# Tevera vs SparkHours for your BBS hours

Tevera is now Experiential Learning Cloud. It does not shut off when you graduate. This page covers what it does on each California Board of Behavioral Sciences track, what setting up post-degree tracking involves, and where SparkHours differs.

## Tevera keeps working after you graduate

This is the part most people get wrong, so start here. Your account does not become an archive when your degree posts. It moves to alumni status, and you keep logging new hours in the same database you used as a student.

You make that switch yourself. You add your graduation date in your settings and confirm afterward. Your student placements close as of that date, and you add your post-degree placements as a graduate.

What alumni status gives you:

- **New hours, same account.** Post-degree licensure hours go in the same place your practicum hours already live.
- **California BBS reports by name.** On the LMFT track you use the #508 BBS Weekly Report. On the LPCC track you use the #511 PCC Weekly Hours Report. Lumivero says the output matches the BBS form with a "Signed in Experiential Learning Cloud" notice added at the bottom.
- **Experience Verification reports.** Reports #528 and #530 cover in-state Experience Verification on the LMFT and LPCC tracks.
- **A general post-graduate log.** Report #520 is a post-graduate track hours log, available to alumni only.
- **Supervisors outside your school can sign.** You can suggest your own site and supervisor. They get a free account and sign your reports electronically.
- **No new charge.** Alumni access is included in what you already paid.

If you were told your Tevera hours were about to be locked away, that is not the case. So the question is not whether you can keep using it. It is whether it reaches your track.

## What setting it up involves

Alumni mode is self-service, and it takes a few steps that are not obvious from inside the product.

### Two tracks that do not talk to each other

Your school's BBS track and the state BBS track are separate, and they do not update each other automatically. Lumivero documents the fix, and the fix is manual: match the state track's active date to the school track, then log one hour on the state track today to force an update, and delete it afterward if you want.

That is the vendor's own published procedure, in a help article updated in July 2026.

### Your login stays with your school

Your username is the email you signed in with as a student. It stays bound to your school email unless a program administrator or Lumivero support changes it. Lumivero tells graduates to update the email so they do not lose access when the school address is shut off.

### You have to know alumni mode exists

Tevera is sold to institutions. The product page never mentions post-graduation use, lifetime access, California, or the BBS. All of it lives in the help centre and its blog. If nobody at your program mentioned alumni status, there is nothing in the product's marketing that would tell you.

## No California BBS report on the ASW track

Tevera's published report catalogue lists California BBS reports for the LMFT and LPCC tracks. It lists none for ASW.

Reports #508 and #511 are the two California BBS weekly reports. Reports #528 and #530 are the two California Experience Verification reports. Across the full published catalogue, no report names ASW, LCSW, or clinical social work. The alumni help article names only LMFT and LPCC licensure in California.

That matters more on this track than it would on the others, because of when ASW hours are earned. No pre-degree hours count toward the LCSW's 3,000. Every one of those 3,000 hours is post-degree, whether you earn it before or after your ASW number arrives. So an ASW spends the entire count in exactly the phase where the catalogue has no California report.

SparkHours produces the weekly log and the Experience Verification form for all three tracks, including ASW. See the [hour requirements for ASWs](/asw) for what those 3,000 hours have to include.

## Side by side

| Feature | Tevera | SparkHours |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is sold to | Higher education institutions, then students | You |
| Price | $215 one time, plus tax and card processing fee | $10/mo or $100/yr |
| Free to start | 30-day refund window after purchase | 14-day free trial, no credit card |
| Logging hours after you graduate | Yes, with alumni status | Yes |
| California BBS weekly report, LMFT track | Yes, report #508 | Yes |
| California BBS weekly report, LPCC track | Yes, report #511 | Yes |
| California BBS weekly report, ASW track | Not in the published report catalogue | Yes |
| Experience Verification, LMFT and LPCC tracks | Yes, reports #528 and #530 | Yes |
| Experience Verification, ASW track | Not in the published report catalogue | Yes |
| Supervisor signs electronically | Yes, on a free account | Yes, from an emailed link, no account |
| Your login | Your school email, unless an administrator changes it | Your own email |
| Setting up post-degree tracking | Self-service, with a vendor-documented manual step to align the school and state tracks | Enter your graduation date |
| Two license tracks at once | Add a track yourself, or request one if it does not exist | LMFT and LPCC in one account |
| Built for | Placement, assessment and accreditation across many disciplines | California BBS licensure hours |

## What SparkHours checks while you log

SparkHours is built for one board and three license types, so the rules are in the product rather than in your head.

- **The rules change when your degree posts, and SparkHours changes with them.** Before your degree, the LMFT and LPCC practicum rule is one unit of supervision for every five hours of direct client contact at each setting, and never fewer than one unit in any week you log experience there. After you register as an associate, it becomes a step: one unit in any week you log experience at a setting, and two units in any week with more than 10 hours of direct client contact there. You give us your graduation date. We apply the right rule to each week.
- **Weekly supervision, checked every week.** If a week is short on supervision, you see it that week, while you can still do something about it.
- **The credit limits.** No more than 40 hours of experience in any seven consecutive days, and no more than six hours of supervision credited in a week, counting individual, triadic and group together.
- **The six-year window.** Experience has to be earned within the six years before the Board receives your licensure application. SparkHours shows you what still counts and what has aged out.
- **The LMFT pre-degree caps.** Up to 1,300 pre-degree hours can count toward the 3,000, and no more than 750 of those may be counseling and direct supervisor contact combined. On the LPCC and LCSW tracks, no pre-degree hours count at all, so SparkHours leaves them out of your total instead of letting you build a number the Board will not accept.
- **Your forms, filled in.** The weekly log and the Experience Verification form for all three tracks. The Board wants a separate Experience Verification form for each supervisor and each work setting, so SparkHours builds one per placement out of the weeks you already had signed, and on the LMFT track splits your pre-degree and post-degree hours onto separate forms the way the Board asks.
- **Signatures by email.** Your supervisor gets a link, reviews the week, and signs. No account, no printing, no scanning.

Full detail on your own track: [AMFT](/amft), [APCC](/apcc), [ASW](/asw). If you are still in practicum, [how practicum tracking works](/practicum) covers the phase change.

## Price, and what "lifetime" covers

Tevera is a one-time $215 from Lumivero, plus sales tax, plus a 2.9% and $0.30 processing fee if you pay by card. Bought through a university bookstore, the price varies, and Lumivero says bookstores typically add $20 to $100. Refunds are available direct from Lumivero for 30 days after purchase, and the card processing fee is not refundable. Some programs add a $5 assessment on top. Lumivero notes that the details vary by program.

Lumivero calls it lifelong access, included at no extra cost. It does not define what that means in practice: its help centre states no duration and no data retention commitment. That is worth knowing when you are deciding what your licensure record depends on.

SparkHours is $10 a month, or $100 a year, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card to start. You can cancel any time. [Full pricing](/pricing).

## Which one to use

**If you are on the LMFT or LPCC track and your program gave you Tevera**, you already have a tool that produces California BBS weekly reports and Experience Verification reports for your track, and your practicum hours are already in it. Set up alumni status and use it. That is a reasonable answer, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise.

**If you are on the LCSW track**, the published report catalogue has no California BBS report for ASW, and every hour you are about to earn is post-degree. That is the gap to solve before you start logging.

**If you want the Board's rules checked as you log**, that is what SparkHours is. Practicum and associate rules applied by date, weekly supervision checked while the week is still open, the credit limits and the six-year window applied to your total, and your supervisor signing from a link.

**If you are not sure**, run both for a month. Your Tevera records stay where they are, and a SparkHours trial does not cost anything to find out.

## Common questions

### Does Tevera stop working when I graduate?

No. Your account moves to alumni status and you keep logging new hours toward licensure in the same database you used as a student. You start that yourself by adding your graduation date in your settings. Your student placements close as of that date and you add new ones as a graduate.

### Can I track my BBS hours in Tevera as an associate?

On the LMFT and LPCC tracks, yes. Tevera publishes a #508 BBS Weekly Report for the LMFT track and a #511 PCC Weekly Hours Report for the LPCC track, both available to alumni, plus Experience Verification reports #528 and #530. Its published report catalogue lists no equivalent for the ASW track.

### Does Tevera work for the ASW track?

Its published report catalogue lists no California BBS report for ASW. Reports exist for the LMFT and LPCC tracks, and the alumni help article names only those two for California. A general post-graduate hours log is available to alumni on any track. SparkHours produces the California weekly log and the Experience Verification form on all three tracks, ASW included.

### What happens to my Tevera login when my school email shuts off?

Your username stays associated with your school email unless a program administrator or Lumivero support changes it. Lumivero tells graduates to update the email on the account so access is not lost. If your school stops using the platform, you change the email and contact support to get a licensure track.

### Is the $215 a lifetime subscription?

Lumivero calls it lifelong access, included at no extra cost. It does not define what that means in practice: its help centre states no duration and no data retention commitment. The $215 is a one-time charge, plus tax, plus a card processing fee, and bookstores typically add $20 to $100.

### Can I move my Tevera hours into SparkHours?

Not automatically. There is no importer between the two, and no file import. What people do instead is keep their Tevera records for the hours already signed there, and start logging in SparkHours from the week they switch. Your signed records do not stop being valid because you changed what you log in.

### Do my practicum hours count toward my 3,000 hours?

It depends on your track. On the LMFT track, up to 1,300 pre-degree hours can count, and no more than 750 of those may be counseling and direct supervisor contact combined. On the LPCC and LCSW tracks, no pre-degree hours count toward the 3,000. Every hour is post-degree.

### How much supervision do I need each week?

As a registered associate, at least one unit in any week you log experience at a setting, and at least two units in any week with more than 10 hours of direct client contact there. In practicum on the LMFT and LPCC tracks, it is one unit for every five hours of direct client contact at each setting, and never fewer than one unit in any week you log experience there. One unit is one hour of individual or triadic supervision, or two hours of group.

### How long do I keep my signed weekly logs?

Until you are licensed. The Board's rules say you keep the signed logs until it licenses you, and that it can require you to submit all or part of them to verify your hours. That is longer than the six-year window on the hours themselves. Our [guide to the weekly log](/guides/bbs-weekly-log-of-experience-hours) goes through every column.