Boards of Accountancy

Boards of accountancy are the government agencies, one in each US state plus several other jurisdictions such as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, responsible for licensing certified public accountants within their territory. Each board sets the specific educational, examination, and work experience requirements a candidate must satisfy before being granted a CPA license in that jurisdiction.

Beyond initial licensure, a board of accountancy also establishes continuing professional education requirements CPAs must complete to keep their license active, investigates complaints against licensed CPAs, and has the authority to discipline, suspend, or revoke a license for violations of professional standards or the law. Because each state's board operates independently, specific requirements — such as the number of accounting credit hours needed before sitting the exam, or the amount of supervised experience required afterward — can differ meaningfully from one state to another.

While each board sets its own detailed rules, most states have adopted broadly similar frameworks modeled on the Uniform Accountancy Act, developed jointly by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, which is why CPA licensing requirements, while not identical nationwide, are far more consistent across states than they would otherwise be. NASBA also coordinates the administration of the Uniform CPA Exam on behalf of the individual state boards, even though each board remains the final licensing authority for its own jurisdiction.

A CPA licensed in one state generally can practice in another state under reciprocity or mobility provisions most states have adopted, without having to obtain a fully separate license, provided the CPA's home-state license is in good standing and meets substantially equivalent requirements. This mobility framework developed specifically because accounting firms and their clients routinely operate across state lines, and requiring a completely separate licensing process in every state a CPA happened to work in would have been impractical for the profession.

Because boards of accountancy are government bodies with statutory enforcement power, rather than purely voluntary professional associations, they are the entities with actual legal authority to revoke a CPA's right to practice, which gives the credential real regulatory teeth beyond whatever reputational consequences a professional association alone could impose.

A candidate who completes their accounting education and passes the CPA Exam in one state, then later moves to practice in another state, can typically do so under that second state's mobility provisions without reapplying from scratch, provided their original license remains active and in good standing — though they would still need to separately register if they plan to establish a permanent office in the new state rather than simply serving clients there occasionally.

Beyond approving candidates to sit the Uniform CPA Exam, each board of accountancy sets its own state's specific education and experience requirements for licensure, issues and renews CPA licenses, enforces continuing professional education requirements, and investigates complaints of professional misconduct, with the power to suspend or revoke a CPA's license entirely. Because licensure is granted state by state rather than nationally, the exact requirements, such as the number of accounting credit hours or years of supervised experience needed, can differ noticeably from one state to another, which is why a candidate planning a multi-state career often researches several boards' requirements well before beginning their accounting coursework.