Accountancy Undergraduate Courses

An introduction to financial accounting and the accounting profession with an emphasis on the decision-usefulness of accounting information. The course stresses the relation of accounting to economic activity, organizing information for decision-making, the resource acquisition decision, the uses of cash and non-cash resources, the accounting for selling and manufacturing activities, and the information needs of multiple owners, lenders, and equity holders. A prerequisite of all accountancy and finance courses. Ordinarily taken by business sophomores in the fall. Also offered to non-business students. Recommended University elective.

A continuation of the introduction to accounting, with an emphasis on the use of accounting information and analysis for management decision and control. The purpose of the course is the learning of accounting techniques such as budget preparation, cost-volume-profit analysis, variable costing, contribution margins, relevant costing, performance evaluation of business units, transfer pricing and responsibility accounting for the planning, decision making and management control inside an organization. To complete a general knowledge of accounting and its usefulness in financial reporting and control the course also includes an introduction to auditing, attestation, corporate governance and the impact of Sarbanes Oxley Act on business organizations, plus an introduction to US taxation for individuals and corporations.
Prerequisite: ACCT 20100

This one-semester course is designed for finance majors and others who wish to develop an advanced knowledge of financial reporting in the corporate environment. The course covers financial statement preparation and analyses with a focus on understanding financial accounting information from a user perspective. NOTE: FINANCE MAJORS WISHING TO SIT FOR THE CPA EXAM, PURSUE A MASTERS DEGREE IN ACCOUNTANCY, OR TAKE ADDITIONAL UPPER LEVEL ACCOUNTING COURSES MUST ENROLL IN ACCT 30110 INSTEAD.
Prerequisite: FIN 20150, ACCT 20200

This course deals with the accounting process used to measure and report economic events. The primary goals are: to understand the role financial reporting plays in providing decision useful information; to understand the economics underlying common business transactions and to learn the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) that set the reporting and disclosure requirements for those transactions; to evaluate the efficacy of GAAP; and to understand the motivations that lead managers to select one accounting principle over another.
Prerequisite: FIN 20150, ACCT 20200

Continues the study of financial accounting. Topics include accounting for income taxes, leases, stock-based compensation, pension plans, and equity investments including passive investments, equity method investments, and consolidated reporting for majority-owned operations. Contractual and economic issues, contemporary developments, and financial disclosures are integral parts of each topical discussion. The course is designed to strengthen the technical, communication, and critical thinking skills required to succeed in accounting-related careers.
Prerequisite: ACCT 30110

A30210 at the University of Notre Dame is the second of a two-course sequence that addresses cost and management accounting. It is a required course for accounting majors that builds on and reinforces concepts from the first course, Accounting and Accountancy II (A20200). This course is designed to help students become discriminating producers and users of strategic cost accounting information for decision making. This course demonstrates how cost management analysts can add value to their organizations by providing recommendations to improve profitability of products, services and customers. The course also focuses on measuring causes or drivers of costs, and making managerial recommendations about capacity and processes.
Prerequisite: ACCT 20200

This course applies data analytics to settings within accounting, using statistics as the primary method and Microsoft Excel as the primary tool along with other add-ins and programs. The aim of the course is to enhance a student’s ability to think systematically about data, structure it into a usable and interpretable form, create decision models, and weigh probability, risk, trade offs, and the limitations of data.

This course will advance and apply your skills in the analytical tools most commonly used in current accounting and financial consulting practices, and will include applications in regulatory compliance, financial management and reporting, investment analysis, forecasting,  valuation and simulations, operations management, forensics, and financial analysis.  You will use advanced Excel techniques in forensic and financial analytics, as well as extraction, transformation, visualization, regression, natural language processing and data management tools in Tableau, Alteryx, and Python.  These analytical skills will allow you to identify areas where you can add value by identifying anomalies with respect to fraud, internal controls, or key financial, audit risk, and/or tax positions and the associated risk or opportunity for clients and stakeholders.  Moreover, you will have confidence in the topics commonly used in financial analysis and incorporated into the new CPA Evolution 2024 for applied technology, including: relational databases, normalization of data, structured and unstructured data, data extraction and transformation, forecasting to model financial results, cybersecurity, sensitivity analysis, and predictive analytics.

3.000 Credit hours
3.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undeclared, All levels at the University: Law, Undergraduate Non-Degree, Graduate Non-Degree, Undergraduate, Graduate, Graduate Business Non-Degree, Law Non-Degree, Employee Non-Degree, St. Mary’s College, Holy Cross College, Parish Programs, Graduate Business, Pre-College, Law Doctorate, Graduate Architecture, Non-matriculating, Graduate Business, Graduate
Schedule Types: Class

Undergraduate Division
Accountancy Department

The study of an independent accountant’s assurance, attestation, and audit services. Topics include evidence, risk, standards, control, reports, liability, and ethics.
Prerequisite: ACCT 30110

This course is intended to help students acquire a broad perspective of taxation that is relevant for current as well as future tax regimes. The basic federal income tax provisions applicable to individuals, sole proprietorships, corporations and small business firms are covered in this course, which emphasizes their rational and significance in business and investment decision-making. The course is an integrated blend of tax law, tax-planning, tax research, accounting, economics, and finance.
Prerequisite: ACCT 20200

Preparation of federal and state income tax returns for low-income individuals.
Prerequisite: ACCT 40610

This course involves the application of the following legal topics to business situations: organization structures and entity selection, secured transactions and creditor rights, commercial paper / negotiable instruments, real and personal property, real estate, and a general overview of estate and trust law. Highly recommended for students planning to sit for the CPA exam.
Prerequisite: BALW 20150

This course examines a range of ethical issues associated with the major areas of accounting including auditing, tax and managerial / financial accounting. Furthermore, the ethical theories that underpin decision making in accounting are applied as well as the dimensions of professionalism in the field. A combination of case analyses, issue paper, exam, and classroom discussion are used to evaluate students’ learning.
Prerequisite: BAET 20300

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to accounting issues and tools relevant for a business engaged in international operations. The course is centered on accounting aspects of a U.S. firm doing business abroad. In the process, U.S. accounting and reporting features are compared and contrasted against those of other countries. Topics covered in the course include the study of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and their comparison to US GAAP, foreign currency transactions and hedging, translation of foreign currency financial statements, taxation of foreign earned income for US expatriates and US corporations, international transfer prices, performance evaluation of foreign business units, international auditing, corporate governance and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Prerequisite: ACCT 20200

This is a very practical course with the content provided by top-level executives, who will discuss various aspects of the business and accounting environment with which they are familiar. Students are expected to participate in discussions.
Prerequisite: Accountancy junior or senior

Students taking this course will gain an understanding of the American legal system and learn fundamental rules of law, particularly of torts, contracts, sales, and agency. Students will develop an appreciation of how law affects business decision-making, of competing policy concerns underlying the law, and of ethical dimensions of legal issues and business situations.