Scott Collins

Color portrait of Scott Collins

Clinical Professor, Discipline Coordinator of Accounting, Director of One-Year Master of Accounting (MAcc) Program

Department Accounting
Office Address 326 Business Building
Phone Number 814-865-1529
Email Address sgc132@psu.edu

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Professor Collins has served on the Smeal College of Business faculty since 2012. He brings a robust experience in accounting practice and teaching into his current position at Penn State.

Prior to his current position at Penn State, Collins served as a staff auditor with a multi-billion dollar CPA firm, a plant controller at a multi-billion dollar food manufacturing company, a financial controller at a pre-IPO internet startup company, and an adjunct faculty member for multiple universities.

In his current position at Penn State, Collins teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to financial accounting, managerial accounting, and accounting information systems. In addition to his teaching duties, Collins also serves as the Director of Penn State’s One-Year Master of Accounting (MAcc) Program.

Professor Collins has a primary research interest in experimental and behavioral studies related to educational pedagogy, and he is also interested in research related to the impact of annual report complexity and sentiment on investor behavior.

Education

Ph D, Management (Accounting), Claremont Graduate University, 2012

MS, Business Administration (Accounting), The Pennsylvania State University, 2009

MBA, Management (Finance), Claremont Graduate University, 2005

BA, Business-Economics (Accounting), The University of California, Santa Barbara, 1996

Courses Taught

ACCTG 804 – Data Analytics Accounting (3)
ACCTG 804 provides Master of Accounting in Accounting Analytics (MAA) students with knowledge designed to prepare them for entry-level positions in the rapidly-evolving field of Accounting. The course will give students an overview of basic programming tools and techniques that can scale to larger data sets, specifically related to financial information and reporting systems, and decision making by both entities and individuals. The course will include an overview of the Python programming language, with a focus on Python modules that are relevant for basic data analytics. The course will also provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the Extract-Transform-Load process, including processes related to obtaining data, cleaning data, visualizing data, and analyzing data. The course will also include an overview of blockchain technology as it relates to the Accounting profession. An introduction to the ethical use of data will also be provided during the course.

ACCTG 873 – Adv Acct Rep (3)
Financial disclosure and reporting for complex business enterprises and activities; current issues in financial reporting.

ACCTG 399 – Foreign Studies (2)
Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction.

ACCTG 397 – Special Topics (1)
Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject that may be topical or of special interest.

ACCTG 432 – Acctg Info Systems (3)
Accounting data are utilized as information in making decisions and as a control mechanism. The focus of this course, however, will be upon the actual production of accounting data. The purpose of the course is to learn how accountants collect relevant data and transform them into reports appropriate for managers and external readers. Procedural details will focus first on the traditional accounting cycle and the journal entries for business transactions and events. Then we shall examine in detail the principle accounting cycles: sales cycle, cash receipts cycle, purchases cycle, cash disbursements cycle, payroll cycle, facilities cycle, general ledger cycle, production cycle. For each cycle, you should be able to explain the relation of the accounting process to the business enterprise, the basic journal entries, the basic internal control features, and the document flow.

ACCTG 495 – Internship (3)
Supervised off-campus, nongroup instruction including field experiences, practica, or internships. Written and oral critique of activity required.

ACCTG 497 – Special Topics (3)
Formal courses given infrequently to explore, in depth, a comparatively narrow subject which may be topical or of special interest.

ACCTG 814 – MANAGERIAL ACCTG (3)
Examination of the internal organizational accounting procedures that establish accountability within organizations.

IB 399 – Foreign Studies (3)
Courses offered in foreign countries by individual or group instruction.

ACCTG 573 – FINANCIAL REPORTING (3)
This course examines the accounting for complex business transactions with an emphasis on understanding the "why", rather than exclusively the "how". There is a focus on the economic substance of transactions and developing a deep understanding of the Financial Accounting Standards Board Conceptual Framework. This enables one to analyze the consistency of current financial reporting standards within a conceptual framework while considering alternative accounting treatments that can better reflect the economic substance of transactions. An overview of the conceptual and practical issues surrounding the accounting for investments, fair values, business combinations, consolidation of financial statements, structured transactions, derivatives, and hedging activities and foreign operations will also be covered with the intent for developing an awareness of academic research related to the economics of and accounting for complex business transactions.

ACCTG 597 – Special Topics (3)

ACCTG 423 – Accounting Data Analytics (3)
This course focuses on helping students develop data analytic skills using accounting data. Data has proliferated in business and managers and accountants need to understand the implications for decision-making and tap into the data to provide better insights into a firm/client/customer/supplier. This course is intended to provide students with an understanding of data analytic thinking and terminology as well as hands-on experience with data analytics tools and techniques. It is designed to help accounting students develop an analytical mindset and link data analytics to four major subdomains of accounting (i.e., financial, managerial, audit, and tax). It will cover how to use programming software to automate data analytic tasks. Students will learn how to analyze large amounts of data to find actionable insights.The first half of the course introduces the accounting data analytics framework. Under this framework, students will learn the importance of assembling accounting data, the desirable characteristics of data for effective calculations and visualization, and analysis and interpretation of fundamental data analytic tools, such as regressions.The second half of the course focuses on how to apply data analytic skills to the four major subdomains of accounting: financial, managerial, audit, and tax. Respective hands-on examples will be used for demonstration. Students should leave this course with the skills necessary to translate accounting and business problems into actionable proposals that they can competently present to managers and data scientists.

ACCTG 473 – Adv Fin Acctg (3)
Reporting for multi-corporate enterprises, business combinations, quasi- reorganizations, and selected contemporary reporting problems.ACCTG 473 Advanced Financial Accounting (3) This course explores four major topics: accounting for business combinations, introduction to derivatives and special purpose entities, accounting for foreign currency transactions and consolidating foreign subsidiaries, and ethics and policy issues for the profession.

ACCTG 496 – Indep Studies (Variable)
Creative projects, including research and design, which are supervised on an individual basis and which fall outside the scope of formal courses.

ACCTG 596 – Individual Studies (Variable)

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 404 – Managerial Acctg (3)
Accounting techniques as control devices in business; accumulation and use of accounting data in business decisions.

ACCTG 211H – 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 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.

BA 411 – Analyz Bus Ind (3)
Prepares students to obtain an enterprise-wide view of business and industry by integrating operational and financial decisions in a team and learning environment. B A 411B A 411 Analyzing Business and Industry (3) The course provides the students with a methodology for analyzing the business, introduces the students to sources of financial information available from private and public sources and trains the student to prepare and professionally present business analysis reports. The course, which adopts a user perspective, extends the students' basic knowledge of financial reporting and provides them with a broader context for understanding business that includes economic and social forces, the regulatory environment of businesses and their financial reporting, capital market operations and corporate governance. It applies concepts and decision tools that are studied throughout the curriculum such as present value, financial ratio analysis, break-even point analysis and statistical analysis.

ACCTG 597C – Accounting Scandals (3)
Three credit course for One-Year MAcc students to be used as an elective.

B A 411 – Analyzing Business and Industry (3)
Prepares students to obtain an enterprise-wide view of business and industry by integrating operational and financial decisions in a team and learning environment.

Honors and Awards

Penn State Homecoming University Court, Penn State Homecoming, (Oct 1, 2022)
Online Teaching Excellence Award, Smeal College of Business, (Aug 1, 2021)
Penn State Softball "Most Valuable Professor" Field Honor, Penn State Softball, (Apr 1, 2019)
Les Shonto Teaching Award, Department of Accounting, Smeal College of Business, (May 1, 2018)
Faculty Escort for Accounting Department Student Marshal, Department of Accounting, Smeal College of Business, (May 1, 2016)