Course Descriptions

This course is designed to integrate the knowledge and skills required of a professional accountant or advisor.  Emphasis will be placed on enhancing students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills.  Further, the course will provide numerous opportunities to enhance professional judgment and ethical behaviour.  Students will improve oral communication skills through robust class discussion and written communication through case exams.

On successful completion of the course, students will:

• Thoroughly integrate and apply the knowledge across the six technical areas of the CPA PEP program which include financial reporting, management accounting, taxation, audit and assurance, strategy and governance, finance.
• Analyze complex business situations; identify potential alternatives; evaluate each alternatives and recommend an appropriate course of action.
• Conduct themselves with the appropriate professional and ethical behaviour expected of the discipline.
• Consistently articulate analysis and conclusions during class discussions and written examinations.

This course is an extension of the undergraduate advanced corporate finance course and will build upon the undergraduate advanced financial accounting course.

In particular the course objectives are to:

• Prepare a comprehensive financial analysis of various financial situations using data from financial statements and company annual reports.
• Evaluate an entity’s financial state.
• Determine the value of a business and recommend the purchase and expansion or sale of a business.

On successful completion of the course, students will:

• Formulate a strategic plan while considering the organization’s capabilities and environmental context.
• Identify the important opportunities and challenges facing a business and recommend a course of action for dealing with them.
• Prepare and present an action plan that is operationally specific.

This course will combine, broaden and further develop the knowledge learned in strategy and management accounting courses taken at the undergraduate level.  The objectives of this course are to examine organizational core competence, exploit these competencies to develop a strategic advantage while mitigating risk and to effectively implement strategies.

On successful completion of the course, students will:

• Understand and identify management information needs and respond to them by developing systems required to meet those needs; using planning, forecasting, budgeting, cost and revenue management for an entity; and, performance management systems.
• Apply conceptual frameworks for strategy, governance, risk and performance in complex settings; developing competencies used to focus an entity on improving performance and delivering sustainable value.

Demonstrate strategic decision-making, support effective governance, manage and mitigate risk, and assess overall performance management.

This course deepens students’ understanding of the Income Tax Act (Canada) and its effect on business decisions.

The objective of this course is to analyze complex taxation issues at the personal and corporate level as well as a variety of complex issues such as rollovers, estate planning, and the taxation of trusts and international taxation.

On successful completion of the course, students will:

• Assemble and properly arrange complex and diverse financial information in order to accurately calculate net income, taxable income and federal income tax payable for corporations, trusts, and taxpayers involved in partnerships.
• Identify opportunities to minimize tax consequences of financial transactions involving corporations and their shareholders and generate multiple solutions.
• Research and develop a solution to a tax planning scenario in order to minimize tax consequences by balancing both short and long term taxpayer objectives and communicate their recommendations in a professional format.
• Recognize the changing nature of tax legislation and the inherent uncertainties.

This course will build on the Introductory Audit course at the undergraduate level while integrating technical knowledge of financial accounting.  In particular, this course will

• Examine current issues and trends in the auditing profession.
• Explore non-traditional assurance and attestation engagements.
• Enhance students’ professional judgment, audit reasoning, and the conceptual understanding of all assurance engagements.

 On successful completion of the course, students will:

• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the differences among a wide variety of audit, review and compilation engagements prepared for diverse audiences.
• Draw upon various sources of information to assess the audit/review risk, determine materiality, and draw an accurate conclusion with respect to the best audit/review approach to be taken.
• Determine the nature, extent and timing of audit and review procedures based on assessed risk.

Perform the necessary procedures required to gather sufficient and appropriate evidence to support and communicate an audit/review opinion.