PrintProgram Curriculum and Course List
Advanced Studies in Financial Reporting
This course covers generally accepted accounting principles for business enterprises and governmental and nonprofit organizations. It will cover the concepts and standards for financial statements. for financial statements. Pedagogy will include extensive use of accounting case studies and introduction to the use of the codification. Typical items to be discussed will include recognition, measurement, valuation, and presentation of various elements in financial statements in conformity with GAAP.
Advanced Auditing & Assurance Services
This course is designed to prepare students to successfully plan and perform various attestation services. This course will cover the generally accepted auditing standards and procedures and include contemporary issues in auditing. Pedagogy will include use of case studies.
Advanced Federal Taxation
This course focuses on advanced topics in the income taxation of corporations and flow-through business entities (partnerships, subchapter S corporations, limited partnerships, etc.) including formation, allocations, distributions, redemptions, reorganizations and terminations. Additional advanced topics covered include: the personal holding company tax, issues related to brother-sister corporations, penalties for improper accumulation of surplus and consolidated tax returns. The course will develop skills in identifying and researching issues in taxation.
Concepts & Analysis of Financial Statements
This course focuses on how users of financial statements incorporate accounting data into their financial evaluation. The course will use ratios and other tools to measure profitability and risk. The course will also examine techniques for forecasting future earnings performance as inputs in models of equity valuation. Students will analyze a major US corporation in parallel with class material and will achieve an awareness of current financial reporting issues.
Colloquium on Current Issues in Accounting Practice
Students attend and participate in forums, seminars and conferences on current issues in accounting practice. Professionals from public accounting and industry will speak on topics of current interest in accounting, auditing and income taxes. The Colloquia will be spread throughout the three semesters of the MAcc program.
Enterprise Systems & Internal Controls
This course provides an understanding of the principal characteristics and functions of accounting information systems and an appreciation of the controls that should be in place for the major areas of business activity. Ethical issues, the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the necessary controls of databases are examined in detail. ERP, electronic business issues, and systems- design considerations–particularly accounting and website security and the impact of outsourcing–are covered toward the end of the course.
Strategic Technology and Performance Management
This course provides an overview of the key concepts necessary to understand the role of information technology in business, the impact of economy-wide changes on financial performance, the analysis and implementation of competitive strategy, and systems to control and enhance performance.
Law, Ethics & Regulation
This course provides an introduction to the legal and regulatory framework in which businesses and individuals operate. The course covers the basics of business law
(agency, contracts, debtors, creditors) and the general business environment (business structures, management rights and responsibilities, the requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, etc.).
Professional Skills Development
This course is designed to impart important professional skills. Students will take a series of modules during the fall semester, each of which is a multi-day intensive workshop. The workshops will focus on the development of specific skills, such as communication (written and oral), team building, leadership, technology and Excel proficiency, etc.
Taxes & Business Strategy
This course examines tax strategies associated with business decisions. The material focuses on a conceptual framework for integrating tax planning into the decision-making process and applying tax planning tools and techniques to business and investment activities, including savings vehicles, business entity choice, financial statement analysis, executive compensation, capital structure, mergers and acquisitions, and international tax planning.
