confirm the number of hours of participation. The confirmation must be based on a sound control that the person receiving the participant confirmation actually participated in the training.

A collective overview from the industry associations Regnskap Norge and Revisorforeningen's member pages, which confirms participation in the respective industry association's course, is approved as both a chronological overview and participant confirmation.

The Financial Supervisory Authority does not approve course organizers or courses. It is the accountant themselves who must assess the qualitative level of the organizer and the training, including ensuring that the organizer issues a participant confirmation. A professional organizer should keep participant documentation for at least five years. The accountant must also assess whether the course's professional content corresponds to the course organizer's subject distribution. If the accountant has assessed the course's professional content differently than what appears in the course certificate or similar, the accountant must document the basis for their assessment.

8. Non-Structured Training

Up to 20 of the 80 continuing education hours can be non-structured training.

Developing teaching materials, articles, and other professional content, participation in professional-technical committee work, examination grading, and equivalent activity can constitute up to 20 hours of the statutory continuing education over a three-year period. The alternative "equivalent activity" constitutes a safety valve in case the legislator has omitted activities that can obviously be equated with the mentioned activities.

The prerequisite is that the activity's professional content is relevant and that the activity constitutes a actual professional update for the individual. The activity must be confirmed by others than the accountant themselves.

9. Chronological Overview

The accountant must prepare a collective chronological overview showing how the statutory continuing education requirement is fulfilled for the current three-year continuing education period. The overview must be updated at least annually. The date of completion must appear in the overview, and each individual training activity must be distributed among the statutory subject areas. Relevant training that does not fall under the statutory subject areas can be categorized as "other subject areas" or similar.

The chronological overview should only show continuing education that is relevant under the Accountant Act Section 3-4. The chronological overview should only show continuing education that is supported by statutory documentation. Structured training must be documented with a participant certificate from the course organizer.

It must be clear from the overview which hours are "structured training" and which are not. For structured training, the overview must show the name of the organizer, the course designation of the training, and the date of completion, in addition to the statutory subject area.

The same requirements for the content of the chronological overview apply in cases where the course organizer prepares the chronological overview on behalf of the accountant. All requirements must also be fulfilled if the course organizer prepares the chronological overview and participant confirmation in one and the same document.

A collective overview from the industry associations Regnskap Norge and Revisorforeningen's member pages, which confirms participation in the industry association's course, is approved as both a chronological overview and participant confirmation.

10. Confirmation of Completed Structured Training

Structured training must be documented with the organizer's participant confirmation (course certificate) stating the accountant's name, the organizer's name, the name(s) of the person(s) who conducted the training, the date when the training was completed, the number of hours of actual participation, a short description of the professional content, and the form of training. The course organizer does not need to categorize the professional content according to the statutory subject areas, as long as the professional content is described. If the course organizer has categorized the professional content anyway, the accountant must document their own assessment if the accountant deviates from the organizer's categorization.

The same requirements for the course organizer's participant confirmation apply in cases where the course organizer prepares a collective chronological overview and course certificate in one and the same document.

Course overviews from the member pages of Revisorforeningen and Regnskap Norge, which confirm participation in the industry association's course in a collective overview, are approved as course certificates as mentioned above.

11. Confirmation of Completed Continuing Education that is Not Structured Training

Relevant continuing education also includes developing teaching materials, articles, and other professional content, participation in professional-technical committee work, examination grading, and equivalent activity, with up to 20 hours. Such activity must also be supported by external documentation. The documentation must state the name, the period of completion, and a short description of the activity's content. The number of continuing education hours per year must be substantiated in the documentation.

12. Special Regarding Completed Exams as Continuing Education

Passed exams and similar can constitute statutory continuing education. If it is clear from the study institution's subject plan for the subject (subject description) how many hours of mandatory teaching the course comprises, these hours can be counted as structured training. Alternatively, the number of hours of structured training can be calculated as the number of study points times four. The structured training is considered completed on the exam date.

The hours must be documented with a grade transcript and a printout of the course's subject plan/subject description.

Actual time spent on teaching and similar beyond what can be documented as mentioned above can be counted within the remaining 20 continuing education hours that do not need to be structured training. Such activity must be supported by documentation from others than the accountant themselves.

13. Special Regarding Courses Arranged by the Employer

Professional discussions and meeting activities in a workplace do not constitute statutory continuing education. Active learning and reading of theory as part of professional practice is not statutory continuing education. It is only to the extent that the employer arranges training in structured forms and with lecturers who have special competence in the subject area, that such training can be counted as statutory continuing education. The employer is then an organizer that must issue a participant confirmation (course certificate) in accordance with the Accountant Act Section 3-4, fourth paragraph.

14. Extension of the Continuing Education Period in Connection with Parental Leave

The continuing education period for state-authorized accountants is automatically extended by one year if the accountant has had at least six months of 100 percent parental leave in the last 12 months. Also, if the leave is taken using a time account, the leave in the last 12 months must constitute at least six months. This means that the rule about automatic postponement does not apply if you are more than 50 percent professionally active during leave.

That the period is extended by one year means that the requirement of 80 continuing education hours must be completed during the last four calendar years. This also applies to the future, as long as the six months of parental leave is within the last three calendar years. In practice, the rule means that the accountant can disregard the year in which six months of parental leave was obtained.

The extension of the continuing education period under this rule occurs without assessment by the Financial Supervisory Authority. The accountant should not send an application.

In an application for approval as a state-authorized accountant, continuing education is a qualification requirement, and the continuing education period cannot be extended or dispensed from, regardless of reason.

15. Dispensation from the Continuing Education Requirement Upon Application

A state-authorized accountant can apply for dispensation from the continuing education requirement if the accountant unexpectedly has been prevented from fulfilling the continuing education requirement. The dispensation rule is enforced strictly and is only used in very special cases. The need for dispensation will normally only concern accountants who are appointed as assignment responsible, accountants who practice business as holders of sole proprietorships, or accountants who are responsible for quality management in an accounting firm. Accountants without such roles must deposit their approval when it is clear that the statutory continuing education will not be completed.

Normally, only serious illness, which prevents the accountant from completing courses, can be used as a justification for dispensation. If the illness does not prevent the accountant from professional practice, it is expected that the accountant complies with the continuing education requirement. That the accountant temporarily has left the profession and chooses not to complete continuing education does not constitute a basis for dispensation. The accountant must then deposit the approval. The dispensation rule is intended as a safety valve when unexpected circumstances outside the accountant's control have prevented the accountant from fulfilling the minimum requirement.

It is a prerequisite for dispensation that the accountant catches up on the continuing education as soon as possible after the original deadline, and that the situation that caused the need for dispensation ceases within a reasonable time. This means that it is normally not decided to grant dispensation with a duration beyond one year.

There is no standard form to apply for dispensation. A dispensation application is sent in letter form. Use the Financial Supervisory Authority's standard addresses: Altinn form KRT-1060 (General attachment form to the Financial Supervisory Authority), email address post@finanstilsynet.no or regular postal address.

Documentation that must accompany the dispensation application

Processing of a dispensation application requires that the following documentation is attached:

Documentation of the circumstances that are the basis for the dispensation application.

The date when the circumstances occurred must appear in the documentation.

Illness is documented with a medical certificate. The degree of illness and the illness period must appear.

Indication of when the continuing education requirement is expected to be fulfilled.

A collective chronological overview of continuing education hours completed in the current three-year period.

Confirmation of registration for courses in the near future.