Get Prepared for the CPA Evolution: Explore How to Find Your Exam Discipline
CPA Evolution is coming in January 2024 and that will significantly change the CPA exam pattern. This change will revise the exam's overall framework as well as the particular competencies that applicants will be assessed on. CPA Evolution is NASBA and AICPA's joint effort to upgrade the CPA licensing model to reflect the abilities and competencies necessary to practice accounting today and in the future. Thus, with the evolving exam pattern, it will get more challenging in 2024.
The most significant change for
candidates will be the replacement of the present four exam sections with three
core test sections and three discipline sections.
After Evolution, candidates must pass all three core sections:
- Regulation
(REG)
- Auditing and
Attestation (AUD)
- Financial
Accounting and Reporting (FAR)
- Tax
Compliance and Planning (TCP)
- Business
Analysis and Reporting (BAR)
- Information
Systems and Controls (ISC)
Since you will have to select one of the three disciplines for the fourth section, there are a few things you should know about each option. This will help you make a better decision.
CPA
Evolution Disciplines
Here, each discipline is further
divided into accounting specialties. Read carefully each one of them and choose
the one that most interests you and in which you can see yourself
working.
If you are more interested in
assurance or consulting services, financial statement analysis and reporting,
technical accounting, and financial and operations management, go for BAR. The
study material for the BAR section exam may have a data analytics focus and
will evaluate subjects like financial risk management and financial planning
approaches, including projections.
If you are interested in computers,
information technology, or data management, consider ISC. It focuses on
technology and business controls and aims for applicants interested in
assurance or advisory services linked to business processes, information
security and governance, information systems, and IT audits. This discipline's
study material may include IT and data governance, internal control testing,
and information system security, such as software access, network security, and
endpoint security.
If you want to work in tax and
compliance, choose TCP. It may address advanced individual and entity tax
compliance subjects, as well as extra information focusing on personal
financial planning, and entity planning. Individual tax planning,
multijurisdictional tax issues, consolidated tax returns, tax treatments of
business entity formation and liquidation, transactions between an entity and
its owners, and property transactions, including like-kind and involuntary
exchanges and related party transactions, could all be covered in TCP study
material.
Career Prospects- Tax analyst, tax compliance officer, tax practice entrepreneur, and job in a company's tax department.
Great! You are one step closer to
passing the CPA exam. Remember, this choice is not the closure. Once you have
obtained your CPA license, you will be allowed to practice in any field,
regardless of the discipline you chose for the exam.
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