Qualifications Committee reviews CBA licensure, mobility proposals and licensing trends; approves meeting minutes

The California Board of Accountancy Qualifications Committee on Jan. 22, 2025, heard staff briefings on a legislative proposal to modernize CPA licensure and practice mobility, received licensing and long-term licensing-trend reports showing continuing-education compliance issues and a shrinking audit-experience pipeline, and approved minutes from its April 2024 meeting after reopening the vote to allow a member to recuse.

The committee’s legislative update came from Alfred Burleson, an analyst in the CBA’s initial licensing unit, who summarized the board-approved proposal that would remove the 150-semester-unit requirement, narrow the accounting-concentration curriculum to specified subjects, and set a two-year experience requirement with options to reduce that experience by earning an accounting-related advanced degree or specified certificates. “Presuming an author is found, the legislative bill passes in the 02/2025 legislative session and is signed into law, it will have an effective date of 01/01/2026,” Burleson said. Under the proposal, the new pathway would take effect on 07/01/2026 and the existing (legacy) pathway would be phased out on 01/01/2029.

Why it matters: the proposed changes would alter educational and experience routes to CPA licensure in California and change how the board recognizes degrees from California institutions. Burleson cautioned that the proposal is a request for an author and may change as it moves through the legislature.

Committee members asked about how the proposal would affect mobility and the ability of out-of-state licensees to perform attest services in California. Burleson and staff said the draft would preserve current restrictions on performing attest services and would grant practice privilege to active licensees whose principal place of business is outside California unless the CBA determines a state presents consumer-protection concerns. “What you see before you in terms of the legislative proposal is really more looking at whether or not we believe that activities within a state cause concern for us to allow individuals from that state to have practice privilege,” Burleson said.

Staff reports: Jennifer Huddy, manager of the initial licensing unit, told the committee processing times for initial licensing remain below 30 days. Her licensing activity report (LAR) covered July 1–Sept. 30, 2024, and noted that the examination unit approved more than 1,300 first-time applicants to sit for the CPA exam and that roughly 1,000 applications for new CPAs and firm licenses were approved in that period. Huddy also reported that the unit processed more than 11,000 renewal applications and that 405 renewals showed a continuing-education deficiency described in the meeting as a “20/12 violation” — licensees must complete 20 hours of continuing education each year with at least 12 hours in technical subject matter.

Michelle Center, CBA staff, said 20/12 violations cannot be corrected after the fact and are referred to the enforcement division; she described staff plans to improve targeted, point-in-time outreach using a new listserv tool to remind licensees before their first renewal. “We just recently acquired a listserv application, and we believe that's going to allow us to do more point-in-time communication,” Center said.

Long-term trends and workforce pipeline: Melanie Murphy, a licensing coordinator, presented an annual report on long-term licensing data. The report showed the number of CPA license applications fell after 2020 and hit a 10-year low in 2022–23, with an expected spike tied to the January 2024 CPA exam changes (the “CPA evolution”). Murphy said the CPA population continues to grow about 2% annually; as of June 30, 61% of CPAs were in active status and about 12% of licensees reside out of state. The average age for a newly licensed CPA is 32.

Committee members raised concern about a shortage of candidates with audit (attest) experience. Chair Jeffrey Moline and members, including Timothy Jones and Michael Williams, described repeated reports from firms and industry that it is difficult to recruit candidates with audit experience. “The pipeline of candidates has been reduced by a significant amount,” Jones said, noting campus enrollment declines at some universities. Committee members urged outreach and profession-level recruitment to address the gap.

Subcommittee actions: Melissa Cardenas, a coordinator in the initial licensing unit, reported that since the April 2024 public meeting the committee held three virtual subcommittee meetings to review applicants’ work papers and experience certificates. The subcommittees recommended four applicants be approved for a test authority and three be deferred for lack of experience or inadequate work papers.

Public comment: A candidate preparing for the FAR section of the CPA exam urged staff to clarify proposed changes to experience-signoff forms and asked what alternatives California proposes that would not make the sign-off more subjective. Jessica (identified in the transcript only by first name, public commenter) described studying under the new exam model and asked where to send questions; staff directed her to contact CBA staff for more detail.

Votes at a glance: The committee approved the minutes of the April 2024 QC meeting after reopening the item to allow a member to recuse himself. The motion to adopt the minutes was made and seconded; the re-vote included several abstentions. The committee’s roll-call vote on the re-vote recorded multiple approvals and several abstentions; the motion passed.

What’s next: Staff will continue outreach on the licensure and mobility proposals and will present additional implementation details if an author is found and the bill advances. The CBA will continue to evaluate continuing-education modernization and targeted outreach to reduce 20/12 violations. The committee confirmed tentative 2025 QC meeting dates and subcommittee dates and will reassess member availability before subcommittee meetings.