MS in Accounting Curriculum

This course provides an understanding of analytics and information technology fundamentals such as
business process management, enterprise resource planning and information security. Through hands on work with applications such as Excel, Tableau and SAP, students learn to extract and transform relevant data from an enterprise system, assess security-related issues, apply data analytic techniques, interpret results and make data-driven decisions. (3 Credits)

This course introduces students to important ethical issues in the context of business activities. Students will gain an understanding of the relationship between business organizations and society at large, and gain an awareness of the social and economic environments in which ethical issues arise. Students will be introduced to ethical frameworks and theories to help them develop the reasoning and analytical skills essential to addressing these important and sometimes difficult issues. The course will focus on the importance of ethics in decision-making to the long-term success of the business enterprise. (3 Credits)

This course helps students apply their knowledge of financial accounting, business strategy, and finance in the evaluation of corporations using financial reports. Decision settings include stock evaluation, credit analysis, bankruptcy prediction, and general purpose evaluation. The course is a mixture of concepts underlying financial statement analysis and their application to real companies’ financial statements. (3 Credits)

Students will use audit concepts and auditing standards covered in undergraduate auditing class to further enhance their understanding of the audit environment and audit issues that professionals face. The class will center on case studies and scenarios in applying concepts and critical thinking skills in an audit context. Students will be expected to evaluate the case materials, identify important issues, and communicate those in a clear, coherent manner. Some cases will require students to work in "audit teams" and then present their audit findings to the class and professor. The class will also discuss current audit research being conducted, with a focus on research that can impact professional practice and/or professional standards. (3 Credits)

The fourth course in the Financial Accounting sequence providing an overview of consolidated financial statements, non-controlling interest and the consolidation process; understanding the components of comprehensive income, other comprehensive income and accumulated other comprehensive income and clean surplus; an overview of fund accounting; valuing and reporting derivatives and other complex financial instruments. The course includes a research component and an introduction to the FASB Accounting Standards Codification system requiring students to research and opine on highly-technical financial reporting cases. (3 Credits)

Primary focus is on the implications of current tax law and policies for business decisions. Emphasis is given to the social impact of tax expenditures, and the relevancy of tax policy for the development of economic incentives. (3 Credits)

This course teaches students how to maximize spreadsheets as a data management tool using advanced functions and formulas. Students will learn how to efficiently manipulate, format, and automate data, and use spreadsheets to build customized reports, dashboards, amazing charts, pivot tables and macros. Students will learn the following software: Advanced Excel with Macros, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Microsoft Office, and Power Query. This course is applicable to all business disciplines. Prerequisites: basic spreadsheet knowledge.

This course provides an introduction to Business Intelligence, including the processes, methodologies, infrastructure, and current practices used to transform business data into useful information and support business decision-making.  Business Intelligence requires foundation knowledge in data storage and retrieval, thus this course will review logical data models for both database management systems and data warehouses. Students will learn to extract and manipulate data from these systems and assess security-related issues. Data mining, visualization, and statistical analysis along with reporting options such as management dashboards and balanced scorecards will be covered. Students will learn the following software and skills: Database management, SQL, data warehousing, and visualization with Tableau.

This course provides an introduction to programming with a focus on business and analytics applications. The curriculum supports the development of skills in data extraction and manipulation as well as automating data analysis tasks. Students will become adept in the use of important libraries and will be able to use trusted open-source resources to support continued development of programming skills. Students will learn Python w/ visualization and analytics libraries. No prior programming experience expected.

This course builds upon the content covered in 704-Exploring Data Analytics for Accounting Professionals, by continuing to develop the skillset and approaches needed to be an analytically-minded accounting professional. Students will learn how to assess and communicate business problems, to evaluate and analyze data and to develop and effectively present data-driven recommendations. *Part of the data analytics focus. Pre-Req: SCH-MGMT 704 (3 Credits)

Students will learn from experienced forensic accounting practitioners and real-life case studies to develop an understanding of the fundamentals of forensic accounting, including its applications in fraud investigation, fraud prevention, corporate and regulatory compliance, litigation support and expert witness testimony. Topics will include leading practices in executing forensic assignments, relevant accounting professional standards, the regulations and legal requirements affecting engagements, the type of scrutiny encountered in courtrooms, boardrooms or other administrative venues, and the linkages between forensic accounting and auditing, internal control and corporate governance. *Part of the forensic accounting focus. (3 Credits)

In this class, students will develop an understanding of the key elements of an investigation of an allegation of fraud, using real-life case studies as the backdrop for the course. Students will work in groups to conduct an investigation, employing skills in interviewing, research, analysis of accounting and non-accounting evidential matter. The workshop will address challenges in structuring an investigation, iterative problem-solving, data analysis and other forensic accounting techniques and communication of results. The course will also discuss the corporate governance and management challenges in managing the response to fraud incidents and whistleblower allegations and the implications for professionals with responsibility for business management, financial reporting, taxation, auditing, consulting and enforcement roles. The course will conclude with a courtroom-style presentation of investigation findings and cross-examination. *Part of the forensic accounting focus. Prereq: SCH-MGMT 620 (3 Credits)

This course teaches students how to use state and local tax concepts, and how to make better organizational and investment decisions as tax professionals. The course focuses on strategic tax planning for enterprises as they are formed, operated, acquired, and liquidated. It will enhance the student's insight with regard to the integration of regulatory costs into management decision making. *Elective choice for forensic focus. (3 Credits)

This course teaches students how to use state and local tax concepts, and how to make better organizational and investment decisions as tax professionals. The course focuses on strategic tax planning for enterprises as they are formed, operated, acquired, and liquidated. It will enhance the student's insight with regard to the integration of regulatory costs into management decision making. *Part of the taxation focus. Pre-Req: SCH-MGMT 736 (3 Credits)

This class provides an in-depth analysis of one of the most popular pass-through entity, the partnership. The life-cycle of the partnership from the creation to the sale or dissolution of the partnership will be studied. In addition, partnership allocations of profit and losses, basis issues, partner distributions, deduction of losses and several other items will be studied in this class. *Part of the taxation focus. Pre-Req: SCH-MGMT 736 (3 Credits)

Students will have the opportunity to develop their tax research skills through practical exercises. The class will expose students to primary sources, including the Internal Revenue Code, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regulations and the FASB Codification through the use of sample case studies and the use of research and practice tools used by many tax practitioners. Students will also learn how to communicate the results of their tax research through various methods used by professionals. Current tax developments will be addressed in the class as well. *Part of the taxation focus. (3 Credits) 

This course provides an introduction to topics in managerial data mining, and related data retrieval and manipulation content. Models in regression, clustering, neural nets, classification, and association rule mining are applied to business data sets. In this managerially-focused course, students will learn how to use such models and interpret output. Students will also be introduced to a programming language for extraction and manipulation of data. Students will learn XLMiner, SAP Predictive Analysis, and Intro to R programming. Experiential exercises will be assigned using leading industry applications.

This course examines the generally accepted accounting principles applicable to governmental entities (as issued by GASB) as well as accounting principles applicable to nonprofit entities (as issued by FASB). The focus will be on the financial statements and reports prepared by state and local governments and financial reporting for the wide array of nonprofit entities with an emphasis on the contrast of these entities with for-profit accounting. (3 Credits)