Understanding Recorded and Valid hours

License regulations are complex, and Track Your Hours provides you with an estimate of the total number of hours you’ll be able to claim when you submit your application. This is the Valid hour total. It’s important to note that the Valid hour total is an estimate, and there are instances where Track Your Hours doesn’t adjust your Valid hour total, since you can’t predict which hours will be excluded when they’re reviewed. In this guide, we’ll go over:

• Recorded hours
• Valid hours
• FAQs

Recorded hours

Recorded hours are all of the raw hours entered into Track Your Hours. The software doesn’t make any adjustments to the recorded hours. Recorded hours populate the weekly logs and Experience Verification Forms.

Valid hours

Valid hours are a calculation of what an applicant can claim after applying BBS regulations. The appropriate BBS regulations are applied based on the date the hours were earned. The Valid hour total is a calculation of claimable hours after applying the following BBS regulations to the recorded hours:

• Category Maximums
  • If there is a maximum of allowable hours that can be claimed in a particular category and a subscriber logs hours in excess of that maximum, the software will not count the overage in the Valid calculation. For example, if the maximum for the Notes category is 250 hours, and 275 Recorded hours are logged in this category, only 250 of these hours will be counted in the Valid total.
• No Supervision:
  • If hours are logged in a week and no supervision is logged at that site, none of the hours will be counted as valid. The only exceptions to this rule are:
    • MFT personal psychotherapy hours
    • MFT professional enrichment activities (workshop hours) logged on or after September 29, 2012
    • LPCC professional enrichment activities (workshop hours) logged on or after January 1, 2014
• Category Multipliers:
  • If a category has a multiplier, it’s applied to the valid total. For example, personal psychotherapy hours are triple counted (max 300) and conjoint couples/family hours are double counted (max 150) in the valid total for MFT Trainees and Interns.
• Category is Invalid:
  • Prior to January 1, 2010, MFT trainees were not allowed to claim hours in the category of Progress and Process Notes. If a subscriber logs hours in this category prior to January 1, 2010 while in the status of Trainee or Trainee in Practicum, the software will provide an alert and the hours logged will not be added to the Valid total.
  • There are instances where the software cannot automatically subtract hours from the Valid total. In these instances, the alert will specifically state that no hours have been subtracted from the valid total and that the week in question should be reviewed. Examples of this type of situation:
    • • More than 6 supervision hours logged in a week
      • More than 40 total hours logged in a week
      • Failure to meet the 5:1 counseling to supervision ratio requirement as an MFT Trainee
      • Failure to log a second unit of supervision when 11+ hours of counseling are logged in a week
      • 6-year rule

FAQs

Here are some common FAQs you may have:

• What is not included in Valid hours calculations?
• Why are my total Valid hours greater than my total Recorded hours?
• Why are the hours recorded on my Summary Report different from my Recorded/Valid total?

What is not included in Valid hours calculations?

If you have recorded more than 5 hours of supervision in a particular week and/or have recorded more than 40 total hours, not including personal psychotherapy, you will receive an alert in the Reports & Forms page for every week where this occurs. Any hours in excess of either the 5 supervision hours or the overall total of 40 hours will not be deducted from your total Valid hours count. If you see this type of alert, you’ll need to manually deduct these hours from the Valid total to have a more accurate count of your total Valid hours.

Why are my total Valid hours greater than my total Recorded hours?

There are times where your Valid hours are greater than your Recorded hours. This can occur as a result of the application of category multipliers to your Valid hours. Your Recorded hours are the exact hours you enter, and category multipliers are applied to your Valid hours. Here are two examples of how category multipliers can result in your Valid hours exceeding your Recorded hours:

• If you’re a California MFT and are recording Conjoint Incentive hours, these hours (up to 150) are added to the Children, Families, and Couples Valid hours total with a 2:1 multiplier. The Valid hours will then be greater than the Recorded hours total.
• If you’re a California MFT and are recording Personal Psychotherapy hours, there are 3 Valid hours for every 1 hour of Recorded Personal Psychotherapy hours, based on the 3:1 multiplier.

Why are the hours recorded on my Summary Report different from my Recorded/Valid total?

Occasionally, users will sum all the hours on the Summary Report in the Reports & Forms and compare that total to the Valid total reported in your Track Your Hours account. You can’t sum the hours on the Summary Report because it includes categories that duplicate hours. For example, the non-counseling experience category is listed on Summary Report, since it’s important to monitor the hours logged versus the category maximum. However, hours in this category are listed in other sub-categories on the summary page. If you sum everything on this page, you will double cout these hours.

Note: From January 1, 2012 forward, NCE includes workshops, training, personal psychotherapy received, individual supervision, and group supervision.