Wyoming requires 150 college credit hours to take the CPA exam and be eligible for licensure. This is the new standard educational requirement that most states are adopting along with a bachelor’s degree and a work experience program.
WY also mandates that candidates must be residents, regularly employed in the state, or a graduate of U of W in order to sit for the exam. Keep this in mind, if you are an out-of-state-student.
Let’s take a look at what you need to do to take the exam and get licensed.
Wyoming CPA Exam Requirements
Contents
In order to be eligible to sit for the exam in Wyoming, candidates must meet the following personal qualifications and educational requirements.
- Must be at least 18 years old
- Not Required to be a US citizen
- Must be a WY resident
- Valid Social Security Number Required
- WY does participate in the International Examination Program
Educational Requirements to Sit
Since Wyoming doesn’t allow students to take the exam before graduation, you must complete a bachelor’s degree including at least 150 credit hours before you will be eligible to sit for the exam. Here is what you need:
Bachelor’s Degree or higher (at least 150 semester hours) including:
- 24 hours of Accounting courses
- 24 hours of General business courses
Wyoming only accepts college courses that are taken at an accredited university. If you are going to college in Wyoming, the only college that the state board accepts coursework from is the University of Wyoming. You can however take courses at schools out of state as long as they are accredited.
It’s important the check with the state board to verify your college credits apply to the CPA requirements before you apply to take the CPA exam. Otherwise, your courses may not get accepted and you may have to take additional courses to meet the minimum credit hour requirement.
Exam Fees
The total cost to take the CPA exam in Wyoming is $853.08 including an initial one-time $110 application fee. The cost for each section is listed below.
| AUD – Audit | $195.35 |
| FAR – Financial Accounting and Reporting | $195.35 |
| BEC – Business Environment and Concepts | $176.25 |
| REG – Regulation | $176.25 |
Each CPA exam section varies based the on the length of the exam section with FAR and AUD being the longest and most expensive.
CPA Tip – I know you are excited to register, but don’t sign up for all four sections at once. This will end up costing you more down the road because your notice to sit will expire in 6 months if you don’t take the exam.
This means you will have to re-register and pay an additional registration fee. Re-registration application fees are $50, so only sign up for the exams that you are ready to sit for in the next 6 months.
CPA License Requirements
The CPA exam application process is complicated especially for initial applicants. Don’t get discouraged; you can do it! Your application is the first step in becoming a Certified Public Accountant in WY.
It will be over soon. We’ve all have been there; it’s kind of a right of passage. After you pass the exam, here are the things you need to do before you can legally call yourself a CPA.
Pass the Exam
You’ll have to pass all four sections of the exam with a score of at least 75 in an 18-month period.
Paperwork
Submit all the required paperwork to the state board usually includes transcripts, license application, and proof of work experience.
Fees
Pay the license/certification fees with your application.
Ethics Exam
Take and pass the AICPA Professional Ethics exam. This self-paced exam is available on the AICPA website along with a CPA exam learning guide. The ethics exam is an open-book test that you take online, but you do have to score at least 90% in order to pass it.
You also only have three chances to pass it. Otherwise, you will need to pay an additional registration fee and take it in-person at a local Prometric testing center.
Additional Education
Since you already completed your 150 credit hours before you took the exam, you don’t need any more college classes.
After you’ve completed each of these CPA license requirements, you will need to finish your CPA work experience.
Work Experience Requirements
Wyoming 1-year work experience program is pretty standard among most states. Here are the details.
1-year or 2,000 hours of general accounting or auditing skills in Public Accounting, Academia, or Private Industry verified by an active CPA.
More Wyoming CPA Exam Resources
Your first application is kind of intimidating particularly if you attended more than one school. The Wyoming State Board of Accounting will need copies of transcripts from each college you’ve attended.
This is the main reason why I recommend calling the state during your application process. They will let you know what they have on file and what they need before your application can be accepted. Nothing is worse than finding out you overlooked something at the end of the process.
State boards rarely notify you that something is missing. Sometimes mail gets lost. It happens. Unfortunately, I know this firsthand. One of my college transcripts got lost in the mail. I had to send them twice! It was a huge pain. Not to mention, it added two weeks on the process.
Directly contacting the board is the best way to make sure they have everything they need before you get too far along in your application.
Here is the contact info for the state board.
