CCH CPELink
Pro
Con
Verdict
Wolters Kluwer’s CCH CPELink provides a wide selection of on-demand courses, plenty of live webinars each week, a truly mobile platform, a free compliance manager, and solid firm options. Unfortunately, they don’t offer course ratings or reviews, micro-certifications, or much variety for ethics courses. The courses and webinars offered cover a wide variety of topics, but at $849 a year for truly unlimited access, it’s a pricey option.
Intro
CCH CPELink provides a wider-than-most selection of on-demand courses, plenty of live webinars each week, and a free compliance manager. But what really sets it apart is the firm capabilities.
Courses/CPE – Solid Variety
The platform currently has over 600 on-demand courses available. Courses are available on the online platform (which is truly mobile-friendly) and are either a mix of audio and video, slide decks, and instant online quizzes or traditional text-based PDFs and online quizzes. They offer multiple webinars a week on a wide variety of topics. These webinars range from basic 1-hour webinars to full-day webinars lasting 8 hours. CPE is available for several certification types, including CPA, CFP, CTEC, OTRP, EA, and CFE. Ethics options are rather slim though, with less than 30 available.
Platform/Features – Mobile
CCH CPE Link is fairly easy to use, with many ways to filter on-demand courses and webinars like price, number of credits, and topic. The CPE Compliance Manager is a great way to manage your CPE, though it might be difficult to choose the best course as the platform offers no ratings or reviews on-site. We also couldn’t find any reviews on vetted 3rd party platforms like Capterra. However, you can find instructor bios for the author of the courses and webinars, which is surprisingly rare for CPE platforms. Both the website and learning platform are easy to use on mobile, so there’s no problem trying to take a course from your phone or tablet. The platform doesn’t offer any micro-certifications. There are a handful of free courses so you can try the platform out for free.
UX – Too Simple?
Navigating to your course isn’t quite as straightforward as we might like, but it can be done a few different ways so you’ll get there eventually. Like some other platforms, clicking the button to access your course brings up a new window (though it doesn’t appear to be affected by pop-up blockers like other platforms). The actual learning platform is very simple — perhaps more simple than you’d expect from CCH. The type of courses vary, but the few we looked at were slide based with audio for each slide. These slides are the first thing to appear, and you have to go through every slide or scroll down the side bar to get to the final exam. We didn’t see any review questions or review quizzes available. It’s a little hard to find the additional materials, but after some searching we realized that the word “Materials” in the upper right corner the is actually a link (though it doesn’t have the typical format of a link). Clicking on it pulls up a dropdown menu with links to handouts, the final exam, and course instructions.
Cost - Pricier Than Most
Like most platforms, individual courses can be purchased a la carte. Courses run from ~$9-$276, depending on the number of credits each course offers. There are 11 different packages available, which can be a bit overwhelming — but all packages do include the CPE Compliance Manager. Three packages are available for on-demand courses only. The most basic is the Value Pass which is $220 for 20 hours of CPE (additional hours can be purchased for $11 each), though that only covers general on-demand courses. The middle package is $429 for 12 months of unlimited on-demand courses (excluding premium courses). For truly unlimited on-demand courses, users would need to pay $535 for the Premium Self-Study package that includes premium courses and basic courses. Three packages are available for live webinars only. The most basic is the Value Pass which is $260 for 20 hours of CPE in the form of 1-4 hour live webinars (additional hours can be purchased for $13 each). The middle package is $429 for 12 months of unlimited on-demand live webinars (1-4 hour live webinars only). For truly unlimited live webinars of all lengths, users would need to pay $645 for the Premium Webinar package. There are three packages available for access to both on-demand courses and live webinars. The most basic is the Value Pass which is $440 for 40 hours of CPE in the form of basic on-demand courses and 1-4 hour live webinars. For unlimited basic on-demand courses and 1-4 hour live webinars, the middle package for $535 a year is the best option. For truly unlimited CPE, the Premium Self-Study and Webinar Package is $859 for premium and basic on-demand courses and live webinars of any length for 12 months. There are also two packages available for firms with more than five people: Firm Package and Premium Firm Package. The Firm Package offers unlimited basic on-demand courses and 1-4 live webinars for $319 a person. Upgrading to the Premium Firm Package offers employees access to premium on-demand courses, basic on-demand courses, and live webinars of any length for $535 a person.
Team/Firm Capability – Best
We touched on the firm offerings in the Cost section, but the platform offers many more firm capabilities than just a discount. For firms with more than five CPAs, firm solutions allow firms to manage professional staff, purchase or assign firm passes, monitor staff’s CPE progress with compliance manager, and define specific learning regulators. CCH CPE Link also has a Learning Ladder that allows firms to assign “in-house” requirements for CPE for their employees. They also offer additional capabilities like corporate LMS integration, branded portals, and the ability to choose courses tailored to your firm’s needs and have content delivered on-site or through privately hosted webinar.
Summary
With over 600 on-demand courses, weekly live webinars, and free Compliance Manager, CCH CPE Link is a quality solution for individuals (if a bit pricey). The firm capabilities are strong and set it apart from most other platforms on that front. Being able to create custom requirements and monitor staff progress can be a huge pro for firms. Overall, the platform is a solid choice for individuals and firms — if you’re willing to pay for it.
