[liveliferich]

What’s up guys! I passed the CPA and had a quick question. Long story short I worked in the big 4 for 2 years and quit in July 2015. I quit not under the best terms being that they were trying to force my career down a path that I didn’t want it to go down and I refused. My evaluations were rated mostly average to above average. But I felt like management didn’t like me on a personal level because I didn’t buy into the field they were trying to force me down and never adapted to the political nature of the big 4. Is there any way that they could just refuse to sign off on my experience. Has anyone had a similar situation? I am done with public accounting after this bad experience and really just want to get licenses and move on to other endeavors.

AUD- 64, 70, 85 8/25/2015
BEC-79 5/27/2015
REG- 71, 79- 2/3/2016
FAR-79 6/8/2016

Licensed Georgia CPA-June 2016

[Anonymous]

They can't refuse to sign off on your hours. According to the Certificate of Attest Experience – Public Accounting Form 11A-6A “Failure to submit the Certificate of Attest Experience (Public Accounting) is viewed by the Board as an attempt to impede the applicant’s certification and may result in disciplinary action.”

[Anonymous]

That sounds like a California rule.

[Anonymous]

This is something with some variation between states, and based at least in part on what the experience verification form requires the employer to certify. Some just require the employer to list the position, duties, and duration of employment, and those are harder for the employer to refuse to do, also more likely for the state to have some rules requiring the employer to, though not necessarily. Other states the form says something like “By my signature below, I affirm that the individual named above performed quality work blah blah blah” or “work which has given them the knowledge necessary to be a CPA” or something like that; these can much more easily be skipped by a former employer, who can say that your work wasn't up to standard that allows them to comfortably sign it, or something like that.

So, I'd check the form that your state will require the employer to sign (if it's available for you to view – some states only send it directly to the employer) and try to assess likelihood of the employer having solid grounds to avoid signing it (other than just trying to cause you trouble, could they claim an ethical reason they couldn't sign, etc.). Alternatively, you could call your state board to ask the question – calling allows you to do it more anonymously so your name isn't paired with the question, if you don't want to have any notes in your record with the Board about issues with a former employer.

However, given that you worked for a Big 4, I doubt it will be an issue, unless you actually had problems. Just bad terms shouldn't stop them from signing off with a bigger company. Smaller companies are more likely to do silly stuff like that, but with a big company like a B4, I'd assume when you send in the form, it will follow a standard process – like HR fills it out with the details of your employment and sends it to the manager/partner who signs automatically and sends it back.

[Author]

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