The CPA Way and where the PSP leads

Names only

CPA Canada publishes The CPA Way — the profession's own problem-solving process, taught in the CPA PEP and examined on the CFE. Its text is licensed for reference only, so this lesson uses the step names and the structure, which are facts, and nothing of the descriptors, which are not ours to reproduce. The names, exactly as CPA Canada gives them: Assess the Situation · Analyze Major Issue(s) · Conclude and Advise · Communicate, with the CPA Mindset at the centre — CPA Canada counts the mindset as a fifth part, so you will see "five parts" on its page and "four steps around a mindset" here; they are the same thing.

The mapping

Put the SAF PSP beside it and the point of the whole course appears: the PSP is the CPA Way learned early. Stage 1, assess the situation is the first step under the same name. Stage 2, identify and analyse the issues and stage 3, develop and analyse alternatives both sit inside Analyze Major Issue(s) — the profession folds issue-finding and alternative-testing into one step, which is why the mapping is five-to-four and not one-to-one, and why an SAF graduate's stage-3 matrix habit is an advantage on a CPA case. Stage 4, decide and recommend is Conclude and Advise. Stage 5, communicate is Communicate. The ethical mindset the course put at the centre of every value conflict (Module 3) is the CPA Mindset at the centre of the CPA Way. The figure shows the four steps in a column with the PSP stage each absorbs.

The enabling competencies — say which map

The CPA Competency Map is the profession's statement of what a newly certified CPA can do. Two documents exist, and they organise the "enabling" side differently, so name the one you mean. The CPA Competency Map, Part 1, effective January 2023 — the map still linked from CPA Canada's page at time of writing — has six technical areas and seven enabling competency areas: Acting Ethically and Demonstrating Professional Values · Leading · Collaborating · Managing Self · Adding Value · Solving Problems and Making Decisions · Communicating. Competency Map 2.0, written for the programme launching in January 2027, drops the enabling/technical split altogether and organises everything around a CPA Ethical Mindset, a decision process and a common core. An older map had five enabling names, and you will still meet them in secondhand notes; they are not the current list.

Read the seven 2023 areas against this course and each has a module: acting ethically (Modules 2–3), managing self (Module 1, and the SMART goals ahead), solving problems and making decisions (Modules 4–7), communicating (Modules 8–10), collaborating and leading (the group case, Module 11), adding value (the recommendation itself). AFM 111 is the enabling competencies in disguise — which is the answer to "why is a course with no exam worth 0.5 credits".

Complete the mapping

Before the questions, write the four CPA Way names down the left and the five PSP stages on the right, and draw the arrows. One CPA step takes two arrows. Then recite the four names cold.