Arkansas CPA CPE Requirements 2026: 40 Hours a Year or 120 in Three

Arkansas CPAs must complete either 40 hours of CPE in a 12-month period or 120 hours in a 36-month period, measured back from January 1 of the renewal year. At least four hours must be professional conduct and ethics, and one of them must cover the Arkansas Board's laws and rules. Licenses expire on December 31 each year. This guide uses Rule 13 of the Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy and the Department of Labor and Licensing pages. For a comparison across states see our CPA CPE requirements guide.

Arkansas CPE requirements at a glance

Two ways to count

Rule 13 lets you meet the requirement either with 120 hours over a 36-month period or with 40 hours in a 12-month period, measured immediately before January 1 of the renewal year. For the 40-hour option the Department's audit page covers all courses from the audit year and ethics courses from the three most recent years, and for the 120-hour option it covers all courses from the three most recent years. The state's renewal page simply says 40 hours every year, which describes the single-year option. Choose a method deliberately, because the audit looks at the period that fits it.

Ethics

Four hours of professional conduct and ethics are required in the 36 months before license expiration, and one hour must be on the Arkansas Board's laws and rules. That hour counts toward the four and is required of all active licensees, including non-residents. The Department describes it as three general ethics hours plus one Arkansas ethics hour. Our overview of ethics CPE for CPAs explains how ethics credit works in other states.

Subject minimums

The board pages state minimums in hours for the 40-hour option: 8 hours of group study, 16 hours in public-practice content areas (accounting, attest, ethics and tax) or 8 if you are not in public practice, and 8 hours in attest or compilation for those who do that work. Rule 13 expresses the subject minimums as percentages: 40 percent in accounting, accounting ethics, attest or taxation (20 percent if not in public practice), and 20 percent in attest and accounting theory for those doing attest or compilation work. Specialized-knowledge courses cannot satisfy the first minimum. We could not find the group-study minimum in the Rule 13 text we received.

Caps on delivery and activities

Self-study and authoring together cannot exceed 80 percent of the total required hours. Nano-learning, meaning 10-minute modules, is capped at four hours a year. Presenters earn two times the participant hours for preparation and delivery. Articles or books formally accepted for publication can be self-declared. College credit counts 15 hours per semester hour and 10 per quarter hour, and each course counts once in three years. Group programs must be interactive, either live or an interactive webinar, and independent study needs advance Board approval.

New licensees, reinstatement and carryover

For a new licensee, hours are prorated from the initial licensure date, and ethics is deferred until the first full calendar year. A lapsed license may be reinstated if the application is filed on or before July 1 after the lapse, with the fee, and CPE and other requirements are completed by the application date. Rule 13 requires 40 hours per 12 inactive months for those inactive under three years, and a Board-approved program with four ethics hours in the prior 36 months after three years or more. Rule 13 does not address carryforward of excess hours.

Records, sponsors and audits

Keep records for five years after the end of the year of completion. Sponsors offering more than 16 credit hours or more than five programs a year must be on the NASBA National Registry, and self-study sponsors may use NASBA's quality assurance service. Exempt sponsors include professional and legal organizations, accredited universities, in-house firm programs and government entities. Certificates should show the sponsor's NASBA number or "Exempt", the field of study, the delivery method and a 50-minute hour basis. Our explainer on what NASBA does covers the registry. The 2025 audit documentation was due in early November.

Renewal, late cure and exemptions

Licenses expire December 31 each year, with a monthly penalty from the first day of the next month and a lapse if not renewed by April 1. Deficiencies can be made up by January 31 of the following reporting period, and the Board gives 30 days after a notice of non-compliance to correct. Exemptions exist for deployed military and their spouses, retired status for those 55 and over, and disabled status, plus Board hardship exceptions for health, military or foreign residency.

What we could not confirm

Our tools summarized the pages rather than returning verbatim text, so confirm quotations against the Board's PDF of Rule 13, which carries a January 2024 date. The Board says its revised rules took effect March 5, 2026 and its page does not mention CPE, but we could not read the post-March-2026 text of Rule 13, so confirm it is unchanged. The January 2024 Rule 13 lists professional accounting and legal organizations such as the AICPA as exempt sponsors, and the state's newer administrative code numbering was not readable. The Board's page lists no proposed rule changes at the time of our check.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPE hours do Arkansas CPAs need?

Either 40 hours in 12 months or 120 hours in 36 months.

How many ethics hours are required?

Four, including one on Arkansas Board laws and rules.

When do Arkansas licenses expire?

December 31 each year.

Is there a cap on nano-learning?

Yes, four hours a year.

Finding CPE that counts

Learnsignal publishes accounting, tax, audit, ethics and finance courses in its CPD and CPE library. Before you buy any course for credit, check that the provider is listed as an approved sponsor with your board or on the NASBA registry, and keep the certificate. Our page on NASBA CPE sponsor information explains what we publish about sponsor status. For a wider comparison read our guide to online CPE providers.

Other states: Texas California New York Florida Illinois.

Source: Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy CPE pages and Rule 13 (labor.arkansas.gov), A.C.A. section 17-12-504, checked October 2026.