Ethical Education in Accounting School

High-profile accounting fraud scandals like Enron and WorldCom have been hot topics lately. Many of the latest accounting fraud headlines have involved senior management and CFO’s lying to analysts and investors to hide a company’s financial decline. As a CPA, you may face pressures to make a company appear more profitable. It is the responsibility of accounting schools and CPA training courses to educate future CPAs to maintain a standard of ethical credibility and not to give in to under the pressures of the the business.

Ethics in Practice
As a CPA, being ethical and moral is not an exception, it’s the rule. Remaining ethical sounds simple, but how easy is it to do so? As a CPA, you may find yourself at odds with a valuable client who insists on presenting inflated projections, and you may be unable to persuade the client to be honest. Now you have a dilemma: if you don’t sign off on the manipulated data, you could risk losing the account. What is the right thing to do? Keep the following tips in mind when you’re faced with such a situation:
CPA Training Tips:

Follow the CPA Golden Rule: Always be factual and reasonable when evaluating clients’ financial statements and business plans.
Be detail-oriented, not sloppy.
Make sure statements and business plans make sense.
Don’t be afraid to rock the boat. Losing an account may hurt initially, but think of the consequences.

There is no crime in companies wanting to be optimistic about their futures; however, it is the responsibility of the CPAs to project accurate information to shareholders. Accountants should never let themselves be coerced into jeopardizing legal, ethical, and moral standards.

Sources
http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2003/0303/nv/nv4.htm
www.accountingmalpractice.com/0003/uae-im.pdf

Schools are listed in alphabetical order by state then city.

Rasmussen College	[Online]
Programs: Accounting Banking and Finance Forensic Accounting Request More Information >

University of Phoenix	[Online]
Whether you’re seeking an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, University of Phoenix can help you reach your goal much sooner than you might expect. Programs: BS in Business/Accounting BS in Business/Finance MBA/Accounting Single Courses - Finance Request More Information >