Students Andrew Knapman CPA Program

How much does it cost to take the CPA program in Canada?

You want to be a chartered professional accountant. How much will it cost?

Author: Andrew Knapman

Editor's Note, 2021: Since the writing of this column in 2018, costs have risen in CPA PEP. 

VANCOUVER, November 26, 2018 – How much does it cost to become a chartered professional accountant? Or, to be more specific, how much does it cost to take the CPA professional education program in Canada? 

A lot of people who want to be CPAs don’t know how much CPA PEP will cost or how long it takes. The provincial accounting bodies don’t do a great job of explaining the big picture. Instead they break down the cost by course and you’re left trying to piece it all together. 

Andrew Knapman
Andrew Knapman, student in the CPA professional education program.

To spare you any surprises, I’ve done the work for you, and calculated the cost and time needed to go from the very beginning to the very end of the CPA program. I’ve used the following assumptions when preparing my analysis: 

  1. Costs are based on the 2018/19 CPA Western School of Business (CPAWSB) fee schedule. Costs in other regions will differ, albeit slightly, so check your region’s fees.
  2. You are starting with zero credits and have to do every PREP and PEP course.
  3. You work full-time while studying for the entirety of the program.
  4. You pass every module on the first attempt.
  5. You do not take any breaks between studying, other than breaks that are enforced due to CPA scheduling.
  6. You do not incur any fees other than the course fees, the membership dues and initial registration fees, all of which are mandatory. 

Having gone through the program and written the Common Final Examination (CFE), I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp of how much it costs to become a CPA. Many students in the program don’t know, for example, that taking the CFE is not free — it currently costs $1500 — or that there are three mandatory continuing professional development courses at the end of the process, each at a current cost of $275. 

I’ve included those costs in my table, below: 

CPA Program Table

CPA Preparatory Courses (CPA PREP)

For PREP, the order of modules taken is much more flexible than PEP, so you can move these around as you please (most courses have pre-requisites of some sort though; for example, you can’t take advanced financial reporting before intermediate). 

Since the assumption is that you are working full-time, all core modules should be taken in isolation as these demand 20+ hours of study per week. As such, I do not recommend taking more than one core module at a time if working full-time, but you could feasibly take two non-core modules (as I’ve assumed) or one core module and one non-core module if you are really trying to speed up the process. 

All-in, if you have to do PREP from scratch with no credits to begin, you’re looking at three years of study and around $10,500. 

CPA Professional Education Program (CPA PEP)

Your PEP journey could have started in semester four of year three, but since Capstone 1 is only offered in semester two, you have to take a two-semester break at some point, so I separated these at the beginning and end of PEP’s core/elective modules. 

Note that this enforced break would be wiped out completely if you began studying PREP in semester three of year one, finished it by semester one of year four, moved straight into PEP by semester two (year four) and finally began Capstone 1 in semester two of year five. It all depends on your timing. Again, to save time, you could technically study the core/elective modules simultaneously (known as fast tracking), but if you are working full-time this would be almost impossible. 

Assuming you don’t fast track, PEP is going to take another two years or so and, due to the large increase in course/membership fees, this is actually going to cost a little more than PREP, at just under $12,500. 

Continuing Professional Development

Before you can become a CPA you are required to also take three professional development courses, usually after you have sat the CFE. You can take these before getting your CFE mark though, usually in semester four, which is also when the CFE results are given out. 

Conclusion

Based on the assumptions made, the full CPA PREP and PEP journey is going to take just under five years and cost around $23,000. This is pretty accurate with my experience, having started PREP in January 2013 and sitting the CFE in September 2018. If you’re only doing PEP, it’ll be at least two years and cost $12,500. 

I am not sure if this will discourage you. I hope not. But at least you have all the information now to make an informed decision as to whether or not to start this journey. The good news is, once you are a CPA, the payback period should be short, potentially just a couple of years. Being a CPA vs. a non-CPA can result in a significant difference in income for the remainder of your working career. 

I will conclude with this. I’ve been a student in the CPA program for five years now and I honestly have no idea where the time went. Now that I am near the finishing line, I am definitely glad I started the journey and stuck with it, and I look forward to where the CPA designation will take me in my career for the next few decades. 

Note: The table does not consider the time taken to obtain the necessary work experience to become a CPA. This equates to 2.5 years of relevant experience, which is longer than PEP takes. As such, students that go straight into PEP usually require more time and thus more membership dues to become a CPA. Due to the fact I went through PREP first, I accumulated all the necessary experience before finishing the CFE.

Andrew Knapman lives in Vancouver, B.C. and is a student in the CPA Professional Education Program through CPA BC. The views expressed in this guest blog are his own. Connect with Andrew through his LinkedIn profile and follow him on his journey to becoming a Chartered Professional Accountant through future blog postings on Canadian Accountant.

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(17) Comments

Kelly Bonds
Kelly Bonds Dec 16, 2018 -- 7:26 AM
Don’t forget, you are probably seeing income and career benefits already just by pursuing a CPA designation.
Reply
Andrew Knapman
Andrew Knapman Dec 17, 2018 -- 1:16 PM
Very true Kelly! Many employers specifically recruit CPA candidates as they have already shown capability just by progressing through the courses. Some employers will even help cover the cost of the program.
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Gunner
Gunner Dec 30, 2021 -- 2:31 PM
Yes, fantastic opportunities await you. In most large Canadian corporations CPAs are among the lowest paid employees who work the most hours.
Before you jump at my throat, I worked for a Corp as a senior accountant and my boss, the corporate comptroller, made $90k whereas our tradespeople all made over $140k. Even our "rock truck" drivers made $90k.
But most accountants are too close minded to even realize how much trades and equipment operators earn.
Same goes for the company I work for now. We designated accountants earn decent money but our boiler mechanics and power engineers make $50k a year more, not considering overtime.
Reply
Park Sado
Park Sado Jan 8, 2019 -- 8:54 PM
Thank you so much Sir for useful information. I have a question here. If I take both CPA PREP AND PEP as an international student can I work full time? (Or part time?)

Thank you in advance
Reply
Andrew Knapman
Andrew Knapman Jan 23, 2019 -- 6:38 PM
Yep! Almost everybody studying the CPA is working either part-time or full-time while doing so.
Reply
Park Sado
Park Sado Feb 19, 2019 -- 1:29 AM
Thank you so much
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Jasvir Singh
Jasvir Singh Mar 6, 2019 -- 3:18 AM
Sir, can you explain whether any exemptions will be available to a student who has completed 90 credit hours of education in accounting majors from India and 30 credit hours of education from Canada as a diploma or that student will have to start from CPA Prep?
Reply
Andrew Knapman
Andrew Knapman Apr 4, 2019 -- 5:16 PM
Hi Jasvir,

It's hard to say what your previous education will be worth in terms of exemptions, however I am quite sure you will need to start in PREP since it sounds like your education is lacking the pre-requisites for the PEP program.

My advice is to contact CPA BC and ask for a transcript assessment. They will then tell you where to begin on the CPA journey.

Good Luck!

Andrew
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Mark Grisnich
Mark Grisnich Jul 11, 2019 -- 6:25 PM
Hey, quick question from Alberta here. I was looking at the Master of Accounting (MAcc) program offered by the U of A which comes to about $37,000 - $38,000 CAD. I was surprised by how apparently high this was, so I researched how much doing the CPA and all associated things would cost if I didn't do it through an educational institution like the U of A, and found your very helpful posting!
Do you know why someone would choose to go through a university rather than to take the courses directly from CPA WSB? Why would it cost so much more? Does the CPA WSB even have physical buildings that students take classes in? I've been confused about that since college!
Thanks!
Mark
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Anonymous
Anonymous Aug 23, 2019 -- 3:48 PM
Hey there, fellow CPA students in Alberta. Peeps who undergo the MAcc usually do so thinking they'll end up teaching / going back later on for further education. In terms of actual content difference between the CPA PEP and the MAcc it boils down to about 2 extra "classes" to be completed in order to receive the MAcc. As for the MAcc value itself, you won't see much, or most times, any benefits from having it versus not having it as employers do not pay more for the Master of Accountancy as it doesn't really provide any added value to an employee's skill set.
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Abhishek
Abhishek Oct 13, 2019 -- 5:38 AM
Hi after CPA prep course, do we get job opportunity
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Prakash
Prakash Nov 7, 2019 -- 9:26 PM
Hey Andrew, I am a qualified ACCA Member. How much does it cost to become a Canadian CPA including all costs? Thank you in advance.
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Jawad Sadik
Jawad Sadik Apr 28, 2020 -- 10:31 AM
Can i cover this cost and living cost by doing part time work as i am from another country
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Tyler
Tyler Jul 19, 2021 -- 3:45 PM
Good luck finding part time work that pays well enough for that. I personally would not expect such
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Simar
Simar May 30, 2020 -- 5:19 AM
Hi Andrew I want to ask you the first step to start CPA journey
Reply
Tyler
Tyler Jul 19, 2021 -- 3:48 PM
Alas, your hopes were for not. I was just informed by a recruiter about CPA designation (I currently am looking for bookkeeping without any relevant education), so went looking for costs and ended up here. Currently in Alberta under the Kenney administration so I'd bet prices are significantly higher, but even if they weren't, 23k$ is far out of my feasible budget, and 5 years is probably too large of a commitment for me as well.
Reply
Udayanan Gunananthan
Udayanan Gunananthan Dec 18, 2024 -- 3:54 PM
Can we study CPA through OSAP ?
Reply