I am currently finishing up my Master of Accounting program and am planning to take the level II exam this upcoming June. Directly after that I want to start the CPA exam.
My question is how similar is FAR to the financial reporting and analysis section of the CFA? Would it be beneficial to jump into FAR immediately after the CFA level II exam while all of that information is still fresh in my head?
I took FAR in Summer 2009 and took L2 in Summer 2010. Back then, there was a lot of overlap.
Remember that The main focus in CFA is to be able to understand. analyze, and evaluate a financial statement. The main focus on CPA is to be able to PRODUCE a financial statement. This explains many of the differences.
CFA will not have journal entries and CPA obviously will.
Back then, CPA didn’t have any IFRS on it, and CFA covered IFRS pretty extensively. I have heard that CPA has increased their IFRS coverage, but I don’t know how true it is. But the “blocking and tackling” is largely the same–you just need to know the differences. (EG - under IFRS, you can “write back up” previous charges to goodwill. Can’t do that with GAAP.)
Will this allow me to shave some study time off of studing for FAR then?
There is some overlap. I would recommend doing FAR before CFA II - but that is just my 2 cents.
+1
Except that once you finish the first CPA exam, you only have 18 months to complete the other three. If you do FAR first, then CFA L2, you’ll need to hit the books hard and fast to finish the other three tests.