Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

What is a CPA?

A certified public accountant (CPA) is a designation for licensed professionals upholding the accountancy practice committed to generally serving the public interest. After passing the licensure exam and gaining the license to practice, a CPA must be committed to their discipline’s prevailing laws and ethics.

Certified public accountants can either engage their profession in public or private practice. Those in public practice work in accounting firms that offer primary service lines: auditing and assurance, tax compliance, financial accounting and reporting, and management advisory. Aside from firms, CPAs in public practice also involve government work.

Engaging in practice means taking up the responsibility to perform their duties with adherence to the Code of Professional Conduct (CPC) and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

On the other hand, CPAs in private practice work as accountants of businesses, accounting consultants, personal accountants, or teachers of accounting-related subjects in universities.

How to become a CPA-certified accountant?

States and nations have different certification requirements, and your local board of accountancy is in charge of enforcing and monitoring them. These prerequisites are divided into education, experience, and examination qualifications.

However, the basic steps to becoming a CPA are as follows:

1. Bachelor’s degree. A CPA license taker must have at least a Bachelor’s degree and 150-hour coursework in accountancy. While an accounting or business major is not required to take a CPA, it is highly recommended for applicants.
2. Graduate degree. A Master’s degree is not required to take a CPA license. However, it increases the applicant’s chances of passing the exam.
3. CPA Certification. Applicants must pass the CPA licensure exam to
4. Licensure
5. Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Certified Public Accountant (CPA) training

An accountancy profession encompasses more than simple bookkeeping and report preparation. CPAs handle many transactions involving compliances, planning, and even investigation of a public practice or a private company.

The following is the list of the most popular CPA-related training subjects.

Auditing

During an audit, an auditor examines various books of accounts and physically checks inventories to ensure that all departments adhere to a specified accounting system.

Financial Planning

The two main components of financial planning are estimating capital needs and assessing the competition. Put another way, it is how an organization’s financial policies are formulated.

Financial Statements

It’s a written record of its commercial activities and financial performance. Financial statements are frequently audited by government agencies, accountants, or corporations for tax, finance, or investment objectives.

CPAs usually apply the principles of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in creating financial statements. These standards allow financial analysts, banks, and other institutions to better understand and analyze financial statements.

Fraud/Forensic Accounting

Forensic accounting involves accounting, auditing, and investigation abilities to examine the finances of an individual or a company.

Tax Prep

Most people who take tax preparation training courses do so to boost their own or their company’s revenue. As a business owner, tax preparation is your primary or secondary focus. Customers and potential will be drawn in by it.

Government accounting

CPAs employed in government agencies are tasked and more aligned with public accounting services. They are trained to help agencies properly plan, budget, and allocate government funds.

Businesses can hire accountants directly or outsource through accounting firms. Outsourced CPAs can perform financial reporting duties such as preparing and presenting financial statements. Aside from that, they can also serve as financial advisors to a business regarding crucial decisions.

CPAs also perform audits and prepare tax returns following tax laws. Outsource Accelerator matches you with the best finance and accounting outsourcing companies in the Philippines, where you can save up to 70% on staffing costs.

CPA vs CMA: What’s the difference?

CPA and CMA have distinct specializations in terms of accounting. Certified public accountants (CPAs) are responsible for financial accounting and start with public practice, as mentioned above.

Meanwhile, certified management accountants (CMAs) deal more with an organization’s cost and financial analysis. They are experts in managerial accounting and delve more into private organizations.

In terms of auditing functions, CMAs deal more with internal auditing while CPAs are tasked with external auditing.