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Tags: Accrual Accounting, Earnings Management, FASB Satement, Financial Reporting, IFRS, Materiality, Restructuring Charges, Revenue Recognition, SAB, SEC, SFAS | Category: Audit and Assurance, Financial Accounting, Management Accounting |  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
Continue reading Earnings Management: The Dark Side of Financial Reporting
I am currently going through the final stages of the graduate business school admission process. I intend to enroll in a Master of Accounting program coming this fall. I applied to four different graduate business schools besides the one at my Alma mater: the University of New Orleans. I have already been admitted to two Master of Accounting programs, I am expecting a third admission decision within the next two weeks. I was never concerned with having any of the graduate schools deny me an admission because I made sure to apply to Master of Accounting programs for which my applicant profile met or exceeded each of the program's admission criteria. It was indeed paramount for me to send admission applications only to graduate
Continue reading Graduate Business School Admissions: The Waiting Game
Tags: APB Opinion No. 19, Balance Sheet, FASB Statement No. 95, Financial Reporting, Financing Activities, Income Statement, Investing Activities, Operating Activities, Primary Financial Statements, Pro Forma Statement of Cash Flows, Statement of Cash Flows | Category: Financial Accounting | From the date I graduated from college in May 2009 until a few weeks ago, I did not have a single opportunity to accomplish any reading as it pertains to academic related accounting materials. I was indeed very tied up with completing the different components of the graduate school application process. Researching Master of Accounting programs, intensively preparing for the GMAT, and meeting the application requirements of four different programs took up all my spare time from June 2009 through February 2010. Waiting to receive admissions decisions on my graduate school applications, I recently started laying the groundwork for my preparation for the CPA exam. I intend to complete all four sections of the CPA exam in year 2011. Before dashing to buy any
Continue reading The Statement of Cash Flows Does Not Lie
Tags: Accounting Profession, AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, Business Ethics, Corporate Fraud, Corporate Governance, Ethical Judgment, Ethical Standards, Integrity, Ponzi Scheme, Public Trust | Category: Audit and Assurance, Careers in Accounting, Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Master of Accounting, Words to the Wise | 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 to preserve the proper functioning of commercial activities. Indeed, the published independent annual audit reports of the financial statements of public companies play a fundamental role in maintaining the soundness of business transactions of all types. 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.
Continue reading Integrity: Still A Hallmark of the Public Accounting Profession?
Most of the finance and accounting internships and entry level job descriptions state, among other things, that only individuals with an overall GPA equal to or higher than 3.0 will be considered for employment. In response to this requirement, business students are naturally spending a considerable amount of their college years focusing squarely on their grades. I don't see anything wrong with college students always aiming for B or higher, heck I always started each semester with the expectation of earning at least a B in each of my courses. Since entry level finance and accounting jobs candidates often have little to no professional experience to show for, employers have resorted to using the grade point average as a way of gauging a candidates
Continue reading If Book Smart Is Good then Well Rounded Is Great
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
Continue reading Earning an Accounting Degree Requires a Never to Be Denied Attitude
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I am currently enrolled in a Master of Professional Accounting program at UWG. I intend to develop expertise in Fraud Examination and Business Advisory. The Student CPA is a blog that strives to provide learning resources for accounting courses, graduate business school admission tips, information about careers in accounting, and job search strategies.
Sunday, 4th of April 2010 at 05:21:22 PM
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