Written by: Bill Schneider

Think you know what CPA stands for?  No I’m not meaning “Can’t Pass Again” for all of you smart-alecks out there. In the U.S. it means Certified Public Accountant, but in Canada there may be a new CPA rising up and it stands for Chartered Professional Accountant.  The Chartered Accountants of Canada (CAs for short) and Certified Management Accountants (also based in Canada – CMAs for short) have recently entered into discussions to “explore the challenges facing the Canadian accounting profession and consider the best way to position the profession for their members for the future.”

While nothing has been decided, the proposal is to unite the Canadian Accounting Profession under a common banner – CPA.  While one my wonder if this matters to U.S. CPAs, I think it does for several reasons, a couple of which I will outline below.

The Canadian initiative would seem to support the supposition that the CPA is becoming Global – but which CPA?  With the Canadian entry there are at least three major flavors of CPA in the world –Certified Public Accountant (in the U.S.), Certified Practicing Accountant (in over 100 countries issued by CPA Australia) and now Chartered Professional Accountant in Canada.  While all three are supported by different professional organizations in different parts of the world, they do have a few things in common.  First, they are designations that cover both public and private professional accountants.  This is different than CA’s which are generally focused on the public (audit) side of the profession.  While having differing professional organizations puts the various forms of CPA in competition with each other, there is at least the common benefit of getting CPA recognized around the world as one of the, if not ultimately, the certification for professional accountants.

The second point is that for the doubters out there, the AICPA’s position that the Accounting Profession is going global is supported by this announcement.  One of the specific reasons given by CA and CMA for their proposal is to react to the emergence of global accounting designations.  Just as Ethics Rules, Accounting Standards and Auditing Standards are going global, so are the professional accounting designations.  CA and CMA believe their move is necessary to make sure the Canadian Accounting Profession maintains its influence at home and abroad.  That same logic applies to the U.S. CPA designation – although we at least have a starting point of being one united organization in the U.S. to begin with.

I hope our colleagues to the north are able to move forward with their plans.  I believe the accounting profession performs best when CPAs from both the public and private sides of the profession work together.