If all goes according to plan, sometime next May Kelly Boxma will officially become one of B.C.’s first graduating chartered professional accountants (CPAs). Last summer Canada’s numerous accounting bodies finalized a merger, agreeing to combine chartered accountants (CAs), certified management accountants (CMAs) and certified general accountants (CGAs) into one designation – a CPA.
While an accountant certified under the previous three acronyms was automatically grandfathered in, many accounting students have been forced into a new accreditation landscape midway through their schooling. Boxma, who holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Kwantlen Polytechnic University and is completing her CPA designation while articling at the accounting and consulting firm MNP’s Surrey office, expects to be one of the first students to write the new CPA exam this September.
“I was in my third year at Kwantlen when everyone kind of started talking about the merger,” she said. “No one really knew what was happening and we all assumed it would happen in, say, five or 10 years. But then the next thing I knew I was in fourth year and they were doing the final paperwork to make it official. So while I was in fourth year, towards the end of the year, everything changed.”
Boxma was planning on becoming a CA but now stands to help make provincial history as one of the first graduating CPAs. The entire process takes about two years, and Boxma said writing a brand-new exam, when there are no previous students with experience to draw on, is a bit unnerving, but she’s optimistic about her chances of passing. She said any growing pains are being washed away in a new world of streamlined accounting accreditation.
“It’s just simplified everything, especially for students, in terms of trying to pick which way you want to go,” she said about the acronym merging.
Barry Macdonald, the first vice-chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia (ICABC), has had a front-row seat for the changeover and said so far everything has gone smoothly.
“Post-merger, the CPABC will have around 30,000 members and effectively will touch every financial transaction that takes place in this province, so the reach will be vast,” said Macdonald, who is also a partner in the tax services division of PwC Canada, stationed in Vancouver.
The merger required approval from 40 accounting bodies, including national associations for CAs, CMAs and CGAs and the regional bodies for each of the three groups in 10 provinces and two territories. It also required approval in Bermuda, where accountants are regulated under Canadian accounting standards. Macdonald said the whole idea behind the streamlining of the three designations is to make the sometimes confusing world of accounting easier to understand.
“One reason this is a huge positive is the new education system combines the best elements of all three designations. The auditing of a CA but also the strategic planning and business solving skills of the other two.”
For Boxma, sadly this doesn’t solve the question of what specific type of accounting she wants to get into after she becomes a CPA.
“I have absolutely no idea what I want to specialize in right now. But with this new system I’m able to get my feet wet in everything, so it’s definitely helping out the process.”
