Certified Public Accountants (CPA)

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Meaning of Certified Public Accountant

The CPA (Certified Public Accountant) is a designation provided by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants to those who clear an exam in addition to fulfilling the work experience requirements. Explained another way, the CPA designation is an important documentation that attests to your in-depth knowledge about accounting principles and practices, counting applicable laws and regulations.

As stated by Investopedia, the accounting industry, for the most part, is self-regulated. The CPA is a certification designed to help ensure the professional standards for the industry being enforced to their best.

How to earn a CPA

Earning a CPA requires you to pass an exam and fulfill ongoing professional education requirements. The complication involved is that majority of states possess their own accounting boards which regulate the profession as well as the awarding of CPA license. Therefore, qualifying to carry out practice in one state might not automatically allow you for the same in another. However, many such complications can be overcome if you are working in a large corporation with a multi-state footprint.

Need for a CPA

The CPA is essential for advancement while pursuing a career as an auditor. Without a CPA, a candidate is limited to entry-level jobs supervised by a CPA. Besides the public accounting sector, working in other financial services firms also demands a CPA license only in some highly specialized support functions like internal audit. Besides, a CPA license is largely respected as an sign of quantitative skills and high standards in professionalism.

Key objectives

The major objectives featured broadly by the CPA Program as a postgraduate professional program are:

  • Imparting the knowledge about concepts in Accounting, Auditing, Taxation, Business Law, Management, and Information Technology.
  • Improving the ability to develop a framework for using purposes of decision making.
  • Making deep insights into practical applications of accounting in a self-motivated business milieu.
  • Developing appreciation of the interface between Accounting, and other similar areas like Marketing, Economics, HRM, Finance, Operations Management, IT, and Strategy.
  • Facilitating the growth and development of Accounting Professionals as Business Managers. 

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