Kansas

Residency

You must meet the Kansas residency requirement to be eligible for the examination as a candidate of Kansas. This requirement applies to all first-time and re-examination candidates. To meet the residency requirement you must meet one of the following:

• physically live in Kansas;
• have a place of business in Kansas as a public accountant;
• be employed full-time by a public accounting firm in Kansas; or
• be on military assignment in Kansas.

You are required to notify the Board within 30 days of a change of address. Please see the Change of Address form under “Forms” in the upper right-hand corner of this page. Regardless of whether or not you have a valid NTS, you are still required to notify the Board of a change of address.

With each application, you must submit documentation to support your Kansas resident status. Your application is incomplete until we receive this documentation. You will not receive your Notice to Schedule (NTS) until your application is complete. Acceptable documentation consists of:

• If you live in Kansas, you must submit: (1) a copy of your valid driver’s license; and (2) a copy of a billing statement or mortgage or lease agreement reflecting your address in Kansas.
• If you have a place of business in Kansas as a public accountant, you must submit proof of ownership of the business.
• If you are employed by a public accounting firm in Kansas, you must submit a letter from your employer stating that you are permanently and currently employed.
• If you are on military assignment in Kansas, you must submit a copy of your military orders.

Eligibility for Examination

To be eligible to take the Examination as a first-time candidate, you must:

Hold a baccalaureate or a baccalaureate and higher level degree from a college or university approved by the Board and 150 semester hours (225 quarter hours) with a concentration in accounting as outlined below:

• At least 42 semester hours (63 quarter hours) in business and general education courses including the following:
  • A macroeconomics course, a microeconomics course, and one upper-division economics course
  • At least two courses in legal aspects of business or business law
  • college algebra or higher-level math course
  • statistics and probability theory
  • information systems and applications course, which shall be equivalent to at least a 200-level course
  • finance
  • management and administration
  • marketing
  • production, operations research, or applications of quantitative
    techniques to business problems
• at least 11 semester hours (16.5 quarter hours) in written and oral communications
• at least 30 semester hours(45 quarter hours) in courses in accounting theory and practice, including the following:
  • financial accounting and reporting for business organizations, which may include:
    • intermediate accounting
    • advanced accounting, or
    • accounting theory
  • managerial accounting beyond an introductory course
  • auditing course concentrationg on auditing standards generally accepted in the U.S. as issued by the AICPA auditing
    standards board or the PCAOB or both
  • U.S. Income Taxation
  • accounting systems beyond an introductory computer course

NOTE: Commencing January 1, 2024 for all initial examination applicants, a course in data analytics for business or accounting, which shall be equivalent to at least a 200-level course.

Not to exceed a total of six hours, up to three hours of course requirements in each of the three categories listed above may be waived by the Board, but only if the applicant has met the 150 hour education requirement and can provide satisfactory verification that he or she has otherwise met the course requirement. NOTE: A waiver is an exception, not the rule, so any request for a waiver will be considered on a very narrow basis and must be for good cause. Please see the Board’s position paper on waivers for additional information.

Kansas CPA Exam applicants may sit for the Exam up to 60 days before meeting the education requirements. The applicant will be required to submit final transcripts and any documents verifying completion of the education requirements to CPA Examination Services within 120 days after the applicant has taken the first section of the Exam. Failure to provide the required documentation within 120 days may result in the applicant’s scores being voided, subject to notice and an opportunity for a hearing before the Board.

In conjunction with your application for the Uniform CPA Examination, and in addition to a current official transcript, a Certificate of Enrollment must be submitted.

Transcripts

If you who have completed the educational requirement at the time of application:

• You must submit an official transcript from each school you attended. Transfer credits are not acceptable; you must submit a transcript from each institution.
• Official transcripts are those that have been issued by the institution’s Registrar’s Office and include the Registrar’s official seal.
• The degree you have earned must be posted on your official transcript.
• Transcripts may be submitted electronically provided they are official. Some schools do not offer this service. Contact your Registrar’s office for additional information. If an email address is required for electronic delivery, use [email protected]. Electronically delivered transcripts must be submitted directly from the institution(s).
• Photocopies of transcripts are not official and cannot be accepted.
• Please Note: If you have not yet applied when you submit your transcripts, your education documents will be kept on file for one year. After that time, the documents will be destroyed, and you will need to resubmit new education documents when you apply.
• If you completed courses at a campus located outside the U.S. for a school located in the U.S., the official transcript must be issued by the registrar from the U.S. campus. Transcripts issued by the registrar for the campus located outside the U.S. will not be accepted.

If you have earned education credentials outside the U.S., you must:

• Have your credentials evaluated by NASBA International Evaluation Services,
• Require the agency to evaluate as follows:
  • An equivalency summary that indicates the analogous academic degrees in the U.S. you hold;
  • A credential analysis that specifies:
    • The name of the country;
    • The degree awarded;
    • The year the degree was awarded; and
    • The entity that awarded the degree;
  • A course-by-course listing; and
  • A course credit analysis that includes:
    • Total credits earned toward the degree as stated on transcripts submitted;
    • Total accounting credits earned; and
    • Total business credits earned.
• Completed original evaluations must be received by CPAES directly from the evaluation service at the time of application. Photocopies are not acceptable.
• A copy of the international transcript must be included with the report sent to NASBA for each individual evaluation from the evaluation service. The application will be considered incomplete without these documents and the processing of the application will not move forward until transcripts are provided.
• Please Note: If you have not yet applied, education documents received will be kept on file for one year. After that time, these documents will be destroyed, and you will need to resubmit new education documents at the time of application.
• If you completed courses at a campus located outside the U.S. for a school located in the U.S., the official transcript must be issued by the registrar from the U.S. campus. Transcripts issued by the registrar for the campus located outside the U.S. will not be accepted.
• Education requirements must be met through academic coursework completed at an accredited institution. Professional training is not acceptable toward these requirements. Coursework completed as part of a Chartered Accountant or similar program is considered professional training and is, therefore, not accepted toward the education requirements for the U.S. Uniform CPA Examination.

Course Requirements

• Correspondence, CLEP, CPA Review, online courses and credits earned pass/fail may be acceptable when you receive credit for the courses at a regionally accredited U.S. university. These courses must appear on an official transcript, require Board review and may be limited to six semester hours.
• Courses earned at a community college or two-year degree granting institution are acceptable.
• Developmental and remedial courses are NOT college level and cannot be counted.
• Credit for courses taken for pass-fail credit shall be accepted by the board for purposes of determining compliance with subsection (a) and shall be limited to a total of six semester hours, unless the applicant demonstrates to the satisfaction of the board that the awarded grade of “pass” is equivalent to a 3.0 grade point on a grading scale of 0.0 to 4.0.

1. An official transcript from each school listed on your application. Transcripts must be sent directly from your school to CPA Examination Services.
2. Photograph Form with a 2×2 photograph taken within the last three months, showing your head and shoulders only. Submission by you to CPAES.
3. International Evaluation, if applicable.
4. Testing Accommodations Request Form, if applicable. Submission by you to CPAES.
5. A signed copy of the Kansas Board of Accountancy Cheating Policy. Submission by you to CPAES.
6. If you have had a pre-evaluation completed by the Kansas Board of Accountancy, you must submit a copy of the results letter.
7. You must submit documentation to support your Kansas resident status. Acceptable documentation consists of:
   1. If you live in Kansas, you must submit: (1) a copy of your valid driver’s license; and (2) a copy of a billing statement or mortgage or lease agreement reflecting your address in Kansas.
   2. If you have a place of business in Kansas as a public accountant, you must submit proof of ownership of the business.
   3. If you are employed by a public accounting firm in Kansas, you must submit a letter from your employer stating that you are permanently and currently employed.
   4. If you are on military assignment in Kansas, you must submit a copy of your military orders.

Please allow two to four weeks from your file completion date (when application, fees and all additional required materials have been received) for your application to be processed. Acknowledgment of receipt of application will be sent to you via email, unless otherwise indicated. This notice is sent only as acknowledgment of receipt of application.

Applicants with Disabilities

In accordance with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, examination administration accommodations are available, should you qualify. Please download the Testing Accommodations Request Form for more information.

Education Evaluation Application

Before you can apply for an exam section you must first be deemed eligible for the CPA Exam. Your Evaluation Application will determine if you meet the educational requirements needed to take the CPA Exam for your selected jurisdiction.

Education Evaluation Application Fee: $90.00

Exam Section Application

Once you have been found eligible for the CPA Exam you may then apply for a specific exam section. You can only apply for one exam section per application. You are advised to only apply for the exam section if you are ready to take it. Your Notice to Schedule will be valid for a limited amount of time, and you must take the exam section listed on the NTS within this time frame or you will lose those fees paid.

Exam Section Application Fee: $344.80

Refund Policy

There is no provision for withdrawing from the examination and/or requesting an extension of your current Notices to Schedule (NTS). Application and/or examination fees are not refundable. If you have an extreme circumstance, you may request an NTS extension or a partial refund of your examination fees under specific circumstances utilizing the Exception to Policy Form.

You may take the required test sections individually and in any order, but are required to pass all four sections of the examination within a rolling 18 month period, which begins on the date the first examination section passed was taken.

Credit for any section passed shall be valid for 18 months from the actual date the examination sections were taken. Examination credit expires by section. You will lose credit for each section passed outside the 18 month period, and will have to retake those sections.

Transfer of Examination Credit

If you wish to transfer credit from another jurisdiction into Kansas, you must have earned the credit under the same rules that are in effect in Kansas. If you have passed two or more sections of the CPA examination under another jurisdiction, you shall be given conditional credit by this Board, provided you have established residence in Kansas and are still eligible to be considered a re-examination candidate in the original state where credit was earned.

For more information on extension instructions, please click here.