AICPA

There's an accounting course for everyone…well, almost.

Today's CPAs work in a variety of areas such as managerial and financial accounting, financial planning and assurance services, and in every industry from not-for-profit and government agencies to professional sports, fashion and entertainment. The courses you'll take in college will prepare you for these new career paths, and help you develop skills such as strategic thinking, communications, and technology. The areas of study below will help gear you up for wherever you want to go in the accounting profession and beyond.

Assurance & Information Integrity

Business leaders need to base their decisions on reliable and accurate information. That's where accounting comes in. Only a CPA can perform a financial audit, which verifies a company's financial reports–and its increasing importance in recent years has boosted demand for CPAs. Through your studies in assurance services, you'll become qualified to help businesses interpret data, and then put that information in a useful and ethical context. Your knowledge, insights and recommendations can help a company improve operations. Learn all this and more in these assurance services and information integrity courses:

• Auditing
• Accounting Processes and Controls
• Operational Auditing
• Advanced Accounting Information Systems
• Management Information Systems (MIS)
• Business Risk and Controls
• Forensic Accounting
• Fraud Prevention and Detection
• Environmental Accounting

Financial Accounting

By studying financial accounting, you'll gain the skills to assist people, businesses or other organizations in reaching their financial goals. CPAs analyze past activities and future trends, and then use that information to help businesses and individuals make smarter financial decisions going forward. Here are some college courses in financial accounting you can take to gain these skills:

• Financial Statement Analysis
• Intermediate and Advanced Accounting
• Corporate Finance and Accounting
• Accounting for Investments and Financing
• Accounting in Capital Markets
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Global Accounting and Reporting
• International Business Transactions

Managerial Accounting

Managerial accounting courses focus your ability to think creatively in business. You'll learn everything from figuring out how to fund an overseas facility for a business to launching a new product and improving the efficiency of an organization's operations. Here are some college courses you can take in managerial accounting:

• Principles of Managerial Accounting
• Cost Accounting and Control
• Accounting for Business Operations
• Advanced Issues in Managerial Accounting

Not-for-Profit

As the CPA for a not-for-profit, you'll often have the responsibility of helping to improve a non-for-profit organization's operations and fund-raising efforts, along with helping to allocate their financial resources. CPAs work with the Internal Revenue Service, State Controller, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Securities and Exchange Commission and even the President. Governmental accounting studies are as wide-ranging as the job responsibilities, covering everything from government operations in your hometown all the way up to federal agencies—these courses are a great place to start:

• Accounting Processes and Controls for Not-for-Profit and Governmental Agencies
• Not-for-Profit and Governmental Accounting

Tax & Financial Planning

Whether companies need an important business transaction managed, or an individual wants their investment portfolios structured, they need the help of the most trusted, most objective and most qualified professional: the CPA. And the CPA turns to his or her tax and financial planning skills. This indispensable area of accounting involves a wide area of services that interpret and create financial value (for individuals or businesses) by using a range of information. Here are some college courses you can take in tax and financial planning:

• Tax of Business Entities
• Tax Strategies for Corporations and Shareholders
• International Tax
• Individual Tax Planning
• Investment Strategies