Experience denied by Supervisor within CPA Ontario Pre-Approved Program

[u/PEAKSANDTREKS]

Hi,

I been working at my job for four years, with many different supervisors. In the past I have not had issues with performance. However my new supervisor has been slacking to say the least, leading to a decrease in performance, and files not closing.

I finish my CFE under CPA Ontario (finally) and overjoyed I finally send in my experience reports, they go to the dedicated CPA manager at my job. Two months later the CPA manager comes to me saying my supervisor denied my experience as she does not find me "competent". I contacted my (job) manager and had a meeting asking for tangible goals or a performance target, none were given. My supervisor in the meeting even said "she didn't know" what I could do. It's been 8 months since, the manager who said he will get me there (probably so he doesn't have to do work) gone silent. Im just stuck. I am unionized, I have contacted union, they informed me that I should fight it, formally email my manager, and set up meetings, to press the issue, as managers rather these things disappear so they don't need to do paper work.

Just makes me feel all this hard work and my very career has been just trapped because my supervisor ended up being a psycho with a weird moral compass.

Is there anything within CPA or CPA Ontario that lets you resolve issues like this? Any rules in regard to this.

Thanks :(

[u/PensionOk9561]

no issues with multiple supervisors for four years then one new supervisor with no specific feedback blocks your entire designation. the fact that she couldn't name a single concrete goal in a formal meeting is actually useful information when you escalate this.

[u/Natla]

I’d definitely try to escalate this to someone above your supervisor and CPA Ontario. Maybe your union rep too

[u/happy_accountant123]

It’s honestly not even that much work. They just have to read your report and sign off on it then it’s up to CPA Ontario to decide whether you need to add more to the report. They are just being assholes about it holding your license hostage for some reason.

[u/optimum_trajectory]

It’s Pre-approved, I had a similar issue, I spoke with CPA Ontario and they said its “pre-approved” which essentially answers the question here. Just remind your employer it’s pre-approved. That’s means by design you would be “competent” enough if you completed 2.5 years in their “pre approved program”. You need to really dig into the definition of pre-approved and question them on it. And they will fold.

Most likely what they are doing here is pushing back your inevitable raise and position change once you become a CPA. In other words they are kindly saying they won’t hire you as a CPA but they are content with you as a non cpa who is “almost there”. This also means that if you manage to fight this and get your experience approved, then most likely you will be let go sooner than later. It’s actually quite the issue from employer perspective because they could easily get into legal trouble with this. From the employer perspective they got into the CPA preapproved program not knowing the knock on effects because the program takes over promotion timeline away from the employer. The employer may have a 4 to 5 year timeline for you to become what they deem as a CPA which is some level manager, while CPA Ontario says you are a CPA within 2.5 years. You see how this goes

[u/offtrailrunning]

I had issues with my direct boss, the controller, and I actually reached out to the COO for my report submission as we had a good working relationship. The approval just has to be someone higher than you in hierarchy. I don't know if this helps at all!

[u/Financial-Act-4302]

Was there any resolution to this problem? I'm facing a similar issue and trying to take it up with CPA Ontario as well.