When you want to become a CPA and work in the state of New York, you must meet the requirement for the licensing of accountants in that state. A certified public accountant, while doing the same type of work as a general accountant, is distinguished with a prestigious position above the rank of junior accountant by the education and licensing that comes with the certificate. When you have this certification, it shows employers that you have the extensive training and experience they need in accountants to be able to handle even the most difficult financial situations in their companies.

To fulfill the education requirements and become a CPA in New York State, you can become certified without a university degree. However, the accounting program you take must be registered and accredited by the state government. With this option, you do need to have fifteen years of experience working as an accountant. This option exists to help those who have Associates degrees and received on-the-job training to move up in the company based on their excellent performance as they learned on the job.

The option described above is not used very often today for becoming a CPA in New York State. Most of those applying for certification have an undergraduate degree. The state requires that you have an overall average of C in your accounting courses leading to the Bachelor’s degree and if you have a Master’s degree, you must have an overall average of B. The list of courses you take in your degree program must include courses in federal taxation, professional auditing and advanced financial accounting. If, when you apply to write the certification exam, these specific course requirements have not been met, you will have to take the courses and re-apply.

Until August 2009, you can meet the requirements for licensing as a CPA in New York State with just 120 semester hours for a Bachelor’s degree or higher provided they include specific courses. You do need to have 24 semester hours in accounting, cost accounting, US tax laws, and auditing. In addition, you will need to have 6 semester hours in business law, 6 semester hours in finance, 3 semester hours in business statistics, 6 semester hours in economics and 21 semester hours in accounting or business electives.

The most common route to becoming a CPA in New York State is to have a Bachelor’s degree along with 150 semester hours or course work. Thirty-three of these hours must be in all facets of the accounting industry and thirty-six hours must be in business courses.

Once you meet all the requirements, then you can apply to write the comprehensive exam. The four parts of this exam deal with:

• Auditing
• Regulations
• Business
• Financial Accounting and Reporting.

75% is the passing score for each part of the exam.

You also have to submit character references and a Certification of Employer form in which your employer will provide details of the type of work experience you have. This too is very comprehensive, requiring such information as the nature of your cases, how much time you spent involved in auditing work and details of that work and information about the type of reports you generated when you completed the cases. New York State has stringent regulations in place to assure that it licenses only the highest caliber of professional accountants.

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