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Download a PDF with the program overview.
An MBA with a concentration in accounting can open up many career possibilities whether you want to become a high-level executive for a corporation or an independent CPA. The Department of Labor and Statistics predicts that the employment of accountants and auditors will grow faster than average for all occupations through the year 2016.
This degree will prepare you to take the certified public accountants examination. You will learn to analyze your organization’s economic performance and convey that information easily to key stakeholders within your firm using advanced accounting reports. You’ll gain not only the analytical skills necessary for a career in accounting, but also the leadership skills to get ahead.
Whether you’re interested in auditing, tax strategy or managerial accounting, this MBA concentration can help get you there.
Our unique cohort system groups students together throughout their educational experience. You will complete the program one class at a time, in a predetermined sequence.
Total Credit Hours: 54
*Note: The credit hours required for an accounting concentration are higher than the comprehensive MBA in order to satisfy CPA exam requirements.
These classes are available in the classroom or online.
Introduction of key financial accounting concepts. Analysis of a firm’s historical, current and prospective financial condition and performance. Emphasis on investment and credit decision.
Developing and evaluating brand strategies over the life of the product. Strategies for introducing brands and reviving brands. Includes basic marketing principles of product, price, promotion, environment and customer.
Focus on basic microeconomic principles of the firm and relevance in business decisions. Covers supply and demand and its relationship to market outcomes and economic determinants of consumption, savings, and labor behavior.
Basic statistical concepts and analytical tools for data driven decision making. Introduction to concepts of frequency, distribution, variation and normal curve correlations with application to business decisions.
Decision making, negotiations and ethics. Cultural impact on management strategy. Create value, motivate resources, leading and creating high performance teams. Integrating performance across business units.
Focus on creation of money, function and roles of financial institutions, fiscal and monetary policy and the Federal Reserve system. Covers economic theory of financial markets and impact of government policies, determinants of national income, employment, investment, interest rates, inflation and exchange rates.
Analyze policies in human resource management and organizational design, recruitment, selection hiring, development promotion and incentive based pay.
Understand the legal environment, which impacts all businesses. Legal aspects of business relationships and business agreements. Forms of business organizations, duties of officers and directors, intellectual property, antitrust, contracts, employment relationships, criminal law and debtor-creditor relationships including bankruptcy.
These classes are only available online.
Analyze how accounting meets information needs of various users by developing and communicating information useful for external decision making. Builds on basic accounting by taking a more in-depth look at the theory and practice of accounting.
Examines the auditing environment, with emphasis placed on developing skills for performing financial audits. These skills include planning the audit, testing internal controls, substantive and analytical testing, audit sampling and drawing conclusions from results. Topics include planning for materiality and audit risk; evaluating effectiveness of internal controls; reporting weaknesses to management, ethics and AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, and audit opinions.
Current laws relating to income realization and recognition, exclusions from income, business and personal deductions, credits from tax, business and personal gains and losses, depreciation, accounting periods and methods, and alternative minimum tax. Basics of tax research, understanding how to analyze difficult tax questions and interpret tax law changes and professional and ethical standards of the preparer.
Applies many of the basic principles learned in Federal Income Tax to the dealings of corporate taxpayers and their shareholders. Overview of corporate tax, ethical stewardship, transactions in the life of a “C” corporation, Subchapter S, and other forms of business organizations. Basics of the taxation of corporate mergers and acquisitions.
Corporate budgeting, working capital management and financial analysis. Corporate decision-making regarding complex capital structures and how these decisions impact incentives of claimants.
Accounting information used in decision-making. Why firms are adopting activity-based costing, economic value-added and balanced scorecard decision models. Budgeting, cash flow and incremental analysis.
This class is designed to integrate the knowledge and skills gained from the MBA program and apply them in a real world business environment. Students will learn how to use teamwork to develop a business plan and solve authentic business challenges.
Study of advanced topics in financial reporting and accounting. Focuses on complex corporate reporting issues including a comprehensive study of business combinations, the equity and cost methods of accounting for investments in common stock, and consolidated financial statement preparation. Explores accounting theory as applied to special problems such as accounting for partnerships, segment and interim reporting, international accounting issues and an introduction to not-for-profit, state and local governmental accounting.
Students can choose from the following class formats:
MBA courses are $690 per credit hour. Most courses are worth three credits. Fifty-four credits are required to complete the MBA, Accounting program. Payment is due at the start of each term. Financial aid is available.
Our unique cohort system groups students together throughout their educational experience. You will complete the program one class at a time, in a predetermined sequence. This collaborative environment accelerates learning and builds strong peer relationships that last a lifetime. We also host occasional networking events for our MBAs, which allows them to interact with other cohorts and alumni.
We facilitate a close working relationship between students and faculty. Group work is often part of the curriculum, which helps prepare students to work collaboratively in the business world. Student discussion is encouraged as the MBAs learn from each other’s diverse backgrounds.
At the end of the program, students will complete a capstone course. This class integrates the knowledge and skills gained from the MBA courses and applies them to a real business environment. Students will work as a team to solve an authentic business challenge.
Career possibilities might include: Chief Financial Officer Consultant Business Analyst Tax Accountant Budget Analyst Auditor
Career possibilities might include: