[FIFOisbetterthanLIFO]

I have heard of external auditors signing off on experience. Has anyone had success with this and if so how did the process work and in which state did you get licensed?

I am in Oregon and have put in the question to my board as well. I will definitely let you guys know what they say.

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[mw798]

This is the third sign off question today, what's going on here? LOL

[FIFOisbetterthanLIFO]

Well, many of us in industry interact and have our work reviewed/audited by public auditors, banks, and the general public on a regular basis. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me to make me leave my senior level industry accounting job to go suffer for a year or two in public (doing work far below my skillset) so that I can get someone to sign off on my work. Maybe many of you in public accounting beg to differ, but that's the way I see it. I've dealt with many public auditors in my 5 year career, and sadly, those 3 letters do not necessarily mean you KNOW your stuff.

FAR - Passed (82)
BEC - Passed (76)
AUD - Passed (89)
REG - Passed! (81)
AICPA Ethics

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[mw798]

No I meant why so many questions about this topic today.

In any case, the information should be on your state board's website or on the form itself. It should tell you if you the signing CPA needs to be your supervisor or not.

Here it is on Oregon's Board of Public Accountancy website (https://www.oregon.gov/boa/pages/licensing.aspx):

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS FOR CPA LICENSE:

Applicants for the CPA license must obtain the experience competencies as described below and have a minimum of 12 months full-time employment or a total of 2,000 hours of equivalent part-time experience.

All experience must be directly supervised by a qualified supervisor licensee. A supervisor licensee is a person who holds an active CPA license issued by any state or a PA license issued under ORS 673.100 during the period of supervision and for at least five of the past seven years immediately prior to such supervision. NOTE: A Public Accountant (PA) may not act as a supervising licensee or verify an applicant's experience relating to attest services.

The supervisor licensee must directly supervise the applicant by having regular and meaningful interaction with the applicant in terms of planning, coordinating, guiding, inspecting, controlling and evaluating activities, and have authority over the employee being supervised. A licensee acting as a consultant or independent contractor to the applicant's employer will not meet the requirement of direct supervision.

[mw798]

Note the part that says “have authority over the employee being supervised. A licensee acting as a consultant or independent contractor to the applicant's employer will not meet the requirement of direct supervision.”

An external auditor would be considered an independent contractor to your employer. I'm surprised Oregon made it this clear actually. Many states have you read between the lines.

[Anonymous]

That's a good question. I would imagine an external auditor being hesitant to sign off, but you never know. As to whether it is allowed I'm sure that varies as does everything else in this process. Arkansas has no mention of a supervision requirement such as Oregon's above, yet it may still be required.

I do understand your frustration about not wanting to work in public to get a CPA's signature as I currently do not work in public. Luckily my supervisor is a CPA but I will be going to work in public in September regardless. Gotta remember that P stands for public haha.

[Anonymous]

Are there really that many people in industry who don't have any CPAs employed at their companies? I would've thought that a fair number of CFOs and most controllers were CPAs. This is probably why most state boards haven't really considered the issue of what to do if you've got a candidate who doesn't have a CPA supervisor because they ARE the accounting supervisor. It can't be that common an occurrence.

Anyway, is it at all possible for you to transfer your scores to another state that has a less stringent requirement, get your license there, and then apply for reciprocity in Oregon? Texas, for example, allows your firm (if it has no CPAs to supervise you) to hire a contractor CPA for the sole purpose of supervising your work for your license. The contractor does not have to work onsite. He/she just has to periodically review your work for a year.

Otherwise, while you don't have to work in public, you may at least have to find another private firm that has a CPA who can supervise you.

[Anonymous]

I doubt most auditors would be comfortable with that. Change jobs to a company that has CPAs and work with them to get experience fulfilled. In oregon you don't need public experience.

[mw798]

Well I think asking an external auditor is a moot point as Oregon specifically states external auditors can't sign off anyway. Either get a job that has CPAs or apply in a less stringent state.

[Anonymous]

Some states will allow you to appeal to certain requirements, right? That may be an avenue worth trying, just to throw in the option.

[FIFOisbetterthanLIFO]

Thanks for the thoughts. @casey, that's a good thought – I may look at trying a different state. I feel like the state board would frown on this to be honest.

Many private company CFOs/controllers have had their CPA, but never hung onto since they left public accounting so long ago (personally, I will always keep it active once I get it because you never know). My CFO had his CPA in a different state, but let it go years ago because he's been in industry ever since 2 years after college.

It's just unfortunate to have to take a huge pay cut and go seemingly backwards in the career in order to work for a CPA firm who is going to make you do mind-numbing work your first year anyways. I may have to bite the bullet.

FAR - Passed (82)
BEC - Passed (76)
AUD - Passed (89)
REG - Passed! (81)
AICPA Ethics

Licensed CPA

[Anonymous]

@FIFO I believe in most states (if not all?) you can list yourself as a CPA regardless of what state you're licensed in, as long as you don't perform attest services. I'm licensed in KY which doesn't require a CPA supervisor, just a CPA to sign off (mine wasn't my supervisor or employed at the same firm). If I moved to Oregon some day, given that I am in industry and would plan to stay in industry, I believe I would still be able to say that I'm a CPA, I just couldn't prepare Oregon taxes as a CPA or do attest work as a CPA. I haven't researched this for Oregon specifically, just using Oregon for an example. If this is the case, though, you could get licensed in another state and put CPA on your LinkedIn, email signature, etc., without ever needing to worry about applying for a reciprocal license in Oregon.

[FIFOisbetterthanLIFO]

Interesting. I suppose at some point it could probably be transferred back to Oregon if I went that route. There are plenty of firms here that want people, but they want to pay you the same salary as the guy who just graduated college and knows almost nothing. For public accounting though, it's surprising how little value is placed on real-world, private accounting experience.

FAR - Passed (82)
BEC - Passed (76)
AUD - Passed (89)
REG - Passed! (81)
AICPA Ethics

Licensed CPA

[Author]

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