The Briefcase #56: CPA vs Chartered Accountant: What’s the Difference?

Americans do a lot of things differently. They say strange things like “asphalt” and “eggplant”, play something called football largely with their hands, and put gravy on biscuits instead of dipping them in tea.

They also have CPAs instead of chartered accountants. Well, kind of. CPA and chartered accountant are both prestigious professional accounting designations, and the people holding them often do very similar jobs. But they aren’t simply American and British names for the same qualification. The way accountants qualify, become professionally recognised, and maintain their status differs considerably between countries.

So, for this week’s Briefcase, we’re zooming over the Atlantic to find out what actually separates a CPA from a chartered accountant, and whether one really is the American version of the other.

What is a CPA?

CPA stands for “certified public accountant” and is the best-known professional accounting designation in the United States. A CPA isn’t simply someone who has completed an accounting qualification – it’s a professional licence, and licences are issued by individual US state and jurisdictional boards of accountancy.

This means there isn’t one set of requirements covering every CPA in America. Candidates generally need to pass the “Uniform CPA Examination”, but the precise requirements for becoming and remaining licensed depend on the jurisdiction.

Once qualified, CPAs work across a number of areas – including audit, tax, financial reporting, consulting, and corporate finance. Certain regulated activities can also require CPA licensure and additional requirements. But not every accountant in America is a CPA. You can work in accounting without holding a CPA licence.

What is a chartered accountant?

Unlike a CPA, a chartered accountant isn’t associated with just one country. You’ll find chartered accountants working across the UK and Ireland, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and many other parts of the world.

There isn’t, however, one global chartered accountant qualification. Different countries have their own professional bodies and qualification routes. In the UK and Ireland, these include the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, and Chartered Accountants Ireland. India has the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, South Africa has SAICA, while Australia and New Zealand share Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand. So, there are options!

You’ll also encounter other professional accountancy designations. Chartered certified accountants, who qualify through ACCA, work across the profession in areas ranging from practice and audit to industry and finance. There are also more specialised routes – CIPFA, for example, has a particular focus on public finance and public services. These are distinct professional qualifications rather than simply alternative names for chartered accountant.

So, CA isn’t one single worldwide qualification. If someone tells you they’re a chartered accountant, you may still need to ask which professional body they belong to. And then you’re bound to have a riveting conversation!

If you’re starting to think accountants have developed rather a lot of initials for themselves, wait until you see what happens when they put all of them after their names – it starts to read like some ancient curse.

Which is harder: CPA or chartered accountant?

There’s no particularly useful way of declaring a winner here, because the qualifications are structured very differently.

The US CPA exam has four 4-hour sections – three core sections and one chosen discipline – giving candidates 16 hours of examination in total. CPA licensure also involves education and professional experience requirements, which vary between US jurisdictions.

The ICAEW ACA, meanwhile, has fourteen exams across three levels, alongside professional skills and at least 450 days of professional work experience, typically completed as part of a three-to-five-year training agreement. ACCA has up to thirteen exams, depending on exemptions, and requires three years of relevant practical experience.

Four CPA exams aren’t necessarily easier than fourteen ACA exams simply because four is a smaller number. The same applies when people compare CPA vs ACCA: exam numbers alone don’t tell you which qualification is harder. So, if you’re trying to lord it over a cousin over the Atlantic, we’re not going to tell you who’s best.

Is a CPA or chartered accountant recognised internationally?

If you want to spend your career working in the fixins department at the biscuits-and-gravy factory in ole Mississip, the CPA is the obvious choice. If you’d rather work in a fish-and-chips factory in Scunthorpe, one of the established UK professional qualification routes will probably make more sense.

But what if you fancy swapping Arkansas or Accrington for Singapore, Sydney or Dubai? Well, you’re fresh out of luck. Only joking! There are pathways that can make moving between accounting systems easier, but qualifying under one system doesn’t automatically qualify you under another. This matters particularly for regulated work such as statutory audit, where having an impressive collection of letters after your name doesn’t necessarily give you the legal right to practise.

So, rather than asking which qualification is “better”, the more useful question might be, where could it take you?

Do CPAs and chartered accountants have CPD requirements?

Passing the exams isn’t the end of the story. Both CPAs and chartered accountants are expected to keep their knowledge up to date – although they don’t agree on what to call it or exactly how much you should do. In the UK, you’ll generally hear “continuing professional development” (CPD), whereas in the US, it’s usually “continuing professional education” (CPE). Either way, it’s continuing, and it’s professional.

For ICAEW members, annual CPD requirements range from 20 to 40 hours, depending on the type of work, with 10 to 30 hours verifiable. Members also complete at least one hour of ethics training and must keep evidence of their verifiable CPD, which ICAEW can check.

ACCA members following the unit route normally complete 40 units a year, generally equivalent to 40 hours, of which at least 21 must be verifiable. Members make an annual declaration and can be selected for a CPD review.

For American CPAs, CPE requirements vary by state. California generally requires 80 hours every two years, while New York uses annual requirements, including options of 24 hours in a concentrated subject or 40 hours across recognised subjects.

And since we’re AccountingCPD, not AccountingCPE, we can only assume that CPE is terribly dull and arduous, whereas CPD is an interactive, engaging step towards a new and improved career.

🧠 Final thoughts

CPA and chartered accountant may not be different names for the same thing, but they both signify that an accountant has reached a recognised professional standard.

Sometimes this means the King has granted you access to the Royal Calculator, or it might mean that Uncle Sam has blessed you with the power to crunch numbers. It’s all the same, really, but whichever route you choose, passing the exams doesn’t mean you’ve finished learning.

Our American friends might call it something weird, but loving CPD is something all accountants have in common.