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Florida CPA Requirements (Rules on Exam and Licensing)
The Florida CPA Exam Requirements are relatively straight forward: You need 120 credit hours to sit for the exam, and the full 150 hours and at least 1 year of working experience to get the license.
Florida strictly requires a Social Security Number (SSN) for both exam and license.
Florida CPA Requirements
1. Education Requirements to Sit for the Exam
- Bachelor’s degree or above.
- 120 credit hours from an accredited university or educational institution.
- Accounting courses: 24 credit hours in upper division (i.e. 3rd/4th year courses):
- Must include accounting taxation, auditing, cost/managerial, financial, and accounting information systems.
- Accounting courses for non-accounting majors or elementary accounting courses for MBAs will NOT be counted.
- Business courses: 24 credit hours in upper division (i.e. 3rd/4th year courses):
- One microeconomics, one macroeconomics, one statistics, one business law, and one introduction to computers course may be lower division.
- Intermediate/advanced accounting courses can be used to meet business course requirement.
- Other courses:
63 credit hours of business law; must include contracts, torts, and the Uniform Commercial Code (updated July 11, 2016)
2. Additional Florida CPA Requirements to Get the License
Education
- 150 credit hours from an accredited university or educational institution.
- Accounting courses: 36 upper-division credit hours including Taxation, Auditing, Financial, Cost/Managerial and Accounting Info Systems.
- Business courses: 39 upper-division credit hours including at least 6 units in business law.
- For those who study at an non-accredited colleges, you can still get qualified and details can be found in the Florida CPA licensing page (FAQ #8).
- If 2 years have passed since the passing of the Uniform CPA Exam, 80 CPE hours (20 in accounting and auditing; <20 in behavioral subjects) are required.
Experience
- 1 year of relevant work experience supervised by active CPA licensee in the US or “approved chartered accountant”.
- Experience can be public or non-public accounting.
- Florida accepts volunteer work as long as a CPA verifies your work experience on the Certification of Work Experience form. However, it does not seem to allow part-time work. Please read FAQ #37 for details.
- For candidates who passed the Uniform CPA exam before the “new rule” (prior to 1984), please check with Florida’s CPA licensing information for details.
Ethics Qualifications
- None.
3. Florida CPA Requirements on Residency & Age
- US citizenship not required.
- Florida residency not required.
- Minimum age: none.
- Social security number is mandatory (see FAQ #1 for details).
4. Special Note on Exam Credit Expiry
In Florida, your CPA exam grades will expire 3 years after the NASBA release date of the last exam. This is different from most states which do not have such deadline.
5. CPA Exam Fees in Florida
- Exam Section Application Fee: 344.80
6. Continuing Education
CPE is required for license holders. Please click here for Florida CPA CPE requirements.
7. Other Useful Information
8. Contact
Florida Board of Accountancy
240 NW 76 Drive, Suite A
Gainesville, FL 32607
- Email: Call.Center@dbpr.state.fl.us, cpaes-fl@nasba.org
- Phone: (850) 487-1395
- Fax: (
352) 333-2508
What if the Florida CPA Requirements Don’t Work for Me?
Check out these pages to learn about the educational and experience requirements, with my recommendation at the end of the posts:
- CPA educational requirements: Rules, Obstacles and Solutions
- States with more flexible CPA experience requirements
- How to get extra credit hours for the 150-hour rule
If you have questions, feel free to drop a note in the comment section, or visit my Facebook page.
About the Author Stephanie Ng
I am the author of How to Pass The CPA Exam (published by Wiley), and I also passed all 4 sections of the CPA Exam on my first try. Additionally, I have led webinars, such as for the Institute of Management Accountants, authored featured articles on websites like Going Concern and AccountingWeb, and I'm also the CFO for the charity New Sight. Finally, I have created other accounting certification websites to help mentor non-CPA candidates. I have already mentored thousands of CPA, CMA, CIA, EA, and CFA candidates, and I can help you too!
