Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination
Certified public accountant (CPA) is a designation awarded by a state or other governmental jurisdiction to individuals to practice as a licensed certified public accountant. The candidate for the CPA must meet education, examination, and experience requirements.
Examinations were used as early as 1884 to test the qualifications of accountants and to issue certificates of proficiency upon passage of the examination. In the 1880s two competing organizations, the Institute of Accounts and the American Association of Public Accounts [the predecessor to the current American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)] were issuing certificates based on satisfactory completion of an examination or years of experience as an account ant. Neither organization was able to effectively control the practice of accounting by nonmembers. Consequently, the two rival organizations cooperated to introduce legislation in New York to regulate the practice of public accounting. In 1896, New York State passed the first accountancy law, which required testing the qualifications of those who wished to practice as public accountants. The first examination was administered in December 1896. This led to the issuance of a state license to practice as a CPA and the emergence of accounting as a profession with education requirements, professional standards, and a code of professional ethics.
This page contains 201 words.
Uniform Certified Public Accountant Examination article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,565 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Certified Public Accountant Article
