Overview

Florida’s general requirements for its CPAs are quite simple and on the identical scope with those of many different states. It requires a complete of a hundred and fifty semester hours in undergraduate coursework, which will enable you to sit down for the CPA exam. You have to complete the ultimate 30 hours later. You ought to additionally show appropriate experience. Florida state does no longer require an Ethics Exam as most different states do.

Florida does no longer require both state residency or U.S. citizenship of applicants, however they do require a Social Security number. If you do not now have a SSN, seek advice from your university guide to see if you can enchant the board and use every other structure of taxpayer identification, or if rather you’ll want to pursue licensure in another state.

Education Standards

To satisfy the Florida Board of Accountancy training requirements, you should complete one hundred twenty semester hours (160 quarter hours) of undergraduate work that culminate in a bachelor’s degree. Your college need to be absolutely authorized via a regional accreditation board. If you received your schooling in either Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand or Hong Kong, their accreditation boards additionally qualify.

If you no longer graduate from an authorized university or university, you can nonetheless sit down for the exam in Florida. The Board makes an allowance if you have been commonplace to a master’s diploma application and have accomplished 15 semester hours that include three graduate-level hours in tax publications and six hours of different graduate-level coursework in accounting. Make sure that the final 9 hours are pertinent to the learning about accounting and the Board ought to seem to be approvingly upon your transcripts.

To take a seat for the exam, your coursework will want to break down alongside these lines:

• 24 hours of upper-level coursework including fee and managerial accounting, auditing, financial accounting, accounting statistics systems, and taxes.
• 24 hours of everyday enterprise education, 21 of which should be at the top level. A minimum of 6 semester hours ought to cover commercial enterprise regulation overlaying Uniform Commercial Code, contracts and torts.

For full licensure, make sure you meet all the following course requirements:

• 36 hours studying taxation, auditing, financial, cost/managerial accounting, and accounting data systems.
• 36 hours studying general business, together with six hours in business law courses.
• You may not exceed more than nine semester hours in pc course
• You are not allowed more than 9 hours studying statistics
• You can substitute upper-level accounting courses for your general business requirements
• AP courses are acceptable credits, given your degree-granting institution allowed them

Uniform CPA Examination

You should apply to take the exam. Once your application has been approved, you will acquire a Notice to Schedule. Upon receipt of this notice, you will have six months to apply and sit for your first portion of the CPA exam. You may also then agenda the examination at a Prometric examination service location and take the test at a time that fits into your schedule. Note that if you fail to agenda an examination time within six months of the Notice to Schedule, you will want to observe again.

You may additionally take all four examination sections at once, however you are allowed a rolling 18 month period in which to ignore all parts. Each phase should be passed with a rating of 75 or better. When your ratings are obtained with the aid of the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) you can get entry to them online.

The 4 parts of the exam are:

• Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR)–Covers monetary reporting frameworks from enterprise experts. Candidates may additionally be requested to compare statements that reflect exclusive frameworks.
• Auditing and Attestation (AUD)–A test of your knowledge of the International Standards of Auditing as nicely as U.S. standards.
• Regulation (REG)–Your expert and criminal obligations are included in this test.
• Business Environment and Concepts (BEC)–This portion covers regularly occurring business concepts and worldwide business. Written verbal exchange capabilities are indispensable to complete an awful lot of the test.

Experience

Once you have passed all 4 components of your CPA exam, you are geared up to follow your accounting abilities as an employee. The Board requires 2,080 hours of work experience, done over either fifty two or 104 weeks. During this time, you are allowed realistic sick and holiday time. Your ride have to cowl one or extra of the following areas:

• Accountancy
• Attestation
• Compilation
• Financial Advising
• Taxation
• Consultation

Your supervisor needs to sign off on your ride with a Verification of Work Form and verify that you performed your responsibilities with competency and professionalism. From this point, you can complete the closing application package, along with all fees, and remit it to the Board.

The licensing authority and necessities for CPAs falls under the jurisdiction of the Board of Accountancy for the state, district, or use of a in which a CPA practices.