Friday, July 11, 2014

What It Takes To Be A Cpa Accountant

By Rosella Campbell


Various countries in the world have various designations used to refer to those individuals qualified as to work as accountants. The title CPA is normally used to refer to local public accountants. In the United States for a CPA accountant must have sat and passed a certified public accountant examination that is normally uniform besides having all the requisite education and experience to be certified as a CPA and a member of professional accounting bodies.

However, in the United States, individuals are prohibited from using the designation CPA if they are not certified in that particular state. Therefore the use of that particular designation is restricted the state it was obtained until an out of state CPA acquires a license in the new state. There are other designations used to refer to lower tier accountants such as LPA (licensed public accountants) PA (public accountants).

Though in many countries accountants may work as business consultants, this is limited due to legal provisions and professional standards that require accountants conducting audits to maintain the greatest possible levels of independence with the entity attestation is being conducted on. Thus it becomes impossible for CPAs to be consultants and auditors.

Some accountants work as business consultants though in most countries, those accountants carrying out audits are required by the law and by professional standards to ensure a certain degree of independence from the entity they are having an attestation engagement. For this reason, most of those working as consultants are not auditors.

Though CPA examinations may be the same for all students in the country, in others like the US, state governments greatly influence the licensing and certification since they hold the final verdict on the various licensing requirements that are outlined in the laws enacted by the state.

However, State requirements for one be become a certified public accountant can be generalized as examination, education and experience . Education requirements are normally fulfilled as one seeks to meet the eligibility criteria required to sit for the CPA examination.

Accounting examinations have four main parts; audit and attestation( covers topics such as communicating audit findings, evaluating evidence, ethics, professional responsibilities, performing and audits)Regulation(tests candidates on business law, federal tax procedures, tax ethics business law and more) Business Environment and Concepts (deals with things like information systems, strategic planning and corporate governance.) and financial accounting and reporting. Though a number of aspects of this examination may vary depending on the country, the examination is principally based on these areas.

Ethics remain a critical area of study for an accounting student. In fact before one is a certified public accountant, he or she must sit a special ethics examination which evaluates ones understanding of professional ethics and might be a mandatory requirement when joining accounting professional bodies.




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