The Uniform Accountancy Act and CPA Evolution

This chapter explores evolution implications, evaluates their impact, and sets the stage for future research. Academic programs, CPA candidates, and potential employers are contemplating the significant implications of evolution. Those implications are wide and impactful for the academy, recruiters, and ultimately, CPA candidates and the future CPA pipeline. The evolution exam requires a common core in audit, regulation, financial accounting, and reporting with technology and business concepts embedded and one required discipline of business analysis and reporting or information systems and controls or tax compliance and planning. For the first time in history, the CPA candidate will bring a different knowledge set to the exam. The reason for this is that a candidate will choose a discipline compared the identical candidate knowledge requirement that currently exists since the CPA exam was offered. That change, in addition to the knowledge requirement for technology application, has broad implications for the academy and the profession. These issues are explored in this chapter.