Ready for 150? Charting unknown waters of new 150-hour licensure requirement.

• Author: Jarvis, Dana
• Position: Licensureissues

universities, students, employers and employees face an unknown challenge with Senate Bill 819, which will bring an unprecedented overhaul of California CPA licensing rules. As of Jan. 1, 2014, candidates will need 150 units of college education for CPA licensure rather than the current 120 hours, known as Pathway 1.

Unchartered Waters: Making Sense of an Emerging Law

CalCPA was instrumental in getting SB 819 passed and is working on getting the law implemented in a way that is workable for the profession, educational institutions and candidates for licensure.

Getting a clear description of the new rules is a bit daunting, however. The California Board of Accountancy (www.dca.gov) and CalCPA (www.calepa.org) have lots of information on the topic, but both will point out. a gray area in the law: The topical make up of the additional 30 college units that: will be needed to apply for CPA licensure.

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As of Jan. 1.2014, Pathway 1 will cease and all CPA candidates will need 150 hours of education for licensure. According to SB 819, the additional 30 hours will be made up of "accounting study" (20 hours'; and ethics (10 hours). Under the law. "accounting study'" means independent study or other academic work in accounting, business, ethics, business law, or other academic work relevant to accounting and business, so as to enhance the competency of students as practitioners.

The gray area is challenging for universities and students, as there is no clear definition of what curriculum will need to be taught so students can meet the new requirements. Most universities do not offer 10 units of ethics and would have to develop these courses from scratch. In fact, it would not be advisable for colleges to develop courses until the actual requirements are adopted by the GBA because the developed courses might not meet the final requirements.

Both the requirement changes and its gray areas raise some questions that accounting firms, incoming new hires and current employees should think about:

* What will the firm's plan be for any incoming new hires that will not be graduating with the 150 college units required?

* What should the communication be to future hires on the 150-unit requirements?

* What will the firm's responsibility be in covering the costs for any additional units required by incoming new hires and unlicensed employees?

* What is the best way to ensure that current CPA candidates that are pursuing Pathway 1 will gel...