Just a year ago, Ohio became the first state to answer a growing industry call to tackle the accounting talent shortage by putting new licensing rules for certified public accountants on its books.

Fast forward 12 months and state by state — with New Jersey falling in line on Monday — and 25 states have either removed or provided alternatives to the 150-hour college credit licensing requirement that critics saw as a costly barrier into the profession, because it meant CPAs had to complete a fifth year of post-secondary education.  

By either changing laws or amending regulations, the growing band of states are effectively widening the ramps into the profession: They’re enabling candidates to get certified by earning a bachelor’s degree, logging an extra year of experience for a total of two, and passing the CPA exam. 

Now, with the licensing reform hitting its midpoint, many accounting experts are confident the year ahead will be a decisive one when it comes to the growing majority of states that are expected to adopt new regulations by Dec. 31. But is the transition to a growing patchwork of regulation more realistically poised to make 2026 the year of CPA disruption? 

“It’s a little of both,” Mark Koziel, CEO of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, told CFO Dive in an interview this week. With staggering implementation dates for the new rules, he is hopeful that all states will get on board quickly to support CPA mobility: a term for the ability of CPAs to work in states they are not licensed in that is challenged by the patchwork of regulations. 

“Once we have one [state change], mobility is broken. The faster we can get it to be consistent, the better off we are going to be,” Koziel said. “We expect a big push in 2026 though it will probably bleed into 2027.” 

CFOs looking to build strong finance teams should watch these five forces that experts expect to shape the CPA pathways rollout and the accounting labor landscape this year: 

1. Familiarity could breed support for more CPA reforms

Not to be outdone by the coastal states that have led the drive in 2025, Alabama kicked off the new year by introducing CPA pathways legislation this week on the heels of lawmakers in Wisconsin and Missouri following suit late last year. 

Meanwhile Michigan, Massachusetts, and Arkansas rule changes are also advancing, while Florida lawmakers have reintroduced legislation hoping that the second time will prove to be the charm this year.

Robert J. Pawlewicz, an assistant professor of accounting at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond in Virginia who has been closely tracking the state CPA race, expects only a handful of states to still be on the sidelines by the end of the year.  

“I would expect that more than 40 states will have a CPA license pathway with 120 credit hours before the end of 2026,”  Pawlewicz said in an email, adding that “40-45 states feels like a good landing spot by the end of 2026.” 

The holdouts won’t likely be opponents of the change. Instead, Pawlewicz said they will likely be states like North Dakota that have legislatures which only meet every other year. The CPA change will continue to gain steam more steadily than a reverse push led by Florida to increase the educational requirements to 150 credit hours, because there’s less uncertainty with how the new standards will work, he said.   

“These new pathways are really just the old ones,” he said in an interview. “It’s a much easier sell than creating new ones that require more time and more expense to get licenses.” 

2. ‘A lot of work’ needed to fix mobility issues

Defined as the “ability for a CPA to practice across state lines without a separate license,” long-held concerns about CPA pathways triggering fractured mobility is now a reality in this transitional year. 

The AICPA and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy, arguably the biggest U.S. accounting trade associations, sought to encourage consistency by updating model language that states could use in the July 2025 edition of the Uniform Accountancy Act. Under the modeled changes, a CPA’s ability to practice outside their home state is determined by an individual’s qualifications, rather than whether any two states’ rules are deemed “substantially equivalent.”

Still, the dream of a CPA credential being akin to a driver’s license, where no notice or fee needs to be given or paid by an out-of-state CPA,  will likely remain a dream for a while longer. 

One way Koziel is hoping to increase uniformity is for states to describe the new pathway requirements as simply a bachelor’s plus two years of experience, rather than specifying credit hours which can vary from one school to the next. He also said the AICPA is looking at ways technology can be used to smooth mobility.

“We still have a lot of work to do on mobility,” he said. “We’re looking at solutions and tools that are out there to help.” 

3. Employers might start pathways conversations

The impact of CPA pathways on hiring at employers like Big Four accounting firm KPMG is just beginning to be seen. 

With Pennsylvania being one of the earliest states in which CPA pathways went into effect on June 30 last year, KPMG began fielding more questions from aspiring candidates in that region, Derek Thomas, KPMG’s national partner in charge of university talent acquisition said in an interview.

While noting that KPMG has been very supportive of CPA pathways, Thomas said the company has not adjusted its hiring in any way, although the initiative is something he expects will be part of ongoing conversations. KPMG is open to hiring college graduates into entry-level positions that are “CPA-eligible” who choose any of the licensing and education pathways. 

“Whether you’re getting a master’s or a bachelor’s and an extra year of experience, as long as you’re meeting your requirements for the state you’re going to be working in, you can apply for a job with our organization,” Thomas said. “We’re just going to look at everybody and say, ‘hey, who are the best and brightest?’” 

KPMG is also keeping an eye on mobility, but Thomas said that he is encouraged to see many states are passing mobility provisions that should help enable its CPA employees to be able to work across states. 

4. Specter of broader deregulation looms

Fear that regulatory easing could ultimately go too far has crept into the industry since a controversial deregulation battle in Florida derailed the Sunshine State’s CPA pathways legislation last year. 

The pathways issue was added to a piece of legislation that would also have eliminated continuing education standards for CPAs, as well as engineers and architects, and abolished the Florida Board of Accountancy. That bill was unsuccessful last year, but the threat reared its head last month when a new deregulation bill, HB 607, was introduced again. 

The Florida Institute of CPAs strongly opposes the deregulation initiative, but supports a new and separate CPA pathway bill, SB364, which was introduced in November. 

“Broad, across-the-board deregulation efforts could absolutely undermine national consistency and disrupt state-to-state alignment that makes workforce modernization possible,” FICPA President and CEO Shelly Weir said in an email sent to CFO Dive. “FICPA supports targeted efforts to find efficiencies and streamlining where it is possible to lower any unnecessary red tape or bureaucracy while maintaining those key uniform standards for the profession between states that promotes commerce and mobility.”  

Weir said she is hopeful that the pathways bill will be passed in the current legislative session in time to be implemented by July 1. 

5. Murky new laws await clarification

In some states like New York and Illinois, the passing of the new CPA pathways is just the framework for the new rules, with many details left to be hammered out by regulators. 

In May, Martin Green, senior vice president and legislative counsel for the Illinois CPA Society, told CFO Dive that the bill which amended the Illinois Public Accounting Act in order to create the new licensing pathways was made to go into effect Jan. 1 of next year. That’s more than a full year after it was passed last May, a gap made to allow time for the new administrative rules to be set. 

As it stands, the surface text of the Illinois law can take some time to parse in certain areas. For example, there needs to be more clarification of what courses would qualify as college accounting hours, according to Shail Pandit, an associate professor in the department of accounting at the University of Illinois Chicago. 

“On the whole, the amendment opens up more pathways to CPA licensure, consistent with its stated goal of removing hurdles and increasing the supply in the market,” Pandit said in an email. “However, we need more guidance from the Board [of Examiners] and the [Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation] in terms of practical implementation of the statutes.”  

Keep up with CPA licensure changes by accessing CFO Dive’s tracker on the topic here.