[HoustonCowGirl]

Hi everyone,

I am 6 classes away from fulfilling my requirements for the CPA exam but I have run into a hurdle. I just realized there is no CPA at my company who can sign off on my accounting experience. This leaves me with only two options. Find a state that requires no work experience or turn my life upside down and find a job under a CPA which…i dont know if I can do. I have worked with my firm for a very long time and things are not exactly rosy in texas right now. Its a bit risky to leave your job.

I looked at Colorado and they have some extended academic experience that they can use instead of the work experience. But its extremely confusing to understand. I found this website called NASBA where they can evaluate your experience before you submit an application but I dont know if this is a legitimate website for 100 dollars.

Does any one have experience with NASBA?
Do I have to physically take the exam in Colorado to get a license there, provided i meet the requirements.
Do I just transfer my license from Colorado to Texas once im done? I mean could there be problems?
Are there any Colorado CPAs here who can give me some information?

I feel stuck before i even started. I hate this work experience requirement.

[Track55]

It took me 22 months to pass the CPA exam. You will have time to look for another job. You will need to try to get the experience.

NASBA is the National Accounting Board. They are the ones you will pay each time you sign up for a test.

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[Anonymous]

Do I have to physically take the exam in Colorado to get a license there, provided i meet the requirements.
Nope. If you apply through Colorado, you can take the exams anywhere.

Do I just transfer my license from Colorado to Texas once im done? I mean could there be problems?
Not that simple, specifically with Texas. License transfer rules vary from state to state, but from what I've seen and heard, Texas is one of the hardest to transfer into. Additionally, since Colorado is one of the easier ones to get licensed in, they're one of the harder ones to transfer out of if you're transferring into a tougher state. So…I can almost guarantee you wouldn't be able to transfer it to TX. I think TX transfer rules are basically “you have to meet initial license requirements here if you want to transfer your license in”.

.

Basically, you've either got to switch jobs, or settle for an out-of-state license. Given that you referenced working at a “firm”, I assume you work in public accounting; if you work in public, you won't be able to list yourself as a CPA with an out-of-state license. In private, whether or not you can list yourself as a CPA is more variable, but again, I think TX is one of the states that is really strict about only TX CPAs listing themselves as CPAs anywhere.

If you wanted to look for a license that might transfer, though, I'd suggest looking for states that don't require the CPA signoff to be a supervisor, or don't require the supervisor signoff to be a CPA, rather than that don't require experience at all (which it sounds like was your initial search). For example, KY (my state) requires a CPA signoff, but doesn't have to be a supervisor, so if there's a CPA in town that you know s/he can sign off that you've worked at XYZ CPA-less Firm for 3 years. In VA, they require supervisor signoff, but supervisor doesn't have to be a CPA. Once you find a state like one of these that the requirements match TX except for the slight difference in experience (education etc. are all the same), then you could contact the Texas CPA board and ask them if you can transfer a license from the state you've identified. However, I'm thinking I read somewhere that TX requires you meet their initial licensure requirements (which would include CPA supervisor signoff) before they're willing to grant transfer license.

Just out of curiosity, does your firm have no CPAs? If that's the case, and you're wanting to build a CPA career, then you may want to consider moving firms anyway. I'm big into job security, so understand your hesitations, but sometimes you've got to make a short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain. 🙂 Especially if you look for a job with some exams passed, there's a good chance you'd get a good pay bump moving, too.

[.]

What a lot of states do to prevent people from going around their requirements is you have to be licensed in the original state for several years before you can do the transfer. Don't know about Texas though. Texas certainly seems very nit-picky with their education requirements. So many upper division accounting units….

I was considering moving there after reading that salaries are high but cost of living is low. After seeing all those education requirements and researching the climate I decided not to.

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[HoustonCowGirl]

actually we outsource all our accounting work to another local firm.

By “Firm” i just generally mean my work place.
I am a trader by profession, i have been trading for 16 years and I knew one day I would have to make the decision to get out of trading if I was going to do my CPA. I just didnt know it was going to be this soon.

I guess im going to have to go find a new job. Maybe its time. Its going to be a pain to find work directly under a CPA. Why does Texas make it so difficult.

Also another question is the firms that hire people and list “must be eligible to sit for the CPA exam in the next 6 months” how does that work. Mostly these jobs are for recent grads they dont have 1 years worth of experience to sit for the CPA exam.

Im still going to see if i can make it through Colorado and then call the Texas Board up and see how much torture it is to get transferred.

This all sucks.

[Anonymous]

@HoustonCowGirl Most states, and I assume TX is the same, you're eligible to sit for the exams without any experience, you just can't get licensed till you have 1 year of experience. So, you said you're 6 classes away from being CPA-eligible. I assume that means you're 6 classes away from being able to sit for the exams. If you thought you could complete the 6 classes within 6 months, then you'd count as 6 months away from being eligible to sit for the exams. More likely you're taking one or two at a time, so probably getting about 2 classes done in 6 months, so when you have 2 classes left would be 6 months away from eligible and time to consider a job change.

Or, you could wait till you had all the classes done, then take all the exams, and go job-searching with 4 exams passed. Having a 16-year career that (I assume) compensates you well is a decent spot to “sit” while you work on the classes and exams. That's different from someone who is at an entry-level job and has potential to move up by changing jobs earlier in the process.

[HoustonCowGirl]

First of all
Thank you Lila for all your help and thank you for taking the time to talk to me. I have been kinda stressed out about this since yesterday and your advise has really helped me a lotttttt!!!
This is where things stand.

First Option Get the work experience in Texas and get licensed here.

Second Option Get licensed in Colorado and fill out a Reciprocal Application from the State of Texas. Texas looks at how long you have held your license. They then require you to complete certain continuing education requirements (Seminars etc that CPAs have to go to) it can be very low 20 hrs or very high 120 hrs. Once you are done with that and Texas approves your application you will hold two licenses. One in Colorado and one in Texas.

Just found all this out from the State Board of Texas.

Its a bit overwhelming for me but its fine. I will just try my best and discuss these options with my loved ones and get their input. Then take it from there.

Last year around this time i felt my life was just a hamster on a spin wheel and i wanted to change it, now i have filled it with so many things i dont know what to manage and what to leave for later lol.
I am just going to continue to work towards this goal and hopefully a path will clear for me.

[Accountant183748]

Actually, I am in Colorado and Colorado no longer allows education in lieu of experience. Colorado updated requirements to get you license as of 7/2015, so you need the 150 hours plus one year of experience, to be “substantially equivalent” to other states. You can still sit for the exam with 120 hours though. And the experience requirement in Colorado is that a CPA has to sign off on your work experience.

[Anonymous]

In light of @vanessa_ls's post, perhaps you'll want to look into a different state which would allow licensure that you'll meet the requirements for, but then follow a substantially similar path to what you'd described. MA has a non-reporting license which you can get if you have a Master's; if you still need 6 classes, might be something to consider, if the Master's could cover those 6 classes. KY and VA, as I mentioned above, require accounting experience but have different rules about signoffs, so might be more favorable to your situation. Other states may also have combinations that work for you.

Overall, if all TX would require to transfer in a license is doing some CPE, that's no biggie at all. Maintaining both licenses (sounded like you'd have to keep the CO licenses too?) would require some additional renewal fees, but $100/year or something like that is worth it to get licensed!! 60-80 hours of CPE annually is a common renewal requirement, so having to do 20-120 hours of “extra” CPE wouldn't be that rough (it'd probably count for the initial state's renewal as well as for the TX transfer…). Looks like you'll be able to get licensed! 🙂 Now you've just got to knock those last classes out of the way.

[Valar Dohaeris]

I'm in a state that allows non-CPAs to sign off on your hours if that person performs work equivalent to a CPA. Essentially, you submit their resume along with the rest of your application packet, and the state board will review their resume and work experience. Plus, I know of a state that has a “catch-all” category where they will perform an individual review of your work experience.

In USA, there are over 50 different ways to become a CPA which may have minor tweaks each year. I would call your state accounting board.

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[HoustonCowGirl]

im screwed KY and VA both have experience requirements.

thank you Vannessa for that critical information.

im going to have to say a prayer and explore options one discussed above.

oh well….

my life sucks right now.

[Anonymous]

To my knowledge Massachusetts' non-reporting license, which requires a Master's, is the only non-experience CPA option.

HOWEVER, all of these states – unless there's one obscure one I've missed – allow you to sit for the exams without the experience. So, you don't really need to make any moves till after you've got the 6 classes done at least and probably also got the 4 exams passed, and then figure out how to move into an accounting job that meets the experience requirement, meanwhile keeping your eyes open for any accounting positions that really excite you.

[HoustonCowGirl]

🙁

[leglock]

I'm in a state where the law allows anyone including your parents to sign off on your 1 yr experience requirement, as long as they were your supervisor. Your experience need not be in accounting either. It must be in providing any type of service or advice involving the use of accounting, attest, management advisory, financial advisory, tax or consulting skills that may be gained through employment in government, industry, academia, or public practice.

Also , one year is 1500 hours or 2000 hours over 4 yrs.

The only issue is they won't count your experience until you have met all educational requirements.

Illinois

[bhunt815]

@Houstoncowgirl – I am in Louisiana and I have been Director of Finance at the same company for 8 years now. Although we have no CPA's here, the state board of accountancy is allowing me to use our external auditors, who have audited my work for all 8 years I've been here, to verify my experience (same lead auditor all 8 years). Maybe you can check with your state board to see if someone external might work?

If the Board of Accountancy had pushed back on the auditor, I would have used a member of our Board of Directors, but the auditor actually is in a much better position to vouch for me than the board member.

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[.]

Do you have to be licensed to get your first accounting job in Texas?

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[Author]

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