Pathway for Indian CAs Seeking Canadian CPA Designation: This CA shares how she prepared for CPA Canada exams.

• Are you interested in pursuing CPA Canada?
• Chanda Kuber, Chartered Accountant shares the exact steps she took to pass the Canadian CPA Exams.
• Presently Chanda is working as a Manager for Financial Reporting and Policy Colliers in Toronto, Canada.

Back Story

I immigrated from India to Canada in mid-2016, beginning a new chapter in my life. I realized early on that having a Canadian CPA degree would make my job search easy and it surely did!

So from the get-go, I was keen on learning Canadian Accounting standards and Tax systems.

My work experience, my CA degree from India, and my interest in pursuing CPA Canada helped me get a contract position at a Big 4 firm, within a few months after landing in Canada.

So I would recommend finance professionals/ Accountants moving to Canada or already in Canada, to pursue CPA Canada.

It would be a great value addition.

Pathway to Canadian CPA 

CPA is certainly one of the most respected professions in Canada and around the world.

Similar to the states in the US, Canada has provinces and each province has its own regional accounting body. However, Canada has merged its accounting qualification (CA, CMA, and CGA) into one big CPA Designation.

While CPA Canada is the national-level organization to support the unification of the Canadian accounting profession, there are provincial and territorial CPA bodies that work to regulate the profession. I registered with CPA Ontario.

The pathway to becoming a CPA depends on the educational degrees held by the candidate.

So basically to become a Canadian CPA you have to give the following exams:

• Core 1 and 2 which consists of 6 courses
• Electives 1 and 2: These are basically two exams
• Capstone 1 and 2 these are learning modules
• Final Common Final Examination (CFE): It is a three days exams
• Additionally, there is a requirement to complete 30 months of approved practical training.
• Pursuing the course in its entirety usually takes 3-4 years similar to the Indian CA course.

For CFE, provided below is the list of topics:

Pathway For Indian CAs Seeking Canadian CPA Designation

I struggled a bit to clear the CPA Exams.

Under the new MoU between ICAI and CPA, Ontario, Indian CAs are generally exempted from the following:

• Core 1 and Core 2
• Electives
• Capstone 1 and Capstone 2

To qualify for the exemption, an assessment of qualifications is usually done by the CPA office at the time of registration. I had to give only two exams:

• Capstone 1 and 2: Become optional as per the new MOU, always good to register for this course
• Common Final Examination (CFE): CFE is a case-based test

Practical Experience: There are forms available on the website that are to be filled out by all the reporting managers one has worked with in their prior work experiences. These forms are then submitted to the CPA office, they are reviewed to assess the number of months of practical training required for admission to membership.

My Journey Preparing For CPA Canada First Attempt 

I qualified for exemptions available in the MoU between ICAI and CPA Canada.

And so I enrolled ONLY for the Common Final Examination course (CFE) and Capstone (though exempted under MoU it is always good to register for this course).

1. Capstone

• The Capstone courses focus on group projects and presentations as well as self-study and practice.
• These have now become optional as per the new MOU. I will certainly recommend opting for Capstone 2 as it instills the habit of practicing cases and is marked by the National marking center which provides great insight into your performance in case writing.

2. Common Final Examination (CFE) CPA Canada 

While I was focusing on my full-time job, I realized that the CPA – CFE exam was hardly two months away.

Trying to balance work (or finding one) and making sure adequate time is allocated for studying was one of the biggest challenges I faced.

With whatever time left, I started preparing for exams and regularly practiced cases.

I had access to the course materials provided by CPA, Ontario, simultaneously I reviewed the solutions for prior examinations

I felt very comfortable with the technical aspect of the exam, what was most challenging was the case-based format of the exams. There is a very specific approach to be followed while attempting case-based tests, and I got confused due to the lack of clarity.

The results turned out as expected and I didn’t clear the exams on the first attempt.

I was very upset with the results as they involved a lot of effort, time, and money.