CPA Certificate Program

The CPA program at Dallas College offers courses that satisfy the requirements to be eligible to take the CPA exam in Texas.

You must complete a bachelor’s degree before taking courses in the CPA program. Any CPA program courses that you take before you complete a bachelor’s degree will not count toward CPA exam eligibility. After you complete a bachelor’s degree, as a CPA program student, you will follow the same admissions procedures as all other students at Dallas College. There is no additional CPA program-specific application, and Accounting Department approval is not required.

Once you have applied for admission and have been accepted, you will be able to register for classes online.

Yes. Most of the courses are only offered online. A few courses will be offered both online and face to face during the same semester. Some will be offered online one semester and then face to face the following semester.

To be eligible to take the CPA exam in Texas, you must complete all of the following:

1. a bachelor’s degree (any major or discipline)
2. at least 150 semester hours
3. 30 semester hours of upper division accounting courses
4. 24 semester hours of upper division business courses
5. a TSBPA-approved ethics course (ACNT 1335 at Dallas College)
6. a TSBPA-approved accounting or tax research course (ACNT 1393 at Dallas College)
7. a TSBPA-approved business communications course (ACNT 2345 at Dallas College)

The following Dallas College courses have been approved by the TSBPA and will count toward the 30 hours of upper division accounting courses requirement:

• ACNT 1277 Taxation Procedures for Individuals (2 hours)
• ACNT 1278 Taxation Procedures for C Corps and S Corps (2 hours)
• ACNT 1279 Taxation Procedures for Estates and Trusts (2 hours)
• ACNT 1373 Financial Accounting Reporting Standards I (3 hours)
• ACNT 1374 Financial Accounting Reporting Standards II (3 hours)
• ACNT 1375 Forensic Financial Investigation (3 hours)
• ACNT 1393 Special Topics in Taxation (tax research course) (3 hours)
• ACNT 2330 Governmental and Not-for-Profit Accounting (3 hours)
• ACNT 2332 Accounting Information Systems (3 hours)
• ACNT 2336 Financial Statement Analysis (3 hours)
• ACNT 2378 Financial Statement Auditing Theory (3 hours)

ACNT 1393 Special Topics in Taxation will satisfy the accounting/tax research course requirement and will count toward the 30-hour upper division accounting course requirement.

ACNT 1335 Accounting Ethics will satisfy the ethics course requirement. This is not an accounting course and does not count toward the 30-hour upper division accounting course requirement.

ACNT 2345 Technical Writing for Accountants will satisfy the business communications course requirement. This course will also count toward the 24-hour business course requirement.

The following Dallas College courses have been approved by the TSBPA and will count toward the 24 hours of upper division business courses requirement:

• ACNT 2345 Technical Writing for Accountants (also satisfies the business communications course requirement)
• BMGT 1327 Principles of Management
• BUSI 1307 Personal Finance
• ECON 2301 Principles of Economics I
• ECON 2302 Principles of Economics II
• HRPO 2301 Human Resources Management
• MATH 1342 Intro to Statistics
• MRKG 1311 Principles of Marketing

Yes. Any of the TSBPA-approved accounting or business courses offered at Dallas College will count toward the 150-hour requirement. However, the TSBPA will not accept repeated courses, so do not take a course at Dallas College that is the same as or similar to a course that you have already completed (i.e., course equivalent).

ACNT 1277 will usually be considered a course equivalent to any junior or senior level tax course in individual taxation and is often named Principles of Federal Taxation or Fundamentals of Taxation or similar at other colleges and universities. ACNT 1373 and 1374 will usually be considered course equivalents to junior level financial accounting courses often named Intermediate Accounting I and II or Financial Accounting I and II or Intermediate Financial Accounting I and II or similar at other colleges and universities. ACNT 2378 would be an equivalent to any other upper division auditing course at other colleges and universities. Course equivalents should be confirmed with the TSBPA to avoid repeating courses.

Complete and submit an Application of Intent to the TSBPA. They will review your transcripts and then send you a letter that identifies which CPA exam eligibility requirements have been satisfied and which have not. You can use the results of this transcript review to determine which courses you need to take to satisfy the remaining CPA exam eligibility requirements.

If you complete 30 hours of upper division accounting courses, a three-hour TSBPA-approved business communications course (ACNT 2345) and a three-hour TSBPA-approved ethics course (ACNT 1335), you will be eligible to receive the Advanced Technical Certificate in Professional Accountancy. You may take all 36 hours at Dallas College or transfer up to 27 hours and earn the certificate so long as at least nine of the 36 hours (or 25%) are taken at Dallas College. If you take only one or two TSBPA-approved courses at Dallas College, you will not be eligible for the advanced certificate, but the completed courses will still count toward CPA exam eligibility.