A CPA job description is mostly a list of work that does not require the license. A short set of lines does require it, and those lines are the only reason the word required belongs anywhere on the page.
The model accountancy law the AICPA and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy publish for states to adopt reserves a short list of acts to licensees, and that list is narrower than most duty lists assume. Sort your duties against that restriction, and the rest of the document follows from it: the job title you print, the license language you carry, and the required-versus-preferred call you make at the top of the page.
What a CPA Job Description Can Reserve, and What It Cannot
One restriction does almost all of the work, and it reaches two things: issuing a report on financial statements, and rendering an attest or compilation service at all.
Only licensees and individuals who have practice privileges may issue a report on financial statements of any person, firm, organization, or governmental unit, or offer to render or render any attest or compilation service, under Section 14(a) of the ninth edition of the Uniform Accountancy Act. A practice privilege is the authorization that lets a licensee of one state practice in another, and how a jurisdiction decides who has one is set out in the offshore credential guide.
The same subsection then says what it does not reach. It does not prohibit the performance by any non-licensee of other services involving the use of accounting skills, including the preparation of tax returns, management advisory services, and the preparation of financial statements without the issuance of reports thereon, and non-licensees may prepare financial statements and issue non-attest transmittals that do not purport to be in compliance with the Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (Uniform Accountancy Act, Section 14(a)).
Read what the restriction attaches to, because that is the part a duty list gets wrong. The Act's own comment on its definition of report says the audit function is defined, not in terms of the work actually done, but rather in terms of the issuance of an opinion or a report (Uniform Accountancy Act, Section 3(s)). Attest itself is a closed list of five named services, defined at Section 3(b) of the same Act and worked through in the growth discussion.
Which Lines on a CPA Job Description Turn Preferred Into Required
The model is not the law that binds you. Your own state board's enacted version is, and Washington's version, sitting in the Revised Code of Washington, shows how the restriction lands on an ordinary duty list.
No individual with an office in that state may sign, affix, or associate the individual's name, or any trade or assumed name used by the individual in the person's business, to any report prescribed by professional standards unless the individual holds a license under RCW 18.04.105 and 18.04.215, a firm holds a license under RCW 18.04.195, and all of the individual's offices in the state are registered under RCW 18.04.205 (RCW 18.04.345(7)(a)).
The employment case is answered directly in the same section. Nothing in the chapter prohibits an individual who holds no license, and does not qualify for practice privileges, from serving as an employee of a licensed firm. That employee shall not issue any report, as defined in the chapter, on the information of any other persons, firms, or governmental units over the employee's name (RCW 18.04.345(2)(c)).
The permitted side is written out too. People and firms without a license may offer or render bookkeeping, accounting, tax services, the devising and installing of financial information systems, management advisory or consulting services, the preparation of tax returns, or the furnishing of advice on tax matters, provided they do not designate any written statement as a report and do not use language conventionally used by licensees in reports or any attest service (RCW 18.04.345(9)(b)).
So the test on your duty list is not seniority, and it is not how much judgment the task takes. It is whether the line ends in a report going out over that person's name.
Run your own page through it. A description carrying "signs the review report" or "releases the compilation report" has already decided the question, and the lines that stop short of an issued report are not reserved by the accountancy act, whatever else governs them.
| Reserved to a licensee | Open to any competent accountant |
|---|---|
| Signs the review report | Builds the workpapers and drafts the financial statements for partner review |
| Releases the compilation report | Prepares individual and business returns |
| Signs any other report prescribed by professional standards over their own name | Runs the first-pass review against the firm checklist |
Return preparation carries its own federal identification duty, which sits with the rest of the first-week paperwork in the staff accountant hiring guide.
The Firm Has to Qualify Before the Seat Can
A licensed person is only half of a reserved line, and the other half is the entity behind them.
The holder of a certificate may only provide attest services in a CPA firm that holds a permit issued under Section 7 of the Act (Uniform Accountancy Act, Section 6(a)). Washington states the firm side as its own prohibition: no firm with an office in the state may perform or offer to perform attest services as defined in RCW 18.04.025(1) or compilation services as defined in RCW 18.04.025(5) unless the firm is licensed under RCW 18.04.195 and all of its offices in the state are maintained and registered under RCW 18.04.205 (RCW 18.04.345(3)(a)).
That is worth checking before you advertise, because a firm without the permit can hire a licensee and still not be able to deliver the duty it just published.
What the Job Title on the Posting Is Allowed to Say
The title line is regulated in a way the duty list is not, and the rules reach the firm that publishes the title as well as the person who ends up using it.
No individual may hold themselves out to the public, or assume or use the designation certified public accountant or CPA, or any other title tending to indicate that the individual is one, unless the individual qualifies for the practice privileges authorized by RCW 18.04.350 or holds a license under RCW 18.04.105 and 18.04.215 (RCW 18.04.345(2)(a)).
Plain accountant is open. Nothing in the chapter prohibits the use of the title accountant by any person, whether or not they hold a license, and the same paragraph leaves the enrolled agent title and designation to anyone properly authorized to use it by the United States Department of the Treasury at the time of use (RCW 18.04.345(2)(b)).
The near-misses are closed off. No individual or entity offering public accounting services to the public may hold out under the titles certified accountant, chartered accountant, licensed accountant, licensed public accountant or public accountant, or the abbreviations CA, LA, LPA or PA (RCW 18.04.345(5)). Auditor has its own line: a person or firm without a license, and without practice privileges, may not hold out to the public as an auditor by use of that word on any sign, card, letterhead, or in any advertisement or directory (RCW 18.04.345(9)(a)).
One carve-out keeps ordinary internal life legal. An officer, employee, partner or principal of an organization may use the position, title or office they hold in that organization to describe themselves (RCW 18.04.345(7)(b)(ii)). That carve-out's practical effect on the posting is small and worth getting right: the title you print becomes the title on a business card and an email signature, so name the seat for the work if you may fill it with an unlicensed candidate.
Keeping the License Active Is a Condition of the Job
A license is a renewable status, not a permanent fact, and a description that requires one is requiring the status for as long as the seat exists.
Washington issues three-year licenses, with renewal subject to requirements of continuing professional education, meaning board-recognized coursework a licensee completes across the renewal period, and to payment of fees. Failure to renew causes the license to lapse, and people holding a lapsed license are prohibited from using the titles CPA, certified public accountant, CPA-inactive or CPA-retired, and are prohibited from practicing public accountancy (RCW 18.04.215). The credit counts behind that requirement, and how far they vary between states, are set out in the training statistics.
Inactive is a real status with real consequences, and it is not a softer version of licensed. Under the state's definitions, inactive means the status of a license that is prohibited from practicing public accounting, and a person holding an inactive license may apply to the board to return it to active status through an approval process the board establishes (RCW 18.04.025(9)).
Washington polices the label as well as the status. No individual may assume or use the designation certified public accountant-inactive or CPA-inactive, or any other title tending to indicate that status, unless the individual holds a license in an inactive status, and individuals holding only an inactive license may not practice public accounting (RCW 18.04.345(1)(a)).
There is also a reporting duty you can mirror in the offer. Licensees must notify the board within thirty days after a sanction, suspension, revocation or modification of their professional license or practice rights by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, or another state board of accountancy (RCW 18.04.215(8)(a)). If your firm learns about a lapse or a suspension after the board does, you found out in the worst possible order.
So the license paragraph in the description has three jobs. Name the jurisdiction the license has to be active in, tie continued employment in the reserved duties to keeping it active, and ask the holder to tell you about a status change when it happens rather than at the next renewal.
Where the Seat Sits in the Federal Data
Federal occupational data does not decide this question. It describes the work and reports what the labor market does, and one line in it is the one that gets over-read into a requirement nobody checked.
The classification itself carries no license test. Standard Occupational Classification 13-2011, Accountants and Auditors, is defined by the work, examining, analyzing and interpreting accounting records to prepare financial statements, give advice, or audit and evaluate statements prepared by others, and its illustrative examples list Certified Public Accountant alongside Field Auditor and Internal Auditor (BLS, 2018 Standard Occupational Classification definitions). The licensed seat is one example inside the occupation, not the occupation. What the occupation code does to a pay band is a separate mechanic, worked through in the receivable description.
The federal career profile is more specific, and it names exactly one act that requires the license. Any accountant who files a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission is required to be a licensed Certified Public Accountant, other accountants choose to become a CPA to enhance their job prospects or to gain clients, and CPAs are licensed by their state's Board of Accountancy (BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook, accountants and auditors).
Notice the shape of that. One filing act carries a licensure condition, and everything else in the profile treats the credential as an advantage rather than an entry requirement. Whether the license is needed to enter the work at all is answered in the staff accountant hiring guide.
CPA Required or CPA Preferred, Against the Licensed Supply
Required is a screen, and it is worth knowing what it screens out before you apply it.
Employment in the wider occupation was 1,579,800 in 2024 (BLS, Occupational Outlook Handbook, accountants and auditors). The national stock of active CPA licenses is smaller than that, and it is a stock rather than a candidate pool. The state-by-state shape of it sits in the shortage read.
The decision itself is short. Write required when a reserved line is on the duty list, or when a client contract, a lender or a regulator has asked for it in writing. Write preferred everywhere else, and mean the split, since a minimum you would waive for a candidate you liked is not a minimum. What publishing that split then commits you to is covered in the staff accountant description.
Say no to the requirement when the constraint is review capacity rather than preparation. A licensed hire who spends the season preparing does not add a reviewer, and the reserved lines still queue behind the same partner. Say no when the license is going on the page because a competitor's posting has it, which is a pool cut you made without a reason you could name.
Questions Firms Ask
Does CPA Eligible or CPA Candidate Satisfy a Required Line?
No. Every reserved act requires a license or a practice privilege held at the time of the act, so exam progress on its own cannot carry one of those lines. It is still often the right hire for the rest of the list, and what each version of the claim means is sorted in the offshore credential guide.
Does an Out-of-State License Cover the Seat?
Sometimes, and the answer turns on practice privileges rather than on goodwill. An individual licensed in another state may not sign, affix or associate a firm name to any report prescribed by professional standards, or associate a firm name in conjunction with the title certified public accountant, unless that individual qualifies for the practice privileges authorized by RCW 18.04.350, or is licensed under RCW 18.04.105 and 18.04.215 with all of their offices in the state registered under RCW 18.04.205 (RCW 18.04.345(8)). Ask which jurisdiction issued the license, and check the answer against the rules of the state where the work will be performed.
Mark the Reserved Lines First
Open the duty list you were about to post and mark every line that ends in a report issued over somebody's name. That short set is the licensed core of the seat, and it is the only part of the page the accountancy act decides for you. Check the marks against your own state board's enacted chapter before you post, because the model act reserves rendering an attest or compilation service as well as issuing the report, and enacted versions differ on where that line sits. Everything left over is a preference, priced in candidates.
Then write the license paragraph to match: the jurisdiction, active status, and a duty to tell you when that status changes.
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