Accounting Associate
Department Co-Chair and Student Advisor: Leslie Van Wolvelear, 847-376-7135 or lvanwolv@oakton.edu
Many business-related jobs require a bachelor’s degree. Students considering business as career can take ACC 153 and ACC 154 at Oakton. These two courses will transfer to four-year institutions and satisfy the accounting component of the business core. Transfer students may take other accounting courses to build skills, especially in accounting technology, but those courses will most likely not transfer to four-year institutions.
There are other avenues for students considering careers in accounting. For students who do not plan to pursue bachelor’s degrees, Oakton’s Accounting curriculum provides the preparation to become staff accountants, tax preparers, payroll accountants, QuickBooks Certified Users, and Microsoft Excel Specialists.
Students who already have bachelor’s degrees may consider any of the avenues in the above paragraph or they may pursue Oakton’s program to prepare for the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam.
The curriculum offers a 63-credit-hour A.A.S. degree program and four accounting certificates: a 20-credit hour Accounting Technology Certificate that includes Excel, QuickBooks, and Cloud Accounting; an 18-credit-hour Income Tax Preparation Certificate that leads to the IRS enrolled agent exam; a 42-credit-hour certificate in accounting that includes accounting technology, taxation, ethics, and communications; and a 36-credit-hour Professional Accounting – CPA Preparation Certificate that leads to the national uniform CPA exam.
CPA Exam Candidates should check the Professional Accounting - CPA Preparation Certificate for information regarding CPA Exam preparation.
Accounting Courses
Course introduces fundamental accounting procedures to complete the accounting cycle, including business transactions, adjusting entries, financial statements, and closing procedures. Also integrated are reconciliation of bank statements, examination of internal controls, and payroll procedures. This non-transfer course is intended for those students who want to learn basic accounting or for those who need preparation before enrolling in ACC 153.
Course covers preparation and analysis of financial information using generally accepted accounting principles. Content includes the accounting cycle, financial statement preparation, merchandise accounting, internal controls, cash, receivables, inventory, payables, property, plant and equipment, intangible assets, liabilities, stockholders’ equity, cash flow statement, and financial statement analysis.
Course presents accounting information used for internal business management. Focus is on planning, controlling and evaluating company performance. Content includes budgeting, job costing, product pricing, breakeven analysis, standard costing, decision models. Projects will be completed in Microsoft Excel. Prior experience with Excel not required.
Course covers study and practice in practical applications of payroll tax laws and requirements. Content includes understanding and preparation of payroll records including FICA, unemployment taxes, payroll registers, tax forms, and deposit coupons.
Course introduces Sage 50 software (formerly known as Peachtree). Content includes setting up companies, entering payables, writing checks, entering sales, collecting receivables, tracking inventory, processing payroll, generating reports, entering journal entries and creating financial statements.
Fee: $10
Course provides intermediate applications of Sage 50 software (formerly known as Peachtree). Content includes new company setup, inventory tracking, account reconciliations, customizing forms, importing/exporting data, and performing all transactions to complete the accounting cycle for merchandising, nonprofit, and manufacturing companies.
Fee: $10
Course provides accounting refresher and uses Microsoft Excel features to perform accounting functions. Accounting topics include transactions, financial statements, cash flow, inventory costing, bank reconciliations, payroll, depreciation, bond amortization, financial ratios, and budgeting. Excel topics include formulas, formatting, multiple worksheets, charting, ranges, pivot tables, basic macros, goal seek, and special functions for calculations of inventory, payroll, depreciation, and time value of money.
Fee: $10
Course prepares students for QuickBooks Certified User Exam. Topics include setting up companies, managing customer and vendor activity, preparing bank reconciliations, setting up inventory tracking, working with Balance Sheet transactions, performing payroll, creating job estimates and time-tracking, setting up product classes, customizing forms and reports, integrating with Microsoft Office, performing adjusting entries, and closing the books. Students have option of taking Certified User Exam on campus at end of term. Recommended ACC 153 or prior accounting knowledge.
Fee: $10
Course uses cloud systems to perform accounting functions for service and merchandising entities. Google Sheets are used to prepare transaction analysis and financial statements. Excel 365 is used to perform the entire accounting cycle, including the statement of cash flows. QuickBooks Online is used for accounting functions related to company setup, customers, vendors, inventory tracking, sales tax, bank reconciliations, adjusting entries, and financial reporting. Other cloud accounting platforms may be introduced. Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive are used for file sharing. Prior experience with accounting software is not required.
Course presents development, usefulness and limitations of financial accounting. Content includes the study of financial statements, conceptual framework of accounting, present value techniques, as well as issues arising from cash, receivables, inventories, long-term assets, and current liabilities. Accounting research is included using professional databases to resolve accounting issues. One credit hour of this course will satisfy the accounting research requirement mandated by the Illinois Board of Examiners.
Course presents theory and practice relating to liabilities, equity, and statement of cash flows. Content includes study of debt and stock securities, earnings per share, accounting for income taxes, pension costs and leases, statement of cash flows, and financial reporting. Accounting research is included using professional databases to resolve accounting issues. One credit hour of this course will satisfy the accounting research requirement mandated by the Illinois Board of Examiners.
Course presents practice of general accounting research. Content includes study of professional research using authoritative databases. Focus is on accounting literature, including application of professional standards to case study simulations. This course will satisfy the 2-hour accounting research required by the Illinois Board of Examiners for the CPA exam.
Course offers practical study of current federal and Illinois state income tax concepts, requirements, procedures and forms as they relate to businesses and individuals. Content includes income inclusions and exclusions, capital gains and losses, business and personal deductions and accounting methods. Computerized tax software used.
Course presents managerial and cost accounting with a focus on how management can use this information to make strategic business decisions. Content includes application of cost concepts in manufacturing under differing costing methods, with focus on job, process, standard, variable and activity-based costing. Additional content includes short and long-term decision techniques with focus on cost-volume-profit analysis and capital budgeting. Assignments include computerized spreadsheeting.
Course requires work with accounting systems to maintain the books and prepare financial statements. Content includes preparation of source documents, flowcharts, journal entries, adjusting entries, general ledgers, subsidiary ledgers, bank reconciliations, depreciation schedules, payroll records, and financial statements, including the statement of cash flows. Microsoft Excel and QuickBooks used in this course. Prior experience with the software not required.
Course prepares students for QuickBooks ProAdvisor Exam. Content in first 8 weeks includes basic functions such as sales, receivables, purchases, payables, inventory, bank reconciliations, sales taxes, and payroll. Content in second 8 weeks includes cleaning up errors, fixing the data necessary for tax returns, and troubleshooting financial reports. Previous experience with QuickBooks is not required.
Course offers cooperative work experience in accounting field. Part of course credit earned for participation in supervised cooperative work experience program, in college-approved training setting. Minimum of 200 hours at work site must be completed.
Course presents an exploration of career paths in bookkeeping, tax accounting, corporate accounting, auditing, international accounting, and independent accounting practice. Content includes fields of accounting, professional resumes, cover letters, job-search strategies, and interview skills. Students will attend one professional networking event arranged by the instructor.
Course concerned primarily with financial auditing. Content includes auditing standards, concepts and techniques, internal control, audit programs and audit reports.
Course covers governmental and not-for-profit accounting, and business combinations. Content includes general funds, special funds, consolidated financial statements, intercompany inventory, and other intercompany transactions.
Course examines basic concepts of corporation income taxation for person in business field or student aspiring to a business career. General understanding of federal income tax system assumed. Focus is on tax aspects of business transactions and on compensation techniques. Content includes basic principles of income taxation as applied to partnerships, estates and trusts; taxation on transfer of wealth, both during lifetime and testamentary. Computerized tax software used.
Course designed to prepare for IRS Enrolled Agent exam. The focus is on tax theory and its application in different areas and situations. Content includes taxation of individuals, sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, fiduciaries, estates, trusts and gifts. Training and practice in how to analyze and answer test questions. Simulated testing environment experience. Course open for review of taxation in the areas described above, even if taking exam not planned.
Course covers selected current topics in Accounting; one identified for each section. Possible content includes: Income Tax Update, Payroll Tax Update, and Case Studies in ethics for Accounting. Prerequisite may vary by topic.