Nevada - Become a CPA

Becoming a CPA is a process that extends beyond education into examination and licensure, and then maintaining that licensure throughout the years. Our comprehensive guide will give you the specifics of how to earn your CPA in the state of Nevada.

Education Requirements for Licensure

To qualify to sit for the Nevada CPA exam you must first meet all the education requirements. Before obtaining your Accounting Bachelor's degree, you can start with an Associate of Applied Business in Accounting(AAB). All CPAs must hold a Bachelor's degree or higher, although it does not have to be a degree in accounting. You will also need 150 total credit hours in specific subjects as detailed below. Online, correspondence, community colleges, and College Level Examination Program (CLEP) courses all meet the requirements as long as they are from an accredited institution and will transfer to a four-year program so your first step should be to verify accreditation of your school. Nevada recognizes accreditation from the following agencies:

• • Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

  • Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

  • New England Association of Schools and Colleges

  • Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges

  • Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

  • Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Your 150 hours of education must include both accounting and business coursework above the introductory level as follows:

30 credit hours of accounting courses at the undergraduate or graduate level including:

• • Financial Accounting (nine credit hours)

  • Cost Accounting (three credit hours

  • Auditing (three credit hours)

  • Federal Income Tax (three credit hours)

  • Accounting Electives (12 credit hours)

24 semester hours of business courses at the undergraduate or graduate level including:

• • Behavior of Organizations

  • Business Finance

  • Business Law

  • Communication

  • Computers

  • Data Processing

  • Economics

  • Ethics in Business

  • Legal & Social Environment

  • Management

  • Marketing

  • Oral Communication

  • Quantitative Applications in Business

  • Statistics

In addition you'll need to take three semester hours of Business Law.

Because the educational requirements are strict and specific it's a good idea to work towards your Master's degree as you earn your CPA. That way by the time you pass the exams and other licensure requirements you will be highly qualified and stand above those in the field who only hold a bachelor's degree.

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How to Sit for the CPA Exam in Nevada

You'll begin the exam process by creating an online account with The Nevada State Board of Accountancy and filling out the initial CPA exam application. When you submit your application you'll need the following information:

• • Your official school transcripts (sent directly from your school to the Board of Accountancy)

  • A recent two-inch by two-inch passport-sized photo

  • Your preferred method of contact (email, postal mail, or fax)

  • Completed 150 hour coursework checklist

  • $100 application fee paid by credit card, check, or money order (Checks or money orders are payable to the Nevada State Board of Accountancy)

  • Request for special accommodations if you are disabled

Note that schools can typically take two to six months to post their official transcripts and another 10 days to process transcript requests. This will determine how long it takes for your application to process. Once you have been approved to take the exam you will receive notification from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) along with a payment coupon for the actual exam fees. The CPA exam consists of four parts and can be taken together or separately; you must pass each section with a score of 75 or better. If you do not pass a section you may retake it at a later date however all four tests must be taken successfully within an 18 month time frame. The exam sections and their fees are as follows:

Auditing (AUD): $208.40

Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR): $208.40

Regulation (REG): $208.40

Business Environments and Concepts (BEC): $208.40

Once your exam fee or fees are processed within four business days you'll receive a Notice to Schedule (NTS) from NASBA and can schedule the exams you applied to take. You will need your NTS to enter the exam site so keep it in a safe place; you must schedule within six months of receipt. Nevada CPA exams are given by Prometric and you will schedule through their website. Prometric has testing facilities in both Las Vegas and Reno so you may choose the location that is most convenient.

You should plan to arrive an hour early for the exam. Each exam section is four hours long, and you will only be allowed to bring your NTS and personal identification into the exam room. All other personal items will be stored in a secure locker during the test.

As soon as the scores are tabulated you'll be notified of the results; you need to score at least 75 percent to pass each section of the exam.

1. Ethics examination

In addition to the CPA exam you'll need to take an ethics exam given by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA). This exam is based on a self-study course that is approximately 11 hours in length; the exam is open-book and you must pass with a minimum score of 90 percent.

Experience Needed to Become a Licensed CPA

Nevada requires specific experience before you are eligible for CPA licensure. The experience can be in either public accounting or Internal Audit or Governmental Accounting but not a combination of the two. Here is the required experience for each:

1. Public accounting experience

Two years consisting of the use of the following skills, with 1000 hours of attestation experience:

• • Accounting or Auditing

  • Advising or consulting with clients on matters relating to management

  • Finance

  • Preparation of tax returns or the furnishing of advice on matters relating to taxes

This experience must be performed with professional standards and verified by a CPA.

2. Internal audit or governmental accounting experience

Two years consisting of the use of the following skills, with 1000 hours of attestation experience:

Four years in governmental accounting or internal auditing work, verified by a CPA.

Licensure Requirements for Nevada CPAs

Once you've completed the required experience you'll be eligible to apply for certification. In Nevada this is done through the Nevada Board of Accountancy and you'll need to submit the following:

• • Completed application (notarized)

  • Application fee of $250.00

  • Completed and notarized Experience Forms

  • Certificate of Completion of the AICPA Professional Ethics Exam

  • Three moral character reference forms

  • Two completed fingerprint cards (available through most law enforcement agencies)

Once your application is processed and approved by the Nevada Board of Accountancy you will receive you certificate and be a licensed CPA in the state of Nevada.

License Renewal and Continuing Education Requirements

In Nevada you must renew your CPA permit every year. Your permit expires on December 31 and must be renewed by January 31 of the following year. You may pay online or by mail; in 2018 the fees are as follows:

Payment online by credit card: $120.00

Payment via mail by check or money: $140

Late fee (after January 31): $100.00

Nevada requires 80 hours of continuing professional education (CPE) over a rolling two year period. This means if you provide proof of 30 hours of CPE in one year you'll need to provide proof of 50 hours of CPE the next with a minimum of 20 CPE hours in a given year. A minimum four hours of the CPE must be in Ethics; depending on when you passed the Ethics exam your ethics CPE will be due the following year. In addition if you participated in any audit, review, attestation, or full disclosure compilation in the past 12 months you will be required to complete eight hours of CPE that focuses on auditing and accounting.

Here are some sample subjects for approved CPE:

• • Accounting

  • Administrative practice

  • Auditing

  • Business law

  • Communication arts

  • Computer science

  • Economics

  • Functional fields of business

  • Management

  • Mathematics/statistics/probability/quantitative applications in business

  • Specialized areas of industry

  • Taxation

CPE may be compiled in a wide range of approved formats such as the following:

• • Breakfast/lunch/dinner meetings designed as education programs

  • College credit courses (one semester hour of credit = 15 CPE hours)

  • Committee meetings designed as education programs

  • Firm/staff meetings designed as education programs

  • Independent study/self-study

  • Instructing, discussion leading, speaking

  • Professional development programs

  • Public accounting firm formal education programs

  • Technical sessions of meeting of accounting organizations

  • Non-Credit Courses - Each classroom hour equals one hour toward the requirement.

  • Speaker, Instructor, or Discussion Leader: actual preparation time is allowable up to double the presentation time. For example, a total of three hours is allowable for the presentation of a qualifying hour of in-class credit.

You can find eligible CPE at accredited colleges, accountancy organizations, NASBA’s National Registry of CPE sponsors, the Nevada Society of CPAs, and similar organizations in the field of accountancy.

The Nevada Board of Accountancy audits approximately 20 percent of CPE claims each year via a random selection process so you should always retain proof of the CPE credits you've compiled. Your CPE documentation should include the following:

• • Dates attended

  • Certificate of completion

  • Credit hours claimed

  • Location

  • Sponsor

  • Title or description of content

  • Because CPE in Nevada is compiled during a two year period you should also track the number of hours attained in the first year along with the number required in the second year to reach the total 80 hour requirement.

A CPA is needed by lots of governments, big firms as well as local business owners. The CPA's task summary covers a broad range of accounting jobs and also obligations.

Accounting jobs need substantial knowledge of accounting principles as well as the laws governing book-keeping. A CPA must be a cpa or a legal accountant in order to practice as an accountant. This means having finished a recognized college program.

As a CPA, you will have to work closely with auditors, accountants and auditors. They are needed to provide very accurate financial records for federal government companies and companies. If you can not satisfy the requirements of the business, they may have a need for someone else to audit the finances.

Can You End Up Being a CPA With a Money Level? - Yes, many people do. If you have worked in another area of accounting and have actually obtained extra economic expertise, this knowledge can be transferred to your career as a CPA.

Just How Much Experience Do You Need to Come To Be a CPA? - After finishing from a money program, you need to have the experience required for your first job as a CPA. Additionally, there are usually extremely particular accounting tasks readily available for pupils who have actually worked in accounting previously.

What is the minimum experience needed to become a CPA? If you currently have an undergraduate degree in accounting as well as operated in an accounting job for a minimum of 3 years, you can expect to get the CPA license after four years and twelve months.

If you have a bachelor's degree, you will not have to complete the considerable schooling that the professionals require in order to become licensed. Essentially, only graduates of technological as well as trade institutions and not those that have taken the standard university education and learning courses will be required to take the CPA examination.

How much time does it take to end up being a CPA? - There is no particular amount of time that will be needed to come to be a CPA. Nevertheless, it will most likely take a number of years to acquire the expertise that is needed in order to come to be a CPA.

Lots of companies choose to work with graduates from post-graduate programs, because they will have gained the pertinent knowledge that is needed to come to be a CPA. Most financing departments that employ CPA's also call for sophisticated accounting skills as well as knowledge.

Can You End Up Being a CPA With a Business Level? - Yes, if you are seeking to end up being a CPA and likewise work in a business setup.

Final Concerns to Ask Yourself - Can you begin working as a CPA prior to you making your degree? - Do you have the monetary knowledge to obtain the CPA license?

The audit communications, reviews, tax responsibility returns, clients, companions as well as supervisors you worked with maintained your mind far more busy than you could have handled it alone. And also if you stayed in the market as well as likewise not at an accounting business, you possibly really felt likewise. So what do you do if you believe there's a tiny-teensy opportunity that accounting may not be what you really wish to do as a lasting profession, regardless of having your CPA? Right here are to ask on your own to dig deeper and also validate if it's true, and likewise will certainly assist you identify what to do following.

This is just one of the most impressive problems to ask yourself and for some, it can be frightening. Not everyone wants to admit that there's something else they 'd instead do instead of utilizing the CPA they functioned their butts off to get. Nonetheless I say that sort of reasoning is fear-based. It hesitates in the sense that you're scared to admit that there's perhaps even more to you than the CPA classification alone.

The CPA is a remarkable designation. The procedure to obtaining it is one that is life-altering where, for great deals, it can be an actually humbling experience. As Certified public accountants, we're educated to place ourselves in all kinds of scenarios and additionally are called for to fix them wisely.

In addition to boosted wage capacity, the CPA credential can enhance your general incomes and also offer countless various other benefits that will absolutely enhance your accounting profession. The monetary rewards of the CPA credential start out terrific and boost slowly. Several companies incentivize workers to pass the Certified Public Accountant Assessment by providing a completion reward of several thousand dollars.

Accredited expert accountants have different employment alternatives. Choosing public bookkeeping as an occupation course areas you in accounting companies that give solutions to other businesses or governments, while special accounting entails helping a firm straight in their accountancy division. As we bore in mind over, the range of work functions in either of these industries is large, as CPAs remain in demand in locations around the world.