California Board of Accountancy approves committee appointments, reviews annual report and operational metrics

The California Board of Accountancy met Nov. 20, 2025, and approved a slate of committee appointments, heard its executive officer present the 2024–25 annual report and received operational updates from enforcement, licensing and outreach staff.

The board approved appointments and reappointments to the Enforcement Advisory Committee, Qualifications Committee and Peer Review Oversight Committee, recording roll-call votes in each case. The board also elected its officers for the coming year: Patricia Bachelor as secretary‑treasurer, Doug Aguilar as vice president and Christine Latta as president.

Executive staff presented the annual report covering July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025. The report highlighted the CBA’s sponsorship of Assembly Bill 1175 and its progress through the legislature, the effect of a fee increase effective July 1, 2024, and improvements across multiple functions. The enforcement division reported a 70% reduction in case inventory (compared with the prior fiscal year) for matters not referred to the Attorney General, issued more than 2,000 citations (with noncompliance with continuing education requirements among the top violations) and closed many investigations faster than in prior years. Enforcement reported receiving more than 700 complaints in the first three months of FY 2025–26 and an average days-to-close improvement from 87 to 67 days.

Finance staff presented the first‑quarter budget report: an enacted FY 2025–26 budget of $20,183,000; approximately $6,000,000 collected in the first quarter (with license renewal fees making up roughly 75% of revenues); expenditures near $5,300,000 for the quarter; and a projection of about a 4% surplus for the fiscal year with 14.4 months in reserve at year‑end.

Licensing reported steady processing times below 30 days and substantial customer service volumes (about 8,000 telephone and more than 17,000 email inquiries in the first quarter). The CBA approved roughly 1,700 first‑time exam applicants, 800 new CPA and firm licenses and processed more than 12,000 renewals during the quarter, with a total CPA population of about 115,682.

Outreach staff described post‑AB 1175 communications (video, updated webpages, social media) and a campus tour that reached 13 universities, with recent events at USC and Mount San Antonio College. Staff also said they plan a soft launch of credit‑card payments for CPA exam applicants on Nov. 24 and an official launch in December.

Board committees reported routine activity: the Enforcement Advisory Committee reviewed investigative files and conducted hearings; the Peer Review Oversight Committee reviewed administering entities and recommended 2026 meeting dates; and the Qualifications Committee conducted section‑69 reviews and personal appearances, recommending approvals or deferrals for applicants where experience required clarification.

Several board members used the meeting’s last agenda item to request follow‑up work on AI (tying presentation takeaways to continuing education and peer review, including smaller firms in landscape analysis), to expand pipeline outreach to community colleges and nontraditional candidates, and to explore partnerships that could help candidates who have passed the CPA exam get the supervised experience needed for licensure.

The board recessed into closed session to conduct an executive officer evaluation and scheduled reconvening the next day for petition hearings.