[Tinkerbell]

Hi Folks,
I’m desperately in need of some guidance. I completed Masters in Accounting in 2010 from Australia. As there were no internships offered by the universities, I got into a trading/cash reconciliations job through my own job search. Later moved into AP/AR roles. I moved to the USA and landed a job in very small public accounting firm doing EBP and NPO Audits for one year and due to some changes within the firm my boss had to let me go. I’m now working as a staff accountant in a private company from past few months. I didn’t really apply my accounting degree knowledge until I started working at the public accounting firm. I’d say my knowledge in accounting is intermediate and I do not remember much of advanced accounting concepts. Do you all suggest me to take any online certificate course before I start studying for CPA to make my foundation strong or will I be able to understand and grasp the subjects covered in CPA material with my limited skills? I got my credentials evaluated by NASBA and I’m eligible to sit for the CPA exams. I approached a community college where I live and they are charging me $1,500 for each course with a total of 7 courses in the certificate program which I think is quite high to pay. Do you all know any other reasonable online resources where I can study what they teach at the community colleges? Any guidance is much appreciated. Thank you.

[Recked]

As long as you understand debits, credits and T accounts you should be okay.
The review course will teach you everything you need to know from step 1.
I always mixed up debits and credits for t-accounts, ever since college, so once I got my dyslexia all straightened out, it was a straight forward process, and I was last in college in 2002.
Start with FAR as that review gives you the best base of knowledge which will then be useful/helpful for AUD especially, and also BEC.

[lcmcknight]

Hello Tinkerbell
Do you meet the requirements to sit for the CPA exam? You do not need to take any more accounting courses, unless is a requirement for the CPA. You need to choose a good CPA review course. The CPA review providers have demos that you can try them free of charge Taking more accounting classes is a waste of money and time.
You can go to YouTube, there are a lot accounting videos from basic to advance.
Lidis

[Anonymous]

I agree that your CPA review course will teach you everything you need to know.

However, if you really want to do some brushing up before diving in to a review course, I highly recommend taking a free course through Coursera. Before I started my masters degree in accounting I had only taken intro level classes 10 years prior in undergrad and I only ever worked in nonprofit accounting. The two courses I took through Coursera were amazing at refreshing the accounting basics as well as teaching me a lot of the for-profit accounting things that I don't deal with in my job. Here are links to the two courses I took: https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-accounting and https://www.coursera.org/learn/wharton-financial-accounting

Looks like they have a ton of accounting courses, including advanced: https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=accounting

Like the other two people said, I think your CPA review course will be plenty. But if you REALLY want to do more brushing up before starting, these Coursera classes are a great way to do that for free.

[Author]

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