Had a liberal arts degree in college and only took a couple accounting courses - for NY/CA, would I be able to take the CPA with the CFA hours?
Thanks guys
CPA covers a lot of material not covered in the CFA: auditing, government/non-profit accounting, corporate tax law, accounting information systems, accounting theory, and more.
Apples and oranges. CFA is a worldwide designation, and all you need is a Bachelor’s degree (in any major).
I doubt that a liberal arts major can take the CPA exam. You’ll have to go back to take a lot of business and accounting courses to be eligible.
The CPA is a license granted by the state. Each state has its own requirements. Check out the NASBA website for links to the individual states.
Here are the CA requirements to take the CPA exam:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/cba/applicants/pathway.shtml
And here are NY’s requirements:
http://www.op.nysed.gov/prof/cpa/cpalic.htm
It seems that in New York, you can become a CPA without ever taking an accounting class or passing the CPA exam. But you have to work in public accounting for 15 years.
EDIT - I was wrong. In NY, if you work in public accounting for 15 years, you can waive the education requirement, but you still have to take the exam. And I seriously doubt that any other state would honor your CPA license.
The majority of people will make more money with a CPA than a CFA. CFA has a higher average but CPA has a higher median.
The requirements vary from state to state, but typically you need 20+ college credit hours of accounting courses.
How about the sheer feasibility?
Which is harder - CFA vs. CPA? As someone who doesn’t want to repeat the CFA ever again, I’m reluctant to go down a similar path…
Ignoring the regulations of whether or not you can get a CPA, I’d say that passing the CPA exam is easier then passing the CFA exams. Its 4 bite size pieces vs the huge CFA curriculum, its easy to retake in the event you fail a section and don’t have to wait a full year, and quite frankly most of the material isn’t that difficult. The mechanics of the accounting that’s tested on the CPA exams isn’t too complex.
I’m not a CPA, but I took the exams and passed all 4 of them on the first attempt right after passing L2 CFA, so I had some exam fatigue going on for a while there…
krazykanuck, did you manage to pass just based on the accounting knowledge you had from the CFA, or did you studying accounting elsewhere? Had you studied governmental accounting, auditing, etc?
CPA accounting and CFA accounting are two entirely different animals.
In CFA, you’re learning how to USE and INTERPRET financial statements. In CPA, you’re learning how to CREATE financial statements. (There is some carryover in this section, but certainly not enough to pass the exam.)
CFA has zero tax in it. CPA has almost an entire section dedicated to corporate tax, individual tax, taxation of S-Corps and partnerships, gift tax, estate tax, and trust tax. And the rest of the section that isn’t devoted to tax is devoted to Corporate Law and business structures (no exposure on CFA).
CFA has zero auditing. CPA has an entire section devoted to auditing.
The last section of the CPA is about 40% cost accounting (no exposure on CFA) and information systems (no exposure on CFA).
I wonder why people on the thread are so worried about the CPA exam. If you’re not eligible to take it, then it’s a moot point, unless you’re considering going back to school and taking another 5-10 accounting classes.
My undergrad degree was in accounting and finance and I also have graduate coursework in accounting, as needed to be CPA eligible. I also used a CPA prep program, which really is all you need to study to pass.
Like greenie said, there is relatively little overlap between CPA accounting and CFA accounting. CPA exam may ask you to compute a depreciation schedule where CFA may just want to know how different types of depreciation impact the financial statements.
Just +1 to everything greenie said.
I earned the CPA before I started the CFA program, and personally found it relatively easier (although, not easy).
I would estimate that I have put in at least double the amount of time preparing for Level II of the CFA program, than I did for any 2 of the CPA exams. CPA exams are very concentrated on a limited range of topics, wereas the arguably the most significant challenge in the CFA exams is breadth of material that you can potentially be tested on.
The intent of the two programs is different. The CPA is designed to ensure you have the minimum level of competence for public accounting. The CFA program is designed to keep people from becoming CFA charterholders, and maintain its exclusivity.
Costing is not a big deal at all. If you paid attention in your CFA and understand performance attribution, that’s exactly what cost accounting is.
Variance analysis of standard costs in cost accounting is exactly the same as performance attribution.
Only ‘issues’ with costing is what your level of normal production is and some classification of overhead. But CFA level 2 covered a lot about LIFO and FIFO inventory which relates to costing.
That being said, CPA is an ACCOUNTING qualification, whereas CFA is a FINANCE qualification. There are overlaps but the focus is completely different.
On the other hand CPA’s can very likely do valuation and due diligence (wACC, DCF, PE etc are standard), however a CPA would not be able to explain CAPM, Beta or how to construct a portfolio assuming short sales are allowed, nor how to do a covariance matrix of assets.
obviously biased but CFA-related work is a hell of a lot more interesting than a CPA (no offense anyone)
^Because I’m sure you have experience in both, right?