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M.S. in Accounting

Franklin University Master's degree in Accounting banner Program OverviewProgram DetailsWhy Choose Franklin

Lead the way through complex issues to enterprise-wide financial success

As a profession, accounting has certainly moved the needle when it comes to claiming its rightful place at the management table. Long gone are the days of closed-door, number-crunching, and head-down reporting. Today’s accounting executives have a thorough command of the technical aspects of accounting while also possessing the communication, research, and technology know-how required for enterprise-wide financial success.

Franklin’s transformational M.S. Accounting (MSA) Program equips you to see big-picture accounting systems and processes. You’ll learn to think critically, communicate effectively, and leverage technology in contributing to high-performing organizations.

Advance your qualifications for key leadership roles

At Franklin, you’ll acquire an executive skill set that prepares you to advance into an accounting leadership position. You’ll gain skills employers are actively looking for in the critical areas of management control systems, advanced auditing and data analytics, financial accounting and reporting, enterprise resource planning, forensic accounting, and enterprise risk management. You’ll be well prepared to move into advanced-skill, leadership positions, such as CFO, Controller, Internal Auditor, or Accounting Manager.

Complete your MSA in just 17 months

You’ll reap the rewards of your MSA faster at Franklin. In as few as 17 months, you’ll conveniently earn a high-value degree at an affordable cost. In fact, our online MSA received GetEducated.com’s 2012 “Best Buy” designation from among 207 accredited online accounting programs. At the completion of your coursework, you’ll also have the foundational knowledge required to sit for professional accounting certification exams, such as the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) designation.

Plus our small, personalized classes introduce you to a valuable professional peer network. You’ll learn with—and from—your peers in interactive classes comprised of a diverse set of students ranging in age, industry, talent, and experience.

Gain hands-on experience with tools of the trade

Your master’s degree in Accounting from Franklin prepares you with hands-on experience in researching accounting issues as they arise, just as they occur in a work setting. You’ll learn how to use the FASB Accounting Standards Codification® Database for researching financial accounting standards and RIA Checkpoint® for researching tax law and authority, accounting and audit standards, and international accounting standards. You’ll get practice not only deciphering the numbers, but just as importantly, communicating your findings with competence and clarity.

You’ll also learn how to use industry-standard technology, such as Microsoft® Dynamics ERP Software and ACL™ Data Mining Software, and apply it to real-world accounting issues. You’ll put it all together through case study examinations, through which you’ll take a deep dive into key concepts such as the Sarbanes-Oxley 404, auditing and internal controls, ethical standards, and the role regulatory bodies.

Earn your degree from a university built for busy adults

Regionally accredited and nonprofit, Franklin was built from the ground-up to satisfy the needs of adult learners. Faculty with industry expertise means you gain relevant knowledge to apply directly to your current or future career, while our flexible course schedules help to balance your education with work, family, and life. Get started on your future today!

Gain The Skills Employers Desire

  • Management Control Systems
    • Benchmark key metrics against similar organizations to determine gaps and ensure best-in-class performance
    • Define measurable organizational metrics, aligning managerial efforts with goals to increase employee and management motivation
    • Assist in creating balanced scorecards to recognize financial and nonfinancial performance measures
    • Design effective management accounting control systems to monitor established metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)
    • Ensure managers and employees understand specific actions required to achieve organizational goals, providing regular reports to help gauge effectiveness
    • Apply “responsibility accounting” principles to define organizational units as cost, profit, or investment centers
    • Prepare income statements to assist in evaluating responsibility centers using contribution margin and controllable-cost concepts
    • Evaluate control procedures, recommending control alternatives in management control systems
    • Evaluate and design planning and budgeting systems
    • Assess performance measurement and incentive systems
  • Advanced Auditing & Data Mining
    • Design audit procedures, including identifying and defining issues, reviewing and analyzing evidence, and documenting processes
    • Evaluate financial audits in compliance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS)
    • Evaluate, design, and implement data analytics solutions to meet audit requirements through the use of ACL auditing software
    • Respond to ad hoc requests, including ACL technical training, data mining assistance, and raw data exports from various enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
    • Use ACL to develop queries and perform compliance and substantive testing procedures
    • Leverage computer-assisted audit techniques and tools to ensure reporting accuracy and compliance
    • Coordinate audit activities with internal teams and external partners, including preparing audit schedules and recommendations responses
    • Conduct analytical procedures as part of audit planning
    • Determine materiality levels and tolerable misstatements for financial statements
    • Evaluate organizations, including their environments and internal control structures
    • Analyze internal control deficiencies
  • Financial Accounting & Reporting
    • Conduct research and provide counsel regarding proposed transactions, ensuring conformity with local country Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and organizational policies and procedures
    • Probe into issues associated with executive compensation and earnings management
    • Research and analyze issues associated with various approaches to decision usefulness in financial reporting
    • Investigate and analyze issues associated with efficient securities markets
    • Apply financial accounting theory to how events or issues might impact organizational or industry financial reporting
    • Explore and assess issues associated with various economic consequences and positive accounting theory
    • Examine issues associated with conflict and game theory as they relate to financial reporting
  • Enterprise Resource Planning
    • Collaborate on defining enterprise resource planning (ERP) system requirements, developing proposal requests, and performing due diligence toward the selection of ERP vendors
    • Perform monthly and quarterly reporting of work breakdown structure and cost center level financials (actual vs. planned) using queries extracted from multiple modules of ERP systems
    • Create and maintain procedures to ensure accurate, timely production of monthly financial statements
    • Lead systems and processes monitoring for key Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) controls
    • Determine how sales and marketing modules are connected to other system modules
    • Analyze customer relationship management (CRM) components of ERP systems software
    • Examine material requirements planning and its relation to production planning and manufacturing processes
    • Evaluate how human resource components are connected to non-human resource modules in ERP systems
    • Assess management control processes within the accounting function
    • Identify differences between financial accounting modules and management accounting modules in ERP systems
    • Recognize the role of ERP in supporting eBusiness applications
    • Support the supply chain by understanding the interrelationship between business processes supporting sales and marketing, production and materials management, and accounting and finance
    • Leverage hands-on experience with the functions, capabilities and modules of an ERP system such as Microsoft® Dynamics
  • Forensic Accounting
    • Lead and conduct internal investigations of violations of criminal law and corporate policies, including theft, fraud, embezzlement, conflicts of interest, collusion, kickbacks, and records falsification
    • Examine financial records to trace the source or disposition of funds, detecting evidence of embezzlement, corruption, or misappropriation
    • Aid in conducting forensic analyses of digital information and physical evidence
    • Prepare clear, comprehensive, and cohesive investigative reports
    • Assist in planning, reviewing, delegating, and performing litigation support tasks, including forensic reviews and litigation analysis leading to expert witness testimony
    • Apply various interview and interrogation techniques to investigations
    • Analyze and institute internal control and corporate governance procedures to reduce the incidence of organizational fraud
  • Enterprise Risk Management
    • Perform enterprise-wide risk assessments that address inherent risks, including operational, compliance, strategic, hazard, and financial
    • Conduct detailed analyses and data mining to identify and validate existing and emerging risks
    • Aggregate collective risk into overall corporate risk models, developing tools for continuous monitoring
    • Leverage knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 as a mechanism for preventing risk
    • Assess risk reports for business lines, ensuring first-line risk management practices operate effectively
    • Work with risk owners to understand existing risks and strengthen risk remediation plans
    • Review key performance indicators (KPIs) and assist in the early identification of risk trends
    • Assist in managing all risks across the enterprise
    • Incorporate risk appetites and company limits in enterprise risk management (ERM) planning processes
    • Monitor business activities, ensuring compliance programs, policies, and procedures address new and emerging opportunities and risk
    • Understand ISO and COSO ERM Frameworks

Career Opportunities

  • Chief Financial Officer

    Chief Financial Officers ensure accurate corporate financial reporting and provide strategic financial advice to executive leadership.

    View Salary Trends
  • Staff Accountant

    Staff Accountants handle accounts receivables and payables, reconcile accounts, prepare taxes and audit financial statements for public companies, private firms, and government agencies.

    View Salary Trends
  • Controller

    Controllers oversee accounting operations, including budgeting, financial reporting, and controls, ensuring an orderly and compliant system that enhances reporting accuracy and mitigates financial risk.

    View Salary Trends
  • External Auditor

    External Auditors examine financial statements and records to ensure transparency in the financial reporting process.

    View Salary Trends
  • Internal Auditor

    Internal Auditors assess operating guidelines, controls, and procedures to ensure alignment with corporate policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements.

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  • Government or Non-for-Profit Accountant

    Government or Non-for-Profit Accountants track and manage cash flow, preparing and recording financial reports in compliance with regulatory guidelines and Government Account Standards Board principles.

    View Salary Trends
  • Accounting Consultant

    Accounting Consultants verify financial reports, evaluate organizational policies and procedures, measure business performance, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.

    View Salary Trends

Employment Outlook

From 2010-2020 jobs in Accounting are expected to increase by 18%. By 2020, there will be an estimated 2.1 million jobs related to Accounting.
Occupations Job Openings (2010) Expected Growth
(2010-2020)
Accountants and Auditors 72,387 18.8%
Budget Analysts 2,139 11.5%
Credit Analysts 3,173 18.4%
Financial Examiners 1,346 23.7%
Tax Examiners and Collectors, and Revenue Agents 2,024 5.4%

Source information provided by Economic Modeling Specialists International (EMSI)

Our Recipe For Your Success

Academic & Industry Experts

Classes are taught and designed by credentialed professionals with real-world experience.
 

  • Programs are designed by combining the insight of industry leaders with the academic expertise of our faculty, ensuring what you learn translates into on-the-job success.

  • Academic concepts and theories are brought to life through our teaching faculty’s professional expertise, and can be immediately applied in your career.

  • Faculty with industry experience teach our courses, not graduate students or life-time academics, so you learn not only the theories behind the practice but also how to apply them in real-world situations.

Relevant & Consistent Curriculum

What you learn is a reflection of the program you choose, not the format in which it’s applied.
 

  • All programs are designed for learning outcomes to flow from the program level into actual coursework.

  • This top-down approach allows credentialed professionals to customize assignments based on trending industry topics without deviating from a program’s core outcomes.

  • Regardless of your professor or the format of your class, you receive the same quality education.

Hands-On Learning Experience

Franklin's coursework teaches not only theories and concepts, but also how they apply to practical situations.

 

  • Professional course designers ensure that class activities such as learning simulations, case studies, interactive videos, and group exercises are relevant and appropriate.

  • A curriculum development team is dedicated to making sure all courses are intuitively designed so content is taught in a logical manner that facilitates your success in the classroom and beyond.

Continuously Evolving Programs

Consistent program reviews ensure our programs stay at the forefront of industry trends.
 

  • Survey results and feedback from student and faculty assessments are reviewed regularly so that our programs are always improving and up-to-date.

  • A structured review process helps identify industry gaps that guide curriculum enhancements allowing our academic and industry experts to regularly implement new industry trends.

  • Regular assessment provides hard data that is used to improve student learning and teaching methods.

Get the details

Read course descriptions, learn about degree options, and meet program faculty.

View Program Details