Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are professionals in the accounting and finance trade. These individuals go through various educational and experience requirements to get their licenses. Similarly, they also pass an exam before their CPA license.
The requirements are similar for licensure in almost all states in the US. However, there are some minor differences that each state’s accounting board may include.
The Wyoming State Board of Accountancy of Certified Public Accountancy handles the licensing process for Wyoming. Candidates must check their overall licensing progress with the board for more details.
How to become a CPA in Wyoming?
The requirements to become a CPA in Wyoming are straightforward. As with any other state, prospective CPAs need to acquire education related to the field. There are some specific requirements that they must fulfill in that regard.
Once they do so, they can apply to take the Uniform CPA Exam. Once they pass that, they must gather practical experience in the field.
Candidates must fulfill all these by the Wyoming State Board of Accountancy of Certified Public Accountancy requirements.
Educational Requirements
Candidates in Wyoming must go through the educational requirements first. Therefore, they must obtain the knowledge that will help them in their exam and work experience.
They must understand the core accounting concepts that they must use in their practical life. There are some requirements associated with the education aspect of the license. These are as below.
- Candidates must enroll in a school that offers accounting programs. The programs must have accreditation.
- Those who already have a degree or have enrolled in a school must verify that the Wyoming State Board of Accountancy of Certified Public Accountancy recognizes the program.
- Those with foreign education must have their foreign university transcripts evaluated by a board-accepted education service.
- They must verify that they qualify as a Wyoming candidate. For that, they have to meet the following requirements.
- They must be at least 18 years old.
- They must hold a currently valid driver’s license from Wyoming.
- They must have a current Wyoming street address.
- They must be currently working at a Wyoming address.
- They can be a current student or graduated within six months of the application date from the University of Wyoming.
- They can be a current student at a community college in Wyoming.
- They must complete 150 semester hours or 225 quarter hours of college education through an accredited program. The program must provide a bachelor’s degree at minimum. Similarly, it must also include the following.
- 24 semester hours of upper-division or graduate-level accounting courses (excluding introductory accounting or principles of accounting).
- 24 semester hours in business courses in some or all of the following subjects
- Business communications
- Business law
- Finance
- Ethics
- Economics
- Information systems or technology
- Management
- Marketing
- Other subject areas as determined by the board
- Quantitative methods
- Statistics
- Technical writing
Uniform CPA Exam
After meeting the educational requirements, candidates must take the Uniform CPA Exam. They must follow the steps given below to do so.
- Candidates must fill out the Wyoming CPA exam application.
- They must send the application and a $110 fee. Candidates must also send their proof of identity or the Verification of Lawful Presence form with their application.
- They must request their college or university to send their transcripts directly to the board.
- They must wait for authorization to test notification from the board and a coupon from the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy. Once they receive it, they must pay AICPA fees to the NASBA using a credit card.
- They must complete the NASBA short-form questionnaire to get their scores released after the exam.
- They must wait for a Notification to Schedule. From there, candidates must schedule their exam and pay Prometric fee.
Candidates will get their results through the Wyoming Board of Certified Public Accountants. The passing score for each section of the exam is 75.
Experience Requirements
Once candidates pass their exams, they must accumulate practical experience. There are some requirements related to that, which include the following.
- Candidates must complete a board-approved professional ethics course.
- They must obtain the required experience, which must meet the following criteria.
- It must include one year of experience (or 2,000 hours) in the last five years prior to the application date.
- The experience must be verified by a CPA who was active when the candidate earned the experience.
- Part-time experience may count for up to 8 hours worked in a 24 hours period.
- It must include services provided in the areas of accounting or auditing service, tax service, management or financial advisory service, or consulting service.
- They must complete the Education and Experience Form. They must also get verification on the form from their supervising CPA and then send it to the board.
- For other types of industry experience, they must complete the Equivalent Experience Affidavit.
- For teaching experience, they must complete the Teaching Experience Affidavit.
Summary
Given below is a summary of how to become a CPA in Wyoming.
- Candidates must enroll in a state-approved accredited school and satisfy the educational requirements.
- They must pass the Wyoming CPA exam.
- They must fulfill the experience requirements and submit all the supporting documents.
- They must apply for a CPA license.
Resources
- “Wyoming Board of CPAs” – http://cpaboard.state.wy.us/
- “Online Portal for Application & Licensure (OPAL)” – https://sites.google.com/a/wyo.gov/wyoming-cpa/opal
- “Exam Info” – https://sites.google.com/a/wyo.gov/wyoming-cpa/exam-info
- “Forms” – https://sites.google.com/a/wyo.gov/wyoming-cpa/forms
- “Wyoming | NASBA” – https://nasba.org/exams/cpaexam/wyoming/