Instructions
Professional Resources and Certifications Report
Overview
Many students who major in accounting seek to be certified as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). You already identified accounting professionals who are CPAs when you located the firm that audited the financial reports of your assigned SEC company. Most large public companies are audited by the 4 largest audit firms in the world. They are:
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
Deloitte and Touche (D&T)
KPMG
Ernst and Young (E&Y)
Only CPA firms can audit the financial statements of publicly traded accounting firms.
Why get certified? In accounting and related fields, there are several certifications in the accounting profession beyond the CPA available. Here are three certifications commonly sought by accounting professionals who do not want to be CPAs.
Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) – Certifying body is the Institute of Internal Auditors
https://na.theiia.org/certification/CIA-Certification/Pages/CIA-Certification.aspx
CIA Certification requirements:
https://na.theiia.org/certification/CIA-Certification/Pages/Eligibility-Requirements.aspx
2. Certified Management Accountant (CMA) – Certifying body is the Institute of Management Accountants
https://www.imanet.org/?ssopc=1
CMA Certification requirements:
https://www.imanet.org/cma-certification/getting-started?ssopc=1
3. Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) – Certifying body is the Association of Fraud Examiners
https://www.acfe.com/
CFE Certification requirements:
https://www.acfe.com/cfe-qualifications.aspx
Requirements:
Choose one of the three certifications. Then, answer the following questions.
(a) What do professionals with this certification do?
(b) What did you find their primary function to be?
(a) what are the educational and work experience requirements to be certified (see the second link) besides passing the exam?
(b) What are the continuing education requirements after you are certified?
How could professionals with this certification be used in your organization or the SEC company you were assigned to study? If you use your employer, say who that is and explain what the organization is if necessary. You do not need to cite a source for this. Just tell me what you think is correct! However, if you find a source that answers this question, you should cite it.
Report Submission Requirements
Use the websites provided to create a report of at least one paragraph to answer each of the three questions.
The goal is to research, consider, and report on what you learned about these topics.
Report Layout
Always include your name and a descriptive title in the file name.
Create, save, and submit a Microsoft Word document that covers the questions listed and consists of at least one paragraph each for each question.
Include a title page and a reference page.
Your report should be single-spaced, with double spacing between paragraphs.
Use headers within the document. You can copy and paste the questions as your headers.
Spell check. Write, read, and edit. Take care with word selection and sentence structure.
Use APA style for citations and create a References page. Include website references.
Similar to all submissions for this class, use your own words.
