Certified Public Accountant About

Certified Public Accountant or CPA provides accounting services to the public and organizations. They are primarily involved in auditing and attesting procedures. They are very well versed with accounting principles, business, and financial concepts, law, tax, etc. CPAs are hired by organizations in the role of finance manager, financial analyst, chief financial officer, etc. There is an examination which is conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and is called as Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination. In order to practice as a CPA, one needs to pass the examination conducted by AICPA. The CPAs are hired by various consulting firms, auditing firms, they can provide service in any area of finance broadly in corporate governance, financial accounting, estate planning, etc.

Certified Public Accountant
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Career Roles & Responsibilities
  • Accountants deal with all kinds of money transactions such as income, expenditure, profits, losses of a company
  • Some organization that are new and are still budding need to set up accounting systems; accountants help them
  • They visit their clients and conduct audits in which they analyze and collect detailed financial reports maintained by the company
  • They then analyze these reports and make sure that the reports maintained by the companies satisfy the necessary legal requirements
  • They help the organizations understand the legal issues related to the money transactions and help them stay out of unnecessary legal traps
  • They also maintain monthly, quarterly and yearly statements of the earnings and tax reports
  • They make sure that the tax returns forms are filled properly by the corporations to get tax benefits from the government
  • Some bigger organizations are required to prepare annual reports to be presented to the stockholders. These are also prepared and presented by the public accountants
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Career Education Path Summary

How to Pursue a Career as a Certified Public Accountant

 

Stream

Graduation

After Graduation

After Post Graduation

Path1

CPAs are also employed in the non profit organizations as they help NPOs to manage their revenue, understand the best practices of managing financial systems and taxes. CPAs are hired by NGOs or they can work as a freelancer wherein they can work with multiple organizations.

Pursue Bachelor’s degree in B.Com (H)/ B.Com/ BBA or a Finance Related Field. Along with that pursue Chartered Accountant/ Company Secretory along with your graduation.

Pursue Masters of Commerce (M.Com) or Masters of Business Administration (MBA)

Appear for CPA Examination. CPA Exam consists of 4 parts i.e. Auditing and Attestation (AUD), Business Environment and Concepts (BEC), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR), and Regulation (REG).

Important Facts

  • Must have Passed class 12th board examination with 60% including English.
  • In order to become a CPA, three ‘Es’ are taken into consideration which are Education, Examination, and Experience.
  • Education- A bachelor’s & master’s degree in a field which is related to finance and accounting along with either Chartered Accountant or Company Secretary.
  • Examination- This includes the CPA examination which consists of 4 components are Auditing & Attestation, Business Environment & Concept, Financial Accounting, and Reporting &Regulation. The passing score is 75 on a 0-99 scale.

Work Description

  • The job of a CPA involves maintaining and auditing the financial records of the public or organizations.
  • CPAs also come up with strategic ways for budgeting and using the money in the most efficient way possible.
  • They act as a consultant in the areas of accounts, finances, budget, etc.
  • CPAs also attend to tax-related work wherein they make sure that the taxes are paid on time by analysing financial information properly.
  • It is a job of responsibility as they also have to report any form of fraudulent work, tax-related issue, or any other financial issue to the organization.
Similar Careers
  • The job of CPA involves maintaining and auditing the financial records of the public or organizations.
  • CPAs also come up with strategic ways for budgeting and using the money in the most efficient way possible.
  • They act as a consultant in the areas of accounts, finances, budget, etc.
  • CPAs also attend to tax-related work wherein they make sure that the taxes are paid on time by analysing financial information properly.
  • It is a job of responsibility as they also have to report any form of fraudulent work, tax-related issue, or any other financial issue to the organization. The accountant salary expectation is quite good. CPAs make an average of $63,165 annually per PayScale. The lowest 10% makes around $45,000 while the highest percentile earns over $100,000 per year. As with all professions, the accountant salary expectation highly depends on location and prior experience. Salary is usually included in the individual accounting job description.
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Career Pros Details
  • CPAs can work in a vast range of industries because every business needs an accountant in their firm.
  • Excellent opportunity for CA/ ICWA/ CS/ Law/ MBA (Finance), M.Com and Commerce Graduates who aspire for an International Certification.
  • A CPA certification would allow you to have a knowledge of US GAAP, GAAS, and US federal taxation and business laws.
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Career Cons Details
  • They undergo an intensive amount of stress as they are handling the legal documents of the organization.
  • Professionals might have to work for long hours and stick to the deadlines.
  • At times, the work could become monotonous & dull.
Mathematics - Using mathematics to solve problems.
Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.  
Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
Operations Analysis - Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.

Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.

  • Accountants should be skilled at playing with numbers as most of their job consists of calculations
  • Accountants should have knowledge of all the tax-related laws and legal issues that are related to the financial transactions of the company
  • They should have the ability to give unbiased and crystal clear financial suggestions to their clients
  • To carry out successful audits for the company they should have good reasoning ability, analyzing ability, and ability to pay attention to the details
  • They should also be skilled at using various low-end accounting software, middle-end accounting software, and high-end accounting software
  • Some of the software products widely used are QuickBooks PRO, Sage Peachtree Complete Accounting, MYOB, Accpac from Sage, Syspro 6.1, Epicor Enterprise from Epicor, etc., which a public account should be able to use comfortably

 

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