From ACCA to US CPA

When I first started studying for ACCA in 2007, I was told that it's an internationally recognized qualification. But when I came to the US in 2008, I quickly realized that it's not as international as I thought because nobody here knew or heard about ACCA, and the only public accounting qualification accepted in the US is the US CPA. Well, we know how everything is different in the US right? Anyway, I finally completed all my exams for ACCA in 2011 and successfully secured a job in Malaysia with this qualification. 

Ironically, as much as I hoped not to sit for any more exams, I transferred to the US and continued working in public accounting, so I had no choice but to take the CPA exam. =.= (Oh all the things i do for love & marriage...lol!!) Fortunately, the firm paid for everything (including Becker's study materials) so it wasn't that bad after all. But still, going through the entire application process and having to study for exams while working full time ain't no fun at all! 

Even though I'm currently working in Alabama, I couldn't apply for the exam in state of Alabama because (1) US Citizenship is required and (2) postsecondary education has to be accredited by a regional accreditation board such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. Oh well, not very international-friendly but why am I not surprised. :P 

The alternative route for me was to apply for the exam in the state of Georgia, which has the following (international-friendly) requirements:

• No US citizenship required.
• No residency requirement.
• Have earned a baccalaureate degree or higher with 20 semester hours in accounting subjects above the introductory level at a four-year accredited college or university that offers a baccalaureate degree as defined by the Board.
• Education requirements for international candidates: Must be met through academic coursework completed at an accredited institution. Professional training is not acceptable toward these requirements. Coursework completed as part of a Chartered Accountant program is considered professional training and is, therefore, not accepted toward the education requirements for the U.S. Uniform CPA License. (P.S. That means my ACCA qualification means absolutely nothing!)
• Applicants who obtained their education outside the United States must have their educational credentials evaluated by NASBA International Evaluation Services.

Just in case anyone (international accountant/auditor) happens to stumble upon this post, here's a timeline of all the hassle process that I went through to apply for the CPA exam:

24 April 2015: Requested transcript from TARC (Total fee = RM 82.95)

6 May 2015: Requested transcript from SHU (Total fee = £58)

(P.S. Official academic transcripts must be sent directly from the university to NASBA)

8 May 2015: Submitted application for evaluation to NASBA International Evaluation Services

12 May 2015: SHU posted academic transcript to NASBA

19 May 2015: TARC posted academic transcript to NASBA

22 May 2015: NASBA received transcripts

29 May 2015: All documentations received by NASBA, ready for evaluation

20 June 2015: International education evaluation complete. Evaluation report sent to the accounting board. (I actually completed a total of 166 semester hours: Diploma = 91 hrs; Advanced Diploma = 60 hrs; Degree = 15 hrs)

15 July 2015: Submitted application for CPA exam

July & Aug 2015: Studied for FAR. Traveled for work to Tampa for 3 weeks in August.

Exam date: 29 Aug 2015

Result date (Pass): 10 Sept 2015

Oct & Nov 2015: Studied for REG.

Exam date: 25 Nov 2015

Result date (Pass): 9 Dec 2015

March & Apr 2016: Studied for AUD. Traveled for work to Dallas for 5 weeks in March. 

Exam date: 4 April 2016

Result date (Pass): 5 May 2016

May & June 2016: Studied for BEC. Traveled for work to Dallas for 4 weeks in May. 

Exam date: 8 June 2016

Result date (Pass): 21 June 2016

21 June 2016: D.O.N.E!! After one year of lifeless life of work & study, so glad to finally complete all 4 exams without failing!! Now that I've completed both ACCA and US CPA, I guess I'm officially 'international'? Hahaha!

Now that I've passed the exam (not officially a CPA yet coz I still have to apply for the license), here are my few personal thoughts:

- Personally, I think it's easier to pass CPA than ACCA.

- Even though CPA is primarily multiple choice, it's not as easy as it seems because you have to pretty much know every area.

- I study better when I'm traveling (especially during flight time when I have no internet), as evidenced from my scores. Scored lowest for REG when I wasn't traveling...haha!

- I need music to study. Oh on a side note, thanks to Bigbang's MADE album and all their old songs for keeping me entertained throughout this one year of boring study life. =)

May I Travel...Again

After the 5 weeks in March that I spent in Dallas, I traveled to Dallas again for another 4 weeks in May. Same weekly routines...weekday=auditor, weekend=gardener...lol!! Here are some boring photos from last month (clearing out photos from my phone)...

Traveled to Dallas for 9 weeks this year and guess what, I haven't even seen downtown Dallas...haha! Only 'saw' downtown from the magazine in the hotel room, the only 2 places I saw were the office...

and hotels...haha!!

Becker's app made it very convenient to study while traveling. =) Ideally, I would rather be watching shows on my iPad, hopefully I can be done with this final one. =P

Breakfast at the hotel wasn't bad at all. =)

Free dinners! :)

Once again fixed my cravings for Korean food...

Taiwanese food...

Thai, Jap, and of course lotssss of Malaysian!! =D

Apart from being a gardener, I'm also a chef on the weekends...hahaha! =P My new creation - fried tuna ball.

Other random creations...including zoodles and my version of egg mcmuffin. =P

Dogsit these 2 lazy kiddos for a week. =)

May Garden Updates

May had been such a busy month. Spent 4 weeks traveling for work, studied for CPA exam, planned for our summer trip, recorded and edited an audition video, and did garden work...pheww! So glad that I finally get a short break in June! =) 

Anyway, since the last update of our garden on April 29, we've been working on the garden every weekend checking on our plants and did 'maintenance' work on them. They've all been growing well and after almost 2 months...we finally had our first harvest on June 1!!

Growth progress of our garden from May 7 - June 8. 1 month made a lot of difference huh! =)

We started cucumbers a lil' later than the others. They started off growing pretty slowly but as you can see above, it's been growing fast since the end of May. No cucumbers yet.

Watermelon is also another one that started off very slowly and weeds started growing around them. But it looks like it's been growing much faster since hubby pulled up all the weeds.

Tomato is one of the easier plants to grow but it required quite a lot of work for the support (coz we planted so many)! We're should be able to start harvesting them real soon!

Instead of getting 40 cages for each tomato plants, we found out about the Florida weave trellis method online and decided to give it a try. But instead of buying ropes, I came up with the idea of using old t-shirts and tie them together into long 'strings' and wrapped them around. Yes, I'm cheap and resourceful...lol! =P

So this is how we do our trellis. Just keep adding new rows as the plants grew taller. =)

Zucchini is another easy plant with minimal work required. We started harvesting the first batch since June 1 and they've really been coming in fast and furious!! Still more to come!

To help reduce weeds, we put papers/newspapers all around the zucchinis and cucumbers. Making good use of recyclables. :P

Look at the difference within a month!! We'll probably have to wait till July to harvest our corns.

Harvested our first batch of broccolis on June 1 but this time they are smaller than the ones we had last year mainly because we started our broccolis a lil' late this year and the weather is a lil' too hot for them to grow bigger without flowering.

HARVESTING

Our harvests on June 1, 3, 5, 8...total of 89 zucchinis and 20 broccolis within 1 week!!

STORING

The new toy (spiralizer) I bought on Amazon mainly to spiralize the zucchinis. Honestly, I only like zucchini when it's in the form of 'zoodles'. This 'investment' was definitely worth it considering how many zucchinis we're gonna have this year.

There's no way we are able to finish eating all these veggies as we harvest them so this is how we're freezing and storing them. Our mini food processing kitchen...lol! =)