What You Should Know About Changing the 150 Hour Rule Before You Debate For or Against It

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez
150

All-around awesome person Byron Patrick tweeted a bit of a manifesto on the 150 hour rule today and I want to share it as a movement to lower the CPA licensure requirement of 150 units to ease the CPA shortage is currently underway. Minnesota just introduced a bill to add a 120 units/two years of work experience option to the existing CPA pathway and we anticipate other states may follow. As we debate the issue, it’s important to be well-informed (controversial position to take on the internet in this day and age, I know) and his thread sums things up nicely. I’ve consolidated the thread into one chunk o’ text for your reading pleasure.

To change the requirements to get licensed as a CPA, each State Govt must pass a law to make the change. This is not 1 person/department’s decision.

As a result, in order to make a change, a Bill must be sponsored and submitted to the state legislature.⬇️

At that point, the state legislature will prioritize the bills they will vote on in that session. They never get through all Bills.

Let’s be optimistic and say that the Bill is brought to the floor. We now must make a big lobbying push ⬇️

State legislators won’t bother to show up to vote unless their constituents are advocating for or against the matter.

Keep in mind there will be arguments w/in the State against making the change. Specifically, higher education will be negatively impacted by the lost revenue.⬇️

Public colleges are State Employees. Let’s assume advocacy can overcome this resistance.

You get the votes to pass both sides of the govt, we now need a governor to sign the bill. Again the Gov needs to know there is support to prioritize signing the bill to make it a law.⬇️

Congratulations, requirements have been changed in 1 state. 51 additional jurisdictions to go.

If I recall it took nearly 10 years to get a critical mass of states to change to 150, due to the need to gain support in each state government to even care about making a change.⬇️

A country with different req for the CPA is a nightmare. A couple states might benefit because people from out of state get licensed in their state. However, holding yourself out as a CPA in other states will be an issue. How many CPAs work with clients only in 1 state? ⬇️

There is a lot of frustration with the @AICPA that they aren’t listening to the members and supporting a change. Their purpose is to support, advocate and protect CPAs and the License. They have a vested interest in ensuring there are as many CPAs as possible. ⬇️

They also have first-hand knowledge of how hard it is to make changes to the requirements to become a licensed CPA. They are not going to intentionally not take action on the pipeline challenges putting their membership, dues, and purpose at risk. We all have the same goal. ⬇️

Finally, do not read this thread and assume I’m an advocate of 150 >120. I refuse to have that debate as you may as well argue that gravity is bad for earth. The reqs that are in place are not going to change. I am an advocate of influencing the things that we can change. ⬇️

Such as:

  • Creative approaches to achieving the ed reqs
  • Financial support to help people achieve their ed reqs
  • Advocating for firms to compete for talent w/ compensation & benefits
  • Elevating firms and their practices that create environments that people want to be a part of
    ⬇️

The passion and interest in easing the pipeline challenge is awesome. It is in our best interest that we continue to fight and advocate for people to choose a career in Accounting. There is no silver bullet and certainly, there is no simple answer.
⬇️

People are going to be willing to do the work & check all the boxes if the outcome is worth the effort. Let’s find ways to make sure that outcome is worth it… because by today’s standards of overwork and underpaid for new/young accountants, even 120 won’t be worth the effort. ☑️

/end

Go debate or praise him on Twitter if you want or duke it out in the comments, up to you.

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Studying for BEC Leads a CPA Exam Candidate to Drugs

We don’t have any CPA exam questions in the mailbag this week (you slackers) so we’re resorting yet again to trolling the CPAnet forums for good questions. Here’s an excellent one:

I’ve never had an issue studying, I guess it’s mainly because I always had a logical way of figuring stuff out and completing it extremely quick (which is why REG and AUD were so easy). However, BEC is making a fool of me. I can’t seem to figure out how to attack it, and am severely lacking motivation to study it.

I’ve used adderall a few times, and man d , I’ve had a recent serotonin problem .. and now if I take it, it actually triggers panic attacks which I try to avoid like the plague.

Do you guys have any other suggestions?

If you grew up in the 90s, chances are you knew at least a handful of kids diagnosed with ADD and prescribed Ritalin or other amphetamine-based prescription drugs to treat this “condition.” I graduated high school in 1998 and at that point, several enterprising young men and women in my class were funding their car payments by selling their prescriptions to classmates.

Drugs like Adderall and Ritalin are central nervous system stimulants that artificially force dopamine (the natural “happy drug” in your brain usually released when you are doing something you enjoy like reading Going Concern, writing your resignation letter or sleeping with randoms in your office) to the synapses in your brain. This creates the thrill, so you, in turn, look at studying as something enjoyable. Under the influence of these drugs, you could, in theory, also equally enjoy a root canal, colonoscopy, or your 12th straight hour of busy season gruntwork. Perhaps not ironically, this chemical reaction is similar to the one created in your brain when you fall in love.

The problem with taking Adderall to study for the CPA exam (as opposed to taking it to study for finals in college) is that your brain retains exam information better in smaller pieces over a longer period of time. You simply cannot “cram” for the CPA exam. Not to mention the fact that it’s illegal if you’re buying someone else’s prescription and you are supposed to represent the profession in an ethical manner but we won’t get into that.

Instead, try some of these tips to grease your brain up for studying. Trust us, you’ll be happier and healthier in the long run, though maybe not as unusually happy in the short-term.

Try Omega-3s: While the research is a bit sketchy, it is believed that Omega-3 fatty acids improve general brain function and can positively impact memory. You can find Omega-3s in salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, flax oil, and walnuts or take a quality fish oil supplement daily.

Avoid simple carbs: Simple carbohydrates like white bread are instantly converted to sugar in your body, filling you with empty calories. Too much sugar at once can actually starve your brain of the glucose it needs to function properly, negatively affecting memory and concentration. Instead, try to eat more complex carbohydrates like peanuts, dried apricots, dried beans and yogurt and stay away from quick fixes like candy.

Eat breakfast: If you are working and studying for the CPA exam, breakfast is probably something you haven’t seen in months or years but numerous studies prove that breakfast has a positive effect on how your brain performs. And if you’re a girl, you might want to try oatmeal instead of cereal, it could improve your short-term memory.

Caffeine is OK, in moderation: Caffeine works in a similar way to Adderall except much milder, in moderation. If you must get a fix, try to avoid sugary energy drinks and stick to plain coffee. Adding flavored cream or sugar to coffee adds empty calories that you might regret once you’re actually done with the exam and needing to shed the extra 10 or even 20 pounds you packed on during studying.

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All About the 4.5th Section of the CPA Exam: Ethics!

We covered Ethics before but since this is the last in our daily columns this week on the CPA exam, it’s a good way to wrap things up. Once again, if you are looking for CPA exam tips, tricks, hints or just have an idea for a topic you’d like to see addressed here, get in touch with us.

Last time we talked about the ethics exam, we suggested the following:


Speak to your state society of CPAs to find out if they offer some kind of ethics exam support. Helplines exist but you’ll never find them if you don’t look.

Because the ethics exam is open book, not timed, and allows potty breaks (unlike, say, FAR), take your time and don’t rush through it. You have more than 1.5 minutes to read through and answer the questions, take advantage of this fact.

If all else fails, try to find a lifeline. The CalCPA Education Foundation gives you a “lifeline” if you have unsuccessfully attempted their ethics exam three times.

A few more things to keep in mind:

If possible, choose the Online version of exam materials in searchable PDF form so you can search for keywords that will answer the questions. It beats flipping through a book and is often cheaper than the book version of the exam anyway.

Don’t take the ethics exam too early or you may have to take it again. If you decide to take the ethics exam before you have completed all four parts of the CPA exam, be sure you know how long your score is good for (probably a year max). You don’t want to have to take it twice so wait until you are at least 3/4 of the way through the exam or completely finished to tackle ethics.

Though review courses don’t have coursework on ethics, there are tons of resources available that consist of tips from others who have taken and passed the ethics exam. Start with the CPAnet forums, plenty of candidates and would-be CPAs have shared their experiences and many are happy to help if you have specific questions about how they did it.

Hope that helps and thanks for joining us for this week of CPA exam goodness!

2 thoughts on “What You Should Know About Changing the 150 Hour Rule Before You Debate For or Against It”

  1. I think this sums up the obstacles very well. But the underlying issue is whether adding the 30 hours (in anything) and removing the 2nd year experience requirement leaves us with a better stronger Profession (in the US). I can’t find anyone arguing that it does. All the arguments are around difficulties in making the changes and the chaos that would ensue with disparate licensing requirements. But what if we all as a profession decided to push for this together? What if the AICPA said something along the lines of “It seemed like a good idea at the time, but we see now it is harming the Profession” and got everyone to pull in the same direction?
    I think we need to separate inertial factors from arguments on the merits and do what’s best for the future of the Profession.

  2. Let’s be real, the one and only solution to the accountant shortage is to make the juice worth the squeeze. That means much higher compensation for the rank and file below partner and much higher prices for our customers. The financial rewards for the staff need to be high enough to make the choice actually difficult between pursying accounting and its long hours vs other professions with easier work and better compensation. Nothing else will convince generations to en masse choose accounting and lead to a rebound in enrollments and new CPAs.

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