Straight answers
SparkHours FAQ.
Everything you need to know about tracking your hours for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) with SparkHours.
Getting Started
Yes. You get a 14-day free trial with access to every feature. No credit card needed. After your trial, choose a monthly or annual plan. Cancel anytime. See pricing details →
Sign up for a free trial, then pick your license type: AMFT (Associate Marriage and Family Therapist), APCC (Associate Professional Clinical Counselor), or ASW (Associate Clinical Social Worker). Then start logging hours. SparkHours walks you through setup. An onboarding wizard configures your week start day, graduation status, and associate registration. If you have hours in Track Your Hours, you can import them during setup.
SparkHours currently supports three California BBS license tracks: AMFT (toward LMFT, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist), APCC (toward LPCC, Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor), and ASW (toward LCSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker). Each track has its own category structure, supervision requirements, and form export. Additional states are on the roadmap.
Yes. SparkHours supports dual licensure tracking for LMFT/LPCC. If you're pursuing both, each license type gets its own dashboard, categories, and form export. SparkHours tracks each one separately with the correct rules. See all features →
Yes. There's a built-in Track Your Hours importer that runs during setup, with full support for all three license types (AMFT, APCC, and ASW). Your existing hours transfer automatically, including subset categories like the 500-hour couples, families, and children minimum for AMFTs and the 750-hour psychotherapy subset for ASWs. SparkHours also detects your TYH paid-through date and gives you free access until it expires, so you won't pay for both at the same time. Compare SparkHours to Track Your Hours →
Pricing & Billing
One plan with everything included. Monthly and annual options. No tiers, no add-ons. Cancel anytime. See pricing details →
You'll be asked to choose a plan. Your data stays safe. Nothing is deleted, and you can still log in to view and download your records. Pick monthly or annual billing, enter your card, and pick up where you left off. There's no automatic charge.
Yes. You can switch from monthly to annual (or back) anytime from your billing settings. If you switch to annual mid-cycle, you'll get credit for the unused portion of your current month.
No. Supervisors review and sign your weekly logs through a secure email link at no cost. They never need an account, an app, or a subscription. Learn how supervisor signing works →
SparkHours is already priced for students and early-career trainees. It supports practicum tracking from day one. You don't have to wait until you register as an associate. If your school partners with us, you may get a discounted or even free rate.
Yes. If your trial ends or you stop paying, you keep full access to your data. You can log in, view your hours, and download everything. We'll never hold your records hostage. Your BBS hours are yours.
SparkHours accepts all major credit and debit cards through Stripe, our payment processor. Stripe handles your card details directly. They never touch our servers.
Features & How It Works
Most tracking tools stop at logging hours. SparkHours also collects electronic supervisor signatures with an audit trail and document hash. It checks your supervision requirements in real time and exports official BBS PDF forms for AMFTs, APCCs, and ASWs. It also tracks subset requirements like the 500-hour couples, families, and children minimum for LMFT or the psychotherapy subset for LCSW. See how it compares to a spreadsheet or Track Your Hours.
Yes. SparkHours includes a built-in AI assistant trained on the official BBS handbooks for LMFT, LPCC, and LCSW. Ask it about supervision requirements, the 90-day rule, hour categories, BBS forms, or any step in the licensing process. It knows your license type, your phase, and your progress, so answers are personalized. Included in every subscription at no extra cost. Learn more about the AI assistant →
Yes. Per BBS application documents, the BBS accepts wet signatures and electronic signatures. The signing platform must ensure security and authenticity. SparkHours meets that standard with SHA-256 document hashing, a full audit trail, a signed consent ceremony, and compliance with UETA and the federal ESIGN Act. Learn more about our e-signatures →
The BBS requires a weekly summary form for each site and supervisor combination. Each license type has its own form with different columns. AMFTs get a 5-column form that includes couples/family therapy. APCCs use a 4-column form. ASWs use a 5-column form that includes a psychotherapy subset. SparkHours generates pre-filled PDFs from your logged hours automatically.
Yes. SparkHours generates the In-State Experience Verification form for all three license types (AMFT, APCC, and ASW). The form is pre-filled from your full hour history and your supervisor records, ready for supervisor signature. You get one Experience Verification form per placement, meaning each site and supervisor combination (and for AMFTs, each degree phase).
Everything. Unlimited hour logging. Verified electronic signatures with an audit trail. Real-time BBS compliance checking. Official PDF form export. Progress dashboard. Dual licensure tracking. Practicum phase tracking. And an AI assistant trained on BBS handbooks. No tiers, no add-ons. See all features →
BBS Compliance & Requirements
All three license tracks require 3,000 hours of supervised experience over at least 104 weeks. AMFTs need 1,750 direct client contact hours including 500 hours diagnosing and treating couples, families, and children. APCCs need 1,750 direct counseling hours with no specialty subset. ASWs need 2,000 clinical hours including 750 psychotherapy hours, with 1,700 under LCSW supervision. The breakdown differs, but SparkHours tracks the right categories and caps for each.
For AMFTs and APCCs, supervision works in steps. You need 1 unit at each work setting in any week you log experience there. If you log more than 10 hours of direct client contact at one setting, you need a second unit at that setting. The count is per setting, not across all of them, so 12 hours at one job and 9 at another needs three units, not two. One unit equals 1 hour of individual or triadic supervision, or 2 hours of group supervision. The Board credits at most 6 hours of supervision toward licensure in any single week, counting individual, triadic, and group together. You can receive more than that; the extra just stops counting. ASWs follow the same pattern but must also accumulate 1,700 hours under LCSW supervision. SparkHours checks these requirements automatically each week.
It depends on the license type. AMFTs can count up to 1,300 pre-degree hours (with sub-caps). APCCs and ASWs cannot count any pre-degree hours. SparkHours supports practicum tracking from day one and applies the correct rules for each phase.
Yes, by live two-way videoconferencing. That is the Board's term for supervision by video, and it is the only remote format that counts: supervision by telephone does not count toward licensure, because the law requires supervision to have a face-to-face component. Individual, triadic, and group supervision can all be provided by videoconferencing, and there is no limit on how much of your supervision is delivered that way. One extra duty comes with it. Within 60 days of starting supervision, your supervisor has to decide whether videoconferencing is appropriate for you and document that decision, weighing your abilities, what you both prefer, and the privacy of both locations.
Less than you might expect. The supervision law was amended effective January 1, 2026, not rewritten. What you have to log, how much supervision you need, and the caps on it all stayed the same, so if you were tracking hours before 2026, nothing changes for you. One real change did land: the end date on allowing supervision by videoconference in any setting was deleted, so that allowance is now permanent.
Supervisors
No. When you submit a weekly log, your supervisor gets a secure email link. They click it, review your hours, and sign electronically. The whole process takes about a minute. They never need to create an account or download anything. Learn how supervisor signing works →
Yes. You can add as many supervisors as you need. Each site and supervisor combination gets its own weekly log, which is how the BBS requires hours to be organized. SparkHours creates the right groupings automatically.
The BBS allows split supervision at the same employment setting. In the Board's worked example, your work experience hours for the week can be recorded on either supervisor's log, while supervision hours are recorded and signed for by the supervisor who provided them, on that supervisor's own weekly log. SparkHours adds up your weekly supervision across the whole site, counting what all of your supervisors there provided, so split coverage is handled for you. There is no setting to change. You still get a separate weekly log for each supervisor, since the BBS asks for one log per supervisor per setting.
Add your new supervisor and start logging hours under them. SparkHours keeps your existing hours and signed logs under previous supervisors. It groups hours by site and supervisor, so switching is seamless.
Supervisors only see the weekly logs you submit to them. They see hours for their site and supervision period. They don't have access to your full dashboard, other supervisors' logs, or your overall progress.
Yes. You can send any number of weeks in one email instead of a separate email each week. They click one link and sign everything in one batch. Each week stays its own signed record with its own audit trail. This is useful for catching up after a Track Your Hours import, or for supervisors who prefer monthly or quarterly signing over weekly. See how bulk signing works →
Data & Security
SparkHours encrypts your data in transit and at rest. It doesn't store protected health information (PHI). It only stores your training hour records and supervisor signatures. No client names, no session notes, no diagnosis codes. A SHA-256 document hash and a complete audit trail protect every supervisor signature. Learn more about our e-signatures →
No. SparkHours only stores your training hours, category breakdowns, and supervisor signatures. There are no client names, no session notes, no diagnosis codes, and no treatment details. This is an hour tracking tool, not a clinical records system.
Yes. You can export your hours as official BBS PDF forms at any time. Each license type gets the correct form. You can still access your data even if your trial ends or you cancel.
Start tracking your BBS hours today.
14-day free trial. No credit card. Cancel anytime.