Undergraduate Courses

Course List

ACCT-UB.0001 - Principles of Financial Accounting
ACCT-UB.0003 - Financial Statement Analysis
ACCT-UB.0004 - Managerial Accounting
ACCT-UB.0012 - Accounting and Analysis in Practice
ACCT-UB.0021 - Financial Reporting and Disclosure
ACCT-UB.0022 - Business Acquisitions, Deferred Taxes, Translations, & Derivatives
ACCT-UB.0023 - Financial Modeling & Analysis
ACCT-UB.0028 - Financial Statement Analytics Using Python
ACCT-UB.0030 - Advanced Financial Statement Analysis
ACCT-UB.0044 - Modeling Corporate Transactions [Advanced Modeling]
MULT-UB.0056 - Business Drivers of Industries: An Analytical Framework
MULT-UB.0057 - Tech Industry Drivers: An Analytical Framework
ACCT-UB.0064 - Taxes and Business Strategy (Corporate Taxation)
BSPA-UB.0067 - Measuring, Disclosing and Driving Sustainability
 

BS/MS Courses

ACCT-GB.6331 - Advanced Managerial Accounting
ACCT-GB.6302 - Financial Reporting and Disclosure
ACCT-GB.6313 /ACCT.GB.3313 - Auditing
ACCT-UB.0049/ACCT-GB.3149 - Entertainment Accounting
ACCT-GB.3380/ACCT.GB.6380 - Taxation of Individuals and Business Income
ACCT-UB.0033/ACCT-GB.3310- Forensic Accounting and Financial Statement Fraud
 

Course Descriptions

Principles of Financial Accounting
ACCT.UB.0001

4 credits. Fall and spring terms.

Prerequisites: One semester of coursework at NYU.

This course is designed to teach students the accounting skills public companies use to measure and communicate their financial results. The focus is on understanding the accrual-based accounting rules and processes used to record business transactions and create financial accounting statements under the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Emphasis is placed on analyzing and interpreting financial accounting statements so students develop the ability to evaluate the current condition of a business.

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Financial Statement Analysis
ACCT.UB.0003

3 credits. Fall and spring terms.
Prerequisites: ACCT.UB.0001 Principles of Financial Accounting and sophomore standing

The objective of this course is to understand how to read, interpret, and analyze financial statements. Throughout the course, we will use the financial statements of several real companies to illustrate concepts. The course is divided into three segments, as follows: First, we will develop the tools to analyze financial statements. We will study the interrelationships between financial statement line items and use ratio analysis to understand and compare firms. Second, we will learn how to understand and analyze accounting disclosures and use accounting disclosures to adjust financial ratios. Finally, we will use the analytical tools we have developed in conjunction with various information sources to forecast future earnings.

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Managerial Accounting
ACCT-UB.0004

4 credits. Fall and spring terms.
Prerequisites: ACCT.UB.0001 Principles of Financial Accounting and sophomore standing.

This course explores the use of accounting information for internal planning, analysis, and decision-making with a focus on information generated by internal accounting systems. The main objective of the course is to equip students with the knowledge to prepare, understand, evaluate, and act upon the many financial and non-financial reports used in managing modern firms. This information is a key input into a wide range of analytical tools to support decisions: analyzing profitability of various products, managing product-line portfolios, setting prices, measuring and managing profitability of customers, making operational and strategic decisions, evaluating investments and investigating efficiency.

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Accounting and Analysis in Practice
ACCT-UB.0012
3 credits

This course explains how managers communicate their strategy and financial performance via financial statements, and how these financial statements are then used by corporate and investment bankers as well as buy-side and sell-side financial analysts who advise investors. A good understanding of the practical aspects of how financial statements are used is crucial to a successful career. These practical aspects are best communicated through a mix of traditional cases and discussions with industry professionals. Stern’s NYC location provides unparalleled access to such professionals and this course offers a unique opportunity to interact with many of them. For details, please visit http://www.dangode.com/practical/

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Financial Reporting and Disclosure
ACCT.UB.0021

3 credits.
Prerequisites:ACCT.UB.0003 Financial Statement Analysis and sophomore standing.

This course is part of a sequence ideal for students who wish to pursue careers in investment banking, investment management, consulting, and public accounting. In addition to being a required course for students concentrating in accounting, it is highly recommended for those concentrating in finance, economics, marketing, and information systems. The course complements Financial Statement Analysis (ACCT-UB 3) by providing a more extensive analysis of financial statements and their underlying financial reporting rules. It uses tools learned in Financial Statement Analysis, such as ratio and accounting analysis, to discuss financial reporting principles, emphasizing the link between reporting principles and financial statements. Students learn how management uses financial reporting decisions to influence reported income and asset and liability values, and they gain the tools necessary to analyze the impact of alternative reporting decisions on financial statements.

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Business Acquisitions, Deferred Taxes, Translations, & Derivatives
ACCT.UB.0022

3 credits. Crosslisted with B10.3330.
Prerequisites:ACCT.UB.0003 Financial Statement Analysisand junior standing. Not applicable to B.S.-M.S. Program.

This course focuses on major issues in financial reporting; accounting for mergers and acquisitions, preparation of consolidated financial statements, related tax issues, translation of foreign currency financial statements, foreign currency transactions, and accounting for derivatives including their use in hedging transactions. This course is recommended for both accounting and finance majors.

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Financial Modelling & Analysis
ACCT.UB.0023
3 credits. Not applicable to B.S.-M.S. Program.

Prerequisites: None

Making educated decisions today by forecasting operating and financial performance is a critical exercise for owners, managers, consultants, investment bankers, creditors, equity and credit analysts, and investors such as private equity groups, hedge funds, institutional investors and individuals. The goal of this course is to instruct step-by-step how to build a comprehensive, multi-purpose projection model in Excel and subsequently interpret selective operating, credit and equity valuation data. Based on this information, you will learn how to (i) evaluate a company’s operating and financial performance, (ii) develop an appropriate capital structure by structuring debt and equity transactions which not only protect both the creditors and shareholders, but also create an appropriate risk and reward equilibrium, and (iii) formulate an educated investment opinion and propitiously time entry and exit trading points.

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Financial Statement Analytics Using Python

ACCT-UB.0028: 3 credits

Prerequisites: Core Financial Accounting and Core Statistics
Concentration: Accounting

For details, visit http://www.dangode.com/financialanalytics/. The course teaches you how to manipulate and analyze financial data in Python using professional coding tools such as VSCode. While no prior programming/Python experience is assumed, it does involve coding and is not a managerial overview of data analytics.

The course covers the following skills:

  • Structured thinking about financial analysis tasks so that you can automate them using organized and maintainable code.
  • Automating financial data input and output by interacting with financial statement data in Excel, SQL, and XBRL formats.
  • Financial data analytics for an exposure to data analytics packages.

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Advanced Financial Statement Analysis
ACCT.UB.0030
3 credits.

This course deals with the analysis of financial information to determine value. This course synthesizes financial statement analysis, corporate finance, and the valuation of stocks (i.e., investments). The course is divided into two parts. The first part is about how accounting metrics are mapped into stock prices. We examine various accounting measures (e.g., dividends, free cash flows, book values, earnings) that can be used as inputs for equity valuations. We compare and contrast the different valuation models (e.g., Dividend Discount Model, Free Cash Flows Model, Residual Income Valuation Model, Abnormal Earnings Growth Model). The first part of the course concludes with tools that enable us to infer future implied accounting metrics from our equity investments based on what we are paying. In the second part of the course, we put our knowledge acquired in the first part of the course in practice to make buy/sell/hold decisions on equity investments involving listed companies.

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Modeling Corporate Transactions [Advanced Modeling]

ACCT-UB.0044: 3 credits

Prerequisites: Financial Modeling
Concentration: Accounting

For details, visit http://www.dangode.com/transactions/. You will learn to model salient corporate events such as acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, public offerings, projects, and securitizations. The course also covers the necessary accounting details.

This course is highly relevant for bankers, private and public equity investors, lenders, corporate finance professionals, project financiers, and consultants. The conceptual, practical, and technical knowledge gained in this course can give you a significant competitive edge during your interviews, summer internships, and jobs.

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Business Drivers of Industries: An Analytical Framework

MULT-UB.0056: 3 credits

Concentrations: Management and Organizations, Accounting
Track: Management Consulting

For details, visit http://www.dangode.com/drivers/ . We illustrate a streamlined and structured framework to analyze business drivers of companies from a wide range of industries, excluding financial services. This helps us understand their business model, drill into their financial statements, and assess competitive advantage.

The analysis proceeds as follows:

  • We apply the Six-Pack Framework for a top-down and comprehensive analysis of financial statements to extract six key valuation inputs – Size, Growth, Margins, Asset intensity, Business risk, and Financial risk.
  • We analyze how these inputs depend upon a company’s strategy by computing the Competitive Advantage Score that weighs competitive drivers and scores strategic strength along those drivers.

The analysis of a wide range of companies will expand your strategic horizons to enable you to foresee challenges and opportunities due to changing competition, technology, and environment. The framework and the perspective will sharpen your ability to lead value creation as an entrepreneur or executive, or to understand value creation as an investor, banker, analyst, or consultant.

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Tech Industry Drivers: An Analytical Framework

ACCT-GB.0057: 3 credits

Concentrations: Accounting, Computing and Data Science, Marketing
Minor: Entertainment, Media, and Technology (EMT)
Track: Management Consulting

For details, visit http://www.dangode.com/techdrivers/. This course and the Business Drivers course use the same analytical framework (about 25% of the course). However, this course focuses only on tech companies. Some students have taken both courses and found them to be valuable.

We illustrate a streamlined and structured framework to analyze business drivers of forty tech companies. This helps us understand their narrative, drill into their financial statements, and assess competitive advantage.

The analysis proceeds as follows:

  • We apply the Six-Pack Framework for a top-down and comprehensive analysis of financial statements to extract six key valuation inputs – Size, Growth, Margins, Asset intensity, Business risk, and Financial risk.
  • We analyze how these inputs depend upon a company’s strategy by computing the Competitive Advantage Score that weighs competitive drivers and scores strategic strength along those drivers.

This broad exposure will expand your tech horizons and enable you to foresee challenges and opportunities due to changing competition, technology, and environment. The framework and the perspective will sharpen your ability to lead value creation as a tech entrepreneur or executive, or to understand value creation as an investor, banker, analyst, or consultant.

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Taxes and Business Strategy

ACCT-UB.0064: 3 credits

Concentration: Accounting

For details, visit http://www.dangode.com/taxes/. This course explains how taxes affect mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, valuation, capital structure, employee compensation, foreign operations, alternative investment vehicles, and deferred taxes including net operating losses. The course also covers the key provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

The course is highly relevant to those pursuing careers in investment banking, corporate finance, research, private and public equity, and corporate tax law.

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Measuring, Disclosing and Driving Sustainability
BSPA-UB.67-001
3 credits

The main objective of the course is to equip you with the knowledge required for the understanding how to measure, evaluate and disclose ESG performance. For this reason, the course will emphasize the interplay between sustainability strategy, organizational architecture and performance, providing the practical knowledge and insights for embedding sustainability into the corporate DNA as daily practice (internal perspective); Assessing ESG performance (external perspective).

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Advanced Managerial Accounting
ACCT-GB.6331

3 credits. Fall and spring terms.
Prerequisites:

  • ACCT.UB.0004Managerial Accounting
  • Junior Standing

  • Focus is on decision making in single- and multiperiod environments where there are uncertainties and complex combinations of costs. Includes examples involving service and financial institutions. Highlights current practices in performance management and evaluation.

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Financial Reporting and Disclosure
ACCT-GB.6302

3 credits. Fall and spring terms. Crosslisted with B10.2302
Prerequisites:

  • ACCT.UB.0003 Financial Statement Analysis
  • Junior Standing
  • his course complements ACCT.UB.0003, Financial Statement Analysis, by a more extensive analysis of financial statements and the financial reporting rules underlying them. The course uses tools learned in Financial Statement Analysis, such as ratio and accounting analysis, to discuss financial reporting principles, emphasizing the link between the reporting principles and the financial statements. Students will learn how management uses financial reporting decisions to influence reported income and asset and liability values, and they will gain the tools necessary to analyze the impacts of alternative reporting decisions on financial statements.
  • This course is part of a sequence that is ideal for students who wish to pursue careers in investment banking, investment management, consulting, as well as public accounting. In addition to being a required course for accounting majors, it is a highly recommended course for majors in finance, economics, marketing and information systems.

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Auditing
ACCT-GB.6313 / ACCT.GB.3313

3 credits. Fall and spring terms. Crosslisted with ACCT.GB.3313

Prerequisites:

An intensive study is made of fundamental concepts and principles underlying the examination of the financial statement by the independent public accountant. Auditing and reporting standards and the responsibilities assumed by the auditor in the attest function are analyzed within the broad framework of the code and principles of professional conduct.

Emphasis is placed on the evaluation of evidential matter and the system of internal control. Current literature is examined, including the publications of the AICPA Auditing Standards Board.

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Entertainment Accounting
ACCT-UB.0049.01/ACCT-GB.3149.30

3 credits. Fall and spring terms.

In this course, we will study various entertainment enterprises including movies, television, music, publishing, broadcasting, and social media. We will analyze and discuss in-depth how accounting for particular transactions impacts the financial results of these enterprises. We will spend time understanding how to mediums and distribution models are impacting media companies from a finance and accounting perspective. Accounting topics will include revenue recognition, goodwill and intangibles, amortization of negative costs associated with making movies, and royalties.

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Independent Study in Accounting
ACCT-UB.0094

1 credits.

Independent study provides an opportunity for a select group of upperclassmen each year to work one-on-one with a faculty member on a topic selected by the student and approved by the supervising faculty member. Each student is expected to spend as much time on the independent study as would be spent on a regular course, and the topic selected may not replicate an existing course. An information sheet with important guidelines about Independent Study is available at stern.nyu.edu/portal-partners/current-students/undergraduate/resources-policies/forms.

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Taxation of Individuals and Business Income
ACCT-GB.3380 / ACCT.GB.6380

3 credits. Crosslisted with ACCT.GB.2302.
Prerequisites:

  • ACCT.UB.0001 Principles of Financial Accounting
  • Junior Standing

The purpose of this course is to develop, on a sound conceptual base, a basic understanding of federal income taxation to provide tools for a practical application to business and non-business situations. Includes such topics as capital asset and property transactions, business and personal deductions, depreciation, depletion, accounting methods and periods, retirement plans, tax credits and the alternative minimum tax system. While the emphasis is on business income of individuals, the course also provides an introduction to the taxation of corporations and partnerships. During the fall semester, the students are required to enter the annual tax tournament scheduled for late November. Students in the spring semester are required to complete a group take-home project similar to the tax tournament case study.

 

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Forensic Accounting and Financial Statement Fraud

ACCT-UB.0033.01/ACCT-GB.3310.30

Course Description:

The objective of this course is to impart a detailed understanding of forensic accounting with particular emphasis on the methods to detect financial statement fraud. It is designed to demonstrate the various aspects of fraud, i.e., fraudulent financial reporting; identifying fraud schemes, including computer fraud and methods of concealment; as well as the analytical techniques in uncovering fraud and its prevention through effective internal control systems. It also includes an analysis of the general techniques used in working in litigation support services. It is of particular interest to accounting and finance professionals. The course content has also become of critical interest to regulators and lawmakers because of the notoriety of a series of recent financial scandals that have affected the entire business community. It reviews the new institutional structures that have recently been put in place by lawmakers and the accounting profession to deal with fraud and its prevention, i.e., the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and self-regulating measures adopted by the accounting profession.

For a full list of course offerings and syllabi, visit www.stern.nyu.edu/Academic/Syllabi.