[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I have been reading this forum for months but this is my first post. Over the past 8 months I’ve passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam and have finished my educational requirements so now I need to fulfill the work experience requirements. I am a WI candidate and I am curious how rigid this final requirement is. I’ve got 3 months of public experience under my belt from a summer internship and I also had 5 months of part-time tax preparation at a smaller firm and 4 months of experience in an internship in Finance (not related to public accounting) but unfortunately they were from before I began my CPA application process (they were both before I actually obtained my degree which they say doesn’t count). Has anyone ever successfully gotten their CPA license without finishing a full year of experience, or is it certain that I won’t obtain it until I finish the last 9 months of work in public accounting?

[Andyred04]

I just checked the state's experience requirements and from what I read they seem pretty stringent on 1 year in public accounting (or its equivalent). They also give the definition of “equivalent” and I bet you would be able to find a way to make all your current experience count. I would recommend filling out the application and submitting it to the board for approval. The only thing you have to lose is your application fee.

FAR: 80 (Gleim, Ninja Notes, Ninja MCQs)
REG: 87 (Gleim, Ninja Notes, Ninja MCQs)
BEC: 87 (Gleim, Ninja Notes, Ninja MCQs)
AUD: 8/27/16

PA Candidate

[Andyred04]

https://www.thiswaytocpa.com/exam-licensure/state-requirements/WI/

That's the link to Wisconsin's requirements if you want to look at them again 🙂

FAR: 80 (Gleim, Ninja Notes, Ninja MCQs)
REG: 87 (Gleim, Ninja Notes, Ninja MCQs)
BEC: 87 (Gleim, Ninja Notes, Ninja MCQs)
AUD: 8/27/16

PA Candidate

[Anonymous]

The full text of the WI requirements are:

Experience evaluation.
(1) The board shall evaluate public accounting experience and equivalent experience at each regularly scheduled board meeting. Evaluations may be made at special meetings, but normally will not be scheduled at such meetings.
(2) The board shall review the candidate's experience on written request by the candidate. Among the areas of experience that may be considered by the board are the following:
(a) Experience in accounting in industry and government may be considered equivalent to public accounting when it requires high levels of knowledge, competence and judgment.
(b) Experience in teaching accounting may be considered equivalent to public accounting when it is at an advanced and specialized level of accounting. Courses taught in areas other than accounting do not qualify as public accounting experience.
(c) Experience in law may be considered equivalent to public accounting when it is at a level with responsibility for independent accounting decisions and requires high levels of accounting knowledge, competence and judgment.
Public accounting experience. An individual must have at least one year of public accounting experience or its equivalent as determined by the board. Experience shall be acquired after the applicant has earned a degree as described in s. 442.04, Stats., that qualifies the applicant to take the CPA examination.
Experience; general.
(1) The nature and level of an employee's position or job title and position description is considered.
(2) Part-time employment can be counted proportionately, but normally is given little weight. If part-time employment is combined with full-time employment, the full-time employment is normally given the most weight.
(3) No more than one day of experience is allowed for any calendar day.
Bookkeeping and elementary individual tax return preparation. Bookkeeping and elementary individual tax return preparation are generally not considered to be qualifying experience.
Self-employment. Self-employment must be fully documented by the candidate and presented in detail for board consideration. Candidates establishing such experience will normally be expected to appear in person before the board to establish his or her qualifications.
Judgment. Experience evaluations are based on the judgment of the board.

Source: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/accy/5 (referenced from https://dsps.wi.gov/Licenses-Permits/CPA/CPAlicense )

Looks like WI has one of the more strict experience requirements. So, the things you did prior to getting your degree won't count, as you'd anticipated. I'm not sure from how you wrote your post which of the 3 listed items was from post-degree completion. It it was the 3 month internship, then you'd need 9 additional months of experience, and I don't see any way around that. I haven't ever heard of someone getting their license without completing the experience requirements of the state under which they were licensed. What I have heard is lots of people getting licensed with lots of different experience based on the requirements of the different states they worked, but WI rules will have to be met for a WI license. If I was a WI candidate, I'd probably just stick to public accounting to meet the requirement, cause it looks like getting it through any other method is an uphill battle.

[jessica8926]

I went to the Wisconsin's board who is in charge of giving the license and their requirements state:

Acquire one year of accounting experience.

It must be acquired after you have completed your education and before submitting an application to the Department.
Part-time employment can be counted, but full-time employment is normally given the most weight.
Bookkeeping and elementary individual tax return preparation are not considered qualifying experience.
Please refer to Chapter Accy 5 of Wisconsin administrative code for detailed experience requirements.

Here is the link: https://dsps.wi.gov/Licenses-Permits/CPA/CPAlicense

I went there because a lot of states require that your work experience only starts after you finish your education requirements like you said. So if you were still trying to get the 150 hours while doing any of your internships then those internships would not count towards the experience requirements. I would definitely call the WI board and run it by them to make sure but according to the website I think you have to wait another 9 months to get your license like you said.

AUD - 69, 77
REG - 74, 81
FAR - 75!
BEC - 71, 82

IL candidate!

Finally done (5/24/16)!! Yahooooooo!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the responses. I was hoping to get certified as soon as I finished the exams so I could get a bonus before I start my job but it sounds like I'll need to finish those 9-12 months of work first. Not that I'm surprised, just passing the exams and getting 150 credits would be “too easy” right? Seems like there's alway something else you still need to do to complete this thing.

[Author]

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