With flying colors: Guidelines to help your candidates pass the CPA Exam

By Heidi Brundage, CPA

How many licensed CPAs are there in your business? Now here’s a more difficult question: How many will there be in three or five years? That number will likely depend in large part on the number of CPA candidates in your office who pass the Uniform CPA Examination.

The benefits of having licensed CPAs on staff ranges from establishing your firm’s succession plan, as licensed individuals can be trusted to take over in the future, to making it possible to provide the highest quality services and serve clients at higher rates.

To maintain a healthy inflow of new and qualified CPAs into the profession, practitioners need to take an active role in helping their employees pass the CPA Exam. Here are some simple steps that firms can take to implement a CPA Exam tracking process.

Gain commitment. Business owners must rally behind the cause and focus the business’ culture on passing the CPA Exam. Consider implementing or revising your CPA promotion policy. Revisions could include increasing the bonus paid for successfully passing of the CPA Exam and setting up tiers for the bonus amounts.

Provide encouragement. This can come in any form — often without a cost — and demonstrates a commitment to the professional development of your team members. Businesses can promote the Exam with:

• Reminders during monthly team meetings or in newsletters
• Links to applicable sites on your office Intranet
• Information and tools from the Accountancy Board of Ohio or OSCPA

Start talking early. Recent graduates are a bit burnt out from studying and often want to take a break before hitting the books again. So, when working with new hires, encourage candidates to start preparing for the CPA Exam immediately.

Share war stories and memories. Share stories with candidates about your Exam experiences. By sharing your experiences and fears, you can help to put the candidates at ease.

Offer incentives. These might include:

• Paid study time during business hours
• Paid time off to sit for the exam
• Study groups, with the business providing space and food for weekly meetings
• CPE reimbursement (for example, 40 to 80 hours per year, per team member) to help keep licenses current
• Bonuses for passing within a specific time frame
• Reimbursements for review courses or offering free current review material to staff
• Reimbursements for exam fees
• Reimbursements for licensing fees

Draft and communicate a CPA exam policy. Your policy should include a description of your firms’ dedication to promoting the CPA profession and your team members’ professional success.

Practitioners can discuss their commitment in business meetings or use posters in break rooms and elsewhere to describe the advantages of the CPA license.

Track team member’s progress. For example, team members can submit a progress update each quarter. A central tracking sheet could be used to create peer pressure as team member can see others’ advancement. Business leaders then discuss benefits, options and expectations with those who do not appear to be progressing at an adequate rate. As part of this effort, businesses might add CPA exam passage as a goal in their performance management system and hold newer team members accountable with a target date.

Putting these steps into action will encourage your team members to pass the Exam in a timely fashion. As a result, the number of professionals in your business — and your practice opportunities — will also rise.

Heidi Brundage, CPA, is a member of the AICPA PCPS (http://pcps.aicpa.org/) team.

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