[irishA]

I passed the CPA exam in Indiana back in September. I’ve worked for a small consulting company doing audits and consulting work for various lenders for the past 4-5 years. My experience would count in Indiana; however, no CPAs work for the company so we’re having trouble getting my experience verified. We asked the CPAs who do our bookkeeping & taxes, but they didn’t felt too removed from what we do and weren’t comfortable signing off. In Indiana your experience has to be verified by a CPA with knowledge of your work, but they don’t need to be a supervisor.

1) Stay with Indiana, take advantage of the scores not expiring and try and figure something out.
2) Transfer scores to IL to take advantage of easier experience requirements.
3) Transfer scores to MI since they have a program with NASBA where NASBA will review your work and can verify your experience
4) Look for a job at a larger company and get new experience

I think transferring scores is an expensive process, and still wouldn’t be guaranteed. So I need advice the best way to proceed.

[ECHendrickson]

Why are you under the impression that transferring scores is expensive? It's actually relatively cheap to physically transfer your scores from one board to another. Exact fees per state should be pretty accurately listed here: https://nasba.org/licensure/nasbalicensing/feeschedule/. It looks like it is $25 for the Indiana board to transfer scores.

I would say that the NASBA experience verification can be pretty spendy ($500), but is absolutely worth it coming from someone who was in a tricky spot with experience. I applied through the state of Washington (as a non-resident) and had my license within a week of completing the process with NASBA and submitting all of my documentation to the Washington State board. Also – ask your employer to cover the cost. It isn't really an unreasonable ask given your position of not having proper experience sign-off and the worst that they could say is no.

[irishA]

I thought I was expensive because I saw on the IL board of accountancy page to transfer credit application is $345 (but might be reading it wrong), plus would need to take an ethic exam which would be a couple hundred. Michigan didn't look as expensive to transfer scores, but as you said the NASBA verification is $500

I could ask my employer, but have been on my own financially so far through this process. So not sure if they'll do much.

[Ali]

@ECHendrickson, Can you explain what you did to transfer and how the process was? How do you use it in your state? Once licensed in WA can you just transfer the license to your state?

[ECHendrickson]

Apologies for the late response Ali – I don't swing by the forum too often. So here's a quick breakdown of what I did to obtain my license.

1) I passed the tests in August 2015 in Idaho (luckily scores never expire here, yay). I was lazy and sat on the scores because I had no manager to sign off on my experience. I never worked in public and none of my positions reported directly or even indirectly to CPA's.
2) Eventually I looked into Experience Verification through NASBA and decided to give it a shot.
3) Washington seemed pretty simple so I applied and paid $500. They did some minor work verification through my current employer and then scheduled a phone interview with an active CPA to discuss my experience.
4) A couple days later she sent me a packet signing off my experience
5) I created a login for application on Washington's website and did the following:
a. Filled out a Washington score transfer request form and submitted to my Idaho board.
b. Had official transcripts sent from my university
c. Uploaded my experience verification
d. They required 2 ethics classes so I completed those and uploaded the pass certificates.

Literally within a week Washington State approved my license. In most circumstances I would say states aren't incredibly picky with you stating you are a CPA if you are licensed in another state. Even the expert that I spoke with at NASBA mentioned that as long as you aren't opening your own firm and doing taxes (or signing off on audits) you likely run into any issues. I list it on my LinkedIn profile, but don't really use it in any other capacity – it's more a resume booster than anything else for me because it isn't really required in my industry.

I believe the technically correct way to list it would be to essentially have “Your Name, CPA (WA)” in my circumstance as that is the state that I am licensed in. Most states also have reciprocity guidelines to apply to have your license actually legally transferred.

[irishA]

That's interesting you did the NASBA review before transferring your scores. That makes me feel a little better about it. Will know it all goes okay before bouncing my scores around and wasting time, or possibly ending up in limbo between states no closer to my goal

[Author]

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