1.The types of examinations are different, intermediate accountants are level evaluation exams, and certified public accountants are admission exams;
2.The application requirements are different, intermediate accountants need to meet the two requirements of academic qualifications and working years at the same time, and certified public accountants can apply for the examination if they meet the academic requirements;
3.The examination subjects are different, the intermediate accountant examination contains 3 subjects, while the certified public accountant includes the professional stage and the comprehensive stage, and a total of 8 subjects need to be examined;
4.Intermediate accountants focus on corporate financial management, policies and regulations, and certified public accountants focus on cultivating high-end comprehensive talents.
What are the exam types for Intermediate Accountant and CPA?
As mentioned above, Intermediate Accounting is a proficiency evaluation exam, and CPA is an admission exam, so what is the difference between the two? Let's take a look.
Proficiency Assessment:It is the responsibility of the competent departments or associations in various industries, and there are certain requirements for work experience and academic qualifications when applying for the examination. Generally speaking, the proficiency evaluation examination will be divided into three different levels of professional titles: elementary, intermediate and high, so the intermediate accountant also has the "intermediate accounting title".
Entrance Exams:The examination is organized by the state, and the candidates who register need to meet the requirements of work experience and academic qualifications, and have passed the qualification review. There is no clear grade division in the entrance examination, and there is a specific job matching, that is, the minimum skill standard or job conditions that a worker must meet to perform a certain position. For example, a person who has the right to sign in an accounting firm must be a certified public accountant and have a practice qualification.
Comparison of the application requirements of intermediate accountants and certified public accountants
At the same time, the application requirements for intermediate accountants and certified public accountants are also different. Comparatively speaking, intermediate accountants have higher requirements for candidates, while CPAs apply for more people.
Intermediate Accountant and Certified Public Accountant Examination Subjects
There are three subjects in the Intermediate Accountant Examination, namely Intermediate Accounting Practice, Financial Management, and Economic Law.
The CPA exam is divided into a professional stage and a comprehensive stage. The professional stage includes "Accounting", "Auditing", "Financial Cost Management", "Tax Law", "Economic Law", "Corporate Strategy and Risk Management"; The comprehensive stage includes "Synthesis" (1) and "Synthesis" (2).
It is obvious that the CPA exam subjects are much larger than those of intermediate accountants, so the certification cycle of CPA candidates is also much larger than that of intermediate accounting candidates.
Comparative analysis of the difficulty of intermediate accountant and certified public accountant examinations
In terms of the difficulty of the exam, CPAs are generally larger than intermediate accountants.
First, there are many subjects in the CPA exam and the preparation period is long, even in the case of customs clearance, the vast majority of candidates need to spend 2-4 years to obtain the certificate, and long-term preparation for the exam is a large consumption of time and experience.
Second, the scope of CPA is much larger than that of intermediate accountants, which can also be seen from the training objectives of the examination. The Intermediate Accountant Examination is to cultivate financial management talents for enterprises, and also to improve the professional level of grassroots financial personnel; The starting point of the CPA examination is to select high-end accounting talents who can control the economic business of listed projects and large multinational enterprises. As a result, the CPA exam will cover a wider range.
It is true that the above two certificates have their own advantages in different work environments. If it is a financial personnel of an enterprise, especially a financial person in a state-owned enterprise or a system, the intermediate accountant can have a greater advantage in the promotion evaluation; If you are in urgent need of changing careers, or want to enter an accounting firm or the financial industry, then it will undoubtedly be more advantageous to obtain a certified public accountant certificate.