A. A qualification applicant to qualify as a candidate for examination shall file an application for qualification in a format approved by the Oklahoma Accountancy Board. The fee for the qualification application shall be determined by the Board and shall not exceed Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00). Every qualification applicant to qualify as a candidate for the certificate of certified public accountant or license of public accountant shall submit to a national criminal history record search, must be a resident of this state immediately prior to making application and, except as otherwise provided in this section, shall meet the education and experience requirements provided in this section. The costs associated with the national criminal history records search shall be paid by the applicant.

B. On or after July 1, 1999, every qualification applicant to qualify as a candidate for examination for the license of public accountant shall have graduated from an accredited four-year college or university with a major in accounting or with a nonaccounting major supplemented by what the Oklahoma Accountancy Board determines to be the equivalent of an accounting major of any four-year college or university in this state or any other four-year college or university recognized by the Board. Such major in accounting or nonaccounting major shall include satisfactory completion of forty-eight (48) semester hours, or the equivalent thereof, in accounting and related subjects. At least thirty (30) semester hours, or the equivalent thereof, of said forty-eight (48) semester hours, shall be in accounting courses, at least one of which shall be in auditing. The remainder of said forty-eight (48) semester hours, or the equivalent thereof, shall be in said related subjects, which shall be in any or all of the subjects of economics, statistics, business law, finance, business management, marketing, business communication, financial information systems or computer science or the equivalent of such subjects as determined by the Board.

C. On or after July 1, 2003, every qualification applicant to qualify as a candidate for examination for the certificate of certified public accountant shall have at least one hundred fifty (150) semester hours, or the equivalent thereof, of college education including a baccalaureate or higher degree conferred by a college or university acceptable to the Board from an accredited four-year college or university in this state or any other accredited four-year college or university recognized by the Board. A minimum of seventy-six (76) semester hours must be earned at the upper-division level of college or above or the equivalent thereof as determined by the Board; this education requirement shall have been completed prior to submitting an application to the Board; the total educational program of the applicant for examination shall include an accounting concentration or its equivalent as determined acceptable by the Board which shall include not less than thirty (30) semester hours, or the equivalent thereof, in accounting courses above principles of accounting or introductory accounting, with at least one course in auditing or assurance; the remaining accounting courses shall be selected from financial accounting, accounting theory, cost/managerial accounting, federal income tax, governmental, not-for-profit accounting, accounting information systems, accounting history and other accounting electives; at least nine (9) semester hours shall be from any or all of the subjects of economics, statistics, business law, finance, business management, marketing, business communication, risk management, insurance, management information systems, or computer science at the upper-division level of college or above or the equivalent of such subjects as determined by the Board; all the remaining semester hours, if any, shall be elective but shall be at the upper-division level of college or above.

D. The costs associated with the national criminal history record check shall be paid by the applicant.

Added by Laws 1965, c. 188, § 8, emerg. eff. June 8, 1965. Amended by Laws 1968, c. 271, § 5, emerg. eff. April 30, 1968; Laws 1986, c. 79, § 5, eff. July 1, 1986; Laws 1992, c. 272, § 9, eff. Sept. 1, 1992; Laws 1998, c. 52, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 1998; Laws 2002, c. 312, § 5, eff. Nov. 1, 2002; Laws 2004, c. 125, § 8, eff. Nov. 1, 2004; Laws 2009, c. 45, § 4, emerg. eff. April 14, 2009; Laws 2010, c. 85, § 3, eff. July 1, 2010; Laws 2019, c. 363, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2019.