Pilot Program a ‘Gamechanger’ for CPA Profession

Dan Geltrude is unequivocal about what’s in store for accounting firms. “It’s absolutely a gamechanger for the entire profession,” the CPA told NJBIZ. The gamechanger is a new pilot program, being tested in New Jersey, to create an alternative path to the 150 credits needed to be eligible for a Certified Public Accountant license.

This semester marked the start of a collaboration between Saint Peter’s University and PricewaterhouseCoopers under which six students who have completed 120 credits will have the opportunity to earn their final 30 credits through a paid internship or a “Work for Credit” program.

Geltrude was tapped by the New Jersey Board of Accountancy to lead a committee looking into whether an alternative path to 150 credits could be achieved. After initiating the idea during an October 2021 meeting, Geltrude spent months working on a solution to bring partners and stakeholders together. Those efforts culminated in a May vote by the board acknowledging that the “Work for Credit” program would fall into their regulations and would not require a regulatory change. That set the stage for the pilot program between Saint Peter’s and PwC.

The founder of Nutley’s Geltrude & Co., Geltrude regularly appears on national news programs as “America’s Accountant,” and checked in at No. 5 on NJBIZ’s 2022 Accounting Power 50. He has always felt that the 150-credit rule never made much sense since the final 30 credits do not even have to deal with accounting. He believes it created a needless barrier for entry into the field.

“Everybody saw the same thing,” Geltrude explained. “Everybody looked at this 150 and said, ‘it just doesn’t make sense.’” He said his field is seeing a declining number of accounting majors and CPA exam candidates, leading to many firms outsourcing their work overseas, especially to India. That reality inspired Geltrude to lead the effort in connecting the different stakeholders, one that was initially met with some resistance.

“It’s because we got to the point where American firms are hiring abroad because there aren’t enough accountants here,” said Geltrude. “And I believe the 150-credit hour rule, the way it was constructed, was a contributor to that. So, it had to be fixed.”

And a lot of that resistance centered on the uniformity of the current guidelines. “But, to me, it was simply right versus wrong,” Geltrude explained. “And what we have in place is simply not right. And it had to be corrected, in my mind, at all costs. Once I was in, I was all in. I was not going to stop my efforts until I could come up with a solution.”

The work started with discussions at the national level with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, which expressed interest in a solution that would not negatively affect the equivalency between states while addressing the current challenges and concerns within the profession.

A collaboration was formed under which New Jersey would work with NASBA as the lead state to come up with a solution so that the rest of the states may be encouraged to adopt the solution that they can all follow. From there, Geltrude took the idea to Saint Peter’s University via Dr. Eileen Poiani, special assistant to the president and professor of mathematics, as well as a 150-credit hour committee member, to gauge the school’s interest. That was immediate, and eventually helped connect Saint Peter’s with PwC via fellow board member and 150-credit hour committee member Sara DeSmith, a partner at the firm.

To read the full blog visit NJBiz.com.