01 In short
A good CE tracker is two things: the official system your board or certifying body reads (CE Broker in partnered states, NABP CPE Monitor for pharmacists, ACCME CME Passport for physicians, NCCPA for PAs) and your own log with a certificate file for every course. Boards set how long you keep proof, from 3 years in Alabama for physicians to 6 years in Maryland, Virginia and for Texas nurses. If you are audited, you upload or send those certificates, so the log is only as good as the files behind it.
- Free official trackers
- CE Broker Basic, CPE Monitor Standard, CME Passport
- Keep certificates
- 3 to 6 years in the states below; Texas nurses: forensic evidence CE indefinitely
- Physicians
- All state medical boards can see CME reported to ACCME
- PAs
- 100 CME credits logged with NCCPA every 2 years, at least 50 Category 1
- Audit selection
- Random in most boards; Texas BON samples 90 days before each renewal month
02 Official trackers
Which free CE tracker does your board or certifying body use?
Start here, because one of these systems may already hold most of your hours. Each one is free at the basic level, and each was built for a specific profession or set of boards. None of them replaces the board's own renewal application.
| Profession | System | Run by | Cost to you | How credits get in | Who can see it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licensees whose board partners with CE Broker (nurses, PTs, social workers and others in partnered states) | CE Broker Basic account | Propelus CE Broker | Free; paid plans are optional | You report courses; approved providers report too | Your board, if it partners with CE Broker; otherwise no one is notified |
| Pharmacists | NABP CPE Monitor | NABP, ACPE and ACPE-accredited providers | Free Standard plan; paid Plus plan | ACPE-accredited providers upload credits automatically; Plus adds non-ACPE credits | Depends on the board: California's pharmacy board says it has no access |
| Physicians (MD/DO) | ACCME CME Passport | ACCME | Free | Your CME coordinator reports with your permission; you cannot self-report | All state medical licensing boards, for their own licensees |
| Physician assistants (PA-C) | NCCPA online CME log | NCCPA | Part of certification maintenance | You log 100 credits per 2-year cycle, at least 50 Category 1 | NCCPA; its audit policy is not the state board's |
| Nurse practitioners certified by AANPCB | AANPCB online recertification application | AANPCB | Online application; paper costs extra | You enter 100 CE contact hours (25 pharmacology) and 1,000 practice hours per 5 years | AANPCB (certification, not your state license) |
| Nurses and NPs certified by ANCC | ANCC online account, Professional Development section | ANCC | Part of your certification account | You enter activities during the 5-year period | ANCC; keep certificates in case your renewal is audited |
A CE tracker your board does not read is just a private notebook. CE Broker's own help center says reporting hours there will not notify a board that does not use it.
03 What to log
What should a CEU tracker log include?
Boards that list required details ask for the same handful of facts. The Medical Board of California wants records showing course title, dates of attendance, length, sponsoring organization and accrediting organization. Alabama's medical board says a certificate must show AMA PRA Category 1 credit (or an equivalent), the number of hours and the completion date.
Build your CEU tracker around those facts and add two columns most people forget: the mandatory topic a course satisfies, and which license it counts for. A spreadsheet works. So does a notes app, as long as every row points to a saved certificate.
| Column | What to write | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date | Completion date (and attendance dates for live events) | Only CE finished inside the renewal period counts |
| Provider | Organization that issued the certificate | Shows who stands behind the credit |
| Accreditation | Accreditor named on the certificate: ACCME, ANCC, ACPE, IACET or a state board | Decides whether the board accepts it (CME vs. CEU) |
| Credit type | AMA PRA Category 1, Category 2, contact hours, CEUs | Physician and PA rules count Category 1 separately (what Category 1 means) |
| Hours | Exactly as printed, in the certificate's unit | Units differ, so convert only by your board's rule |
| Mandatory topic | Opioids, implicit bias, human trafficking, law and rules, or none | Boards check required topics separately from total hours |
| Certificate file | File name or link to a PDF or photo | The audit asks for the document, not your log |
| License it counts for | State, license type, license number | One course can count for several licenses |
04 How long to keep proof
How long do you have to keep CE certificates?
Longer than your renewal cycle, in almost every state. Watch the starting point too: some boards count from completion, some from the end of the year you earned the credit, and some from renewal or reporting.
| State and license | Keep proof for | Counted from |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama physicians | 3 years | End of the year the CME was earned |
| California RNs | 4 years | Not stated (certificates or grade slips) |
| California physicians | At least 4 years | Not stated |
| California pharmacists | 4 years | Completion of each course |
| Connecticut physicians | At least 6 years | End of the year the CE was completed |
| Georgia physicians | 5 years | Not stated |
| Indiana APRNs | Up to 3 years | Date of renewal |
| Iowa nurses | 4 years | Not stated |
| Kentucky nurses | 5 years | Not stated |
| Maryland physicians | 6 years | Not stated |
| New York dentists | 6 years | Course completion |
| New York pharmacists | 6 years | Program date |
| Texas nurses (RN, LVN) | 3 licensing periods or 6 years; forensic evidence collection CE indefinitely | Not stated |
| Texas pharmacists | 3 years | Date hours were reported on renewal |
| Virginia physicians | 6 years | Renewal of an active license |
Hold on to the Texas forensic evidence collection certificate forever. The Texas Board of Nursing is the one board in this table that says "indefinitely".
05 Why your own log
Why keep your own CE log if the board has a tracking system?
Every official system has a blind spot.
CME Passport only shows what a CME coordinator reported for you. ACCME says plainly that you cannot self-report, so a conference whose provider skipped reporting is missing from your record. The California State Board of Pharmacy says it does not have access to CPE Monitor and audits from the certificates you keep, and its own law and ethics webinars never reach CPE Monitor at all. NCCPA tells PAs that its audit policy is "not the state medical boards" and to check the board's own rules. CE Broker counts only for boards that partner with it.
Your log fills those gaps. Add each course the day you finish it, save the certificate in the same folder, and the audit becomes a copy-and-upload job instead of an email hunt through old inboxes.
06 Several state licenses
How do you track CE for licenses in several states?
Log each course once and tag every license it counts for. A physician with Maryland and California licenses who takes a 2-hour Category 1 course writes one row with two license tags, not two rows. Totals per license then come from a filter, and nothing is double-entered.
Retention follows the strictest board. That same physician keeps documentation 6 years for Maryland, even though California's minimum is 4. Mandatory topics are where multi-state tracking breaks: one state's required course may not satisfy another's, so give each license its own topic checklist and confirm acceptance with each board.
Our multi-state CE planner lines up cycles, deadlines and required topics across licenses. Nurses on a compact license can check what still applies per state in license compacts.
Multi-state CE planner · Nurse and physician license compacts
07 CE audits
What happens in a CE audit?
Audits are usually random, and proof goes in only from those picked. The Texas Board of Nursing selects a random sample of nurses 90 days before each renewal month and runs the audit through an online portal. A Texas nurse who is audited cannot renew until the proof is reviewed and approved, and a nurse who fails an audit is audited again in the next licensing period.
The Maryland Board of Physicians asks physicians not to send CME documents unless they are selected. The Medical Board of California is required by law to audit physicians every year who certified CME compliance on renewal. NCCPA randomly selects PAs each year to audit Category 1 credits, gives them about six weeks, and asks for certificates or transcripts with accreditation statements.
In a CE Broker state the audit lives inside your account. A red banner appears on the home page with a "Complete audit" option, and CE Broker says certificates mailed to the board office will not be accepted.
Texas treats falsified CE records in an audit as unprofessional conduct and grounds for discipline. Log only hours the certificate shows, in the unit it shows.
08 Audit checklist
CE audit checklist: what to do before every renewal
- Pull your official record (CE Broker, CPE Monitor, CME Passport, NCCPA or ANCC) and compare it line by line with your own log.
- Find courses missing from the official record and report them yourself where self-reporting is allowed, or ask the provider to report them.
- Check each mandatory topic for each license against the board's current list on our state requirement pages.
- Confirm every hour falls inside the current renewal period. Iowa's nursing board, for one, counts only CE earned within the period.
- Open every certificate file. A broken link or a missing accreditation statement is what fails audits.
- Back up the certificate folder in a second place, since you may need files from 4 to 6 years ago.
- Short on hours with weeks to go? Our last-minute CME page lists upcoming events you can still make.
09 Questions
CE tracker questions
What is a CE tracker?
A CE tracker is any system that records your continuing education credits for license renewal and audits. Official ones include CE Broker for partnered boards, NABP CPE Monitor for pharmacists, ACCME CME Passport for physicians and the NCCPA CME log for PAs; a personal spreadsheet with saved certificates covers the rest.
Is there a free CEU tracker?
Yes. The CE Broker Basic account, the NABP CPE Monitor Standard plan and ACCME CME Passport are all free. CE Broker says you are never required to pay for it, although some boards charge their own processing fee.
What is the best CE tracking app?
The best one is the system your board actually reads, because only that record counts at renewal. Keep a personal log alongside it for anything the official system does not hold, with a certificate file for every row.
Is there an official CME tracker for physicians?
Yes. ACCME's CME Passport is free and shows the CME your accredited providers reported for you. ACCME says all state medical licensing boards can see the credit reported for their licensees, but you cannot self-report courses into it.
Is there a CE tracker for nursing?
In states whose nursing board partners with CE Broker, the free Basic account is the official tracker. Elsewhere, keep your own log and certificates; ANCC-certified nurses also enter activities in their ANCC account for certification renewal.
What is the pharmacy CE tracker?
NABP CPE Monitor. ACPE-accredited providers upload credits automatically, the Standard plan is free, and a paid Plus plan adds non-ACPE credits and state transcripts. Some boards, such as California's, say they do not use it to verify CE.
How long should I keep CE certificates?
As long as your board says, which is 3 to 6 years in the states we checked. Texas nurses keep forensic evidence collection CE indefinitely. With several licenses, keep everything for the longest period any of your boards sets.
Do I have to send certificates to my board at renewal?
Usually not. Most boards ask for proof only if you are selected for an audit; the Maryland Board of Physicians says not to send CME documents unless selected. CE Broker states complete audits inside the CE Broker account.
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