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CITP Program to Get New Test

Jim BourkeThe American Institute of CPAs will probably have a new test for those wishing to qualify for its Certified Information Technology Professional designation for use in a year. It will replace an exam that was abandoned after most credential holders achieved their designation based on experience.

"We are one year away from a test," says Jim Bourke, chairman of the CITP committee and a partner with the Red Bank, N.J.-based firm, WithumSmith+Brown. "We need a hurdle or it [the CITP] doesn't mean a thing."

Over the last two years, there have been some major changes to the specialized certification. Besides having eliminated a test, which few ever took, the committee worked to make the body of knowledge represent by the CITP something that represented what CPAs do and not just a designation that anyone experienced in technology qualify for. Under the old system, most applicants received their CITP based on the points they received for IT experience.

The CITP requirements still incorporate knowledge of technology and experience with technology in a business environment and only CPAs can qualify for it. However, the emphasis has changed to focus on areas such as audit, in which CPAs have special knowledge. Bourke believes this change was the reason there were 235 new credential holders added in 2009, 90 percent more than were added in 2008. There are now more than 1,600 CITPs.

Bourke says emphasizing the importance of technology in traditional CPA endeavors is important. "We took the CITP to the space the CPA owns," he says. For example, while technology plays a crucial role in performing audits, it used to be that auditors understood the process before information was fed into a system and understood the reports that came out. But they didn't understand the computer systems themselves.

Despite the new emphasis, there will only be one exam, not separate sections for auditors, for example. Bourke likens this to the CPA exam which covers all elements of the traditional tax and accounting business. While candidates are expected to know something about each area, they don't need to be experts in all of them in order to pass.

Bob Scott
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind
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