Cash for Gnucash development?: Self-study course for CPE?

[Andrew L. Gould]

On Friday 29 August 2003 05:35 pm, Thomas Templin wrote:
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> On Friday 29 August 2003 23:19, Andrew L. Gould wrote:
> > As a FreeBSD user, I'm looking at my various options for
> > financial software. As a CPA in Texas, I'm also looking at my
> > options for earning Continuing Professional Education (CPE)
> > hours for my license renewal.  On average, I need 40 hours per
> > year.
> >
> > I usually earn my hours via self-study courses, many of which
> > are for computer applications.  This year, I'm looking at paying
> > over $100.00 to learn Quicken and earn 24 hours of credit.
> > There's also a course for QuickBooks for the same price.
> >
> > If the Gnucash documentation were turned into a tutorial, it
> > could be registered with the CPA Boards of each state (start
> > with Texas, please) for CPE hours.  The Gnucash developers could
> > sell the courses, maintain administrative records to meet CPE
> > course requirements and mail CPE certificates.  This doesn't
> > prevent Gnucash from allowing people to use the tutorials for
> > free; but it allows me to divert a necessary expense to Open
> > Source development in a completely legitimate/legal/ethical way.
> >
> > If the right people for this idea aren't on this list, could
> > someone forward the idea for me?
>
> As someone who is not familiar with this special US circumstances
> may I ask some questions?
> 1st could you please be so kind to explain for us Europeans and for
> me as a german aborigine what CSA and CPE stands for?

I apologize for not clarifying my terms.
CPA = Certified Public Accountant
CPE = Continuing Professional Education

In Texas, CPA's must earn 120 hours of CPE (actual hours, not comparable to 
college course hours) every 3 years.  There is a minimum 20 hour requirement 
for each year.

> Who will give such courses, how will such couses be organized and
> which organisation ist responsible for such kind of Education in
> the US? And how could a Gnucash tutorial bring financial donations
> to the developers in this committees?

Most or all US states allow CPE hours to be met using self-study courses that 
are registered with the state's CPA Board.  There are even provisions for 
documenting work done and lessons learned from a non-registered course.

There are companies that sell self-study courses through the mail or provide 
them over the internet.  The CPA must complete the course.  The vendor must 
document the CPA's participation and success in some manner, usually a 
multiple choice test.

If someone developed a Gnucash course and registered it with the Texas state 
board, CPA's could purchase it (Here's the cash to Gnucash.) in order to 
fulfill some of their CPE requirements.

>
> I think that the special modality you are talking about seems to be
> near the model of our german curiculae which are estabished in our
> Continuing Professional Education at adult evening classes.
> Here in germany there are two most common known curiculae / test
> suits. First the European Computer Driving License model which
> goes from first "How to use" Tutorials to Professional
> Cualification in a step to step course system. The other one is
> the XPERT curiculum which wants to suit mostly Professional
> Cualification aspects. In Germany his courses are offered by a
> kind of local education centers called Volkshochschule (adult
> evening classes)
> Interesting for me is the option to donate cash to a project group
> you are talking about. AFAIK this is not established here at all.
>
> Bye,
> Thomas

Let's take this to a broader scope.  What if a group of Open Source supporters 
started a company that created courses (not necessarily tutorials) for 
consultants that taught:

1. the benefits of open source software;
2. how to determine whether a client would benefit from open source software; 
and
3. how to install and use specific open source applications.

Not only could various consultants use these courses to fulfill CPE 
requirements; but the courses would:

1. become advocacy tools for open source software
2. provide the business world with needed tools to evaluate and implement open 
source applications.

The advantage of starting with self-study courses is that if the idea flops, 
you've only lost the time of registering the courses with state boards.  The 
tutorials are still needed documentation for application users.  Remember: 
the CPA's aren't really paying for the course as much as they're paying for 
administration and documentation of the CPE hours.  I'm going to learn 
Gnucash regardless; but it would be nice if my efforts were documented in 
some official manner.

Best regards,

Andrew Gould