CPA FAR Prep: GAAP, Consolidation & Government Accounting

Most CPA candidates fail FAR not because they lack intelligence, but because they studied the wrong things at the wrong depth. They memorize definitions and freeze when the exam asks them to apply a rule to a specific transaction. This course is built around that gap. Every topic is taught the way a FAR question will test it: with the numbers, the journal entries, and the decision points that separate the right answer from the trap. The course covers the three areas that together account for the bulk of FAR's difficulty. First, GAAP fundamentals: the FASB conceptual framework, the four core financial statements, and the cash flow indirect method reconciliation that trips up candidates who never actually built one from scratch. Second, business combinations: acquisition-method accounting, goodwill calculations, consolidation worksheets, and intercompany eliminations, including the upstream-versus-downstream profit scenarios that appear on nearly every exam. Third, government and nonprofit accounting: fund types, modified accrual timing, the reconciliation from fund-level to government-wide statements, and nonprofit net asset classifications. Each of these areas has its own logic, and this course teaches that logic, not just the rules. The final unit also addresses how FAR is actually taken: a four-hour exam with specific MCQ patterns the AICPA reuses consistently. You will learn to recognize those patterns, eliminate distractors quickly, and manage your time across the exam. By the end of this course, you will be able to sit down with a FAR question on any of these topics and work through it, not guess at it.