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Arkansas CPA Requirements on Exam and Licensing

Arkansas CPA requirementsArkansas only grants CPA license to its residents (defined by residency or keeping of offices within the state).

The education requirement is quite complicated and is best to check with the State Board’s website for details.

 

Arkansas CPA Requirements

1. Education Requirements to Sit for the Exam

  • Bachelor degree or above
  • 150 semester units from an accredited university or educational institution
  • Accounting courses: 30 semester units; upper-level courses required (minimum grade of “C”)
  • Business courses: 30 semester units
  • There are different requirement for graduate degree holders — Please check with the State Board’s website (see below).

Note:

  • It is necessary to have all the educational requirements met before sitting for the CPA exam.
  • Courses from an accredited community college or 2-year college are acceptable toward the 150-hour requirement.  Please note that the requirement for the Accounting Courses are for upper-level accounting courses. Junior/senior level courses are not normally offered in 2-year institutions.

Special Note from the State Board:

Please note that we have several rule changes in process, the main one you will care about is changing our 150 hour requirement.  We plan to allow students to take the exam upon completion of a bachelor’s degree, must have 150 hours for licensure.

2. Additional Arkansas CPA Requirements to Obtain the License

Education

  • No additional requirements.

Experience

  • 1 year (2,000 hours) of public or non-public accounting experience.
  • Part-time employment is allowed as long as the 2,000 hours is accumulated within 1-3 years.
  • The experience has to be verified by an active CPA licensee (US CPA only). This person does not need to be the supervisor.
  • The experience needs to be gained within the previous3 years of the license application date.  Candidates have 3 years to become licensed once you have passed the CPA exam.

Ethics Qualifications

  • None required.

3. Arkansas CPA Requirements on Residency and Age

  • US citizenship not required.
  • Arkansas residency not required.
  • Minimum age: none.

4. Fees

  • First-timers: $723 (4 CPA exam fees) + $170 (initial application fee).

5. Continuing Education

CPE is required for license holders. Please click here for Arkansas CPA CPE requirements.

6. Other Useful Information

7. Contact

Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy
101 East Capitol, Suite 450
Little Rock, AR 72201

  • Phone: 501-682-1520
  • Fax: 501-682-5538

What if these CPA Requirements don’t Work for Me?

You may want to check out these pages to learn about the educational and experience requirements, with my recommendation at the end of the posts:

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!

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