Lessons · Accounting · the shape of the education requirement
The shape of the education requirement
The education requirement has three parts: a degree at a stated level, a quantity of study in accounting and business subjects, and an ethics component. What the board can change is the quantity and the balance between the parts. What has not changed is that all three parts exist.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a qualified accountant. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
Knowing the shape lets you read any version of the requirement, including the version that replaces the one in force when you read this. It also tells you what to keep: transcripts, syllabuses and course descriptions, because the argument you may one day have to make is about which of your courses counted as which subject.
How to think about it
Take the board's current statement and sort your own transcript into its categories. Where a course could sit in more than one category, look for the board's own description of the category rather than deciding for yourself. Where you are short, the gap is usually fillable without another degree.
Worked example
A degree at the stated levelThe floor. Its subject is a separate question from its level.
Study in accounting subjectsCounted by subject, not by the title on the degree.
Study in business-related subjectsA second, separate category with its own total.
An ethics componentIts own requirement, and the part most likely to be met later rather than at the start.
Your turn
Name the three parts every version of this requirement has had.
A degree, a quantity of accounting and business study, and an component
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Planning your study around a total you read once. The totals are the part most likely to move, and California is rewriting them. Plan around the categories, keep the evidence for every course, and check the total against the board when you are close.