Accounting Professor Creates Affordable CPA Review Website

Accountants preparing for the Certified Public Accountant Exam who cannot afford expensive review programs can now access comparable preparation resources for free, largely because of the hobby of a University of Richmond accounting professor and his business partner.

Joe Hoyle entered his 31st year as an associate professor in accounting at the Robins School of Business in August, but a little more than two years ago he decided to pursue an additional endeavor in the field of accounting. Hoyle partnered up with Lynn Sheehan, an associate in the CPA review industry, to create a website that would provide candidates with quality review materials for free.

In order to earn the CPA designation, the title given to accountants deemed qualified by the American Institute of CPAs, candidates must pass the four-part, 14-hour-long Uniform CPA Examination, according to the AICPA's guidelines. The institute encourages candidates to prepare for the exam using commercially available review materials, such as a review course, which costs from $1,500 to 3,000.

Hoyle said he never thought it was fair that those who didn't have the money to subscribe to review courses were at a disadvantage to become a CPA.

When Sheehan called him to see if he had any clever ideas about a CPA review program, he proposed CPAreviewforfree.com.

Sheehan, a former manager and marketing coordinator at the accredited Becker CPA Review, said she was on board.

In the 120 weeks since its launch, the site has received more than 17 million page views and has enrolled more than 14,000 subscribers, Hoyle said.

Sheehan said that without any marketing budget, CPA review for FREE had still received traffic from Internet users in 90 to 100 different countries and quickly became one of the first sites listed on Google when the search term "CPA review" was entered.

The main source of traffic to the website has been word-of-mouth, but the two recently launched a Facebook page for the website to access their own advertising, Sheehan said.

Hoyle and Sheehan also maintain communication with subscribers via Hoyle's bi-weekly motivational newsletter to subscribers and by making themselves available to constantly answer subscribers' questions, they said.

CPA review for FREE has been more successful than either creator could have imagined, she said.

But, this "hobby," as both described it, has required a substantial time investment, they said.

Sheehan said she provided the technical expertise -- she managed the site creation and oversaw its maintenance, which was operated by a Vancouver-based programming company called Filmrobot.

Sheehan is not a CPA but she worked in the CPA review industry for 15 years. She now works in consulting full time from the Washingon, D.C., branch of Millennium Consulting, a company based in New Jersey.

Hoyle, who has received numerous awards in teaching and accounting, including a spot on Accounting Today magazine's 2009 list of the "Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting," contributes his expertise in the CPA industry to the website.

Hoyle created most of the site's content; he wrote approximately 60 percent of the review program's 2,100 exam questions, he said.

Hoyle, who describes himself as hyperactive, said the website had been the perfect hobby.

"I was 60 and just needed something to do," he said.

Hoyle invested $15,000 in capital to get the program started, which was still probably cheaper than pursuing golf as a hobby, he said.

"I thought -- OK, I'll invest a little money and let's see what we can do with this," he said. "There are a 100,000 people a year that take the CPA exam and roughly eight to ten national courses that charge you thousands of dollars to take the exam.

"If you don't have $2,500, you can't even get into the program. ... And what's the chance that those who don't take a preparation course receive the same results as those who do?

"I never thought that was fair."

In an e-mail to Hoyle, CPA review for FREE subscriber Ines Banchero said she credited the site's free materials for her CPA designation.

"I couldn't have done it any other way," Banchero said in the e-mail.

Sheehan and Hoyle said the constant flow of e-mails they had received from subscribers since the website's launch, thanking them for the services provided on CPA review for FREE, was the reason they continued to invest their time and skills.

Hoyle said he would now like to help start a similar free review program for high school students taking the SATs, or he would like a Richmond student to take on the task.

"Why couldn't you do something like that?" Hoyle asked. "It's fairly simple: all you would have to do is decide how many questions you would need -- with CPA exam for FREE we came up with 2,100.

"After all, it's a finite number. It could be accomplished."

Contact staff writer Kristy Burkhardt at kristy.burkhardt@richmond.edu