How to become a CPA in Minnesota 2026

To meet the Minnesota requirements to sit for the CPA exam, the Minnesota CPA education requirements must be attained first. For Minnesota applicants, candidates must be a resident of the state, attended a school in Minnesota with a course designed to qualify for the CPA exam or work in Minnesota for the purpose of obtaining qualifying experience. 

Applicants must complete 150 semester hours with 24 semester hours of upper-level accounting courses and 48 hours in business-related subjects and intermediate or higher accounting coursework.

Minnesota now has multiple CPA licensure pathways. Effective January 1, 2026, candidates may qualify with a bachelor’s degree plus two years of qualifying experience, or a master’s degree plus one year of qualifying experience.

The existing bachelor’s degree plus 150-semester-hour pathway remains available for now but is scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2030. Candidates must still meet Minnesota’s requirements for accounting and business coursework.

After completion of education requirements, sign up for an Okta account through NASBA’s dashboard, then access CPA Portal to submit your Minnesota CPA Exam application, payments, and exam-section applications. Official transcripts must be sent directly from the school to CPA Examination Services.

Minnesota Coordinator
CPA Examination Services
PO Box 198469
Nashville, Tennessee 37219-8469

If your school offers official electronic transcripts, they may be emailed to etranscript@nasba.org.

Pay all fees at the time of application to NASBA. First-time applicants are required to pay both an application fee and an examination fee.

Minnesota’s current NASBA exam fees include a $96.00 education evaluation application fee, a $96.00 exam application fee, and a $262.64 exam section fee.

Click here to see a breakdown of the Minnesota CPA exam costs.

Wait for your application to be approved and once accepted, NASBA will email or mail you the Notice to Schedule (NTS). Upon receiving the NTS, schedule your exam online through Prometric. You are able to apply for one or more sections of the examination at a time.

Candidates should apply for an exam section only if they are ready to take it within the next six months, and the NTS is valid for only a limited time.

The CPA exam consists of the three core sections and candidates would need to select one of the three discipline to demonstrate deeper skills and knowledge, allowing candidates to choose a specialization. There is no set order in which the exam portions must be completed.

You must pass all four CPA Exam sections within a rolling 30-month period beginning on the score-release date of the first passed section.

To meet the Minnesota CPA ethics exam requirements, all candidates must pass the AICPA Professional Ethics Comprehensive Course ‘For Licensure’ within the six months before or after submitting the initial CPA certificate application.

Along with the ethics requirement, candidates must meet the Minnesota CPA experience requirements and should complete an acceptable work requirement.

Minnesota’s experience requirement depends on the licensure pathway.
Candidates using the bachelor’s degree pathway need two years / 4,000 hours of experience.
Candidates using the master’s degree pathway need one year / 2,000 hours.
Candidates using the 150-credit pathway need one year / 2,000 hours.

Experience can be in public accounting, industry, education, or government and must be verified by a qualifying CPA with first-hand knowledge of the work.

Once ethics and experience requirements are complete, applicants may now begin processing their license application. The Minnesota board offers their license application online. Applicants will have to submit all records of the ethics and experience completion. See application instructions here.

Minnesota CPAs must have their license renewed annually. Prior to license renewal, all licensees must participate in a program of learning designed to maintain professional competency. The licensee will have to complete Continuing Professional Education (CPE) that is jointly approved by NASBA and AICPA or other standards acceptable to the board.

Minnesota active CPAs report CPE annually by December 31 for the three-year reporting period ending June 30. Active CPAs generally need 120 CPE hours over the rolling three-year reporting period, with a minimum annual component and applicable ethics requirements. See CPE Limitations for more details.

Renewals for Minnesota licensees can be done in their website with a $2.00 bank-charged fee. Make sure to have all information and documents ready before the renewal application. The state does not have a required form and licensees will simply submit the documents online. For more information, please visit Minnesota CPE Reporting.

Minnesota CPA certificates renew annually and expire on December 31. Current fees are $100 annually for active CPA certificates, $25 annually for inactive certificates, and $150 for an initial CPA certificate.