You Now Have a New Pathway to Meet CPA Requirements

A move to make it easier to become a Certified Public Accountant has sparked lively debates in the accounting community.

With some companies blaming insufficient accounting resources for material weaknesses, the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and others have taken steps to bring flexibility to requirements for earning a CPA license. Will that encourage more people to become a CPA?

What about the consequences of changing the requirements for earning a CPA license? Should younger CPAs have to complete the same requirements I did years ago? What will it mean for firms and the job market?

For the answers to these questions and more, I turned to someone who might have a unique perspective: Jimmy Chilimigras, who passed the CPA exam at age 15. Chelsea Hall, Workiva Industry Principal for financial reporting, also weighed in. But first, let's see how we got here.

What the AICPA and NASBA proposed

When Chelsea, Jimmy, and I earned our CPA licenses years ago (Jimmy is 17 now), candidates were required to pass the CPA Exam and most states required the completion of 150 credit hours of courses. Bachelor's degrees typically require 120 hours of course work, so students could complete the remaining hours by either earning a master's degree or taking 30 more credit hours of college courses. Candidates are also required to complete one year of professional general experience.

AICPA and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) proposed one more option for completing the 30 extra credit hours after a bachelor's degree. Under the proposal, a candidate who didn't want to go for a master's degree or take extra courses could choose instead to learn on the job. Competency would be verified by an experienced, licensed CPA.

CPA license requirements

The alternate pathway is a significant change from the requirements Chelsea, Jimmy, and I completed, although all CPAs still have to sit through the exam, get a bachelor's degree, and have work experience. Here's more from Jimmy, who is now in law school, which is a career path some CPAs take:

Why CPA requirements are changing

The AICPA and NASBA proposal noted that the workforce of certified public accountants is aging. They also said fewer people have been taking the CPA Exam (even though some hiring managers would note a CPA license can make you a more attractive job candidate). While artificial intelligence might help reduce the impact of staffing shortages in the future, AICPA and NASBA said they wanted to address the time and cost of completing the post-bachelor's degree requirements for CPA licensure with their proposal.

"The big driver is to reduce the barriers to getting that CPA license," Chelsea said. "So much of what you need to learn after a bachelor's degree is what you learn on the job anyway."

What happens now

States will decide what to require of CPA candidates in their jurisdictions. Several have already taken steps to give accounting students more flexibility toward becoming a CPA.

Pros and cons of alternative CPA pathways

"The alternate pathway lightens the financial burden to become a CPA," Chelsea said, noting that a master's degree can cost as much as (or more than) an undergraduate degree. "I feel like I could have taken the CPA Exam after undergrad. But earning a master's degree gave me more confidence when I joined PwC as an auditor."

Jimmy agrees that the extra 30 credit hours include important high-level accounting courses that cover ground not covered in a bachelor's program. Jimmy suggests CPAs who earned their licenses with an experience pathway could perhaps be known as a CPA-E.

Still, he says the alternate pathway is worth trying to see if it encourages more students to become a CPA.

Why study accounting?

For Jimmy, accounting is in his blood-his grandfather is a CPA-but he also saw practical value in the field. "Accounting is pretty much the language of business," Jimmy said. "That knowledge is just something that's eternally valuable. That was what drew me to the field initially."

Once he got into it, he found a "wonderful" accounting community.

While I got into numbers because I had a crush on my teacher and Chelsea studied accounting because she thought it would help her get into the CIA, Jimmy tells more about why he wanted to study accounting:

The bottom line

I'll turn it to Jimmy and Chelsea for final thoughts:

"I've experienced firsthand the impact of the pipeline shortage and welcome any change to the licensing requirements that will encourage more people to enter the accounting profession," said Chelsea, a former corporate controller who had a team of over 100 accounting employees. "The expertise needed to pass the CPA exam, on-the-job learning, and ongoing CPE requirements should calm any fears that the reduction of credit hours will dilute the standards of the profession."

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