Curriculum

The Master of Accountancy (MACC) program is focused on the changing face of business and meeting those challenges with cutting-edge accounting practices. The comprehensive curriculum, along with the program prerequisites, satisfies the 150-hour/36-hour educational requirements necessary for certification and licensure as a CPA.

Course Descriptions

Advanced Auditing:
The course builds on the skills obtained in the beginning auditing

• Audit planning, evidence and reporting procedures as applied in financial statement audits.
• Fraud examination techniques related to the misappropriation of assets and fraudulent financial reporting.

The primary goal is to further develop student ability to understand and apply audit planning, evidence and reporting procedures.

Advanced Financial Accounting:
This course covers complex financial accounting topics including forecasting, mergers and acquisitions, consolidations, segment reporting, foreign currency translations, hedging, and fair value accounting. The course takes the student beyond understanding the mechanics of the various transactions to analyzing and evaluating their usage in practice.

Forensic Accounting:
Topics include litigation support, economic damages, cyber crime and business valuations. Our approach will be to discuss the issues relevant to each topic area and then to focus on case studies wherein participants will have an opportunity to apply various knowledge and skills to arrive at conclusions. The skills will include report writing in the litigation environment, presentation and defense of positions taken. This course will include a high level of interaction among students and between students and the faculty member.

Controls Analysis and Non Profit Accounting:
The primary goals of this course are to help you understand the following:

• How an organization seeks to achieve its strategic, operational, reporting and compliance objectives through planned risk management
• The regulatory environment concerning corporate governance and services rendered by accounting firms
• Unique aspects of non-profit accounting and auditing

Performance Measurement and Advanced Managerial Accounting:
This course provides a framework to address issues related to performance measurement in organizations. Discussions focus on the significance of proper linkages and fit among the organization’s strategic goals, its management control system (MCS) and the function of performance measurement. A theoretical and conceptual framework on incentive/compensation, human resource management and management control will be offered during the first module of the class. The course will close with discussions on the system aspect and implications of designing an enterprise-wide integrated performance measurement (ERP).

Shareholder Value Creation & Financial Statement Analysis:
This course examines the role of financial statements and non-financial indicators in providing valuation information useful to managers and financial markets. Modules explore the competitive positioning of companies within industries and strategies used to optimize competitive position, the interrelation of competitive strategy and financial statements, and procedures used by analysts in valuing companies.

Taxes and Business Strategy:
This course is designed to make you appreciate the pervasive role of taxes in business decision-making. The course integrates knowledge of the tax laws with the fundamentals of corporate finance and microeconomics. Through this integration, the course provides a framework for understanding how taxes affect decision-making, asset prices and the financial and operational structure of firms. In addition, the course will integrate tax with financial accounting by emphasizing the differences and trade-offs between the taxation and financial reporting of a transaction. In contrast with the technical tax courses, the focus of this course will be on the economic consequences of alternative contracting arrangements rather than on the myriad details of the tax laws. You will be exposed to some of the intricacies of the tax laws, but that is not the central mission of the course.

Professional Accounting Research:
The course is designed to apply the technical knowledge of accounting theory and principles developed in other academic courses through the use of real-life case studies, where such knowledge and professional judgment is applied in resolving advanced accounting problems and issues. This should result in developing analytical and research capabilities through case analysis and communication and interpersonal skills through written and oral presentations.