I have an electric furnace with a heat pump, my a/c was working fine in the summer and the heat was working fine then the outside a/c unit got about an inch of ice on it is this a simple fix or is something major wrong.

Sounds like you have a problem with the defrost circuit in the outside heat pump unit. I you do not know about the parts for a heat pump and what they do you might be better off calling for ON Site service to have it repaired.

Use your EM heat until you can get this fixed as ice buildup is not good for it.

Here are a few possibilities on your outdoor unit: fan could be bad, bad run capacitor, problem with defrost, to name a few.

Another problem could be low on freon and I hate to mention it but it could be something as simple as a dirty filter or a little more serious, a dirty coil.

dac122 is very right about not letting ice to form, it can cause leaks in the coil because as the ice builds up it puts pressure on the joints in the coil and presses the copper against the coil end frames and can crack solder joints.