What Is a Certified Public Accountant?
A certified public accountant (CPA) is a professional accounting specialist who has gone through the whole training program to acquire the necessary certifications. For an accountant to acquire the CPA title, the public accountant must meet all the state licensing prerequisites.
These state licensing requirements are met through training, practice in the field, and passing the right public accountant exams. As an employer looking to hire qualified accountants, you need to realize that not every trained accountant is a certified public accountant. So, it’s important to understand the difference between the two employees so that you can make the right choice for your business.
What Is the Difference Between Hiring Accountants and Certified Public Accountants?
As noted above, not all qualified accountants are CPAs, and not all CPAs are accounts. An accountant is an accounting expert mandated to keep and construe financial records in an organization, while a CPA is an accounting specialist who has attained all the necessary state licensing requirements to earn the CPA title.
A CPA doesn’t necessarily have to be an accountant or limited to keeping, reading, and interpreting your business’s financial records. A CPA can work in a variety of fields and perform many functions, thanks to the extensive knowledge they acquire when they study for the CPA state certification exams and the continuing professional education (CPE) tests.
Certified public accountants can work in at least five industries, including auditing and review, consultancy, tax preparation and consulting, financial planning, and litigation consulting. The process of becoming a CPA is quite complex and protracted as it can take several years. So, anyone looking to become a CPA must exercise patience and plan their schedule properly.
A public accountant must be willing to work long hours and endure days of studying and preparing for state certification exams. Even after they’ve earned their public accountant title, they must continue to learn and advance their training. Ordinarily, a public accountant is supposed to complete forty hours of CPE every year. But this requirement depends on the licensing board in your state.
The CPA designation is widely considered the most esteemed title for accounting professionals. Its admiration comes from the fact that the CPA exam is fairly difficult and the training process demands full commitment. Anyone with the CPA designation is seen as someone who’s committed to their profession and who has met the occupation’s highest values of proficiency and achievement.
How Do People Become Certified Public Accountants?
As noted above, the process of becoming a public accountant is long and complex, requiring patience and commitment. The CPA process also depends on the state you live in and the licensing board requirements, but there are important steps that anyone looking to attain the public accountant title must follow.
CPA Education
Regardless of the state you reside in, you’ll be required to achieve a certain level of education to attain the public accountant title. Most states in the United States require their CPAs to complete 150 hours of credit in college-level accounting training, but you can complete these hours as an undergraduate student.
While it’s not a requirement to have a degree to become a public accountant, some of the 150 credit hours of training result in a graduate degree. So, it’s up to a CPA to decide whether they need a graduate degree or not to perform their services.
CPA Experience
In the course of training and even after training, CPAs are required to practice in the field as trainees or accountants so that they can attain the needed experience and financial talent. Certified public accountants need to gain experience in financial analysis, income tax, management of business fees, tax prep, and so much more. Some American states require their CPA candidates to attain at least one year of experience before they can become licensed CPAs.
During the year of accounting experience, the employees work under the supervision of a licensed CPA who reports to the licensing board at the end of the year for review and consideration.
CPA Exam
Before a candidate can be awarded a CPA designation, they must sit and pass a difficult CPA exam. This exam has four main sections, including auditing and confirmation, financial accounting and reporting, regulation, and business environment and concepts.
Candidates must prepare themselves thoroughly for this exam because it’s very easy to fail the accounting exam. Additionally, they must be familiar with the CPA Exam application process. Fortunately, many online resources explain the whole application process and provide additional support for taking the accounting test.
CPA Ethics
In some states, CPA candidates are required to take an ethics course and exam as the final step in their journey to acquire the CPA title. This business course is usually part of the CPE course.
Why Hire Certified Public Accountants for Your Business?
With all the mania around the CPA designation, many business owners are constantly looking for accountants with this title. There are many reasons why you should hire CPAs for your business, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the business for a long time and want to keep it growing.
Saving Money
A public accountant can save your startup a great deal of money because they understand all the legal loopholes and tax liabilities that you can avoid to save your finances. If you make a financial mistake when setting up your business, you’ll spend a lot of money trying to fix it later.
Your CPA will advise you on the financial legal issues that are likely to arise during and after setting up your business and how you can avoid them. For example, a CPA will help you understand the differences between a corporation, a sole proprietor, and an LLC business organization.
If you don’t understand these financial differences, you might end up paying large amounts of money to change your licenses, banking options, and insurance covers for your business.
Professionalism
The CPA designation is a mark of business professionalism. The many years of training, practice, and testing provide candidates with exceptional proficiency and experience that your business can benefit from. A certified public accountant will prepare your financial records and tax documents, including your business’s tax returns. From a financial report to tax preparation, public accountant services can help with every aspect of your business.
This way, you can easily identify opportunities to minimize your tax liability. Because they’re well-informed about the ever-changing tax systems, a certified public accountant will help your business to make the necessary changes to remain compliant with financial and tax situations.
If you need legal advice on a specific aspect of your business, your certified public accountant comes in handy. Furthermore, a certified public accountant can keep your general ledgers, prepare your financial statements, and offer bookkeeping services. If you need to set up accounting systems or budget and estimate cash flow, your CPA will do it for you.
Hiring Certified Public Accounts for Your Business
Certified public accountants can be a valuable addition to your business. Guru can make it easy to find and hire the right public accountant for your bookkeeping needs. All you need to do is post a job description for your financial needs and certified public accounting experts will apply for the job. To ensure that you are hiring a certified public accountant that meets your business needs, you should interview the public account experts to ensure that they have the skills and talent necessary to complete the job. Make sure the certified public accountant you hire is a tax pro that can handle all your accounting and business needs.
Post a CPA job on Guru, and find qualified accountants for hire.