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Welcome
 The
accounting profession's aim is to provide financial information useful in making
economic decisions. In today's economy, relevant, accessible information and its
effective management have gained even greater value. The accounting faculty of the
Robert H. Smith School of Business, through its teaching and research, enables members
of the accounting profession to address the financial information needs of their
stakeholders.
There are three main areas of accounting, differentiated by the information requirements
of their specific audiences. Accounting and Information Assurance faculty members
in the Smith School of Business possess expertise in all of these areas.
Financial Accounting is the information accumulation, processing, and communication
system designed to meet the decision-making needs of external users, including actual
and potential investors, creditors, employees, and the general public. Managerial
Accounting refers to the process of generating and analyzing data used by management
in its decision making to aid in the efficient operation of the firm. This includes
information such as unit cost of products; revenue, cost, and profit estimates for
strategic alternatives; and long-range budgets. Finally, Income Tax Accounting is
important for complying with tax laws, as well as for minimizing tax expenditures.
The accounting faculty offers a four-course sequence in financial accounting
principles (introductory and intermediate) and also teaches courses in managerial
accounting, auditing, accounting systems, income tax accounting, accounting ethics
and professionalism, international accounting, and advanced accounting. Faculty
members possess a rare mix of "real-world" experience, excellence in research and
scholarship, and a commitment to teaching and developing students for careers in
the accounting field. Many of the faculty work in partnership with members of the
accounting profession to ensure that their teaching reflects the profession's needs.
Two faculty members co-edit the
Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, a major academic accounting
journal.
Information assurance is concerned with protecting the integrity and confidentiality
of organizations' databases, reports, and computer systems along with ensuring the
availability of the information to authorized users. Thus, it is not surprising
that information assurance is an integral part of the discipline of accounting.
For example, the accuracy and integrity of information is critical to accurate financial
reporting and the generation of timely and relevant internal accounting reports
for decision-making. Additionally, accountants, including auditors, have a responsibility
for ensuring that proper internal controls are in place to protect the key strategic
asset of information. External independent auditors have the responsibility of commenting
on the fairness of accounting information and their actions are subject to a code
of ethics.
While accounting has always been concerned with information assurance, this concern,
however, has been growing rapidly since the development of the Internet. Moreover,
the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has clearly solidified the interconnectivity between
accounting and information assurance. The ethical performance of the work of the
independent auditor is now monitored by the Public Company Accounting Oversight
Board. Indeed, the importance of information assurance has transformed the research,
teaching and practice of the discipline of accounting. Accounting faculty members
at the Robert H. Smith School of Business have taken the lead in this area.
Accounting faculty members at the Smith School of Business are actively engaged
in various research projects related to economic and risk management aspects of
information assurance. From a teaching perspective, information assurance is now
an integral part of most accounting courses at the Smith School, including: auditing,
managerial accounting, ethics and professionalism in accounting, business ethics,
accounting systems, financial statement analysis, taxes, international accounting,
and financial planning and control systems for managers and consultants. Several
Smith School accounting faculty members are also actively engaged in information
assurance research. For example, two faculty members have published an entire stream
of research on the economic aspects of information security. Their research has
been supported by the National Security Agency through a grant with the University
of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Other faculty members
conduct research on corporate governance and business ethics. Faculty members at the Smith School
are also working with corporations on the practical implementation of information
assurance.
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