Master of Accounting

This course takes a user-oriented approach to the design of management accounting procedures and systems. The course also emphasizes the challenges and opportunities from new information technology and the new technology of modern operating and service processes. The course features the innovative management accounting developments that leading companies around the world are using, including activity-based costing and management, kaizen and target costing and the Balanced Scorecard.

The objectives of this course are to 1) increase your familiarity with advanced financial reporting topics by considering the economics of selected transactions, 2) develop your understanding regarding whether and how treatment under generally accepted accounting principles captures the economics of those transactions and events, and 3) enhance your ability to rigorously evaluate corporate financial reports. The course builds on the concepts and methods introduced in Intermediate Accounting taking the perspective of both the user and the preparer of financial statement information. It examines in more detail the FASB/GAAP accounting model and the financial reporting environment, including management reporting incentives. The course focuses on contemporary reporting issues critical to understanding corporate financial statements, emphasizing the interpretation of financial statement disclosures and how this information is used by analysts to evaluate the financial health of a firm.

This course presents the tax skills necessary to make business decisions regarding Corporations, Partnerships, Estates and Trusts. Emphasis is placed on such areas as organization and capital structure, earnings and profits, dividend distribution, redemptions, liquidations and reorganization of corporations. In addition, flow through entities such as partnerships and S Corporations will be studied along with estates, trusts, family tax planning and exempt entities. Practical application of the tax law will be emphasized with proper consideration placed on the historical, economic and political perspectives of the Internal Revenue.

Designed to broaden and deepen a student's conceptual and technical understanding of the attest function from an external and internal perspective. Provide a student with a framework for analyzing contemporary auditing and assurance issues. Auditing expertise will be developed by reading and discussing current academic and professional literature and by analyzing auditing case studies.

The globalization of business along with greater advances in technology has increased the complexity of ethical decision making in business. An understanding of business ethics has thus become a crucial element in the organizational environment. The purpose of this course is to help students improve their ability to make ethical decisions in business by providing them with a framework that they can use to identify, analyze, and resolve ethical issues in business decision making. In addition to individual decision making, business ethics and social responsibility are important parts of a firm's business strategy. Issues such as conflicts between personal values and organizational goals; the role of sustainability in business strategy; and the importance of stakeholder relationships, corporate governance, and the development of ethics programs and an ethical culture in an organization will be discussed.

The basic principles of fund accounting are covered, including the analysis of financial management systems applicable to local government units. Course will also introduce students to major pronouncements of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). An introduction to government auditing is also provided, including a review of Government Auditing Standards, promulgated by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). The Single Audit requirements for state and local governments will be covered, as well.

This course provides selective analysis of current accounting topics addressing important issues in contemporary accounting practice.