Shelley L. Curling

Color portrait of Shelley L. Curling

Assistant Teaching Professor

Department Accounting
Office Address 357 Business Building
Phone Number 814-867-5858
Email Address mlh257@psu.edu

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After earning her Ph.D. at Smeal in 2006, Professor Curling taught part-time for the Accounting department while raising her young family. In 2017 Professor Curling joined the faculty as a full-time Assistant Teaching Professor teaching undergraduate courses in financial accounting, managerial accounting, and auditing. She serves as the Director of the Graduate Certificate in Accounting Foundations. Before coming to Smeal, she was a cost accountant at Texstars in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Education

Ph D, Accounting, The Pennsylvania State University, 2006

BBA, Accounting and Finance, Texas Christian University, 1998

Courses Taught

ACCTG 403W – Auditing (3)
Financial, compliance, internal, and operational audits; standards and procedures; sampling; EDP auditing; professional issues; application of concepts through written responses. ACCTG 403W Auditing (3) Financial statement, regulatory and contract compliance, internal and operational audits, professional standards and ethical conduct; statistical and judgmental sampling; the audit-impact of information technology; audit risk and internal control structure evaluation; application of procedures in transaction cycles; audit reporting; professional issues.

ACCTG 813 – AUDITING (3)
Principles of the risk-based approach to the audit of financial statements, with special focus on financial information systems.

ACCTG 211H – Fin Mgl Acc Dec Mk - Honors (4)
Introduction to the role of accounting numbers in the process of managing a business and in investor decision making.ACCTG 211H Financial and Managerial Accounting for Decision Making (4) The objective of this course is to introduce students to the discipline of accounting through an introduction to two of accounting's sub-disciplines, financial and managerial accounting. The more specific purpose is to provide students a basic understanding of the role of financial and managerial accounting information in the decisions of capital market participants external to a business enterprise (e.g., stockholders, banks, financial analysts, prospective stockholders), and in the decisions of those who manage business enterprises. Accounting information has an important role in the resource allocation process in our socio-economic system as a whole, as well as in each individual business enterprise. This course provides students an understanding of (1) the nature of the accounting function, and (2) how the information in accounting reports are used by various decision makers in their resource allocation decisions.In this course students will develop an understanding of (a) the five activity dimensions of accounting (the collection, recording, analysis, interpretation and reporting of information to decision makers for (mainly) their investment decisions), (b) the issues surrounding the five activity dimensions, (c) the environment in which accounting is practiced, and (d) what information is used in a number of specific decision situations, and how such information is used in such decision situations. The analysis, interpretation and decision-making orientation of this course includes a study of the procedural (mechanical and processing) aspects of the recording activity dimension which is an important means to the end --where the end is the analysis and interpretation of the information, and the reports produced by the recording/processing part of accounting. Through this focus on the recording activity dimension, students will obtain an understanding of (a) the nature and quality (strengths and weaknesses) of accounting information, (b) how to proceed in analyzing and interpreting accounting information, and (c) numerous other aspects of financial and managerial accounting.This course is an important background course for all business majors, as well as for numerous non-business majors. For accounting majors it is a prerequisite for ACCTG 405, 404, and 471.The course format consists of lectures, outside reading, class discussion, projects and homework assignments.The semester grade for this course will be determined by a weighted average of performance on mainly exams, quizzes, projects and participation.

ACCTG 211 – Fin Mgl Acc Dec Mk (4)
Introduction to the role of accounting numbers in the process of managing a business and in investor decision making. ACCTG 211 Financial and Managerial Accounting for Decision Making (4)The objective of this course is to introduce students to the discipline of accounting through an introduction to two of accounting's sub-disciplines, financial and managerial accounting. The more specific purpose is to provide students a basic understanding of the role of financial and managerial accounting information in the decisions of capital market participants external to a business enterprise (e.g., stockholders, banks, financial analysts, prospective stockholders), and in the decisions of those who manage business enterprises. Accounting information has an important role in the resource allocation process in our socio-economic system as a whole, as well as in each individual business enterprise. This course provides students an understanding of (1) the nature of the accounting function, and (2) how the information in accounting reports are used by various decision makers in their resource allocation decisions. In this course students will develop an understanding of (a) the five activity dimensions of accounting (the collection, recording, analysis, interpretation and reporting of information to decision makers for (mainly) their investment decisions), (b) the issues surrounding the five activity dimensions, (c) the environment in which accounting is practiced, and (d) what information is used in a number of specific decision situations, and how such information is used in such decision situations. The analysis, interpretation and decision-making orientation of this course includes a study of the procedural (mechanical and processing) aspects of the recording activity dimension which is an important means to the end --where the end is the analysis and interpretation of the information, and the reports produced by the recording/processing part of accounting. Through this focus on the recording activity dimension, students will obtain an understanding of (a) the nature and quality (strengths and weaknesses) of accounting information, (b) how to proceed in analyzing and interpreting accounting information, and (c) numerous other aspects of financial and managerial accounting. This course is an important background course for all business majors, as well as for numerous non-business majors.

ACCTG 472 – Int Fin Acctg II (3)
Off-balance-sheet financing; special issues in cost capitalization, liabilities, and equities; matching; funds flow statements; statement analysis; inflation accounting.

ACCTG 404 – Managerial Acctg (3)
Accounting techniques as planning, control, and motivating devices in business and other organizations; accounting data for decision making and performance evaluation. ACCTG 404 Managerial Accounting (3) This course emphasizes the use of accounting information for internal purposes as opposed to the external disclosure focus of the financial accounting course. The cost covers the vocabulary and mechanics of cost accounting and the design of management accounting systems for planning and controlling operations, and for motivating personnel. The course integrates accounting with ideas from data analysis, decision analysis, finance, microeconomics, and operations management. The themes stressed throughout the course will be the notion that information is costly; the circumstances that necessitate cost allocation, the idea that different costs and different allocation schemes apply for different purposes; and fundamentals of incentive and compensation plans. Among the topics covered are cost behavior, cost-volume analysis, relevant costs, and the use of cost information for decision making. The course will rely on lectures and discussion of case studies.

Honors and Awards