Accounting

As an accounting major, you'll take courses in financial and managerial accounting, business law, corporate finance, and intermediate and advanced accounting.

While you'll get foundational business courses as well, some students choose to double major in accounting and business administration. Others may also pair an accounting major with computer science or another program.

To learn more, you can also view the program strengths and learning outcomes for this program.

Major in accounting, and you'll get the rigorous academic experience and expertise that will help you to thrive in the accounting field. Dordt graduates have gone on to serve as tax accountants, staff accountants, assurance associates, financial audit analysts, and more. They have worked for reputable firms such as KPMG, EY, and more.

A degree in accounting will require students to complete different classes from the business administration and economics programs. Students will also be required to take an introductory statistics course and to pick an additional elective course in economics.

• Computer Literacy for Business/Accounting Majors: This course teaches important computer skills used in today’s world of business. Areas of study include beginning and intermediate Excel and Word, advanced PowerPoint, an introduction to Access, and Windows and file management basics.
• Introduction to Business: This course will prepare you to understand your calling in the business industry. This course will help develop your understanding of God’s plan for business and how you can become an effective Kingdom citizen in this area of work. This course will also help you gain a better understanding of the different roles people play within a business and the ways these roles work together for the effectiveness of the business. Finally, this course will provide students with advice on how to be successful within the business major.
• Principles of Financial Accounting: Introduces the concepts and terminology of accounting and financial reporting for modern business enterprises. The course is centered around analyzing and interpreting accounting information for use in making decisions about organizations. There is a special emphasis on analyzing the balance sheet, the statement of income and expense, the statement of cash flows, and the statement of stockholders’ equity. Additional emphasis is placed on problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills that are necessary for forming conclusions about business activities and to communicate these conclusions to others.
• Principles of Managerial Accounting: An introduction to managerial accounting, presenting basic accounting concepts that are important to management decisions. Emphasis is placed on analyzing and interpreting accounting information that enables management accountants to work with managers from other areas, particularly marketing and operations, and to make decisions about costing, pricing, and production. The tools and information that are important are described within the decision framework rather than as isolated accounting procedures.
• Business Law I: This course provides an overview of the law as it relates to business, specifically focusing on regulation of businesses and business dealings. Specific topics covered include: government regulation, contracts, secured transactions, insurance, bankruptcy, and employment law. Primary emphasis is placed on contract formation and interpretation.
• Business Law II: This course provides an overview of the law as it relates to business, specifically focusing on the way businesses manage liabilities. Specific topics covered include: torts, agency and vicarious liability, property, intellectual property, business entities, and estate and succession planning. Primary emphasis is placed on torts and corporate governance.
• Corporate Finance: An introduction to the theory, issues, and practice of business finance. Key components include valuation of financial assets, financial planning and control, working capital management, and capital budgeting.
• Intermediate Accounting I: Analysis of financial accounting theory and current practice. Analysis of problems concerning valuation of assets, evaluation of liabilities and capital structure, communication, and reporting of financial information.
• Intermediate Accounting II: Continuation of Business Administration 310, includes special financial reports and financial analysis.
• Advanced Accounting: A comprehensive study of accounting problems of partnerships, consolidations, branch operations, bankruptcies, estates, trusts, etc.
• Cost Accounting: A study of measurement and evaluation of production costs, including job order costing, process costing, standard costing, and quantitative methods of costing.
• Auditing: A working knowledge of principles and procedures of professional auditing and accounting with special emphasis on AICPA standards and professional ethics.
• Federal Income Tax: A study of federal income tax regulations and forms, based on the Internal Revenue Code, with primary emphasis on tax problems for the individual.
• Advanced Federal Income Tax: A study of federal income tax regulations and forms, based on the Internal Revenue Code, with primary emphasis on corporations, partnerships, S corporations, estates, and trusts. Business Administration 315 strongly recommended.
• Not-For-Profit Accounting: Accounting methods and managerial analyses employed for governmental bodies and private and public not-for-profit institutions.
• Senior Business and Economics Ethics Seminar: An integration of departmental courses involving student research and analysis on current topics in business and economics, with primary emphasis on Christian perspectives for the businessperson and economist. Required for senior majors in business administration or economics.
• Principles of Economics: Micro: The study of allocation of scarce resources at the level of the individual, household, and firm. Included are human motivation and preferences, the market, the function of prices, supply, demand, perfect and imperfect competition, and selected policy questions. Christian views on the nature of humanity, human motivation, and the market are also studied.
• Principles of Economics: Macro: An introduction to the study of human choice in the allocation of scarce resources, concentrating on the aggregate or national level. Economic systems, national income accounts and analysis, income distribution, fiscal and monetary policy, banking systems, economic growth, and selected economic policy problems are covered. Christian views on the origin and nature of economic resources and humankind’s stewardship responsibilities are discussed.
• Introductory Statistics: An introductory course in statistical techniques and methods and their application to a variety of fields. Topics include data analysis, design of experiments, and statistical inference including confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. Exposure to statistical software and a substantive student project are also part of this course.
• One elective course in economics

See the course catalog for more information.