Do you need a CPA to be the senior Finance Officer in a startup or director+ in Finance role in industry? It seems like everyone in Senior position at my company is MBA (not CPA) and more attune to “business partnering” than accounting and finance. Seems like a new trend in the last 15 years. Are there industries or companies where CPA accreditation and experience is valued over MBA?
Not that I know of. I’d think the CFA would be better if doing one.
That degree has been replaced by excel.
I used to say that you could replace data science with TI-83. Jokingly, of course
Why would you need to be a CPA?
Especially to be a Finance director..
Or just an accountant/auditor
Probably not at a start up, but should the company go public I just don’t see how it’d be possible to do things correctly without someone with a public accounting background unless they came up with the company and gained the experience needed live. The outsourcing of drafting the Qs and Ks would be insanely expensive.
I’ve never seen a company where the CFO is drafting SEC docs. Typically they have Accounting and Financial Reporting functions to rely on for these..
Yeah for sure. In fact now that I’m thinking about it I haven’t seen a CPA CFO in a long time. Usually there is a CAO to handle all of the GAAP/SEC compliance crap and even then they will have a team of controller(s), financial reporting directors and managers, etc. In short, yeah I take it back.
Audit
If you're director of accounting, yes. For a CFO, it's not necessary.
Less than 40% of CFOs have their CPAs license and the number is decreasing YoY. Your state CPA association and AICPA will try and tell you otherwise, but the trends are moving away from the CPA license. See the WSJ article: https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/companies-appointing-fewer-finance-chiefs-with-accounting-skills-11580293801
Directors and VPs of Finance at most enterprise companies only deals with a fraction of their time on accounting. There are treasury functions, order-to-cash, and AR. If you want to stand out focus on the future of autonomous finance as the world is shifting past ERPs and excel sheets. This is a great time to get familiar with the emerging technologies as they will supercharge your career and impact.
What is "autonomous finance"?
It’s about getting the right person for the job not having the appropriate certificate...
Depends on the company but newer companies have stopped caring
Yes. There’s still a shortage of strategic CFOs who shape where/why the company invests.