Arizona State Board of Accountancy

In Arizona, you must have a baccalaureate degree conferred from a regionally accredited college or university and at least 24 semester hours of accounting courses and 18 semester hours of related courses. The accounting and related course credit must be listed on the transcript from the school where you originally took the courses. If you have transcripts that show a combination of quarter hours and semester hours, you can convert the quarter hours to semester hours by dividing the quarter hours by 3 and multiplying by 2; e.g., a six (6) quarter-hour course divided by 3 and multiplied by 2 is equal to four (4) semester hours.

Please be sure you include the following items in your application packet (for assistance, follow the application process in the shaded portion below):

Print a copy of the Transcript Request and send to each college or university you attended to obtain your degree(s) and your required courses. The transcript(s) sent to you must remain in their sealed envelope(s), with degrees clearly listed. It would be helpful for you to request an additional copy for your records. Keep all application materials, including transcripts, together for submission to the Board in one package.

If you were educated outside the U.S., your transcripts must be evaluated course by course by Educational Credential Evaluators, Inc. You can contact them at www.ece.org. The evaluation by ECE must be submitted in an envelope sealed by ECE.

Submit one 2" x 2" passport-type head-and-shoulders photograph of yourself. The Board requests you submit one photo for each re-examination application as well. The photo must be current (preferably no older than 3 months), and your name should be printed legibly on the reverse side of each photograph.

Apply to the board of the state you took the exam in to get a copy of your grades. These must be submitted with your other information in an envelope sealed by the state board of that issuing state.

APPLICATION PROCESS

1. Submit Application & Pay Fee. The application deadline under the old paper-pencil format has been eliminated. You should only apply for the sections you anticipate taking during a six-month period. NASBA will bill you for all sections that you indicate on your application and will only issue an NTS for those sections after full payment is received from you.

First Time Candidates: Complete entire application packet (including transcripts & supplemental) along with Application form & submit with fee of $100. DO NOT submit exam section fees as those will be billed to you by NASBA.

Transfer Candidates: All transfer candidates (candidates who have taken the exam in another jurisdiction other than Arizona) must complete the entire application packet (see First Time Candidate info). The candidate is responsible for paying any fee associated with the transfer of grades from another jurisdiction and should contact the other jurisdiction to see if there is a fee to complete the form and return it to the Arizona State Board of Accountancy. The grades may be accepted by the Arizona Board in lieu of examination of subjects passed, provided the state has standards and requirements at least equivalent to the requirements of the Arizona State Board of Accountancy. The application process is approximately 45-60 days for first-time and transfer candidates.
Re-Exam Candidates: Candidates who last took the exam as an Arizona candidate will complete and submit the Application form along with the $50 fee. The applications for re-exam candidates are normally uplinked to NASBA within 24 hours of being received.
Candidates who have credit for passed sections: It is the candidate's responsibility to apply within an adequate amount of time prior to expiration of credit to ensure that they will be able to schedule a test date.

2. Board Approval. Once the application has been processed, the Arizona Board approves the candidate and submits the ATT (Authorization To Test) to NASBA. The ATT is valid for 90 days - if the candidate does not complete the payment for the ATT to NASBA within the 90 days, the ATT will expire and the candidate will need to re-apply with the Board.

3. NASBA sends a payment coupon (invoice) to the candidate for the testing fees. Candidates will be responsible to pay the testing fees to NASBA (90 days to pay NASBA) for each examination section for which they apply. On or after August 16, 2008, the fees for each section are as follows:

Auditing & Attestation: $226.28
Business Environment & Concepts $178.58
Financial Accounting & Reporting $214.35
Regulation $190.50

4. Candidate submits payment to NASBA prior to expiration of ATT (Authorization to Test).

5. NASBA receives payment from candidate.

6. NASBA issues NTS (Notification to Schedule) to candidate with 6-month expiration date. If the candidate fails to take all or any section of the exam listed on the NTS during the six months, those sections will expire with the NTS.

7. Candidate contacts Prometric to schedule testing. (visit Prometric to schedule)

8. Candidate takes exam. Exams are offered the first two months of every quarter (January-February, April-May, July-August, October-November). Grading is completed and scores are issued the third month of every quarter.

9. NASBA issues scores to Board, and Board forwards the scores to each candidate. In Arizona, these score reports are processed by USPS.