Accounting

Keith Cherry, Molly Ford, RJ Dunnigan, Eric Veguilla,Vanessa Haupt and Riley Ahrens

What is Accounting?

Accounting is a discipline which provides financial information that is essential to the efficient conduct and evaluation of the activities of an organization.

Different Sectors of Accounting

Financial – Analysis for people on the outside of an organization. Information based off of a companies accounting records.

Managerial – Analyzes information for the managers of an organization.

Auditing - Auditors check the validity of the information within an organization.

Tax – Responsible for preparing tax returns.

Financial Statements

An essential part of being an accountant is being able to understand and prepare financial statements.

Debits and Credits

Understanding what debits and credits are is also a fundamental part of accounting (double-entry accounting).

The link below will provide a clip that easily explains debits and credits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaZiAiETW_Y&feature=related

Fields of Accounting

AuditTaxFinancial and

Management

Skills Required

People SkillsSale SkillsCommunication skillsAnalytical SkillsAbility to SynthesizeCreative AbilityInitiativeComputer Skills

Job Requirements

Being a team oriented personStaying on top of new technologyHaving a strong business networkHaving good people skills

Useful Traits

Being good with numbersBeing a good communicatorPaying close attention to detailsManaging your time successfullyBeing committed and motivated

Ethics in Accounting

"Ethics in its broader sense, deals with human conduct in relation to what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. It is the application of values to decision making. These values include honesty, fairness, responsibility, respect and compassion." ~ Rushworth Kidder (President, Institute for Global Ethic).

The Importance of Ethics in Accounting

Fraud is the result of not having an ethical accountant. Fraud: an intentional deception of a company’s assets. Leads to the manipulation of a company’s financial

data in order to receive an advantage.

Losses due to unethical behavior Costs of legal action that has to be taken Costs of reduced productivity Unemployment Bankruptcy

Trust

Fair- not misleading any sort of information.Being unbiased- staying true to the right

direction. Without trust a relationship can not be formed. Once

the trust is broken the company is at risk of bankruptcy because establishing trust once broken is really not an option in many peoples eyes.

In the absence of trust…

Market’s crash- stock market in 1929. Leading to the Great Depression

Audit FailuresEnron

Hiding debts Damaged public confidence in corporate America. The cost of this fraud was immeasurable to the

economy.

Competence and Ethics

No matter how ethical you are if you do not know about the company there is no way that the public can be protected.

Audit Failures come from, in many instances, incompetence.

Unimpeachable Ethics is very much needed as well.

Ethics

Ethical rules are what define a person’s ability to think and act

These set of rules state boundaries in the corporate world to maintain an important concept by which any accountant is to follow.

Accounting Ethics: “ A set of distinct guidelines for a business to maintain clean balance sheet, accounting for their profits, losses and expenses incurred and prevent it from mishandling financial reports and statements.”

Behavior is Ethical if…

A choice is in accordance with one’s value, which are based upon the correct principles.

One chooses the choice that is more right, more moral, and more fair than the others.

Showing integrity Consistently choosing to make ethical choices when

faced with various situations

Prerequisites

Prerequisites for Accounting

Courses

ACC 1101 (Principles of Accounting)

HON 1101 (Intro to

Accounting)VSB 2010 (Financial

Management &

Reporting)

Required Courses

Intermediate

Accountin

g I

Intermediate Accounting II

Auditing

Federal

Income Tax

Must be taken to earn a degree in

Accounting

Electives

ACC 2340 (Accounting Info Systems)

ACC 2470 (Cost Accounting)

ACC 2480 (Advanced Taxes)

ACC 2420 (International Accounting)

ACC 2450 (Advanced Accounting)

ACC 3350 (Fraud Examination)

There are six elective courses offered for the Accounting

Major

Electives

Of these six electives, students must select two.

• Each of the courses for the Accounting major is worth 3.0 credit hours

All of these required courses are in addition to the Business and Core Curriculum at VSB

Opportunities at Villanova

Go visit the Clay Center in Bartley Hall about: Study Abroad Co-Ops Internships

Study Abroad

London, England (The London School of Economics)

Madrid, SpainGeneva, SwitzerlandShanghai, ChinaEach program takes place during the

summer and includes at least one academic class for credit as well as a six-week long internship with a local business

Coordinate with both the Clay Center and the Office for International Studies

Co-Ops

Delaware Country District Attorney’s Office Forensic Accounting/Economic Crimes Co-Op

The Johnson & Johnson Finance/ Accounting Co-Op

Requirements Junior status in the Villanova School of Business Majoring in accounting, finance or economics Maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher

Internships

Spring Accounting Internship Program For Juniors at VSB who are majoring in Accounting Full-time, 14-week, in-depth Dr. James Emig runs the program

Start searching for information in Spring of your Sophomore year at VSB

Meetings and deadlines are posted and Dr. Emig makes certain meetings mandatory for participation

Resume needs to be submitted by July preceding your Junior year

Companies

Companies With Local Offices

Mayer Hoffman McCann, Larson Allen Weishair & Co., Smart and Associates, Parente Randolph, Withum Smith & Brown, Goldenberg Rosenthal, Beard Miller Company, Schneider Downs & Co., Hill Barth & King, Alpern Rosenthal & Co., Morris J. Cohen & Co., and Mitchell & Titus all have offices in Pennsylvania

Outlook

Overall: very bright futureAbout 1.3 million jobs in 2008Expected to grow by 22 percent between

2008-2018 Increasing number of businesses Strict corporate rules and government laws Importance of the stakeholder

Jobs

Public Accountant

Management Accountant

Government Accountant

Internal Auditor

Salaries

Top 10%: $102,380

Bottom 10%: $36,720

Median in May 2008 Survey: $59,430

Source: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos001.htm#earnings