Why Preserving Your Program Hours Matters for BBS Licensure
California BBS licensure requires 3,000 total supervised hours. Up to 1,300 of those can come from your pre-degree practicum and internship (up to 750 direct). That is not a small number. For a typical AMFT candidate, well-documented pre-degree hours can mean 12 to 18 months less time to licensure.
Those hours live inside your program's Tevera account right now. When you graduate, three things can happen:
- Your account stays live with continued access (some programs offer this).
- Your account is deactivated after a grace period (30, 60, 90 days).
- Your account is deactivated immediately on conferral.
The risk: If you lose Tevera access without a saved export, you are left reconstructing pre-degree hours from memory, old calendars, and possibly-cooperative past supervisors. The BBS will not accept that. Every hour you cannot document is an hour that does not count.
For the full rules on what pre-degree hours count, see our Pre-Degree Hours BBS Rules guide.
What Tevera Exports Actually Look Like
Tevera's canonical student-facing export is a signed PDF timesheet. This is the file you generate from the Timesheets workspace, route through the signature chain, and download once it is fully signed. It is Tevera's primary output for individual students.
A typical signed Tevera PDF contains:
- Your student name and program ID
- Your program name and track (practicum, internship, or full program)
- The date range the report covers
- Activity categories — Tevera splits hours into categories defined by your program (e.g., Client Contact, Supervisory Conferences, Orientation/Training, Didactic Instruction, Documentation, Staff Meetings). Category names vary by program.
- Hours per category per week or per month (format varies by program)
- Cumulative hours across the date range
- Site name and supervisor information for each placement
- Signatures and dates from the full signature chain
There is no student-facing CSV or structured data export. Structured exports (API integrations, bulk data feeds) are typically sold to institutions for accreditation reporting, not offered to individual students. Plan around the PDF being your primary artifact.
Signature-chain variance: Programs configure Tevera differently. Some require a single-signer workflow (faculty only). Others require two signers (site supervisor + faculty). A few require three (site supervisor + task supervisor + faculty). The final signed PDF will reflect whichever chain your program uses.
How to Export from Tevera, Step by Step
- Log in to Tevera using your program credentials.
- Open the Timesheets workspace. The exact label varies by program ("Time Reports," "Timesheet Builder," or similar). Your field education office can confirm the label if you don't see it.
- Generate a new time report covering your entire degree. Start date: your first practicum week. End date: your final internship week (or as close as your program allows).
- Select the track. If your program tracks practicum and internship separately, generate one report for each and combine. If the system allows a single combined report, use that.
- Submit for signature. The report routes through your program's signature chain. This can take hours to days depending on your supervisors' responsiveness.
- Download the final signed PDF once all signatures are collected.
- Save in multiple locations. Local drive plus cloud (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox). Do not rely on Tevera retaining your file.
Budget a week for this. The fastest path from "I need to export my hours" to "I have a fully signed PDF in my possession" is often 5 to 10 business days because of the signature chain. Start before your final semester ends, not during move-out week.
Real-World Export Walkthrough
Here is what this typically looks like in practice. Imagine a California MFT graduate — let's call her Maya — finishing a master's program with a May 18 graduation date. The week before commencement, she logs in to Tevera and opens the Timesheets workspace. She generates a single full-degree time report spanning August 22 of her first practicum year through May 12 of her final internship semester — the entire program window in one document.
She submits it for signature on a Tuesday afternoon. Her site supervisor signs within 24 hours; her faculty field liaison signs three days later. By that Friday evening, the report is fully signed and Maya downloads the final PDF — roughly 6 pages, with practicum and internship hours broken out by week, totals by activity category, and signature blocks on the last page. Total clock time: about 8 minutes of active work, 3 days of waiting.
She immediately saves the PDF to Google Drive, AirDrops a copy to her iCloud Files folder, and drops a third copy on a small USB drive she keeps with her birth certificate. Three locations, one weekend.
About four weeks later, after graduation festivities and a short break, Maya opens HourJourney and back-fills her pre-degree entries using the category mapping table earlier in this guide. The back-fill itself takes roughly 90 minutes, spread across two evenings. From first Tevera login to fully tracked pre-degree hours: about two weeks of elapsed time, almost all of it waiting on signatures or on her own schedule.
What to Save Before You Graduate (Checklist)
- ✓Fully signed Tevera timesheet PDF covering your entire degree (or one per track if your program separates practicum and internship).
- ✓Supervisor contact info for every supervisor you had, including full name, license type and number, dates first licensed, email, and phone.
- ✓Site information for every placement: legal name, physical address, and phone.
- ✓Date ranges for each placement and supervisor relationship.
- ✓Category breakdowns from your Tevera PDF (how many hours fell in each Tevera-defined category).
- ✓Any screenshots of supplementary data (competency assessments, site evaluations) that might support your application.
- ✓Your program's transcript of hours (separate from the Tevera PDF), if your school issues one.
Store these in an organized folder structure. The BBS application process can happen two to six years after graduation, and finding a specific document two folders deep is much faster than searching a mass of unnamed PDFs.
Converting Tevera Categories to BBS Categories
Tevera's activity categories are defined by your program. The BBS uses its own A/B/C system. Here is a working mapping for the categories that most commonly appear in California MFT, counseling, and social work programs. Verify with your program's field education office before relying on this one-to-one. Category names vary.
| Tevera Category | BBS Column | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Client Contact (individual) | Column A | Direct client contact; counts toward the 1,750-hour direct minimum |
| Client Contact (couples, families, children) | Column A + A1 | Direct + counts toward the 500-hour A1 sub-requirement (LMFT only) |
| Client Contact (group therapy) | Column A | Direct client contact; verify whether your program counted groups as direct |
| Supervisory Conferences (individual) | Column B + B1 | Non-clinical + counts toward the 52-week individual supervision minimum |
| Supervisory Conferences (triadic) | Column B + B1 | Treated as individual for BBS purposes |
| Supervisory Conferences (group) | Column B + B2 | Non-clinical; group supervision gets half credit toward weekly supervision units |
| Orientation / Training | Column B | Non-clinical experience |
| Didactic Instruction | Column B | Non-clinical; some programs distinguish didactic from in-vivo training |
| Documentation / Progress Notes | Column B | Non-clinical experience; commonly included as B |
| Staff Meetings | Column B | Non-clinical experience |
| Psychological Testing | Column B | Non-clinical unless conducted in direct client contact |
| Case Consultation | Column B | Non-clinical unless the client was present and you were providing direct service |
The BBS evaluates individual hours, not categories. A Tevera category label is not proof that an hour qualifies for the BBS. What qualifies is what actually happened during that hour and whether a BBS-qualified supervisor can attest to it. Use this table as a starting point, then review edge cases (group therapy, testing, case consultation) with your supervisor.
When Tevera Shows Different Numbers Than You Remember
Sometimes the totals on a signed Tevera PDF come in lower than students expect. Common reasons: (a) some weeks were never formally signed and so weren't rolled into countable totals, (b) site transitions caused gaps where logging lapsed for a week or two, or (c) the program itself excluded certain activity types from countable totals based on how it was configured.
If your number is off, list every site and supervisor relationship you had, cross-reference against your personal calendar from those years, and reach out to your field education office if the gap exceeds 40 hours. They can usually clarify whether weeks were excluded by design or by oversight.
Continuing to Track After Export
Once you have your Tevera PDF in hand and your category mapping drafted, the next step is to get those totals into a BBS-compliant tracking tool so the rest of your licensure journey stays organized.
HourJourney supports manual back-fill of pre-degree hours. The workflow:
- Create your HourJourney account (30-day free trial).
- In onboarding, set your degree-awarded date. HourJourney uses this to auto-classify every entry as pre-degree or post-degree.
- Add each supervisor and site from your Tevera record.
- Log your pre-degree hours in weekly blocks, using the mapping table above to assign each Tevera category to BBS Column A, B, A1, B1, or B2.
- Attach a note on each entry referencing the Tevera PDF page or line item, so the paper trail is reproducible if the BBS ever asks.
Coming soon: HourJourney is building a direct Tevera PDF import feature that parses a signed Tevera PDF and pre-populates your pre-degree entries automatically. Until then, the manual back-fill takes roughly 30–60 minutes for a full degree. If you want to be notified when the import feature ships, create an account and we'll email you.
Get your program hours into the right format
HourJourney is the BBS-compliant tracker for California associates. Enter your Tevera totals once, and we handle A/B/C categorization, the 40-hour weekly cap, and BBS PDF form generation for the rest of your journey.
Start Your Free 30-Day TrialFAQ: Exporting Tevera Hours
Can I export my hours from Tevera as a CSV?+
Tevera's canonical student-facing export is a signed PDF timesheet, not a CSV. Structured data exports are typically sold to institutions, not to individual students. Plan around the PDF being the primary artifact.
Does the BBS accept a Tevera PDF as proof of hours?+
No. The BBS requires hours documented on their forms (37A-525 weekly log and 37A-301 experience verification), signed by a BBS-qualified supervisor. A Tevera PDF is useful supporting documentation and a source of truth for your totals, but it is not a substitute for BBS-format documentation.
Do I lose access to Tevera when I graduate?+
Depends on your program. Some California universities offer lifetime Tevera access. Others restrict or end access after a grace period. Some end access immediately on conferral. Check your field education office or student handbook.
How do I map Tevera categories to BBS A/B/C?+
Client Contact -> Column A. Individual/triadic supervision -> Column B + B1. Group supervision -> Column B + B2. Orientation, Training, Didactic, Documentation, Staff Meetings -> Column B. Verify the specific mapping with your program's field education office because category names vary.
What if my Tevera PDF is image-only (scanned)?+
Some programs produce image-only PDFs. They cannot be text-copied, so you may need to manually transcribe totals into your licensure tracker. Save the image-only PDF as a visual backup regardless.
When should I export my Tevera hours?+
Before you graduate, if possible. Export a signed PDF covering your entire degree while you still have full Tevera access. If you have already graduated, check whether your account is still active. If it isn't, contact your field education office to request a copy.
Do pre-degree hours really count toward my BBS license?+
Yes. Up to 1,300 pre-degree hours can count toward the BBS 3,000-hour requirement (up to 750 direct). Those hours must be documented on BBS Form 37A-525 and signed by a BBS-qualified supervisor. Your Tevera PDF is the foundation of that documentation.
What if my supervisor moved out of California before I exported?+
Your hours still count if the supervisor was BBS-qualified at the time you accumulated them. Save their license number and dates-first-licensed regardless of where they live now.
What if Tevera deletes my account before I can export?+
Contact your field education office immediately. Most programs retain hour records independent of student Tevera access; they can usually generate an institutional export on your behalf.
Do I need a co-supervisor to sign off on my Tevera export?+
Depends on your program's signature chain. Single-signer (faculty only), two-signer (site + faculty), and three-signer (site + task + faculty) workflows all exist. Whatever your program required during your degree is what you need now.
Related guides
Hours Tracking After Graduation
The cornerstone post-grad guide: Tevera access, BBS forms, setting up your system.
Program Hours vs Licensure Hours
Why program tools and licensure tools are fundamentally different.
Pre-Degree Hours BBS Rules
The 1,300-hour cap, the 750-hour direct cap, and how pre/post classification works.
Hours Tracking for California Associates
The BBS-compliant tracker built for the associate phase.
Graduates by University
Post-graduation guides customized for 15 California programs.
BBS Form 37A-525 Walkthrough
How to fill out the weekly log correctly, field by field.
Tevera is a registered trademark of its respective owner. HourJourney is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Tevera. BBS requirements reflect guidance current as of 2025–2026. Always verify at bbs.ca.gov. This guide is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice.