Licensing milestone: ensuring your unlicensed staff meets the new regs.

• Position: Licensing update

Jan 1, 2014, will mark a milestone for California CPAs as the new 150-hour requirement will go into effect and close the door on Pathway One. Many in the profession have been focused on no-thorough gaining a the understanding-of the new educational requirements, which impact the students being hired today. That means now is the time to focus on another demographic of candidates: Unlicensed staff who earned fewer than 150 hours in the classroom.

In the next 17 months, candidates who have met their experience requirement still have an opportunity to become licensed under one of the two existing pathways (Figure 1).

Pathway 1 (expires Dec. 31, 2013)

A bachelor's degree;

24 semester units in accounting-related subjects;

24 semester units in business-related subjects

Passing the Uniform CPA Exam;

Two years of general accounting experience supervised by a CPA with an active license; and Passing the Professional Ethics for CPAs (PETH) exam.

Pathway 2 (expires Dec. 31, 2013)

A bachelor's degree;

24 semester units in accounting-related subjects;

24 semester units in business-related subjects;

150 semester units (or 225 quarter units) of education;

Passing the Uniform CPA Exam; One year of general accounting experience supervised by a CPA with an active license; and

Passing the Professional Ethics for CPAs (PETH) exam.

Today's students, though, must comply with the new rules, as they won't have a chance to earn the requisite general accounting experience before the December 2013 deadline. In contrast, licensing applicants who met their experience requirement still have a chance to become licensed under either of the current pathways so long as they focus Oil meeting this deadline. Even applicants who have 150 semester units will be subject to the new requirements, which place greater restrictions on eligible coursework.

While today's computerized exam is offered more frequently than the paper exam, it still lakes candidates an average of 12-18 months to pass all four parts. Moreover, due to blackout periods (March, June, September and December), candidates are only able to schedule exams 66 percent of the year

More experienced individuals, however, nay lace greater challenges in comparison to recent college graduates. Those who are more senior in their career often have more responsibilities in both their professional and personal lives. Since they are farther out of the classroom, they are also further away from the breadth of topics on the exam and...