Over 8,000 would-be accountants will not find out if they will receive their CPA designation until early next year. Technical difficulties caused lengthy delays in many parts of the country during the three-day national final exam in September.
Results are ordinarily provided in November, but CPA Canada now says that it won’t be able to deliver the outcomes of the common final examination (CFE) until January 2020.
Many of the candidates, who will have to put their professional lives on hold as they await their exam results, have expressed their frustration over the delays on online forums.
This year’s CFE has been called the “Fyre Festival for accountants” online, in a reference to the infamously disastrous 2017 music festival in the Bahamas that was the subject of a popular Netflix documentary.
According to Financial Post reporting, the problems during this year’s exam have been wide-ranging. In Ottawa, computer programs crashed or froze. In Edmonton, test takers couldn’t access important online accounting and tax resources. In Victoria, test takers were reportedly told to create hotspots with their smartphones, which would potentially give them access to prohibited websites.
In December 2018, technical difficulties related to new software caused computers to freeze during the CPA’s Professional Education Program exams in Western Canada. When asked why CPA Canada decided to continue using the problematic software for the 2019 CFE, Director of Communications Tobin Lambie said the issues had been resolved.
CPA Canada has offered its “sincere apologies to anyone who was affected.”