Accounting students gain experience in honors project

Two Trine University accounting majors looking for a challenge completed an honors project this past semester that saw them perform real-life accounting tasks for a simulated company.

Paige Aselage, from Huntertown, Indiana, and Sam Sering, from Indianapolis, were part of the AC 213 Accounting II class taught by Al Beatty, assistant professor of accounting.

Beatty said he noticed the students needed something more challenging in his class.

“As I spoke with them, they mentioned that as honor students they have to seek out their own honors classes, because those are generally in the sciences and engineering programs,” he said.

Job costing simulation

Beatty found a packet he had used in the past that takes students through a simulation of jeans designer focusing on job costing, the process of tracking costs and revenue for an individual project.

“Before students can do any accounting entries, they have to read through transactions, prepare material requisitions, purchase orders, job cost sheets, sales acceptance orders, invoices and more, just like in a real business,” he said.

“We were able to fill out actual documents you would see in the real world,” said Aselage.

Once that process was done and they made the accounting entries, the students prepared financial statements they used to make budget projections and to decide if the company should take on a new business line.

“Each assignment built off of another, which really pulled the whole project together,” Aselage said.

Preparation for coursework, careers

The students met with Beatty weekly beginning in late March until the project was completed. They checked the accuracy of documents, discussed the concepts and processes involved and talked about how they would handle situations as corporate accountants.

“After fully grasping the idea of the main overall purpose, we moved on to the next financial documents we had to cover,” said Sering. “I appreciated getting to learn a lot more about a company and how it works.”

“It taught me a lot about how detailed you have to be, because once one mistake is made, the process doesn’t match. However, there is always a way to check yourself before you wreck yourself in this position, and figuring out what is wrong and fixing it is one of the best feelings ever.”

The students said the project prepared them for more advanced accounting classes next year as well as their future careers.

“This project will prepare me to help run businesses and help them grow, while also maintaining and analyzing their operations with much detail and focus,” said Sering.