Can You Convert From A Registered Cpa To A Lcpa

1. HOW THE PROFESSION IS ORGANIZED IN ILLINOIS

The majority of jobs that require bookkeeping skills in Illinois do non require you to be licensed as a Certified Public Auditor, commonly known as a CPA. However, if you wish to practice public accounting without restrictions, condign a licensed CPA is essential. This guide looks at everything that yous as a foreign-educated accountant must do to go eligible for CPA testing and licensing in Illinois. At the same fourth dimension, information technology includes some background and tips on the larger accounting profession to give you an thought of the multifariousness of opportunities available as you work to rebuild your career.

REGULATING CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

The Illinois Department of Professional and Financial Regulation (IDFPR) regulates i part of the accounting profession: the Certified Public Auditor, also known as a C.P.A. or CPA. If you apply any of these terms to describe yourself or your business, then you lot must be either registered or licensed as a CPA with IDFPR. Before you can be eligible, yous also must pass the Uniform CPA Exam. This is managed past the Illinois Board of Examiners.

CHANGES TO REGULATION

Historically, Illinois only had dominance over CPAs who chose to license. All others who passed the exam but did non utilize for licensure were still able to apply the term CPA just could not exist regulated past IDFPR. The Public Accounting Act has at present been modified and IDFPR is moving towards being a one-tier land: a state where if you are called a CPA, you are licensed and are able to practice all accounting and auditing functions.

Outset October one, 2006, all people calling themselves CPAs must register or license with the state. After this appointment, penalties for calling yourself a CPA without registration or licensure can include fines and legal activeness
Illinois is phasing out Registration. After June 30, 2010, all new applicants will merely be able to employ for Licensure. CPAs who annals before that appointment volition exist able to renew their registration indefinitely. Registration was introduced as a temporary measure out to arrange the thousands of people working in Illinois who had passed the CPA exam only were not legally required to license before. Registering allows them to go on to utilise the CPA championship, even though simply licensed CPAs can practice all public bookkeeping services

CPA REGISTRATION (RCPA)

Only available to new applicants until June 30, 2010
Lower fee to register and renew
No Continuing Pedagogy hours required
No experience required
Use the CPA proper name
You cannot practice public accounting as defined in Department 450/8 of the Public Bookkeeping Act. This means that you cannot:
- Offer attest services (certifying that financial documents yous review in inspect appear truthful) or exist a partner in a business firm that does adjure services
- Work straight with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

CPA LICENSURE (LCPA)

College fee to license and renew
Continuing Education hours required every renewal menses
1 yr of experience in accounting or auditing-related work required after passing CPA exam
Apply the CPA proper name
You can:
- Offer attest services or exist a partner in a firm that does attest services
- Work directly with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

TRENDS IN United states ACCOUNTING

Accounting as a field is undergoing rapid modify, including:

Increased regulation of accounting
Technologies allowing CPAs to work across state lines and internationally
Pressures to standardize at all levels: within state regulatory organizations, across state lines, international fiscal reporting standards.

The goal of these initiatives is to facilitate business and to increase comparability and reliability of financial statements from different sources.

EMPLOYMENT IN ACCOUNTING

Salaries in the accounting field vary widely depending on didactics, credentials, experience, field of practice, and size of an arrangement. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average income of salaried (not self-employed) accountants and auditors was $61,690 in May 2010.

Accounting can be broken down into four major fields:

Public accountants, also called external auditors
Government accountants and auditors
Management accountants
Internal auditors

Of these, public accounting and regime bookkeeping stand out as areas with the greatest job opportunities for either CPAs or accountants. CPAs take an employment advantage in these fields when they are competing against non-CPA accountants.

PUBLIC Accounting

Public accounting in particular has standards that require the use of licensed. Also, the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law tightened regulations on public accounting practices and increased the demand for CPAs to aid companies encounter these new requirements.

Government Bookkeeping

With the economic downturn and major bug in the financial manufacture, the US government has become a growing source of jobs for CPAs and accounting and finance professionals. This is because government oversight is increasing in finance; tax piece of work is a steady source of need besides. The Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service are agencies hiring in large numbers which may also have some presence at the state level in Illinois. You will need to verify if job openings crave y'all to be a denizen or a permanent resident.

GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING

Special opportunities exist for accountants with cognition of International Financial Reporting Systems (IFRS) or the before International Bookkeeping Standards (IAS). If you can bear witness that y'all take practiced accounting according to these systems in your earlier work experience, private companies and bookkeeping firms with an international presence should see this equally a real advantage. They need people skilled in IFRS to facilitate international business. In addition, the Securities and Substitution Commission has publicly stated its intention to transition towards IFRS and away from the Generally Accepted Bookkeeping Principles (GAAP) that govern most accounting in the U.s. today. These standards are not still emphasized in most The states bookkeeping programs.

2. ELIGIBILITY FOR CPA LICENSE OR REGISTRATION

The licensed public auditor institutes of Canada, Australia, Mexico, Republic of ireland, New Zealand, and Hong Kong have a reciprocal understanding with several US states, including Illinois. Their members qualify to accept the Uniform Certified Public Auditor Qualification Examination (IQEX), which is administered by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. The Illinois Board of Examiners gives these candidates with passing IQEX scores the authority to apply straight for CPA certification in Illinois for a $250 fee. They exercise not take to have their foreign degrees evaluated. More information is available in the Of import Links section nether links on testing.

The majority of foreign-educated accountants, however, demand to go through the three-footstep process described in this section before becoming licensed as a CPA in Illinois.

Steps to licensing are equally follows:

I. CREDENTIAL EVALUATION BY ILLINOIS BOARD OF EXAMINERS

Your first stride towards becoming a CPA is to have the Illinois Board of Examiners evaluate your credentials. The Board does not take reports from outside credential evaluation services. It uses its ain resources to evaluate your strange degree and professional education credentials.

Applications and other informational materials are bachelor on the Illinois Board of Examiners website; this and other links to official references can exist establish in the Important Links section.

Some of the documentation requested in your application includes:

Awarding course: Request for Academic Credentials Evaluation for CPA Designation
Official transcripts from all pedagogy sources including transfer and non-degree courses and degrees in subjects besides accounting; detailed supporting documents such as course descriptions where available (originals tin can be returned)
Record of at least 1 year of work experience after passing your CPA test
Official translations (from university or government sources or certified translators from groups such equally the American Translators Clan)
A request that your documents be returned to you at the stop of the evaluation
$250 fee

Mail to: Illinois Board of Examiners, 100 Merchandise Centre Drive, Suite 403, Champaign, IL 61820

The Board recommends using registered mail, certified mail service, or a courier service to deliver these documents.

The foreign degree evaluation procedure takes about 8 weeks. This menstruum may exist extended if:

Your tape is incomplete – the Board will transport you a alphabetic character if this is the case
Y'all have educational feel both in the U.s. and a strange land – your strange credentials will exist evaluated kickoff, so your The states records will be seen by another evaluator

When the evaluation process is consummate, the Board volition send yous a results letter that will inform yous if your degree and additional instruction meets the minimal pedagogy requirement to sit for the Compatible CPA Exam.

Among other things, y'all will need to show:

150 semester hours of education, including the equivalent of a United states Bachelor'south degree (minimum 120 total semester hours)
24 semester hours in accounting (including managerial, financial, tax, and audit courses)
24 semester hours in business-related coursework

Non-traditional studies from not-accredited universities or online or professional education courses do not fulfill these pedagogy requirements.

If an bookish deficiency is found in the evaluation process, yous volition need to identify the courses y'all need to accept to meet Lath requirements. You must exist careful not to take courses that the Board considers duplicates of courses for which y'all take already received credit. To avert this, yous should enquire the Lath to approve the course plan you lot develop before you enroll in any classes.

Once you have completed your coursework, transport an official transcript to the Board and asking an updated evaluation letter of the alphabet. Be sure to include a copy of your showtime alphabetic character in this correspondence. You have up to three years to complete your education requirements without having to pay additional evaluation fees to the Board.

Most community colleges offer a variety of courses that tin assistance you encounter your education requirements without earning a new degree. Y'all tin can also consider enrolling in a U.s.a. masters caste program if you have many courses to brand up and would like your time in the classroom to lead to a college credential. In this case you lot should still confirm with the Board that the coursework in your programme volition satisfy its instruction requirement.

II. Laissez passer Compatible CPA AND Professional ETHICS EXAMS

To qualify for licensing or registration in Illinois you must laissez passer two exams, in any order:

Professional Ethics Exam
Uniform CPA Exam

These volition be discussed in particular in the next topic, Tests.

When you have successfully completed both exams, the Illinois Board will issue a certificate direct to the Illinois Section of Fiscal and Professional Regulation (IDFPR). At this time IDFPR will also be able to access your test scores electronically. You are at present eligible to apply to IDFPR for your CPA license and/or registration by Acceptance of Exam.

III. LICENSE AS LCPA AND/OR REGISTER Every bit RCPA

This final step is quite simple, because a record of your CPA and Ideals exams can be electronically verified past IDFPR. The IDFPR website has a department on Public Accounting with applications for both the RCPA and LCPA. In both cases y'all volition point that you are applying for Acceptance of Examination (the other available option is Endorsement, for people already licensed as CPAs in another country).

Paper awarding packages should exist mailed to IDFPR for processing at Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Att: Partitioning of Professional Regulation, P.O. Box 7007, Springfield IL 62791.

RCPA

You lot take the pick of applying for Registered Certified Public Accountant either online or by paper class.

ONLINE

A link to the Registered Certified Public Auditor Online Awarding from the Public Bookkeeping page leads y'all to an online questionnaire. You answer some basic questions common to the paper grade and so enter identification information. The arrangement searches for your record. You lot pay by credit card.

Fee: $92 ($ii convenience fee)

PAPER

Download and impress out the document titled "Registered Certified Public Auditor – Acceptance of Exam and Endorsement" from the Licensee Application Forms link on the IDFPR Public Bookkeeping page. It includes a 4-page application form. Indicate that it is for Acceptance of Examination. Mark data about your CPA and Ideals exams in Role V of the course. This, plus other identification you lot provide nearly yourself, will permit IDFPR to discover your test records and process your application.

Fee: $ninety

LCPA

PAPER ONLY

Download and print out the document titled "Licensed Certified Public Accountant – Acceptance of Exam" from the Licensee Awarding Forms link on the IDFPR Public Bookkeeping page.

The LCPR Licensure by Acceptance of Examination application package only requires i more document than the RCPR:

four-page application (in Part V you volition include information near the exams you have passed)
Verification of Employment/Experience Form (documenting at least 1 year of professional bookkeeping experience since passing your CPA exam)

Fee: $120

(Dorsum TO Pinnacle)

iii. TESTS

Professional Ethics Examination

To license in Illinois y'all must laissez passer an exam on professional ethics. At this time the just accepted exam is i offered by the AICPA. It is a cocky-report form bachelor by CD-ROM or textbook and it is called Professional Ideals: AICPA's Comprehensive Course. The grade materials include a coded envelope and form so that you can submit your test to AICPA and it will transfer your scores to your chosen country Board.

Y'all can buy the exercise exam from the AICPA web site for $148.75. If y'all join the Illinois CPA Social club and society through them, the toll is $75.

You can have this exam either earlier or after the Uniform CPA Examination. Some people prefer to take this offset as a way to prepare for similar material that appears on the CPA exam.

Compatible CPA EXAM – Test FORMAT AND CONTENT

Exam FORMAT

The Uniform CPA Exam is a computer-based exam bachelor 8 months out of the year during divided two calendar month periods (after every 2 calendar month period, there is a 1 month interruption). The testing company Prometric offers the examination at many sites throughout the US.

In that location are 2 types of problems on the exam:

Multiple choice questions
Simulations

Simulations are brusque case studies that put you in a professional situation and ask you lot to respond equally a participant. Each simulation will require you to compose a professional communication every bit part of your answer, for example, an office memo or letter. In that location are 2 simulations in each department of the test except Business concern Environment and Concepts, which has no simulations.

Test CONTENT

The examination is divided into four sections. The Uniform CPA Examination Candidate Bulletin describes them equally covering the following topics:

Auditing and Testament – 4 hours: "knowledge of auditing procedures, mostly accepted auditing standards and other standards related to attest engagements, and the skills needed to apply that noesis in those engagements"
Business Environment and Concepts – three hours: "knowledge of general business organisation surroundings and business organisation concepts that candidates demand to know in order to understand the underlying business concern reasons for, and bookkeeping implications of, business concern transactions, and the skills needed to utilize that knowledge"
Fiscal Bookkeeping and Reporting – 4 hours: "noesis of generally accepted accounting principles for business enterprises, non-for-profit organizations, and governmental entities, and the skills needed to apply that noesis"
Regulation – 3 hours: "knowledge of federal tax, ethics, professional and legal responsibilities, and business constabulary, and the skills needed to apply that noesis"

More than detailed content information is available through the Candidate Bulletin and through AIPCA.

You must laissez passer each of the four sections with a score of 75 or higher within xviii months of your first test session.

Uniform CPA EXAM – Awarding AND FEES

One time your credentials have been accepted by the Illinois Board of Examiners, you are eligible to send the Lath an awarding for the Compatible CPA Exam.

This asking should include:

Application class: Illinois Application for the computerized CPA Exam
Copy of your Board foreign credential evaluation letter
Fee: varies from $forty to $120 depending on how many examination sections you will schedule (4 total)

Mail to: Illinois Lath of Examiners, 100 Trade Centre Drive, Suite 403, Champaign, IL 61820-7233

The Board frontward approval of your request to the National Clan of Land Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), which sends you a bill for the exact sections of the exam you programme to take. For 2009 these fees are as follows:

Auditing Department: $195.35
Financial Accounting Department: $195.35
Regulation Department: $176.25
Business concern Environment and Concepts $176.25

Total: $743.20

When NASBA receives payment it issues a Discover to Schedule (NTS) which volition allow you to contact a Prometric Testing Center and schedule days and times to accept the sections you lot accept called.

Y'all will need to get through this process more than once if:
You fail any section
You do not schedule for all 4 sections in your application
You miss or abandon whatever exam section

When all of your sections earn passing grades you will exist eligible for licensing or registration with the state of Illinois.

4. TIME AND COSTS

Successfully licensing or registering every bit a CPA in Illinois depends on many factors. Just some of these include:

The completeness of your educational and professional records
Your performance on several tests
Your free time and how much you can beget to spend

We provide two hypothetical scenarios to show just some of the variety of results that immigrant professionals may discover when they seek to get CPAs in Illinois. Please consider these scenarios as two examples out of many possibilities. Your experience will vary.

2 HYPOTHETICAL SCENARIOS FOR CPA LICENSING:

Footstep	More than Efficient Scenario Approximate Time and Cost	Less Efficient Scenario Approximate Fourth dimension and Price
1 Degree Evaluation	Your degree evaluation goes smoothly Your documents do not require translation. You are able to study full-time for the exam and spend $300 on examination training materials. four months + $550	Issues with your documents and translations accept months to resolve and are expensive – yous must pay others in your country to visit institutions for y'all Your degree evaluation shows that you have some deficiencies and y'all must accept 3 courses over the side by side six months; this takes ii months to receive board approval 10 months + $2,200
2 CPA + Ethics Exam	Y'all pass your ethics examination in one month 4 months afterward, you employ to take all exam sections and are able to schedule and pass them all over the next half-dozen months ane year + $ane,300	You laissez passer your ideals exam in one calendar month You begin to report for 2 sections of the CPA exam at a time Over 14 months you make three testing applications (two to schedule all sections for the showtime time, and a third to retake a section you fail) 15 months + $i,350
3 Illinois License or Registration	You have institute work in your field and in i year you can encounter the feel requirement for licensing You lot apply, and receive your license in a calendar month 13 months + $120	It takes you two months to find a job to encounter the licensing requirement for experience After one twelvemonth, you apply for your license and receive it in a calendar month 15 months + $120
	More than Efficient Total About 2 1/two years + $2,000	Less Efficient Total Almost 3 1/ii years + $3,700

five. OTHER CREDENTIALS

There are many credentials available to you as an auditor, some of which you tin only earn afterwards condign a CPA. Here are just a few: the Agency of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook for Accountants and Auditors provides many more examples.

NO CPA REQUIRED

Certified Management Accountant (CMA): this certification requires experience in management accounting, an test, and standing teaching requirements and is offered by the Constitute of Management Accountants
Certified Internal Accountant (CIA): this certification requires work experience in internal auditing and a 4-office exam. It is offered by the Institute of Internal Auditors

CPA REQUIRED

Certified It Professional (CITP): this credential shows additional professional evolution in the area of business applied science every bit information technology applies to bookkeeping practice. Coursework and examination are offered through the American Found of Certified Public Accountants
Accredited Business Valuation specialist (ABV): this program reflects special expertise in business concern valuation and forensic bookkeeping. Coursework and an exam offered through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

vi. BEYOND LICENSING

SETTING Upward YOUR BUSINESS

If y'all plan to have your ain accounting business, information technology is of import to know that you may have to go through one more than process: licensing as a Public Auditor Firm. This is not required if you plan to practice business organization under "Your Proper name, CPA" and work alone (in what is chosen a sole proprietorship). However, if you lot plan to do concern by another proper name or to include others in your practice you will need to license. Information is bachelor on the IDFPR Public Accountancy Page.

JOINING A PROFESSIONAL Clan

Land and national associations for CPAs provide opportunities for professional development and networking. They also help set help introducing new accounting standards and develop exams, and requite information and opinions on policy in Illinois and beyond the United states. Their websites may offering useful orientation to CPA candidates about the licensing and examination process, including test grooming. They oft provide Continuing Professional Education (CPE) to members as well.

Country:

Illinois CPA Lodge (ICPAS)

National:

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)

Beyond these two general associations, there are a large variety of professional associations for CPA's and accountants more often than not. These may emphasize functional areas of bookkeeping, dissimilar types of workplace or sector, race and ethnicity, gender, or religion.

Continuing Professional person Education (CPE) requirements

A Registered Certified Public Auditor in Illinois does not take to meet a Continuing Professional Instruction requirement. A Licensed CPA must complete 120 hours of CPE (including iv hours specifically in professional ideals) during each iii-year flow betwixt License renewals. Professional associations are often certified CPE providers and are a adept starting bespeak for researching CPE options.

INACTIVE LICENSE

If you decide at any time that yous want to brand your CPA license inactive, you must notify IDFPR. You lot may wish to practice this if you change careers or retire. For your menstruation of inactivity y'all will non have to pay fees or complete CPE – only you lot volition as well have to terminate using the term "CPA" unless you are as well Registered and proceed your registration active. To make your license active again y'all must pay the current renewal fee and show proof that you accept met CPE requirements for the current period.

LICENSING MOBILITY (RECIPROCITY)

In that location is not a direct reciprocal agreement between Illinois and other states for licensing. This means that if you earn your CPA license in the state and wish to perform public accounting services to people or organizations in other states, you will need to inquiry the process for that land. There is a trend towards making CPA practice easier across states, including Illinois recognition of "substantial equivalency" for licensed CPAs from other states wishing to conduct business concern in Illinois. The Illinois CPA Lodge (ICPAS) has a useful Question and Reply page nigh licensing mobility on its website.

A
ATTEST
To provide assurance that financial statements are reliable. That is, to state that they are probably based in fact. Only Licensed CPAs can provide attest services in Illinois.

S
SARBANES-OXLEY (SOX) LAW (2002)
Fabricated major reforms in accounting practices of public companies and the role of auditors. An accounting business firm that audits a public company can also requite advice on taxes, just it can no longer consult in areas such equally hiring, applied science, investments and the law.

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE Commission
This US bureau regulates publicly-traded companies and enforces several laws that address finance and accounting

vii. IMPORTANT LINKS

LICENSING AND REGULATION:

Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation IDFPR, Public Bookkeeping Department Phone: 217/785-0800. The principal page for Public Accounting contains applications for Registered CPA, Licensed CPA, and Public Accountant Firm
The online application for RCPA. Remember that after Jun xxx, 2010 the RCPA designation will no longer be given to new applicants
Illinois Board of Examiners will evaluate your credentials and manage your CPA exam application(s), telephone: 217/531-0950. Reference information virtually the Illinois Lath of Examiners for academic credential evaluation (including foreign academic credential evaluation)
The Illinois Board of Examiners Forms folio includes helpful forms including for strange caste evaluation

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS:

The Illinois CPA Society (ICPAS) site has information on testing, continuing professional person education, and other valuable information about current practices in the profession
ICPAS information about licensing mobility
The American Plant of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) also has information on becoming a CPA, options for continuing professional didactics, professional resource by practise area, and news and information most accounting practice in the US and internationally

TESTING:

Uniform CPA Exam page has a tutorial and practice exam available for download
Exam Message for Uniform CPA Exam
Prometric information for CPA testing, including test centers
Professional Ideals, AICPA'southward Comprehensive Course
The Uniform Certified Public Accountant Qualification Test (IQEX) is an alternative route to CPA licensure for certain licensed public accountants in Canada, Australia, Mexico, Ireland, New Zealand and Hong Kong. More than data on the IQEX is available on the NASBA site

OTHER:

The Agency of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook for Accountants and Auditors has information nigh the professions and descriptions of a broad variety of credentials available to accountants.

8. TIPS

VOLUNTEER

Volunteering your services is a nifty style to assistance you expand your exercise, network in your job search, help others, integrate, and go along your skills current. Many accountants volunteer with nonprofits directly or through professional volunteering associations like the Taproot Foundation. You can help nonprofits with their accounting or help individuals prepare taxes or larn well-nigh personal finance and budgeting

SPEAK Upwards

Be your ain advocate throughout the licensing procedure. Seek clarification about questions and concerns directly from official sources. Organize your questions and ask for assistance

CHECK CREDIT FOR COURSES

If yous need to take courses to meet Lath education requirements before you tin sit down for the CPA exam, it is a skilful idea to consult the Board directly earlier beginning any classes. You will not exist given credit for courses if the Board finds that they duplicate courses y'all take taken in the past.

CONSIDER CPA REGISTRATION VS. LICENSURE

Some people choose to get both registered and licensed as a CPA. The advantage to doing both (earlier the selection to annals is eliminated June 30, 2010) is in retirement or a career change: yous volition be able to make your CPA license inactive, which means you will not have to pay to renew the license or come across continuing education hours. Commonly this would make yous ineligible to use the term CPA to draw yourself. Yet, if you maintain registration (which has simply a small-scale renewal cost and no CPE requirement) then you tin continue to use the term CPA