What Are the Different Types of Certified Public Accountant Training?

A certified public accountant is a person who has obtained a certified public accountant certificate and practises in an accounting firm. The English name, Certified Public Accountant, or CPA for short, refers to professionals engaged in social auditing / intermediate auditing / independent auditing.

Basic Information

Chinese name

Certified Public Accountant Training

Foreign name

CertifiedPublicAccountant

Short name

CPA

organizer

Examination Committee of the Ministry of Finance

examination time

Every second or third weekend of September

The state implements a unified national examination system for certified public accountants. The unified national examination methods for certified public accountants are formulated by the financial department of the State Council and implemented by the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Chinese citizens who have graduated from colleges or universities, or have intermediate or higher technical titles in accounting or related majors can apply to participate in the National Unified Examination for Certified Public Accountants; personnel with advanced technical titles in accounting or related majors may be exempted from examinations in some subjects .

Applicants should log in to the website of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants from June 11 to 25, 2012, click "CPA Online Registration", and enter the "National Registered CPA Online Registration System" for online forecasting. All applicants must re-register, log in to the registration system, and fill in relevant information in accordance with the registration guidelines. After the forecast name is completed, the online registration system generates a forecast name information form for applicants. Please download and print for the first time to facilitate the next qualification review.

The Ministry of Finance has established the Certified Public Accountants Examination Committee (referred to as the Examination Committee of the Ministry of Finance) to organize and lead the unified national examination of registered accountants. The Examination Committee of the Ministry of Finance has established the Office of the Certified Public Accountants Examination Committee (referred to as the Examination Office of the Ministry of Finance) to organize the implementation of the national unified examination of certified public accountants. The Examination Office of the Ministry of Finance is located in the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities' financial departments (bureaus) have established local certified public accountant examination committees (referred to as local examination committees) to organize and lead the nationwide unified examination of certified public accountants. The Local Examination Board establishes the Office of the Local Certified Public Accountants Examination Board (referred to as the Local Examination Office) to organize and implement the unified national examination of registered accountants in the region. The local examination offices are located in the Association of Certified Public Accountants of each province, autonomous region, and municipality.

The domestic exams are usually held on the second or third weekend of September each year, and the exams in European exam areas are generally scheduled for November. The accounting examination time is 180 minutes; the audit and financial cost management examination time is 150 minutes each; the economic law, tax law, company strategy and risk management examination time is 120 minutes each.

Since 2012, computerized examinations (referred to as computer-based examinations) will be implemented in the professional and comprehensive stages of the national unified examination for certified public accountants. That is, candidates obtain test questions, answer them and submit answers in a computer terminal. (Applicants who were born before December 31, 1967 (inclusive) can choose to take the computer-based or paper-and-pencil test. Residents from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, and foreigners and applicants from the European test area can choose to take the computer-based or paper-and-pencil test. To this end, a special examination area is set up for applicants who choose a specific range of paper-and-pen answers. The professional-stage examination area is located in Shijiazhuang, Wuhan, and Xi'an; the comprehensive-stage examination area is located in Wuhan. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents and foreign countries (People choose paper and pen to answer the test in a specific range. Special examination areas for applicants are set in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Macau.)

5 years, counting from the time of passing the first subject examination, the entire subject must pass the national unified exam of CPA within 5 years, otherwise the exam results passed in the first year will be void, and so on.

(1) The examination papers of examinees are collected by the Office of the National Examinations Committee and organized for review in accordance with the Certified National Accountants Examination Papers Evaluation Rules issued by the Certified Public Accountants Examination Committee of the Ministry of Finance. Examination results are recognized by the National Examination Board, and candidates are notified after review by the offices of the local examination boards.
(2) A 100-point system is adopted for each subject examination, and sixty points is the passing score line.
(3) After the results are released, if the candidate himself believes that the published results are inconsistent with the results he should have obtained, the candidate can report to the office of the CPA Board of the applicant within one month from the date of the national examination office's examination results release. When submitting an application for performance verification, the Office of the National Examination Committee will organize the performance verification in accordance with the "Trial Measures for the CPA Examination Verification" and "Trial Procedures for the CPA Examination Verification Test" issued by the CPA Examination Committee of the Ministry of Finance, and the review costs for each course It's 100 yuan.
(4) For those who pass the single subject, their passing scores are valid in the four consecutive examinations after the passing of the single subject.
(5) Those who have obtained all valid passing grades for the examination subjects may apply for a certificate of passing for the whole subject to the office of the local examination committee with the certificate of passing the results, and pay the cost of RMB 6 for the cost of the certificate for the passing of the subject. The General Certificate of Eligibility only proves that all the examination results are qualified and is not used for other purposes.
(6) After receiving the general certificate issued by the National Examination Board, you can apply to become a member of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

The current examination method stipulates that the single subject score of the National Unified Examination for Certified Public Accountants is valid for 5 years. The specific method is: Candidates taking the CPA exam who have obtained all valid passing scores in the examination subjects within 5 consecutive years can hold a notice of results or a single certificate of pass and submit a new pass to the office of the local examination committee of the reference place. After applying for the certificate, the local examination office will report it to the national examination office for review and approval, and then the local examination office will issue the general certificate to the candidates.
If candidates are taking exams in different regions due to job changes, they can obtain a pass report issued by the reference office of the reference place. When applying for a general certificate, they should apply to the local test office where the final pass is obtained. The examination office reports to the national examination office for review. Other procedures and procedures are the same as other candidates.

Candidates have two types of employment after obtaining a general certificate of qualification: one is to enter an accounting firm, and after two years of auditing experience, they can apply to become a certified public accountant; the second is to not join the firm, they can first join the Institute of Accountants and become a non-commercial Practicing members and non-practicing members must participate in continuing education after joining the membership so that qualifications can be permanently retained. Otherwise, the certificate is invalid after 5 years.
After the practice certificate is obtained, the industry of a certified public accountant can be carried out. Generally, an accountant can go to an accounting firm for verification. Non-practicing certificates can only enter corporate units to engage in financial managers or supervisors, but visa audits cannot be performed. In short, audit reports can be signed after practicing, but not for non-practicing. Non-practicing certificates do not have the full rights of a practising certificate.