Home

Accounting Career Information

What Our Students & Alumnae Say

About Our Faculty

Program Information

External Accounting Links

AIMASC

Contact Us

Alverno College Management Accounting Major
MGA376 - Growth and Expansion Accounting Issues

Course Description

This course is the third in a series of four integrated accounting courses that you will complete as part of your management accounting major. These courses are designed in response to a set of questions that define the business environment/context issues and discipline expertise needed by a professional accountant to be an effective part of the management team at a particular stage of the business's growth and development.

These questions are:

• What are the business/management issues facing the organization at this stage of its development?
• What business strategies are unique to this stage of organizational development and how they impact decision-making?
• How does the global marketplace affect the organization at this point in time?
• What ethical/valuing issues face the organization at this stage of development?
• What accounting information is needed to support and/or influence decision making and strategy?
• How do traditional and contemporary/emerging accounting approaches support and/or influence decision-making?
• How can technology support information needs?

To respond to these questions in this course, you will use your critical thinking, problem solving and valuing abilities. You will explore accounting issues related to growth and expansion of a business. You will draw upon and build on basic financial and cost concepts introduced in prior accounting courses (MGT201, MGA202, MGA275, and MGA375) to respond to a variety of problems related to growth and expansion activities.

In this course the focus shifts from internal reporting and control issues to external reporting, i.e., audited financial statements that are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Working in groups, you will analyze the financial records of a company and address accounting issues related to accounting, financial, and tax matters. Some areas you will address include strategic decisions related to debt vs. equity issuance, pension and post-retirement benefits, asset lease/purchase, corporate taxes, and going global.

You will apply your team and interpersonal skills to deal with these more complex issues sing accounting information to provide guidance to management and to respond to emerging financial reporting issues. You will take on greater independence in researching financial accounting standards and other professional literature to propose GAAP-based solutions to identified issues. In this process, you will apply the Management Accounting Code of Conduct to respond to ethical and social responsibility issues that arise.



Management Accounting Major and Course Outcomes

At the conclusion of this course, you will be able to:

• Integrate principles from accounting and management theory with liberal arts learning to interpret and analyze business situations and to effectively communicate with others in a variety of contexts by:
  • Integrating accounting and management knowledge with problem solving abilities to identify and effectively address stakeholder accounting issues.
  • Communicating analyses and conclusions to a variety of audiences.
    
    
• Use accounting frameworks to initiate and implement problem solving and process improvement in organizational contexts by:
  • Researching, critically evaluating, and applying GAAP to financial accounting issues.
  • Identifying, explaining, and critically evaluating connections between accounting theory and practice.
  • Mastering necessary quantitative skills to respond to and accurately solve financial accounting problems.
    
    
• Use management theory to interact effectively in professional contexts that require leadership of groups or other types of interpersonal interactions by:
  • Using interpersonal and task oriented models to work effectively with others to address accounting issues.
    
    
• Respond to management and accounting issues in a manner consistent with personal and professional codes of conduct by:
• Identifying the relationship between management accounting, general accepted accounting principles, and a professional code of conduct to address ethical dilemmas.
• Drawing upon and reinforcing your valuing and social interaction abilities as you engage in independent and collaborative problem solving.