Tag: Websites

NASBA To Launch “All New” CPA Exam Tool

Remember the guy who told NASBA its website looked like it had been hacked by the 1990s, given its design a rating of “Corey Feldman with a crayon” on a scale of Caveman to Picasso? Ouch.

Obviously NASBA listened to this and other criticism, as they’ve since updated their website from the drab, Geocities-esque throwback to a slightly slicker, more modern design. Hats off to them for that bold decision.

And now, they’ve promised to make CPA exam candidates’ experience with the NASBA website more streamlined, easy to follow and organized. CPA exam candidates already got this email from NASBA last week but if you are not a current candidate or in the habit of ignoring NASBA emails because you aren’t interested in exclusive CPE deals, read on:

NASBA is excited to announce the upcoming launch of the new Uniform CPA Examination Online Application System. Through this new system, at cpacentral.nasba.org, candidates will not only be able to apply online to take the CPA Examination, but also access application information including status and payment history, import prior application data and even view examination scores.

Upon first visit to the site, users will create an online account with a unique username and password. This includes anyone who has previously applied for the exam via the old online application process or through the mail. Creating an online account will give users more freedom to access exam information, thereby improving the experience throughout the process of becoming a Certified Public Accountant.

Don’t try to click on the link, it isn’t ready yet, but will be available Wednesday according to NASBA. The new system is only available to candidates in any of the 32 jurisdictions served by NASBA, so California candidates can go back to lounging at the dispensary and relaxing by the beach.

So… uhh… how exactly is this any different from clicking on the “EXAMS” tab and following the prompts to access the information or applications you need? We aren’t really sure. Presumably, the difference will be that you will have one central account to log into, versus menus to navigate on the current page. But most of you (even those of you that aren’t considered the brightest crayons in the box) can figure out how to get what you need from NASBA’s website as is, especially after a few exam sections.

We’ll go check it out when it goes live later this week but probably won’t have anything new to report unless it’s a really slow news day.

Capitalizing on the Idea that “Accounting Is Boring”

Mucho apologies for the downtime yesterday; seems that our servers also took a snow day. Accordingly, we’ll dispense a little bit of weekend wisdom (?) to make up for it.

We all know that 99.9% of the Internet is useful and informative. Dancing hamsters, celebrity gossip and an infinite amount of porn are all crucial to the infrastructure. So when we came across a website that’s sole purpose is to accumulate all the Tweets that state that accounting is boring, we thought, “this has got to be the most worthless and dishonest website that has ever been created.”

There are currently 85 pages of tweets that state this falsehood:


It’s shocking and disappointing that there is an army of people out there that think accounting is so dull. We that appreciate the beauty and importance of double-entry bookkeeping know that they are misguided. On the other hand, there is a saying about trends or something that basically solidifies it as truth but it escapes us at the moment.

Then we noticed the note at the top of the page that states that accounting doesn’t have to be boring. Having been duped into thinking that this was a joke at the expense of lover of accounting everywhere, we decided to investigate as to who was behind this little ploy. Turns out the creator of the site is ClearBooks, an “online accounting system for small businesses,” founded by a former KPMGer, Tim Fouracre and Fubra Limited.

As far as we can tell, ClearBooks is basically QuickBooks using cloud computing and this little tactic to introduce us to it is nothing short of genius. Exploiting the boring nature of accounting is exactly what everyone in the business should be doing whether it’s a firm or accounting software.

The serious approach has been tried and frankly it doesn’t float our boat. We realize are view is like asking a manager to downgrade their workspace or rocking flip-flops at the office but we are, nevertheless, encouraged by this development.