1.1 The AIPB CB Credential, Exam Structure & Requirements

Why the CB credential matters

The American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) Certified Bookkeeper (CB) designation is a national credential for working bookkeepers. AIPB's self-study handbook states that the designation assures the ability to carry out all bookkeeping functions through the adjusted trial balance, including basic payroll, for firms of up to 100 employees. That sentence is the scope of this entire OpenExamPrep guide. You are not studying to issue audit opinions, prepare SEC filings, or run a public-company consolidation. You are studying to be the person who can take a mid-size firm's books from source documents through accruals, deferrals, error correction, payroll, depreciation, inventory costing, and basic fraud controls.

AIPB is explicit that the program is not basic bookkeeping and does not teach novices to become bookkeepers. To use the training materials, you should already be a working bookkeeper or have about one year of college accounting (or the equivalent). If you cannot yet record a simple sale, post to a ledger, or explain why Cash normally carries a debit balance, build that floor first. The four-part exam assumes it.

This chapter is independent OpenExamPrep teaching. Official AIPB workbooks, the 99-hour online course, Prometric sittings, workbook finals, and the Code of Ethics remain AIPB's products and rules. The guide helps learners study the same skill areas AIPB tests. It is not an AIPB publication and does not claim AIPB approval, partnership, or exact equivalence with AIPB materials.

Three requirements, not just a score

AIPB lists three requirements to become a Certified Bookkeeper:

1. Pass the four-part national certification exam. All tests are multiple-choice. Parts 1 and 2 are given at Prometric Test Centers. Parts 3 and 4 are open-book finals that come with two of the workbooks.
2. Sign the Certified Bookkeeper Code of Ethics.
3. Submit evidence of at least 2 years' full-time bookkeeping experience or 3,000 hours' part-time or freelance experience.

Experience may be completed before or after you pass the exam. You have 3 years from the date you pass the entire exam to document it. AIPB's handbook notes that undergraduates can include internships and tax- or accounting-related volunteerism such as VITA, but not simply office work. Answering phones, making copies, or "helping with QuickBooks screenshots" does not become bookkeeping experience because the job is in an office. The evidence form asks a supervisor or client to confirm dates and duties; AIPB expects at least three bookkeeping-type duties from a checklist that includes journal entries, bank reconciliations, payroll, trial-balance work, inventory, depreciation, and similar tasks.

Trap: waiting until year four after passing to gather signatures. The clock is three years after passing the entire exam, not three years after you remember to look for old supervisors.

Registration, two clocks, and published prices

File AIPB's application and pay a nonrefundable fee: $25 if you are an AIPB member and $60 if you are not. AIPB asks you to allow about four weeks for processing. Once the application is processed, two clocks start:

• One year to complete any one exam part. If you complete none, you must register again.
• Three years to pass all parts. If you do not, you must re-register and take all tests again.

Do not mash those clocks together. Finishing Part 1 in month 11 does not mean the remaining parts each get a brand-new three-year window that ignores the original registration. The one-year rule is about getting something done after processing. The three-year rule is about finishing everything.

Part 1 and Part 2 Prometric fees are $100 each ($200 total if both sittings are passed on the first attempt). AIPB's 2024 Handbook for Self-Study CB Exam Prep listed a typical self-study package—registration, six workbooks, and two Prometric fees—at $479 for members and $574 for nonmembers before shipping. AIPB's 99-hour online Certified Bookkeeper prep course is $1,495 and includes the certification registration fee, instructor-led online lessons, all six workbooks, and Prometric test-center fees. AIPB states that bundle saves $300 versus buying the pieces separately. Re-check aipb.org before you pay; this guide cites the published figures from AIPB's certification pages and 2024 handbook.

AIPB does not publish a public item count for any part. Never invent one, and never treat the size of a third-party practice bank as the real exam. AIPB also does not publish an official public pass-rate percentage.

The four-part exam, hour by hour

Each Prometric hour is separately scored. If you score 90% on Adjusting Entries and 70% on Error Correction, you have not passed Part 1. You passed Test 1 and failed Test 2. The same math applies to Payroll versus Depreciation. AIPB's own retest example is this situation: if you pass Payroll but not Depreciation, you retake only Depreciation. The wait is 30 days. The fee to retake one Prometric test/part is $60. There is no AIPB retake fee for a workbook-final retake.

Parts 1 and 2 may be taken in either order. AIPB recommends scheduling Part 1 first. Tests are given on a PC. Prometric offers an optional tutorial. Your score prints at the center when you finish. AIPB describes Prometric test centers. This guide does not claim remote or at-home testing; plan travel, IDs, and a calculator that meets the rules below.

Prometric identification and calculator rules

Bring two forms of identification. One must include a photo. Both must show the same name and signature. A passport in a married name plus a credit card in a maiden name is a classic denial. AIPB lists acceptable primary IDs as a valid state driver's license, valid passport, state ID card, military ID card, or student ID card, and acceptable secondary IDs as a credit card, ATM card, or green card.

You may use a nonprinting, nonprogrammable, self-powered calculator. Graphing calculators, printing calculators, and phones do not belong in the room. You may not take test materials out. Anyone suspected of irregularities is reported to AIPB. You sit only on the day and time scheduled.

Parts 3 and 4 are a different animal

Inventory and Internal Controls are untimed, open-book, multiple-choice finals in the back of those two workbooks. Passing is 70%, not 75%. There is no extra exam fee. Do not appear at Prometric expecting an inventory sitting. Do not treat open-book as automatic: you still have to produce the right cost-flow result, journal entry, or control failure. AIPB notes that the final exam in the back of Mastering Inventory and Mastering Internal Controls and Fraud Prevention is the national exam for those parts.

Six official skill workbooks

AIPB's self-study path uses six workbooks. Each section ends with a double-quiz. AIPB states that national-exam questions are similar to, but never duplicates of, those quizzes.

1. Mastering Adjusting Entries — accrual versus cash; accrued revenue; accrued expenses; unearned revenue; prepaid (deferred) expenses; other adjusting entries such as depreciation and bad debt; from the unadjusted trial balance to the financial statements.
2. Mastering Correction of Accounting Errors — where errors occur and how to find them; the bank reconciliation; using the trial balance to find errors; correcting current-period accrual errors; correcting current-period deferral errors.
3. Mastering Payroll — employees versus nonemployees; federal versus state laws; paying employees under federal law; required payroll data; Form W-4 and state withholding; withholding and depositing taxes; federal reporting forms; when wages are taxable; other federal and state requirements; payroll journal entries.
4. Mastering Depreciation — book versus tax depreciation; GAAP methods (straight-line, units-of-production, declining-balance, sum-of-the-years'-digits); federal tax depreciation; depreciating vehicles under MACRS.
5. Mastering Inventory — merchandise inventory; perpetual and periodic methods; weighted-average, FIFO, and LIFO costing; lower of cost or net realizable value (LCNRV). Older AIPB handbook text still says lower of cost or market (LCM); current U.S. GAAP measurement language for inventory is LCNRV. Later inventory chapters teach LCNRV and note the older phrase when it appears.
6. Mastering Internal Controls and Fraud Prevention — how employees steal noncash assets; prevention before theft starts; check fraud; credit-card fraud; vendor cheating; con schemes and other scams.

Code of Ethics and the 60-CPEC rule

You must sign the Code of Ethics as part of the application. The code distinguishes internal bookkeepers (obligations to the employer, society, and the profession) from public/freelance bookkeepers (obligations to the client, society, and the profession). Recurring duties: provide high-quality work, stay current, protect confidential information, be loyal, avoid conflicts of interest, act with integrity, and remain objective. A hard operational rule in AIPB's text: if asked to do something that is not in accordance with professional standards, try to resolve it inside the employer's structure (or with the client). If you cannot resolve it, resign. AIPB's code says you should not report the situation to an outside group or agency unless required by law.

To retain the designation, earn a total of 60 Continuing Professional Education Credits (CPECs) every 3 years, starting from the date you are certified. AIPB lists $3 per CPEC to register credits and states that certified bookkeepers receive information on free sources for earning them.

Independent OpenExamPrep materials versus AIPB materials

Use AIPB for registration, clocks, IDs, workbook finals, and current fees. Use this guide to learn the mechanics: adjusting entries, bank recs, payroll math, depreciation, inventory, and control red flags. Neither product replaces the other, and this guide does not substitute for AIPB's application or Code of Ethics signature.

Worked candidate path (use the published rules, not averages)

Jordan is the staff bookkeeper at a 40-person HVAC company—inside AIPB's "up to 100 employees" skill picture. Jordan is already doing monthly closes and payroll, so the "not a novice" warning does not block the attempt. Jordan joins AIPB, files the application, and pays the $25 member registration fee. After processing, the one-year and three-year clocks are running.

Jordan studies adjusting entries and error correction, then sits Part 1 at a Prometric center with a driver's license, a credit card in the same name, and a basic nonprogrammable calculator. Results print on site: Adjusting Entries 82%, Error Correction 71%. Jordan did not pass Part 1. The 82% does not rescue the 71%, and there is no "80% combined" override. After the 30-day wait, Jordan retakes only Error Correction for $60, scores 78%, and now has Part 1.

Jordan next sits Part 2 ($100): Payroll 76%, Depreciation 75%. Both hours clear the 75% each bar. Jordan then completes the untimed Mastering Inventory and Mastering Internal Controls and Fraud Prevention workbook finals at 70% or better. There is no extra exam fee and no Prometric appointment for those two parts. Jordan already has two years of full-time bookkeeping, signs the Code of Ethics (done with the application), and submits the experience form. AIPB's handbook says the certificate is issued within about two weeks of completing the last requirement.

If Jordan had been a weekend freelancer instead, the experience target would be 3,000 hours, not two calendar years of "helping out at a friend's shop." If those hours included a VITA season posting returns under a site coordinator, AIPB's handbook treats that tax/accounting volunteerism as eligible. A year as a front-desk coordinator would not.

Exam traps to lock now: (1) treating CB as an intro bookkeeping class; (2) averaging the two Prometric hours; (3) assuming Parts 3–4 are Prometric tests at 75%; (4) inventing a question count or pass rate AIPB has not published; (5) missing the one-year "any one part" clock after processing; (6) bringing mismatched IDs or a programmable calculator; (7) assuming you can test from home.