Mentorship and supervision - Ordre des CPA du Québec

The mentoring relationship the key to successful practical experience!

During your period of practical experience, you must be supervised by a CPA mentor, who will guide your competency development and model and facilitate the CPA profession’s values, ethics and attitudes. The mentor/mentee relationship helps you develop as a future CPA. It creates suitable conditions for critical thinking and improves problem-solving and decision-making. Your mentor will help you develop not only professionally, but also as a human being. Your line supervisor, in contrast, will monitor your daily work. In some situations, the same person may take on both of these complementary roles.

Your line supervisor in contrast, will monitor your daily work. In some situations, the same person may take on both of these complementary roles.

Are you a CPA mentor? Learn more about the process

The 5 steps of the mentorship program

Your mentor will guide you throughout your time as a candidate. These are the 5 main steps in the mentoring relationship to keep in mind for a successful practical experience period!

You are responsible for finding your CPA mentor once you have registered with the Order, begun your Professional Education Program (PEP) and started your period of practical experience.

• You must choose your mentor and assign them to this role when you declare the start of your practical experience in your online file.

However, if you completed part of your practical experience period before you registered, you did not need to be supervised by a mentor during this period of practical experience.

You mentor must confirm your match in their own online file, so that they can view and approve your practical experience reports.

For a practical experience period in public accountancy, the mentor must:

have the CPA auditor designation AND
perform audits at the accounting firm where the practical experience period is being completed.

To remember

Your mentor must be a CPA who is employed at the organization where you complete your period of practical experience.

If the organization employs CPAs, you must first check whether one of the CPAs in your organization can become your mentor.
If the organization does not employ any CPAs, you must find a mentor outside the organization.

If you change jobs and/or mentors, it is important to keep your mentor’s and your line superior’s names and information up to date. You can change this information directly in your online file..

The mentoring relationship has a better chance of success if the mentor and mentee start it off with the same concept of what the mentorship is and their respective roles within it.

It is important to schedule your first meeting with your mentor early on so that you can discuss and agree on your expectations with regard to the mentoring relationship and come up with a plan to develop your technical and enabling competencies during the period of practical experience.

Tips

Schedule all meetings in advance and add them to your calendar!

During the period of practical experience, you will develop the required technical and enabling competencies.

You are expected to document this experience by drafting and submitting two practical experience reports for each 12-month period of work through your online file.

Tips

Be proactive! To support your self-assessed competency levels in your practical experience reports, document detailed examples of tasks you have performed. Plan some time at the end of each month or engagement to consider your progress. The practical experience report is a living document that you can change at any time until you submit it to your mentor for review and approval.

Your practical experience report will need to cover your entire experience for a period of practical experience to be recognized.

Be prepared! Meet with your CPA mentor twice per 12-month period of work to discuss the progress you document in your practical experience report.

To remember

Your CPA mentor should encourage critical thinking and ask you questions about your accumulated experience.

Your mentor might ask you to make corrections to your practical experience report.

Your mentor will also be able to leave notes in your report to document the talking points of your meetings.*

*Mentors outside Quebec will not have access to your report. If they wish to leave a note in the report, they must write to stages@cpaquebec.ca.

A final meeting! By the end of your 24-month period of practical experience, you are expected to have developed sufficient technical and enabling competencies.

You must meet with your mentor for a final assessment of your progress.

You have a maximum period of 30 days after your practical experience period ends to submit a declaration of completion of your practical experience period and a report on the completion of your practical experience period to the Order through your online file. The report must cover the completed portion of the experience and be approved by your mentor.

To remember

The practical experience report should demonstrate your proficiency in the technical competencies and enabling competencies (note however that it does not have to cover all of the technical competencies). As with mid-term reports, your mentor may ask you to make corrections before approving them.

Once the report is approved by your mentor, it will be assessed by the Order. The Order may ask you to provide more information on your acquired experience in due course.

CPA mentor

Qualifications

- Member in good standing of the Order.
  Works at the same organization as you.
  
  In the event that no CPA members work at your organization, you can ask a different CPA in your network.
  
  For a practical experience period completed in public accountancy, the mentor must have a public accountancy permit AND perform audits at the accounting firm where the practical experience period is being completed.

Roles and responsibilities

Confirms the match in their online file.

Supervises your technical and enabling competency development. Models and facilitates the CPA profession’s values, ethics and attitudes.

Meets with you at least twice per year to discuss your progress in developing the competencies.

Gives you feedback in your practical experience report, approves it in due course, and records any unresolved concerns about your competency development in the practical experience report.

Line supervisor

Qualifications

Must rank higher in your organization’s hierarchy than you.
Is ideally a CPA, but this is not a requirement. They may also be the same person as the mentor, but this is also not a requirement. If the superior is not a mentor, they must act as a liaison and follow up with the mentor.

Roles and responsibilities

Confirms the daily tasks completed by the candidate.

Assigns work and tasks to the candidate that will allow them to acquire the technical and enabling competencies.

Does not assess the candidate’s progress in developing competencies, this is the mentor’s responsibility.

Resources

How to find your CPA mentor

Examples of positions eligible for a practical experience period

What is the mentor’s role?

What should you expect when starting your practical experience period?