Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
Developing accounting talent in a small Canadian business starts with a question most owners skip: what do you need this person to be able to do in two years? The CPA designation is one route, and it takes a graduate-level program, practical experience and a final exam. Paying for it is a job-by-job call, not a matter of the letters.
What does the CPA route involve?
CPA Canada describes the certification program in three parts: education, practical work experience and the Common Final Examination. The education part is the CPA Professional Education Program, known as CPA PEP. It has six modules, two common core modules, two electives, and two capstone modules, and you must pass each module exam to move to the next. CPA Canada says it takes two years part-time alongside relevant work.
Admission needs an undergraduate or master’s degree with specific subject coverage. If someone’s degree is in another field, preparatory courses can fill the gap.
Fees, pass rates, employer sponsorship programs and salary levels aren’t covered here, since none could be checked against an official source. Ask the provincial CPA body for current costs before you promise anything to an employee.
Does your accounting talent need the designation?
Often nobody.
A bookkeeper who keeps clean books, reconciles the bank on time and files payroll remittances correctly is worth more to a ten-person firm than a half-finished designation. A public accounting role or a controller job is another matter.
Write a short list of tasks that person must own: monthly close, GST/HST filing, payroll, year-end package for your accountant. Then match training to tasks. Training without a task behind it is a cost with no return.
| Task | Training route to consider | Checked against |
|---|---|---|
| Payroll and remittances | CRA payroll guidance, practice runs | Payroll remittance calculator |
| Bookkeeping and records | Software training, reconciliation habits | Six-year retention rule |
| Year-end and T2 | Work with your external accountant | Corporate tax calculator |
| Management reporting | Margin, ROI and budget basics | Profit margin and ROI calculators |
| Full CPA path | CPA PEP with work experience | CPA Canada requirements |
What would a two-year plan look like for a bookkeeper?
Take Jamal, who keeps the books for a ten-person landscaping firm outside Saskatoon. In the first six months he owns the monthly bank reconciliation and the payroll remittance, with the owner checking his work. By month twelve he’s preparing the GST/HST filing and the year-end package for the external accountant. By month eighteen he’s explaining a margin report to the owner in plain words.
None of that needs a designation. It needs a task list, a reviewer and a date for each step. If Jamal later wants the CPA route, those two years of practical work can count toward it, which is worth asking the provincial CPA body about.
What does a hire cost beyond the salary?
More than people expect, because the employer share of CPP and EI sits on top. Take an Ontario employee paid $2,500 every two weeks. The payroll remittance calculator shows your share at $197.79 per pay period, so the full cost is $2,697.79. Over 26 pay periods, that employer share is about $5,142. Part of it comes from the rule in the CRA’s EI premium table: the employer pays 1.4 times the employee’s EI premium.
Give the same person a raise to $4,000 per pay period and your share becomes $239.18, for a cost of $4,239.18. Pay went up 60% and your share went up about 21%. The raise is still the main cost.
Before you offer a raise as a retention tool, run it through the salary increase calculator, which shows what the employee keeps after tax, since a raise often feels smaller on the pay stub than it did in the meeting. The take-home pay calculator gives the same view for a base salary.
How do you keep people once they’re trained?
No government page answers this one, so take it as opinion. People leave when they’ve stopped learning or aren’t trusted with real work. Give a trainee one whole process to own, like month-end, and review it with them each month. Pair them with your external accountant for the year-end package, so they see how the books turn into a return.
If you pay for a course, put the terms in writing before the course starts. What happens if they leave in six months? Decide now, because you won’t want to argue it later. How provincial law treats repayment clauses is something to get read by someone qualified in employment law.
Where this information comes from
The CPA certification structure and CPA PEP details come from CPA Canada pages read in September 2026. The six-year records rule comes from Canada Revenue Agency guide RC188. The payroll figures come from the calculators on this site, using 2026 data for Ontario, and the pay amounts are examples we chose. This site is independent of both bodies.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the CPA PEP take?
CPA Canada says CPA PEP takes two years part-time while you work at relevant employment.
What are the parts of CPA certification?
Education, practical work experience and the Common Final Examination, according to CPA Canada.
Does a bookkeeper need a CPA designation?
Not always. Match training to the tasks the person owns, and ask whether the job really needs the designation.
What does the employer pay on top of salary?
The employer share of CPP and EI. For an Ontario employee on $2,500 every two weeks, our calculator shows $197.79 per pay period.
What does CPA training cost?
We couldn't confirm current fees from official sources. Ask your provincial CPA body before you agree to fund anyone.
All family and benefits calculators
- Self-employed taxes in Canada: income, CPP and GST
How tax works when you are self-employed in Canada: reporting income and expenses, paying both halves of CPP, instalments and when to register for GST