Norway CPD: 120 Hours for Auditors, 80 for Accountants

Norway draws the cleanest line in Europe between its two accounting professions: statutory auditors owe 120 hours over three years, authorised accountants owe 80. Both are administered by the same regulator under separate statutes, and both are measured in a way that catches people out — at every year-end, with no declaration to file.

Norway also gets there by a different constitutional route from its EU neighbours, which is worth understanding if you are comparing regimes.

The EEA route, not the EU one

Norway is in the European Economic Area, not the European Union. The EU Statutory Audit Directive still reaches it — the instrument is marked as having EEA relevance and sits in Annex XXII to the EEA Agreement, at point 10f.

The 2014 audit reform was brought across by EEA Joint Committee Decision No 102/2018 of 27 April 2018, which incorporated Directive 2014/56/EU and the audit regulation into Annex XXII and took effect on 28 April 2018. Norway’s consent was sought in the same parliamentary bill as its new audit act.

The practical consequence: Norway’s continuing-education obligation is an EEA obligation discharged through domestic statute — and unlike the directive itself, which sets no figure at all, the Norwegian statute does state a number.

Statutory auditors: 120 hours, 90 of them structured

The obligation sits in chapter 5 of the audit act of 20 November 2020, at section 5-1. The figures, as the regulator states them:

• 120 CPD hours over the last three years
• At least 90 hours must be structured training — strukturert opplæring. The remaining 30 may be other relevant activity
• At least half of the 90 structured hours — so at least 45 — must cover the statutory subject areas: financial accounting, audit, valuation and analysis, tax and duties, and company law. All of the areas must be covered, though no per-area figure is given beyond that
• One hour means at least 45 minutes of activity — so 120 hours is 90 clock hours, the same convention Poland, Austria and Denmark use
• No ethics minimum. No sustainability CPD requirement is set out alongside these rules

Measured at year-end, with nothing to file

This is the Norwegian feature most likely to trip someone up. The requirement is tested at each year-end across the last three calendar years, and there is no annual declaration deadline and no routine reporting duty.

That sounds relaxed and is not. It means the test is applied continuously rather than at a moment you prepare for. There is no filing date to work toward and no notification that the clock has turned — on 1 January you either have 120 hours behind you or you do not.

A shortfall can lead to administrative measures from the regulator, and its guidance goes further: an auditor below the minimum should deposit their approval. Dispensation is applied for by letter with supporting documentation.

What the documentation has to look like

The regulator is specific, and the requirements are usefully concrete:

• A chronological overview covering the last three years, updated at least annually
• A participation certificate for each structured course from the organiser, showing hours, content and date
• For non-structured activity, confirmation from someone other than the auditor, naming the auditor, the period and the activity

That last rule is unusual and worth noting: your own note of your own reading does not suffice. Someone else has to confirm it.

On retention, Norway inverts the usual arrangement. The course organiser must keep the participation certificate for at least five years. No retention period is stated for the auditor’s own records. The obligation to hold evidence is real; the period is not fixed — which in practice argues for keeping it indefinitely.

Authorised accountants: 80 hours, 60 of them structured

A separate statute — the accountants act of 16 December 2022, at section 3-4 — governs regnskapsførere. The regulator published fresh guidance on it in June 2025, amended in October 2025, replacing a circular that had stood since 2012.

• At least 80 documentable CPD hours over the last three years, measured at each year-end in the same way
• At least 60 of them structured
• Up to 20 hours may be preparing teaching material, articles and other professional content
• At least 40 hours in the statutory subjects: financial accounting, tax and duties, company law, and accounting practice — the last covering the accountants act itself, the good-practice standards and risk management. All areas must be covered, with no per-area figure
• Documentation: a course certificate for each structured activity naming the organiser, date, hours of actual attendance and a short description of content, plus a consolidated chronological overview updated at least annually with structured training clearly marked
• Retention: a professional organiser should keep participant documentation at least five years. The guidance does not state how long the accountant must keep records

Why the two-tier split is useful to see

Most European jurisdictions either quantify only the audit profession and leave the rest with an unquantified duty — as France does with experts-comptables and Germany does with Steuerberater — or run two professional bodies with separate instruments, as Belgium and Portugal do.

Norway does something different: one regulator, two statutes, two clearly different numbers, same measurement method. 120 and 90 structured for auditors; 80 and 60 structured for accountants. The symmetry makes the proportionality visible in a way most regimes obscure.

It is also a reminder that the non-audit profession having a smaller obligation is not the same as having none. Anyone generalising from the French or German position would get Norway wrong.

A sourcing note

Two limits to record. The national legal database refused repeated attempts, so the 120 hours, the 90 structured hours and the 45-hour subject floor are the regulator’s own statement of what section 5-1 requires rather than our reading of the statute. The regulator is the authoritative source for how it supervises the rule, but that is not the same as the law text.

Separately, the professional institute’s own website refused access on every attempt, so we cannot tell you whether it imposes any member-level requirement beyond the statutory one. Treat that as unknown rather than as nothing — Sweden is the cautionary case there, where the professional body sets a materially stricter rule than the regulator.

We also located the regulator’s page on transitional approval as a sustainability auditor but could not retrieve its contents, so we state no figures for it.

Frequently asked questions

How many CPD hours do Norwegian auditors need? 120 over the last three years, of which at least 90 structured and at least 45 covering the statutory subject areas.

And authorised accountants? At least 80 documentable hours over the last three years, of which at least 60 structured and at least 40 in the statutory subjects.

Is there a filing deadline? No. The requirement is tested at each year-end and there is no routine reporting duty.

How long is an hour? At least 45 minutes of activity.

Can I evidence my own reading myself? No. Non-structured activity needs confirmation from someone other than you, naming you, the period and the activity.

Structured hours, confirmable by someone other than you, with Learnsignal

Norway asks for 90 structured hours out of 120 and requires third-party confirmation for everything else. Our certificated courses issue a participation record naming the organiser, date, duration and content — which is the form the regulator describes. See also our guide to CPD record examples. The regulator’s guidance is published at Finanstilsynet.