Accountant, CG-510-11 (FPL:12)

Qualifying experience may be obtained in the private or public sector. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic, religious/spiritual; community; student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Additional qualifications information can be found here.

Basic Requirement:

1. Degree: accounting; or a degree in a related field such as business administration, finance, or public administration that included or was supplemented by 24 semester hours in accounting. The 24 hours may include up to 6 hours of credit in business law. (The term "accounting" means "accounting and/or auditing" in this standard. Similarly, "accountant" should be interpreted, generally, as "accountant and/or auditor.")

OR

1. Combination of education and experience: at least 4 years of experience in accounting, or an equivalent combination of accounting experience, college-level education, and training that provided professional accounting knowledge. The applicant's background must also include one of the following:
2. Twenty-four semester hours in accounting or auditing courses of appropriate type and quality. This can include up to 6 hours of business law;
3. A certificate as Certified Public Accountant or a Certified Internal Auditor, obtained through written examination; or
4. Completion of the requirements for a degree that included substantial course work in accounting or auditing, e.g., 15 semester hours, but that does not fully satisfy the 24-semester-hour requirement of paragraph A, provided that

(a) the applicant has successfully worked at the full-performance level in accounting, auditing, or a related field, e.g., valuation engineering or financial institution examining;

(b) a panel of at least two higher level professional accountants or auditors has determined that the applicant has demonstrated a good knowledge of accounting and of related and underlying fields that equals in breadth, depth, currency, and level of advancement that which is normally associated with successful completion of the 4-year course of study described in paragraph A; and

(c) except for literal nonconformance to the requirement of 24 semester hours in accounting, the applicant's education, training, and experience fully meet the specified requirements.

AND 

Specialized Experience: To qualify, applicants must have completed at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the CG-9 grade level or above in the Federal service.  Specialized experience is defined as Specialized experience is defined as experience in applying generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to record financial transactions; performing analyses of accounting data; and generating and presenting management and financial data reports.

OR 

You may substitute education as follows:

1. You must have earned a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree in accounting or a related field.
2. Have a combination of education and experience that meets the requirements for the CG-11. You must have graduate level education as described above, beyond the 2nd full year of graduate level education and specialized experience as describe above that together meet the qualification requirements for this position.