Take My Liberty ACCT 511 Class

The course reads like a CPA exam law section stretched to graduate length. The textbook, Advanced Business Law for Accountants, is read across fourteen chapters, one or two each week.

The first chapters set out the legal system and the sources of law an accountant meets, then turn to contracts and the Uniform Commercial Code, the body of rules that governs sales of goods and negotiable instruments.

The middle weeks take up agency, business organizations and their formation, the choice between a corporation, a partnership and a limited liability company, and the liability each form leaves its owners.

Securities regulation follows: registration of offerings, the exemptions that let small companies raise money, and the antifraud rules that reach auditors as well as issuers.

Sarbanes-Oxley gets its own attention, since its certification and internal control sections changed how public company audits work.

The later chapters cover property, insurance and other forms of government regulation of business, along with the professional ethics that tie the legal topics back to accounting practice.

Scripture readings appear in several weeks, and the forums allow the Bible alongside legal and scholarly sources.

Week one runs Monday to Friday, and each later week runs Saturday to Friday, with the course ending on the last Friday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

Your ACCT 511 work is handled as a set of written pieces rather than a weekly grind, because the graded writing falls in only five weeks.

Forum 1 comes first, in week two, and is built around a question on contracts or the UCC, such as when an accountant can be liable to a third party who relied on negligent work.

Research Project 1 is planned from the opening week so its topic, sources and outline are settled well before week four, when it is due.

The interview essay depends on a conversation only you can have, so you are given a list of questions early, and the essay is written from your notes once the interview is done.

Forum 2 in week seven usually turns to Sarbanes-Oxley, and the post takes a position on whether its requirements have been worth their cost.

Research Project 2 is begun in week five, on a different area of law from the first paper, so it is finished before the final week's quiz.

The quizzes are yours, and the chapter notes that come with each piece of writing help with them.

Every file arrives as a document you can read, change and submit under your own login.

ACCT 511 writing goes to someone trained in both fields, usually a CPA with a law degree, an accountant who teaches business law, or an attorney who has advised accounting firms.

That pairing matters because the research projects ask for primary law, the statute or the court decision, alongside articles, and a writer who reads cases is comfortable citing them correctly.

The same person knows how audits are run, so a paper on auditor liability explains the engagement letter, the working papers and the opinion rather than treating the auditor as an abstraction.

Several have handled malpractice claims against accountants or the regulatory side of public company reporting, which shows in how precisely they describe liability.

A second reader checks each paper and post for legal accuracy and for current APA before it reaches you.

One writer stays with the course from Forum 1 to the second project, so the papers use the same terms and do not repeat each other.

The coordinator is the only person who knows who you are.

If a chapter is confusing before a quiz, such as the difference between Section 11 and Rule 10b-5 liability, a short plain explanation can be added.

The first difficulty is source quality. The papers expect scholarly and legal sources, and general business websites do not count, which sends many students into law reviews and case databases for the first time.

The second is primary law. A paper on securities fraud that cites only articles about the statute, and never the statute or a case itself, reads as secondhand.

The third is scope. A seven-to-ten-page paper on "Sarbanes-Oxley" is too broad to finish well; a paper on whether Section 404 testing has reduced restatements at smaller companies is not.

The fourth is the interview, which students postpone until they have no time to find a CPA, controller or auditor willing to talk.

The fifth is the week clock, since a week that starts on Saturday and ends on Friday catches anyone who plans by the usual calendar.

The final week is the heaviest, with the second research project and the last quiz due together.

Liability topics are a recurring stumbling block, because negligence, gross negligence and fraud lead to different exposure to clients and third parties, and the states do not agree on how far it reaches.

Arranging the course in week one gives the first research project its full three weeks.

Forum 1 is ready before week two closes, and the replies follow once classmates have posted.

Research Project 1 reaches you a few days before the end of week four.

Interview questions come in the first fortnight, and the essay is written within two days of receiving your notes, well ahead of week six.

Forum 2 arrives early in week seven.

Research Project 2 reaches you before the final week opens, which leaves that week for the last quiz.

The two research projects make up most of the price, with the forums and the essay as smaller lines.

Students who join after week four are quoted for the interview essay, Forum 2 and the second paper only.