To help build the accounting pipeline, KPMG US is publicly supporting the creation of alternative pathways to CPA licensure that emphasize experience after earning a bachelor’s degree.
Those alternative paths could include replacing the additional 30-hour academic requirement with experience or creating work-study programs overseen by businesses that deliver the equivalent value.
“While we can recruit the talent we need today, we have a brewing crisis that will impact accounting firms and corporations,” said KPMG US chair and CEO Paul Knopp in a statement Wednesday. “We need to absolutely address it in the very near term. The cost of becoming a CPA has become too high, including both the cost of the extra education and the opportunity cost of spending an extra year in school.
“We can accelerate the development of talent by having people working with us earlier, especially as data and technology fundamentally change the nature of the profession,” he added. “Hands-on experience with data and technology at the cutting edge is incredibly valuable.”
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The Big Four firm noted that today states such as South Carolina, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Washington, Alaska, Texas, Virginia, Maryland and Florida are openly talking about new pathways to licensure and how to preserve mobility (the ability for a CPA licensed in one state to also be able to practice in another if they move, similar to the concept of reciprocity) to avoid a patchwork of rules.
The American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy have also
As states move forward, the firm believes that if someone is licensed in one state, there should be automatic mobility provisions that allow them to practice in another. To attract new talent to the profession, KPMG said it has raised starting salaries by approximately 25% in three years, nearly double the rate of inflation.
“KPMG supports alternative pathways to CPA licensure that emphasize experience after one earns a bachelor’s degree,” said a KPMG spokesperson. “We believe reforms can increase access to becoming a CPA and improve the quality of the profession at the same time, because of the nature of technological change. More direct, hands-on experience with coaching by practitioners enables a far more prepared candidate for the CPA. Conversations across the country are a step in the right direction in that they recognize the consensus for change, but the details matter. Importantly, any change needs to create a simpler approach to both licensure and automobility. Bottom line, we can lower the cost to becoming a CPA to broaden access and enhance quality. Moreover, CPAs should be able to live their lives wherever life takes them.”
For new hires, the firm’s CPA Kickstart program pays people to study for the CPA. Last year, 266 people opted into the two-month, 40-hours-per-week program to prepare for the CPA exam. People of color made up approximately 40% of total enrollments.
To improve the experience for auditors during the traditional busy season of early January to early March, the average number of weekly hours worked on audit engagements declined by 18% compared to 2020. The percentage of people working no hours on the weekend went from 20% to 40% of the practice.
KPMG, like other firms, has experienced difficulties with filling the accounting pipeline. The firm pointed out that bachelor’s degree completions in accounting dropped 7.8% from 2021 to 2022 after a steady decline of 1% to 3% per year since 2015–16. The time and cost of the 150-hour requirement for CPA licensure is among the top reasons that students do not select accounting as a major. Research from the
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