Main Navigation

In order to become a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in California, there are several requirements including, but not limited to, completion of a bachelor's degree, completion of an additional 30 semester units of accounting study, passing the Uniform CPA exam, passing the Professional Ethics for CPA's (PETH) exam (administered by the California Society of CPA's), and work experience requirements. Please visit www.dca.ca.gov/cba/index.shtml for additional information.

The California State Board of Accountancy ("CBA") requires a potential CPA licensee to have a bachelor's degree PLUS 30 semester units for a combined total of 150 semester units. According to the California State Board of Accountancy, qualifying courses do not have to be taken at a four-year college. Courses can be taken at any accredited college. For example, courses taken at IVC or other accredited community colleges can assist an applicant in meeting the educational requirements to become a licensed CPA. 

For those that have already completed a bachelor's degree, we recommend that you first take your undergraduate transcript and map your courses taken against the Tip Sheet: CPA Licensure Educational Requirements provided by the CBA. This tip sheet is for the educational requirement after January 1, 2017. The CBA makes the final determination as to whether an IVC course will satisfy the educational requirement. If you received your bachelor's degree from a foreign country, please visit the CBA website for a list of translating agencies that will be accepted by the CBA.

Mapping IVC Courses to the CPA Requirements

Please refer to the Tip Sheet – CPA Licensure Educational Requirements for reference to the following groups of courses:

Note that when matching courses, you can only count a course once. For example, Accounting 1A can be counted ONCE towards Group A, Group C or Group B but cannot apply to Group A, Group C and Group B. The CBA will allow "spillage", however, please contact an IVC accounting faculty member for additional information regarding "spillage".

Once you have mapped your courses previously taken to the tip sheet, you can then determine what courses that you need to take at IVC. For your convenience we have mapped out courses from the IVC catalog to the CBA Educational requirements. Note that not all courses are always offered and that you'll need to check the catalog to determine if the course listed is offered in the current semester.

Faculty Contacts

Professor Don Bradshaw
949-451-5532 | Email

Professor Bennet Tchaikovsky
949-451-5714 | Email