CPE Session 35: Sunday, August 3, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Competing on Analytics:
Developing Accounting Models in the Classroom

(Specialized Knowledge & Applications – Intermediate)

Description/Objectives:
Davenport and Harris (2007) summarize the growing use of analytics in decision making. The authors develop the idea that, "decisions based on analytics are more likely to be correct that those based on intuition (p 13)." Moreover, they predict that the "frontier of decisions that can be treated analytically is always moving forward (p14)." By using data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models and fact-based management to drive asset management decisions, organizations are creating additional shareholder value.

Management accounting professionals must possess the skills necessary to lead organizations toward evidence-based management. Moreover, public accounting professionals continue to use predictive models to estimate account balances as a basis for determining the scope of their audit procedures. Accordingly, we have developed a class that integrates behavioral research and decision modeling in an effort to accelerate the development of students’ mental models of how organizations operate and how accounting models predict or explain performance. We will provide a CPE session that demonstrates how to conduct such a class for accounting majors at either the senior-level or the MAcc-level.

Presenters:
Tammy Waymire, Northern Illinois University
Timothy D. West, Northern Illinois University
Sarah Topham, Ernst and Young

Note: CPE fields of study are in parentheses