Accounting and Finance Dissertation

[katykateh]

Hi I am about to enter my third year of uni studying business management with accounting and finance. I am struggling to find a good topic for my finance and accounting dissertation where there is lots of information available. I have thought about doing something in the area of fraud - but any ideas would be welcomed if anyone can help!

[BigMac]

Might be too far off the subject but how about: "Sarbanes-Oxley and the Law of Unintended Consequences".

Sarb-Ox was introduced in the US in the wake of the Enron accounting scandal; partly as a result of Sarb-Ox, a large number of overseas companies, including from the US, is now choosing to List on the AIM exchange in London because of its 'lighter regulatory touch'.

So, on the finance side, you could look at ability to raise capital in London vs US and on the acocunting side could examine the regulatory provisions of the London and US jurisdictions.

Failing that, have a look at Parmalat's accounting fiasco of a couple of years ago - perhaps particularly the role of the auditors.

Finally, read Terry Smith's Accounting for Growth.

Hope this helps.

[jason1980]

I chose Managing Accounting Systems and broke the project down into the roles of each person within a specific department, their current roles, room for improvements, any potential area's for fraud and how the current accounting system could be improved, supporting each improvement with costings, benefits, even if it meant staff re-training, new software. Efficiency of time. Etc. My project was on the whole approach of how people manage their time, resources, organisation charts, what the specific role of each department does and how it interacts and communciates with other departments. I was very descriptive and found quite a lot of areas for improvements, potential areas of fraud, how things could be changed, the effects of implementation supported by breakdowns of costs for staff training, the long term benefits of changing some IT software.