Should You Pass the CFE Before Starting PERT? (CPA Canada Practical Experience)
Obtaining the CPA designation in Canada is a challenging and often confusing process. A handful of interrelated requirements must be met by candidates to become eligible CPAs and it is easy to fall into the trap of being unsure which ones to prioritize or how to tackle the process.
The two main categories of requirements for the Canadian CPA designation fall under either the educational requirements referred to as PEP (Professional Education Program) which takes candidates through the various core, elective, and capstone modules, followed by the final examination, or the Practical Experience Requirements (PER), which are related to developing technical and enabling competencies through proficiency levels 0, 1, and 2, in order to achieve the required core, breadth, and depth, competencies.
Do You Need to Pass the CFE Before Starting PERT?
In other words, do candidates need to complete all the educational requirements described above before focusing on the practical experience requirements? The answer to this question is a resounding no.
Canadian CPA candidates can pursue both streams of requirements at the same time. In fact, the program is designed in such a way that the educational requirements (PEP) are assumed to be completed part-time while working full-time, ideally, obtaining relevant practical experience towards PER.
For candidates employed in jobs which will allow them to successfully achieve the practical experience requirements, reporting in PERT while moving through PEP is ideal. For those employed in positions which do not qualify towards CPA Canada’s PER, it may feel like it makes sense to take pass the CFE first and then focus on the experience requirements. While passing the CFE is valuable even without having the experience portion completed, it is recommended to always search for a position from which you will be able to achieve the required experience and competencies to satisfy PER requirements. It may seem challenging to pursue a job change while studying at the same time, but it may easily take several months to be able to land the position you need, therefore putting this off will only be doing a disservice to yourself as you begin your CPA career in Canada.
Ready to Begin Practical Experience Reporting (PERT)?
The experience reporting journey is lengthy and as mentioned above it is ideal for candidates to begin reporting as soon as possible, given that it is not uncommon to have reports rejected by the CPA experience reviewers. Particulary for candidates reporting under the Experience Verification Route (EVR), it is common for it to take well over 30 months to achieve the experience requirements. Fortunately, there are several resources in existence today which can help you navigate the experience reporting process, including the below guides offered through this website:
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