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Lasell University
Lasell University

2020 - 2021 Academic Catalog

Accounting Minor

Mastery of accounting knowledge enables students to understand, interpret, and use accounting information to make financial decisions. Regardless of students’ chosen course of study or career path, accounting prepares them to be educated business professionals and informed consumers.

The Accounting minor consists of 5 courses. It is not open to Accounting or Finance majors.

Course Code Course Title Credits
Core Courses
BUSS226 Financial Accounting 3
BUSS227 Managerial Accounting 3
Choose 3 from the following:
BUSS208 Financial Statement Analysis 3
BUSS210 Federal Income Taxes 4
BUSS301 Intermediate Accounting I 3
BUSS302 Intermediate Accounting II 3
BUSS306 Accounting Information Systems 3
BUSS308 Government & Not-for-Profit Accounting 3
BUSS309 Fraud Examination 3
BUSS349 Cost Accounting 3
BUSS410 Auditing 3
BUSS413 Advanced Accounting 3

Credit Requirements for minor: 17- 20 credits

BUSS226 - Financial Accounting

This course provides students with the fundamentals of accounting processes and procedures used in business. Students learn how to identify and record business transactions. In addition, students learn how to create financial statements and how to become intelligent users of financial information. Prerequisite: BUSS105

BUSS227 - Managerial Accounting

In this course, students gain experience in the development and use of information within an organization. Course topics include: cost terms; production costing; cost allocation for planning and control; cost behavior patterns; cost-volume-profit relationships; budgeting; inventory planning and control; pricing decisions; and aspects of investment decisions.

BUSS208 - Financial Statement Analysis

In this course, students will examine financial statements and other financial reports with a view towards using accounting information in making investing, lending, and other potential management decisions. Students explore methods of constructing, comparing, and analyzing these statements and reports and the various uses of such analyses. Prerequisite: BUSS202 with a grade of C or higher

BUSS210 - Federal Income Taxes

This course provides students with a basic understanding of the fundamentals of federal income tax laws as they apply to individuals, businesses, and not-for-profit, taxable entities. Students will explore a broad range of tax topics, emphasizing the role of taxation in business decision-making process, tax research, and tax planning. -Prerequsite: BUSS201 with a grade C or better

BUSS301 - Intermediate Accounting I

This course builds on concepts developed in Financial Accounting. Concentration is on the application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to the preparation of financial statements with an in-depth review of cash, receivables, inventories, and plant assets. The course also covers the concept of the time value of money and the application of present value techniques to accounting valuations. Prerequisite: BUSS 202 with a grade C or better.

BUSS302 - Intermediate Accounting II

This course is designed to continue the concepts of financial accounting and present a more thorough analysis of the requirements of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Included in this course are earnings per share calculations, lease accounting, and pension accounting. The cash flow statement is also studied. Prerequisite: BUSS 301 with a grade C or better.

BUSS306 - Accounting Information Systems

The course teaches conceptual, analytic and technical skills necessary to work efficiently and productively as an accountant or auditor in an automated environment. The course focuses on today’s typical business that is heavily dependent on information and how the business entity collects enormous volumes of data, stores that data and when needed, transforms that data into usable business information. The course involve hands on use of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet skills and will further develop these skills to use Excel's more advanced functions suitable for data storage and analysis. Hands on use of Microsoft Access is also utilized to teach data modelling skills. Prerequisite: BUSS202 with a C or better.

BUSS308 - Government & Not-for-Profit Accounting

This course introduces financial accounting and reporting issues related to state and local government and non-profit organizations, including universities and health care facilities. Prerequisite: BUSS201 with a grade of C or better.

BUSS309 - Fraud Examination

This course covers techniques for identification and detection of asset misappropriation schemes and fraudulent financial statements, who commits fraud and why, and controls to prevent and detect problems. Prerequisite: BUSS201 with a grade of C or better.

BUSS349 - Cost Accounting

This course focuses on a typical firm’s cost data and how that data can transformed into information for business analysis and decision making. Topics include how to identify fixed versus variable cost, cost volume profit analysis, flexible budgeting, Activity Based Costing, and standard cost systems with detail variance analysis. Process and job order costing systems are examined in terms of how these systems are used to accumulate cost to determine accurate product or service costs and why this is necessary in setting product/service selling prices to maximize profits. Other topics include the numerous cost allocation processes that take place in the typical manufacturing and service industries, and transfer pricing within companies that are doing business internationally. Prerequisite: BUSS202 with a grade of C or better.

BUSS410 - Auditing

This courses examines the impact of auditing on constituencies external and internal to organizations, especially stockholders and management. Students examine the role of both the independent public accountant and the internal auditor, and study various control and reporting techniques involved in auditing. Prerequisites: BUSS302 with a grade of C or better and Senior Standing

BUSS413 - Advanced Accounting

This course examines specialized topics in financial accounting. Problems associated with the partnership form of business organization, including partnership formation, division of income and losses, changes in ownership, and partnership liquidation are reviewed. Topics also include the subject of business combinations with emphasis on consolidated financial statements of parents and subsidiaries and elimination of intercompany transactions, accounting for foreign operations, and fund accounting as it relates to municipalities. Prerequsite: BUSS302 with grade of C or better and Senior Standing