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The Author

I am an accounting professional actively seeking the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation. Disclaimer: This blog site is published by and reflects the personal views of Narcisse Dansou, in his individual capacity. It does in no way represent the views of his employer. The author assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or damages, caused from the use of the information contained herein.

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Study Habits for the Average Accounting Student

| Last updated on July 3rd, 2011 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Words to the Wise | 5 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!

Succeeding in any field of study requires the use of a solid strategy and accounting is no exception. As an undergraduate student in accounting, I many times had classmates in my accounting courses that would complain about their inability to consistently achieve above average exam grades. In response, I would ask  them to outline their strategy for tackling accounting courses. In 9 out 10 cases, they had no clearly defined strategy and that’s exactly what I call a recipe for failure. Successful studies in the field of accounting require a structured approach. While I never did exceptionally well in college, I was however able to do better than average in all my accounting classes because I developed and adopted effective learning habits very early on. Before going any further, I would like to mention that the accounting study tips I am about to share with the whole world are not a one size fits all. You are thereby invited to tweak them as you so fit so you can achieve optimum results. With the disclaimer out of the way, let’s take a look together at the study habits that enabled me to fare better than most throughout each of my accounting classes. These learning habits were organized in four chronological phases: before the lecture, during the lecture, after the lecture, and before the test. Continue reading Study Habits for the Average Accounting Student

| First published on April 21st, 2010 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Words to the Wise | 5 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!

Earnings Management: The Dark Side of Financial Reporting

| Last updated on July 3rd, 2011 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Financial Accounting | 9 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!

As I explained in my previous post, accrual accounting is not an exact science. Indeed,  a variety of assumptions and accounting estimates is used in arriving at the final earnings figures. In assessing the health of a company, lenders and investors alike almost always look at the quality of its earnings first. However, it is nearly impossible for a company to consistently report stellar periodical earnings over a long period of time. This is because a company’s business activities can be affected by changes in economic cycles, seasonal changes, new legislation, and other extraordinary events. In order to “normalize” the continuous succession of ebbs and flows in financial results characteristic of any  typical business, company managers, more often than not, resort to a practice known as earnings management. According to Healy and Wahlen (A review of the earnings management literature and its implications for standard setting’, Accounting Horizons, December 1999, pp. 365–383.), “earnings management” occurs when managers use judgment in financial reporting and in structuring transactions to alter financial reports to either mislead some stakeholders about the underlying economic performance of a company or influence contractual outcomes that depend on reported accounting numbers. In other words, earnings numbers are deliberately manipulated by management for the purpose of meeting company’s objectives whatever they might be. Continue reading Earnings Management: The Dark Side of Financial Reporting

| First published on April 4th, 2010 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Financial Accounting | 9 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!

Integrity: Still a Hallmark of Certified Public Accountants (CPA)?

| Last updated on July 3rd, 2011 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Careers in Accounting, Words to the Wise | 3 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!

Integrity is one of the essential pillars of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct. A distinguishing mark of the accounting profession is acceptance of its responsibility to honor the public trust. Lenders, investors, government agencies, and other members of the business community rely on the integrity of Certified Public Accountants (CPA) to help preserve the proper functioning of commercial activities. Active and aspiring public accountants ought to embrace the obligation to act in a way that warrants the faith that the entire public reposes in the work they do or will do. Richard L. Schmalense, former John C Head III Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management, once stated: “Without ethics, business can’t be done – or taught”. Continue reading Integrity: Still a Hallmark of Certified Public Accountants (CPA)?

| First published on March 14th, 2010 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Careers in Accounting, Words to the Wise | 3 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!

Earning an Accounting Degree Requires a Never to Be Denied Attitude

| Last updated on February 27th, 2011 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Words to the Wise | Nobody has commented yet, kick it off...

The pursuit of an accounting degree accounting is not your typical easy walk through the park. It requires a lot of determination reinforced with an attitude of never to be denied. As I went through college, I encountered quite a number of people who gave up on their dreams of becoming an accountant because they could not earn a passing grade in either of the two Intermediate Accounting courses. Or if they did make it through Intermediate Accounting, they were not able to go pass Auditing or Advanced Accounting. My journey to an accounting degree required a lot of long and boring hours of hard labor. I did not have it easy one bit. In my last semester, I was averaging a B after two tests in Auditing when I literally failed the third test which brought my average grade in the class to a D. Halas, I was not paying attention during a couple of the lecture sessions and I completely misunderstood how I was supposed to review for two sections that accounted for 75% of the test. The two chapters in question were Audit Sampling Techniques and Assurance & Attestation Services. Continue reading Earning an Accounting Degree Requires a Never to Be Denied Attitude

| First published on February 27th, 2010 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance, Words to the Wise | Nobody has commented yet, kick it off...

Auditing: A gatekeeper like no other!

| Last updated on July 3rd, 2011 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance | 2 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!

If you think that getting through your tax and financial accounting classes was  challenging, please hold your breath because you ain’t see nuthin yet…pardon my English.  Before walking at your graduation ceremony, you will have to win your battle with the ultimate ceremony’s gatekeeper: Auditing. You will be surprised by the overwhelming number of students that give up pursuing an accounting degree just because they are unable to pass through the funnel that is Auditing. Auditing is really a different animal because it requires a lot of memorization along with a healthy dose of critical thinking. Most accounting students naively overlook the complexity of auditing because there is little mathematical computations involved in it. The lack of math is largely compensated by the fact that you will be dealing with a lot of situational issues. Not only will you have to memorize the rules but you will also need to pare them to the different auditing cases you will be asked to solve during your tests. It is primordial that you allot plenty of study hours for your Auditing class if you wish to earn a passing grade your first time around. There is indeed no easy chapter in the typical Auditing curriculum. You can’t get complacent throughout the whole semester or you will get burned. There are  a few things that one needs to accomplish if he or she desires to position him/herself to jump over Auditing: Continue reading Auditing: A gatekeeper like no other!

| First published on September 19th, 2009 by | Filed under: Audit and Assurance | 2 comments have been submitted - join the conversation!