The Bachelor of Accountancy, also known as Bachelor of Accounting, is the principal academic degree in

accountancy Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "langua ...

in several countries, and is often the only (undergraduate) degree recognised for subsequent practice as a

professional accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certif ...

; see

First professional degree A professional degree, formerly known in the US as a first professional degree, is a degree that prepares someone to work in a particular profession, practice, or industry sector often meeting the academic requirements for licensure or accreditati ...

. It is abbreviated as B.Acy., B.Acc., or B. Accty.. It is also sometimes titled Bachelor of Accounting Science (B.Acc.Sci.) or "Baccalaureus Computationis" (B.Compt.). The B.Acy. is extremely specialized: the

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

requires study sufficient for professional practice (often at the major-level) in

financial accounting Financial accounting is the field of accounting concerned with the summary, analysis and reporting of financial transactions related to a business. This involves the preparation of financial statements available for public use. Stockholders, ...

management accounting In management accounting or managerial accounting, managers use accounting information in decision-making and to assist in the management and performance of their control functions. Definition One simple definition of management accounting is th ...

, auditing, and

taxation A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

. The curriculum also includes intermediate coursework in business law and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

, and general coverage of

management theory Management science (or managerial science) is a wide and interdisciplinary study of solving complex problems and making strategic decisions as it pertains to institutions, corporations, governments and other types of organizational entities. It is ...

, and

business mathematics Business mathematics are mathematics used by commercial enterprises to record and manage business operations. Commercial organizations use mathematics in accounting, inventory management, marketing, sales forecasting, and financial analysis. J. Ol ...

and

business statistics Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industria ...

. The degree is thus not to be confused with a B.B.A. in Accounting or B.Com. in Accounting, which are general business degrees with accounting as an area of concentration; for discussion, see . Some programs allow for specializations in topics such as Tax Accountancy, Auditing or

Forensic Accountancy Forensic accounting, forensic accountancy or financial forensics is the specialty practice area of accounting that investigates whether firms engage in Accounting scandals, financial reporting misconduct. Forensic accountants apply a range of skil ...

. Due to the specialised nature of the B.Acy., it is a professional degree course that is offered infrequently. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, it is likely to be a four-year undergraduate degree. In other parts of the world, such as

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, it will be a three-year

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

degree. In

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, it is a two-year course that can be taken after qualifying in

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...

only for students who obtain exceptional grades in their previous course. Most

public universities in South Africa In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

offer the degree or a variant, often as a postgraduate Honours degree. After completion of the Bachelor of Accountancy, students typically go on to work as accountants in industry, and/or pursue

status. When the degree is recognized for this purpose, graduates will therefore pursue the CPA or C.A. (or other) designations, and thus take up "articles" at an accounting firm accredited for training, so as to meet the relevant work experience requirements, and will then also sit the associated Professional Examination. Note that in the

, a bachelor's degree in accountancy is generally not sufficient for practice as a

. Also, employers in industry generally prefer to hire applicants with a master's in accountancy (or an

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...

with a concentration in accounting) and/or with professional certification. Accountancy graduates intending to work as accountants will therefore commence with the

Master of Accountancy The Master of Accountancy (MAcc, MAcy, or MAccy), alternatively Master of Science in Accounting (MSA or MSAcy) or Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcy, MPAcc or MPAc), is a graduate professional degree designed to prepare students for public ...

; an accelerated program, or an advanced program allowing for specialized / additional elective work, is typically available to these students.eg
Anderson-Riverside
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References

Accountancy, Bachelor of Accounting scholarship Business qualifications Accounting education {{Improve categories, date=May 2021