Continuing Education Guidelines

The Continuing Education Requirement

The Institute of Finance and Management requires its Certification-holders to fulfill a continuing education requirement annually in order to maintain their Certification. Continuing education, which covers a large range of activities whose purpose is to better equip you to excel in your specific career field, is measured in Continuing Education Units (CEUs). 

General Rules

• CEUs are awarded primarily as 1 CEU per hour of continuing education earned within your current Certification compliance period.
• You cannot log CEUs from before you were certified or from outside of your current Certification compliance period.
• You cannot log CEUs that are less than 1 (ex: 0.5 CEUs). When logging your CEUs in your account, you are allowed to round to the nearest whole number.
• CEUs do NOT into the new year. We encourage you to do more than the minimum requirement; however, every year when your Certification renews, your CEU total will reset to zero.

The following are activities that are eligible for CEU credit: 

IOFM Activities

These activities are pre-approved for CEUs, but it is your to log in your account.

• IOFM Professional, Business or Enterprise Membership: 5 CEUs (Free Starter Membership not eligible for any CEUs)
• IOFM Conference: 13 CEUs
• IOFM Conference add-on workshop: 6 CEUs for a full-day (excluding Certification workshops), 3 CEUs for a half-day
• IOFM Virtual Events (Live): 3 CEUs per day logged in 
• IOFM Virtual Events (On-Demand): 1 CEU per hour of recordings watched
• IOFM Forum: 2 CEUs for earning Collaborator badge (10 comments/replies; at least 5 replies must be replies to someone else's posts)
• IOFM Master Classes: 3-4 CEUs, depending on the class
• IOFM White Papers: 1 CEU per white paper
• Live or On-demand IOFM Webinar: 1 CEU per hour
• Live or On-demand IOFM Compliance Webinar (Members-only): 2 CEUs each
• IOFM Virtual Demo Day: 1 CEU for every 2 demos attended 
• IOFM Virtual Workshop (Members-only): 3 CEUs each
• Speaker at IOFM Conference: 3 CEUs per hour
• IOFM Chapter Meeting: 1 CEU per hour, up to 4 CEUs (chapter leaders - 3 CEUs per hour, up to 12)
• IOFM Editorial Assistance (varies): 3 CEUs for writing a published article; 3 CEUs for answering 3 questions as an Ask the Expert panelist; 2 CEUs for participating in a benchmark survey, other CEUs awarded editorial team's discretion

Outside of IOFM (External CEUs)

IOFM accepts CEUs from outside IOFM as well. Calculate your CEU total based on the guidelines below. Most of the time, the burden is on YOU, the Certification-holder, to prove the relevancy of the content as continuing education for your Certification. However, IOFM does pre-approve CEUs from some of our trusted providers. You can see a list of pre-approved external CEUs here. 

REMINDER: When self-reporting external CEUs, the description field and a verification file are required. IOFM has final authority on the acceptance of individual activities for CEU credit. 

• Relevant conference/seminar: 1 CEU per 1 hour of training/conference, excluding meals, networking events and breaks
• Relevant college classes (accounting, finance, etc.): 3 CEUs per credit hour
• Panelist at an relevant conference: 1 CEU 
• Personal development/management training: 1 CEU per hour; annual maximum of 2 for Specialists and 5 for Managers. None for Payment Reporting Specialists.
• Relevant White Paper: 1 CEU per white paper
• Relevant Webinar: 1 CEU per 1 hour of training
• Interdisciplinary activities: 25% of your CEUs per year can come from a related "discipline." For example, if you hold an APM or APS Certification, you could submit accounts receivable continuing education for up to 4 CEUs per year. 

The following are activities that are NOT eligible for CEU credit: 

• Certification classes, whether onsite at one of our conferences, live online or self-study: We know that earning your Certification takes a lot of time! However, the nature of continuing education is that it is additional training you do after you are certified in order to keep up with the standards set by the program. Therefore, earning your credentials does not count towards your CEU requirement. If you already hold an IOFM Certification, you may count subsequent live Certification classes for 6 CEUs towards that previously-held Certification. 
• Required training for your current role/work assignments: Projects/assignments that are part of your job responsibilities or training that you have to take in order to do your job does not count towards CEUs. This includes onboarding training, mandatory workplace behavior training, security training, etc. The exception: Some organizations run their own internal learning program; if you take a relevant training that happens to be hosted by your company, it can count for CEUs (even if mandatory). Please reach out to [email protected] with additional course details to confirm.
• Required training on technical AP, AR and accounting platforms: An extension of the above - learning how to use software required for your position does not count towards CEUs. For example, if your company switches to a new T&E software, and you are required to participate in a training as part of the implementation project, that would not count for CEUs. 
• Community service: We love being a part of and serving our community and hope you do, too! However, this does not count towards your CEUs to maintain your Certification. 
• Webinars and training for anything outside of the field of your Certification discipline (with the exception of the personal development/management annual maximum, see above)