Getting Certified

The Career for You?

Is an accounting career a good fit for you? Consider the questions below – you might be surprised. If you chose almost always for many of the personal characteristics and highly important for many of the accounting career characteristics, then you are likely to find a career in accounting to be a good fit for you.

Personal Characteristics

How would you rate the degree to which the following statements describe you: almost always, usually, not so much, or rarely?

I have a high level of self-discipline
I am comfortable working with numbers
I like using my analytical skills to solve problems
I enjoy meeting and working with new people
I would like to advise and assist others with their personal and business goals
I want to continually add to my knowledge and business skills
I am a hard worker
I earn above-average grades
I have high personal ethical standards (honesty, respect for self and others, professional excellence, fairness, etc.)

Career Characteristics

How would you rate the importance these career characteristics have for you: highly important, somewhat important, or not important?

Offers a wide variety of career paths
Involves service and assistance to other people
Offers opportunities for responsibility and advancement
Requires excellent written and verbal communication skills
Uses the latest technology
Involves working in a professional environment
Provides job security and stability
Is financially rewarding
Represents a highly respected profession

Certification Opportunities

Although professional certification is not required to be an accountant, we encourage our accounting majors to earn such credentials. Many employers recommend or require professional certification as a condition for advancement. Certification increases job security and earning potential.

Certified public accountant (CPA)
Certified management accountant (CMA)
Certified fraud examiner (CFE)
Certified fraud specialist (CFS)
Certified internal auditor (CIA)

The CPA Exam

Preparing for the CPA Exam at University of Lynchburg

The education necessary to become a certified public accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia, like most states, includes a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university and a total of 150 semester hours of college credit. College courses must include accounting and business subjects distributed as follows:

  • At least 30 semester hours of accounting including courses covering the subjects of financial accounting, auditing, taxation, and management/cost accounting; and
  • At least 24 semester hours in business subjects other than accounting, taken at the graduate or undergraduate level.

Candidates may apply to take the CPA exam with only 120 semester hours of college credit. You need not have a master’s degree, nor even an accounting degree, to take the CPA exam, but you must have an undergraduate degree and the coursework specified above. To obtain a CPA license, you must meet the 150-semester-hour requirement.

You can satisfy the educational requirements for the CPA exam at University of Lynchburg. A Bachelor of Arts in Accounting requires a minimum of 27 semester hours in accounting, including the coursework specified above. You will need to complete one additional accounting elective course to meet the 30 semester hour accounting requirement. An accounting degree also includes more than 24 semester hours of non-accounting business and economics course work.

All bachelor’s degree programs at University of Lynchburg require a minimum of 124 semester credit hours of course work. Students must earn 26 semester hours beyond this minimum to meet the 150-hour requirement to sit for the CPA examination. Students earn these additional hours in a variety of ways, including earning more hours than the minimum required to graduate at the undergraduate level, taking local community college classes, enrolling in the University of Lynchburg 36 semester-hour MBA program, or taking classes at nearby colleges after graduation.

CPA Examination Subject Areas

The CPA examination is divided into four sections. Candidates take one section at a time in a computer-based format. The subject areas and testing times allotted per section are:

  • Auditing and Attestation (AUD) – 4.5 hours
  • Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) – 4.0 hours
  • Regulation (REG) – 3.0 hours
  • Business Environment and Concepts (BEC) – 2.5 hours

For more information about the CPA exam, visit the Virginia Board of Accountancy. If you plan on seeking licensure as a CPA in a state other than Virginia, check with that state’s Board of Accountancy to ensure that you meet their requirements. Visit the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy for a complete list of state boards.

The CMA Exam

Preparing for the CMA Exam at University of Lynchburg

The certified management accountant (CMA) designation is a professional certification designed to recognize accounting and financial management skills that drive business performance. Achieving the CMA credential demonstrates your mastery of financial planning, analysis, control, decision support, and professional ethics.

The CMA credential is:
  • Focused – On critical skills you use in business.
  • Respected – Leading employers seek to hire and promote CMAs.
  • Valued – CMAs earn higher compensation than noncertified professionals.
  • Convenient – CMA exams are offered electronically in hundreds of locations.

The CMA is designed for finance professionals at all levels, whether you want to enhance your value to your current organization or expand your career potential.

Most accountants work inside organizations, where expertise in decision support, planning, and control over value-adding operations are crucial elements of operational success. In earning the certified management accountant designation, you will master a comprehensive body of knowledge directly related to operational and strategic management as well as the skills and abilities required to build quality business practices inside organizations.

The CMA Program has four objectives:
  • To establish management accounting as a recognized profession by identifying the role of the management accountant and financial manager, the underlying body of knowledge, and a course of study by which such knowledge is acquired;
  • To encourage higher educational standards in the management accounting field;
  • To establish an objective measure of an individual’s knowledge and competence in the field of management accounting; and
  • To encourage continued professional development by management accountants.
CMA Educational Requirement

To be certified as a CMA, you must earn a bachelor’s degree, in any area, from an accredited college or university. You need not, however, complete your degree before you take the CMA exam.

To pass the CMA exam, you must learn and understand the subject matter tested, which includes preparation of financial statements, business economics, time-value of money concepts, and statistics and probability. Questions on both parts of the CMA exam will assume that you can effectively integrate and synthesize this knowledge with the specific topics covered in the content specification outline.

CMA Content Specification Overview

(Each part allows 4 hours to complete 100 multiple-choice questions and 2 essay questions)

Part 1: Financial planning, performance, and control

  • Planning, budgeting, and forecasting
  • Performance management
  • Cost management
  • Internal controls
  • Professional ethics

Part 2: Financial decision making

  • Financial statement analysis
  • Corporate finance
  • Decision analysis and risk management
  • Investment decisions
  • Professional ethics

You can start to acquire much of the requisite knowledge to pass the CMA exam in your classes at University of Lynchburg. Relevant courses include financial accounting, cost accounting, management accounting, auditing, information systems, business statistics, finance, operations management, and legal environment of business. It is possible for you to complete both parts of the CMA exam by the time you earn your undergraduate degree. The examination fee for students is one-half the regular fee.

For more information about the CMA exam, visit the webpage of The Institute of Management Accountants.

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Getting Certified

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