Colorado

Residency

There is not a residency requirement for the state of Colorado.

Eligibility for Examination

Please refer to Rule 1.2 of the Colorado State Board of Accountancy Rules for the detailed education requirement. PLEASE NOTE: The educational requirements for licensure differ from that of the CPA exam.  Please refer to the rules linked above for licensure requirements.

To be eligible for the examination as a candidate of Colorado, you must have completed a Baccalaureate Degree or higher degree with at least 120 credit hours of higher education that includes the accounting and business courses listed below:

• At least 27 semester hours of non-duplicative accounting coursework at the undergraduate or graduate level.
  • Within the 27 semester hours in accounting, 21 semester hours must exclude introductory accounting courses and cover subject areas such as:
    • Accounting Ethics
    • Accounting Information Systems
    • Accounting Research and Analysis
    • Accounting Theory
    • Auditing and Attestation Services
    • Financial Accounting and Reporting of Business Organizations
    • Financial Accounting and Reporting for Government and Not-for-Profit Entities
    • Financial Statement Analysis
    • Fraud Examination
    • Internal Controls and Risk Assessment
    • Managerial or Cost Accounting
    • Taxation
    • Tax Research and Analysis
    • Forensic Accounting
    • Tax Auditing
    • Other areas as approved by the Board
  • The 21 semester hours in accounting must include a 3 semester hour, or more, auditing course concentrating on U.S. GAAS. NOTE: “Concentrating on U.S. GAAS” means that any course content referencing non-U.S. standards is incidental to the course.
• At least 21 semester hours of non-duplicative coursework in business administration at the undergraduate or graduate level that addresses subject areas such as:
  • Behavior of Organizations, Groups, and Persons
  • Business and Accounting Communication
  • Business Ethics
  • Business Law
  • Computer Information Systems
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Legal and Social Environment of Business
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Quantitative Applications in Business
  • Statistics
  • Other areas as approved by the Board

• Of the 21 semester hours, no more than 6 semester hours can be in any single subject area. But semester hours in excess of the 6-hour maximum may count toward the total 120 semester hour requirement.

If you do not have a baccalaureate degree, you may still qualify for the examination as a candidate of Colorado if you have completed at least 120 credit hours of higher education provided you are currently enrolled in a degree program at a college or university that: (1) requires a minimum 150 hours for graduation; and (2) does not offer a Baccalaureate Degree, but instead confers a Masters or higher degree, or offers a Baccalaureate Degree upon completion of a combined degree program.

Course Requirements

• All courses must be taken at an Accredited Baccalaureate Granting College or: (1) such a college must accept the courses by including them in its official transcript or verify to the Board that it would accept the courses for credit towards graduation; (2) the courses must be acceptable for transfer to such a college pursuant to a transfer articulation agreement approved or accepted by the Colorado Department of Higher Education or what the Board determines to be an equivalent regulatory agency of another jurisdiction; or (3) the Board may accept the findings of an academic credential evaluation provided pursuant to Rule 1.2(B).
• “Introductory accounting courses” means courses such as principles of accounting, accounting and tax software courses, payroll accounting, and other basic accounting courses as determined by the Board. Such courses will not count towards the 21 hour requirement.
• Commercial CPA review courses are not acceptable.
• Community College, correspondence, online courses and CLEP credit are acceptable when you receive credit for the courses at a regionally accredited university. These courses must appear on an accredited baccalaureate granting college’s official transcript.

Candidates with International Education

If you apply with international education, you are required to provide proof that the audit course completed abroad has a concentration in U.S. GAAS. Along with the evaluation of international education, you must also provide the following:

1. A letter from the school confirming the audit course has a concentration in US GAAS
2. The course’s syllabus
3. The primary textbook used to include the name of the publisher and the authors.

Failure to provide this information will result in an incomplete application.

All educational documents including official school transcripts, SSN Affidavit, course syllabus, textbook used for audit course, or letter from school confirming U.S. GAAS concentration and/or international evaluations with international transcripts are required to be submitted at the time of application. These documents are required to be mailed directly to CPAES from the academic institution or evaluation service.

Transcripts

You must have completed all educational requirements at the time of application:

• Transcripts must be mailed directly from the institution to the CPAES office in Nashville – not the Colorado State Board of Accountancy in Colorado. Transcripts can also be emailed directly from the university to [email protected].
• Official transcripts are those that have been issued by the institution’s Registrar’s Office and include the Registrar’s official seal.
• The degree you have earned must be posted on your official transcript.
• Photocopies of transcripts are not official and cannot be accepted.
• Please Note: If you have not yet applied when you submit your transcripts, your education documents will be kept on file for one year. After that time, the documents will be destroyed and you will need to resubmit new education documents when you apply.
• If you completed courses at a campus located outside the U.S. for a school located in the U.S., the official transcript must be issued by the registrar from the U.S. campus. Transcripts issued by the registrar for the campus located outside the U.S. will not be accepted.

If you have completed education requirements at institutions outside the U.S., you must:

• Have your education credentials evaluated by:
  • NASBA International Evaluation Services (NIES)
  • any member of the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services, Inc.
  • the Association of International Credential Evaluators (AICE)
• Require the agency to evaluate as follows:
  • An equivalency summary that indicates the analogous academic degrees in the U.S. you hold;
  • A credential analysis that specifies:
    • The name of the country;
    • The degree awarded;
    • The year the degree was awarded; and
    • The entity that awarded the degree;
  • A course-by-course listing; and
  • A course credit analysis that includes:
    • Total credits earned toward the degree as stated on transcripts submitted;
    • Total accounting credits earned;
    • Total business credits earned;
    • If the audit course has a concentration in U.S. GAAS.
• Completed original evaluations must be received by CPAES directly from the evaluation service at the time of application. Photocopies are not acceptable.
• A copy of the international transcript must be included with the report sent to CPAES for each individual evaluation from the evaluation service. The application will be considered incomplete without these documents and the processing of the application will not move forward until transcripts are provided.
• Please Note: If you have not yet applied, education documents received will be kept on file for one year. After that time, these documents will be destroyed and you will need to resubmit new education documents at the time of application.
• If you completed courses at a campus located outside the U.S. for a school located in the U.S., the official transcript must be issued by the registrar from the U.S. campus. Transcripts issued by the registrar for the campus located outside the U.S. will not be accepted.

Notice for International Applicants Regarding Social Security Numbers

Every applicant who resides in the United States must provide his or her Social Security Number when applying for licensure. The Division will accept a sworn SSN Affidavit in lieu of an SSN from foreign nationals not physically present in the U.S.

Education Evaluation Application

Before you can apply for an exam section you must first be deemed eligible for the CPA Exam. Your Evaluation Application will determine if you meet the educational requirements needed to take the CPA Exam for your selected jurisdiction.

Education Evaluation Application Fee: $90.00

Exam Section Application

Once you have been found eligible for the CPA Exam you may then apply for a specific exam section. You can only apply for one exam section per application. You are advised to only apply for the exam section if you are ready to take it. Your Notice to Schedule will be valid for a limited amount of time, and you must take the exam section listed on the NTS within this time frame or you will lose those fees paid.

Exam Section Application Fee: $347.64

Refund Policy

There is no provision for withdrawing from the examination and/or requesting an extension of your current Notices to Schedule (NTS). Application and/or examination fees are not refundable. If you have an extreme circumstance, you may request an NTS extension or a partial refund of your examination fees under specific circumstances utilizing the Exception to Policy Form.

Candidates are allowed to sit for each section of the examination individually and in any order. Candidates retain credit for any section(s) passed for thirty (30) months, without having to attain a minimum score on failed sections and without regard to whether they have taken other sections. Candidates must pass all four sections of the examination within a “rolling” thirty (30)-month period that begins on the date of the score release. In the event all four sections of the examination are not passed within the rolling thirty (30)-month period, credit for any section(s) passed outside the thirty (30)-month period will expire and the section(s) must be retaken.

Written requests for exceptions to the requirements set forth above may be granted at the discretion of the Board for individual hardship or other good cause demonstrated in a timely manner.