Category Archives: Accountancy

Accounting Faculty Article Wins National Award

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An article written by four University of Scranton accounting professors was awarded the inaugural Curt Verschoor Ethics Feature of the Year from the Institute of Management Accountants’ Committee on Ethics and Strategic Finance. The article, titled “The Value of Trust,” was written by Amanda S. Marcy, assistant professor of accounting; Douglas M. Boyle, D.B.A., chair of the University’s Accounting Department; James F. Boyle, D.B.A., assistant professor of accounting; and Daniel P. Mahoney, Ph.D., professor of accounting. The award highlights an article that focuses on the importance of ethics in business as a whole and finance and accounting in particular.

The new annual award is named in memory of Curtis C. Verschoor, a longtime member of the IMA Committee on Ethics, editor of the Strategic Finance Ethics column for 20 years, and a significant contributor to the development and revisions of the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice. Verschoor was a passionate, renowned thought leader on ethics in accounting, having earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from Trust Across America-Trust Around the World for his leadership in and advocacy for trustworthy business practices.

Professor Marcy was named assistant professor of accounting at Scranton in 2018 and previously served as a faculty specialist in the department. She worked as an accountant for Baker Tilly Virchow Krause, LLP. She is a Certified Public Accountant and member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the American Accounting Association and the Healthcare Financial Management Association. Professor Marcy earned both a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA specialized in accounting from The University of Scranton, and is currently pursuing her doctorate of business administration in accounting at the University.

Dr. Douglas Boyle serves as director of the University’s internationally recognized DBA program and the founder and director of the University’s Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program.

In addition, he, along with Dr. James Boyle and Dr. Mahoney, led the University’s effort to establish a Business High School Scholars Program. Articles written by these three professors have also won four Institute of Management Accountants’ “outstanding article of the year” medals, including two gold medals.

A Certified Public Accountant as well as a Certified Management Accountant, Dr. Douglas Boyle has more than 25 years of industry executive experience. An award-winning teacher, he was profiled in 2019 as one of just six “Professors to Know in Business Programs Based in the Northeast” selected by Bschools.org, an online resource for entrepreneurs.

Dr. Douglas Boyle’s research has been published in numerous academic and practitioner journals, such as The Journal of Accounting and Public Policy (JAPP), Accounting Horizons, Issues in Accounting Education, Current Issues in Auditing, The Journal of Accounting Education, The Accounting Educators’ Journal, The Journal of Accountancy, Strategic Finance, Fraud Magazine, Internal Auditor, Management Accounting Quarterly, The CPA Journal, Internal Auditing, The Journal of Applied Business Research and The Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences. He earned a bachelor’s degree from The University of Scranton, an MBA from Columbia University and a doctorate from Kennesaw State University.

Dr. James Boyle has taught part-time at the University since 2009 and full-time since 2012 and also served as an internal auditor for the University for more than a decade. He has published articles in multiple academic journals, including The CPA Journal, Strategic Finance, The Journal of Forensic and Investigative Accounting and Internal Auditing. He holds a bachelor’s and MBA from The University of Scranton and a DBA from Kennesaw State University.

An award-winning teacher and scholar, Dr. Mahoney’s research has been published in numerous professional journals, such as The CPA Journal, Internal Auditor, Management Accounting Quarterly and Journal of Business and Economics Research, Accounting and Financial Management. A Certified Public Accountant, he was named Kania School of Management’s Professor of the Year five times and has won numerous other awards for teaching. He earned a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from The University of Scranton as well as a doctorate in accounting from Syracuse University.

Nationally Recognized Accounting Programs and Faculty

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Two prestigious academic journals have ranked the Accounting Department of The University of Scranton in the top six in the nation for its scholarship in the areas of teaching/learning and applied practice. A 2019 edition of The Accounting Educators’ Journal and a 2019 online preprint (to be published in 2020) edition of Issues in Accounting Education published articles on the scholarship productivity of faculty in accounting programs across the nation.

The article in The Accounting Educators’ Journal titled, “Accounting Programs Ranked by Accounting-Education Publications: Controlling for Journal Quality, Authors’ Doctoral Time and the Number of Ph.D./DBA Faculty,” ranked accounting programs based on their faculty members’ publications in top accounting education journals. This article ranked Scranton’s Accounting Program No. 6 in the nation for article counts for 25 years standardized by each journal’s quality rating, the time since each author received their Ph.D. or D.B.A. and the number of accounting-education authors on faculty.

The article in Issues in Accounting Education titled, “The Intersection of Academia and Practice: Publishing in Leading U.S. Accounting Organizations’ Journals,” ranked accounting programs and faculty based on the number of publications in the leading five accounting practitioner journals. This article ranked Scranton No. 1 in the nation. The article, authored by faculty at Kennesaw State University and The University of Scranton, noted “two institutions (The University of Scranton, 25 articles; DePaul University, 20 articles) lead the group by a substantial margin.”

With respect to authorships of individual accounting faculty across the nation, four Scranton faculty members were recognized: Douglas Boyle, D.B.A., chair of the Accounting Department at Scranton, director of the University’s internationally recognized DBA program and the founder and director of the University’s Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program; James Boyle, D.B.A., assistant professor of accounting; Brian Carpenter, Ph.D., professor of accounting; and Daniel Mahoney, Ph.D., professor of accounting. The article noted, “Douglas Boyle at The University of Scranton is the overall leader with 19 articles, followed by Brian Carpenter, also at The University of Scranton with 13 articles. Other major contributors at the University of Scranton are Daniel Mahoney (11 articles) and James Boyle (seven articles). Overall, three of the top four authors are at The University of Scranton, and four of the top nine are University of Scranton faculty.” The article further identified Dr. Douglas Boyle and Dr. Carpenter as among only three authors in the nation for having a wide breath of publishing with articles in four of the five journals and among only seven authors in the nation for being ranked nationally for traditional all methods academic research, accounting education research, and practice research.

The University’s Kania School of Management, of which the Accounting Department is a part, is accredited by AACSB International, whose stated mission is “to foster engagement, accelerate innovation, and amplify impact in business education.” As part of its AACSB accreditation, the Kania School has identified teaching and learning scholarship and applied or integration/application scholarship (i.e., impact on practice) as high areas of emphasis for its AACSB accreditation Business Unit Research Activities, thus underscoring the significance of the two studies’ findings.

“Our accounting programs – bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral – have made incredible strides in recent years, and now both the quantity and quality of our scholarship are nationally recognized. I am proud to be part of this ever-growing landscape,” said Dr. Mahoney.

Articles by Drs. Douglas and James Boyle, Dr. Mahoney and Dr. Carpenter have received the Institute of Management Accountants’ Lybrand Medals for “outstanding papers.”

What can KSOM do for you?

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The nationally recognized Kania School of Management (KSOM) excels at supplying the tools you need to succeed in the increasingly global and technological world of business.

Earn a business degree at The University of Scranton! Check out our graduate programs here.

Calling All Accounting Graduates: Help Yourself Succeed!

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Taking control of your accounting career progression by developing a plan means you’re actively involved rather than sitting back and reacting to what comes to you. In other words, you can’t just hope everything falls into place, you have to plan and be ready for everything.

This can be started in the following general ways at first. Write down information to:

Assess Yourself

Find out what motivates you and highlight your areas of strength and weakness in regard to your future accounting career. Is there a specific accounting job that allows you to use your strengths while building on your weaker points?

Explore the Possibilities

Research areas of accounting by reading online, talking with current CPAs and those in other accountancy roles. Develop contacts and ask questions. The more information you get, the smoother your path. If possible, volunteer or seek internship opportunities to find out more about the work involved in certain accounting jobs.

Develop Goals – Use all the information gathered about career options for accountants and your self assessment report to come up with goals to guide your career. Accounting career planning depends on well-defined goals. The goals are designed to track progress and note what still needs to be done. If you go off track, you can include changes needed to get moving straight ahead again.

New Skills

Part of setting goals is knowing what skills – and certificates and training – you’ll need. These fall into three broad categories:

  • Developing Technical Skills – Professionals in accounting value technical proficiency, meaning that to rise up the ranks in any organization you will require extra technical skills. From financial reporting to project management, technical skills allow you to become an expert in your chosen field of accountancy and assist colleagues when needed.
  • Improving Communication Skills – Handling a management job requires regular communication with colleagues, junior staff as well as clients. To ensure that you have everyone working as a team you will need to communicate well, through writing or speaking.
  • Building Sales Skills – Even as you work for different companies aim to develop relationships with clients and potential ones as well. These relationships can be harnessed when in need of information about the services being offered or converting potentials to actual clients.

Get Started

Eventually any plan has to start otherwise it’s just theory. Pick a date or an event – graduation for instance. Begin to implement your plan and always move forward but be flexible for change as you learn more.

The steps may be slow for accounting graduates at first and you may have to make adjustments along the way as you learn more. Your career plan does not have to encompass your entire working career in accounting – use 5 or 10 year plans and build them out as you get closer.

Planning Equals Accounting Career Progression Efficiency

Having a plan means you don’t have to second-guess every step you take to advance. Executing your goals is the best way to climb up the career ladder, otherwise it’s just an empty plan. You’ve likely previously heard about the idea of developing a personal career plan, and yes it does take some work. But if you don’t make the effort, you’ll only be frustrated by the slow pace of your career advancement.

Do you think a Master’s degree would be right for you? Check out our Master of Accountancy program.

Becoming a CPA: It’s Worth it!

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As well as taking into account other people’s finances, accountants like to find themselves in the black. Knowing a CPA can improve your salary by at least 33 percent is an important number.

The infographic below gives a clear statistical depiction that earning a CPA translates into earning more money. Different jobs are possible as a Certified Public Accountant and qualification provides a springboard to jumping further up the ladder. The demand for CPAs for accounting firms remains high, and the CPA job outlook strong.

The University of Scranton Master of Accountancy program is structured to build up ALL the skills accountants need. Learnings go beyond proficiency with the bottom line and a company’s books. These soft skills for accountants include better communication, ethical components, and management techniques for leading a team.

One equally important goal of Scranton’s MAcc degree is to provide a wide knowledge foundation for CPA exam preparation. Passing the CPA exam allows you to be a part of the growing accountancy industry, which is developing more rapidly than the national average for careers. Prepare yourself – to make more money and enjoy the benefits of being a CPA.

Learn more about the Master of Accountancy program at The University of Scranton.