Effective immediately, newly credentialed New Jersey CPAs will have to attend an orientation program within six months of qualifying as a CPA.Thanks to a bill signed last week by acting New Jersey Gov. Richard Codey, the state Board of Accountancy will now get to work determining what exactly that program curriculum will include. Ralph Albert Thomas, executive director of the New Jersey Society of CPAs, which supported the bill, told a local newspaper that at minimum, the program will contain a course on New Jersey law and ethics.
CPAs in the state are already subject to completing 120 hours of continuing education within their first three years of qualifying for the credential. Although that program contains courses on record-retention policies, the fees levied on CPAs, disciplinary issues and other topics, the New Jersey society felt that a CPA should receive ethics and law instruction sooner.
The full text of the bill is available online, at
