The money behind every business. A degree, a national exam, and a designation that travels.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $84,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $52,000 at the lower end to about $149,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
6 to 7 years after high school, on the usual route.
$28,000 to $65,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$84,000
Lower end
$52,000
Upper end
$149,000
Job Bank's figures for all financial auditors and accountants in Canada, worked out at 40 hours a week for a full year. That group includes people still training and people without the CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) designation, so designated CPAs on their own earn more: see the next cards.
$92,000
Median pay of CPAs (Chartered Professional Accountants) in the profession for less than 3 years, in 2024
From CPA Canada's 2025 compensation study. While you are still working through the CPA program, before you have the designation, expect less. The Big Four firms (Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, EY) pay for your CPA program.
$154,000
Median pay of CPAs (Chartered Professional Accountants) with 3 or more years in the profession, in 2024
From CPA Canada's 2025 compensation study, run by the research firm Leger, with about 7,500 CPAs answering. The figure includes bonuses but not benefits. CPAs with 25 or more years reported a median of $194,000. Answers were voluntary, so it is a survey of the CPAs who chose to reply.
Roughly, all in
$28,000 to $65,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is four years of a bachelor's degree at cheaper provincial tuition with an employer paying for the CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) Professional Education Program while you work. The high end is four years at higher tuition plus paying for the professional program and the final exam yourself, plus dues during the years you are qualifying. Tuition here is quoted by the year, so multiply it by four before comparing. Which province you study in and whether you land a job at a firm that covers the professional program account for most of the gap.
Most employers pay the CPA program costs if you are working for them while you study.
Employer-paid CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) training
Standard at accounting firms.
Pension and benefits
Strong in government and large companies.
Bonuses
Common in industry roles.
Busy-season overtime banked as extra vacation
At many firms.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree, a professional program, one big exam and at least 30 months of paid work experience. Quebec has its own route: tap Quebec route to add it.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Math is essential. Business and accounting courses are a bonus.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Usually a business or commerce degree with accounting courses covering the CPA prerequisites. Any degree works if you add the prerequisite courses after.
CPA Professional Education Program (PEP)
About 2 years
Part-time modules while you work full time. Six modules over about two years.
Common Final Examination (CFE)
3 days
A three-day national case exam.
Practical experience
30 months or more
At least 30 months of paid, relevant work, which overlaps with the PEP (Professional Education Program). It must be in an approved role or a pre-approved program.
Math
Data management, functions or calculus.
Accounting and business
Offered at most high schools.
English
The CFE (final exam) is a writing exam as much as a numbers exam.
In the 2010s, the three old designations (CA, CMA and CGA, which stood for chartered, management and general accountants) merged into one: CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant). Only members of a provincial CPA body can use the CPA title. You need no licence to do accounting work for an employer or to prepare taxes. The one reserved job is public accounting, signing audits and reviews of financial statements, which needs a public accounting licence on top of the CPA. The designation is still what unlocks the senior jobs.
Quebec adds CEGEP (public college) before university, usually runs the CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) program as a full-time university diploma, and asks for 24 months of experience.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
Take Secondary V math in the TS (Technical and Scientific) or SN (Science) sequence if you can. It opens the CEGEP math courses that business schools ask for.
DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
2 years
Most take the 2 year Social Science DEC with Calculus I and Linear Algebra, which Concordia's business school requires. A 3 year accounting DEC is the other road, see below.
Bachelor's in accountancy
3 years
A 90 credit Bachelor of Commerce, about 3 years after CEGEP, in English at Concordia or McGill. Your courses must meet the prerequisites set by the CPA order.
Graduate diploma in accountancy
15 months or more
This is the professional program. At Concordia it is a 30 credit Graduate Diploma in Chartered Professional Accountancy, 15 months at the fastest. McGill has a full-time Graduate Certificate in Professional Accounting.
CFE (Common Final Examination)
3 days
The same national exam as the rest of Canada, written after the graduate diploma.
24 months of experience, then French
24 months
Paid work at an office approved by the Ordre des CPA du Québec (the Quebec order of accountants). Then show French: a Quebec high school diploma counts, or pass the OQLF (Office québécois de la langue française) exam.
Instead of a pre-university program, you can take a 3 year technical DEC (Diploma of College Studies) at a CEGEP (public college): Accounting and Management Technology (410.B0). From fall 2026 colleges are replacing it with Administration and Management Technology (410.G0), which has an accounting profile. It has been offered in English at Dawson, Vanier, Champlain and Heritage. You can work as an accounting technician right away, or go on to university: Dawson says its graduates can be exempted from up to five courses at Concordia's business school. You still need the bachelor's degree to become a CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant).
Things you don't need, but that help.
Tax specialization (CPA In-Depth Tax)
A three-year program for tax work.
CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
For investment and corporate finance roles.
Forensic accounting
Investigating fraud and explaining the numbers in court cases.
Data and analytics skills
SQL (a database language), Power BI (a reporting tool) and Python are increasingly expected.
Co-op placements
Many commerce programs include paid terms at accounting firms.
Case competitions
Firms recruit from them.
Excel mastery
Seriously. It matters more than you think.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In public accounting: auditing a client's books, preparing tax returns, or advising on transactions, often at the client's office. In industry: month-end close, budgets, forecasts, financial reports and a lot of meetings. January to April is tax season, and audit busy season runs from January to March, with long hours both times.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The CFE (Common Final Examination) is all written cases. First-time writers must sit all three days, and the exam fee alone is $2,070 plus tax in Western Canada.
Passing the exam is not enough. You also need at least 30 months of paid, relevant work before you can call yourself a CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant).
In CPA Canada's compensation studies, the median pay of CPAs (Chartered Professional Accountants) with 3 or more years rose 7.7% from 2022 to 2024, while prices rose 6.4%.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Money and finance first, then the rest of the field. See every career in business and money.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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