The Certified Public Accountant Course: An Overview

by wyoguard

Adept and extremely interested in Maths, figures, computations, and numbers? If so, then a course for certified public accountants or CPAs is the send to take in college. But here is a clarification: a course for certified public accountants does not come as a CPA course per se in the college curriculum or course outline. There are really various college courses that qualify as certified public accountant’s courses. But it does not automatically mean that once the aspiring accountant has refined and passed a course that qualifies as a CPA course, he will automatically become a certified public accountant. There are other requirements that need to be fulfilled with taking a CPA course before one can be deemed a certified public accountant. But in the meantime, here is a primer on what to expect when taking a CPA course.

The Scoop On: CPA Courses

Aspiring accountants are required to take an accounting correlated course as a prerequisite to achieving CPA status.

An accounting correlated course is a four year college course in either of the following fields: accountancy, taxation, business, finance, or economics. For accountancy, one would usually have to discharge 24 semester hours and make sure that he gets units in accounting principles with advanced financial accounting, professional auditing, federal taxation, and cost accounting. For those taking business courses, business law has to be taken up and there has to be lessons a propos the Uniform Commercial Code, or at least 3 semesters hours tackling business statistics, and 21 semester hours on accounting and business discretionary subjects. For those taking up economics, 6 semester hours dedicated to principles of economics may take the house of business discretionary requirements. Respective states may also require that the aspiring accountant take units of financial accounting theory and principles, notebook auditing, managerial acounting, business and accounting ethics and communications, accounting research, business statistics, and commercial law.

Meanwhile, if the aspiring certified public accountant has been in the business of public accounting for 15 years already, then this may qualify for the CPA course requirement in lieu of taking the required degree and studies in college. This work experience must have been supervised directly by a certified public accountant and approved by the State Board for Public Accountancy. For the work experience to be approved, usually the State Board looks for work application of the generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP and the generally accepted auditing standards or GAA. The aspiring certified public accountant should also have experience in preparing financial statements as well as auditing statements.

On Continuing Education With the CPA Exam

Now, let’s say the aspiring certified public accountant has already earned his bachelor’s degree, fulfilled the experience requirements, and passed the qualifying exam with flying colors. He now earns the CPA title; but wait a minute, because the education requirement does not end here. Right with he gets his certification, he is bound to take correlated courses every year in order to keep his license. This is basically to ensure that he continues to keep up with the trends in the profession.

Click here if you want to know more in this area CPA Requirements by State or CPA Review in general.

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