ACC 423 is SNHU’s Detection/Prevention Fraudulent Financial Statements course. It centers on detecting and preventing fraudulent financial reporting: incentives and pressures on management, revenue and expense manipulation schemes, analytical red flags and models such as the Beneish M-score, corporate governance and the audit committee, whistleblowing, fraud prevention programs and the ethical position of financial officers. Every module below opens a full sample paper or takes a free request for one; searches like "acc 423 module 3", "ACC423 sample paper" and "ACC 423 milestone example" land on this page.
What ACC 423 is really about
ACC 423 is SNHU's course on fraudulent financial statements, and it treats manipulation as a pattern that leaves traces rather than a mystery. Strong work names the specific scheme, explains which accounting rule it bends, shows where it would appear in the statements and ratios, and proposes the control or governance step that would have stopped it. Graders reward precision: channel stuffing and bill-and-hold are different schemes with different signals, and a paper that blurs them loses the point of the course.
The samples on this shelf share one composite company, a Nasdaq-listed manufacturer of residential and light commercial water heaters based in Tennessee, with about $410 million in revenue, a CEO who promised analysts double-digit growth and a CFO who joined two years ago from a private company. Its fourth quarter shows the classic pattern of a company stretching to meet a number. The company and its people are illustrative.
What ACC 423’s modules ask for
Across eight modules, ACC 423 typically asks for a discussion of why managers manipulate results, assignments on revenue schemes and on expense and asset schemes, a first project applying red flag analysis to a company's statements, an assignment on corporate governance and the audit committee, a discussion of whistleblowing, a second project designing a fraud prevention program and a closing discussion on the ethics of financial officers.
Where students lose points in ACC 423
The most common ACC 423 deduction is a red flag identified without the accounting rule it violates, so the paper cannot say whether the item is aggressive or fraudulent. The second is a model applied mechanically, such as an M-score computed with the wrong year's data or read as proof. Graders also mark down governance papers that list SOX sections without linking them to the scheme in the case. Tying each signal to a rule, a number and a control fixes most of these.
The ACC 423 drawers
ACC 423 Module 1 Discussion example
An opening post on a composite Nasdaq-listed water heater maker that needs two cents a share in its last two weeks to meet guidance: the analyst consensus, the CEO's bonus and the stock-funded acquisition behind the pressure, the difference between earnings management and fraud, and survey and enforcement research showing how far executives say they will go, with Graham, Harvey and Rajgopal, Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney and Healy and Wahlen. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 423 Module 2 Revenue Manipulation Assignment example
A revenue manipulation assignment on a composite water heater maker's fourth quarter: $14.2 million shipped to distributors in the last two weeks with side letters granting 120-day terms and full return rights, a $3.1 million bill-and-hold for a plumbing supply chain that never asked for it, the ASC 606 analysis of control, variable consideration and bill-and-hold criteria, the corrected revenue and the signals in receivables, returns and margins that would reveal each scheme, with the FASB revenue update, Dechow and colleagues and Roychowdhury. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 423 Module 3 Expense and Asset Manipulation Assignment example
An expense manipulation assignment on the same composite water heater maker's year end: $6.8 million of production line start-up costs capitalized as equipment, a warranty accrual cut from 2.4 to 1.8 percent of sales while claims rose, and an obsolescence reserve left unchanged on discontinued gas models, each tested against the governing rule, quantified at $10.5 million of overstated pretax income and traced to the ratios and documents that reveal it, with Healy and Wahlen, Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney and Beneish. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 423 Module 4 Project One example
Project One computes the eight-variable Beneish M-score for a composite water heater maker from two years of reported statements, reaching negative 1.75 against the negative 1.78 threshold, interprets the variables that drive it, from receivables growth to total accruals, adds red flags the model does not capture and explains what the model can and cannot conclude, with Beneish, Dechow and colleagues and Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 423 Module 5 Corporate Governance Assignment example
A governance assignment on the audit committee of a composite Nasdaq-listed water heater maker that approved a too-good fourth quarter: its composition, including a chair with personal ties to the CEO and a financial expert who sells to the company, the duties set by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and listing rules, the certifications and control reports that should have raised questions, five questions the committee never asked and a set of governance changes, with Klein, Beasley and Rezaee. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 423 Module 6 Discussion example
A discussion post about a receivables manager at a composite water heater maker who finds the side letters behind a December shipment surge: her options, from her supervisor and the ethics hotline to the audit committee and the SEC's whistleblower program, what the law protects and rewards, why research finds employees among the most important detectors of fraud and why most hesitate, with Dyck, Morse and Zingales, the ACFE's report to the nations and the SEC's annual whistleblower report. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 423 Module 7 Project Two example
Project Two designs a prevention program for a composite Nasdaq-listed water heater maker after its fourth-quarter schemes came to light: tone at the top with consequences, compensation that no longer rides on a single quarter, controls over nonstandard sales terms, estimates and quarter-end shipments, continuous analytics, a hotline that reaches the audit committee, training and a monitoring plan with measures, each tied to a scheme it would have stopped, with Rezaee, Feng and colleagues and Dechow and colleagues. Full sample paper, read it free.
ACC 423 Module 8 Discussion example
A closing post on the December meeting in which a composite water heater maker's CEO asked the new CFO to find two cents: what the CFO could have said, the professional standards that applied to him, research showing that CFOs involved in manipulations are often pressured by their CEOs rather than enriched, and the small, early steps that make refusal possible, with Feng, Ge, Luo and Shevlin, the IMA ethics statement and Dechow, Sloan and Sweeney. Full sample paper, read it free.
Your classroom shows something else?
Southern New Hampshire University revises courses; module counts and deliverables shift between terms. Send what your classroom shows and the desk matches it exactly.
Using a ACC 423 sample the right way
Read an ACC 423 sample by following one scheme from incentive to signal to control: why management wanted it, which rule it bent, which ratio or document would reveal it and which control would stop it. If that chain is complete, the sample is doing what the course grades. Use the reasoning, not the company, for your own case. For ACC 423, send the case, the instructions and the rubric, and the first custom sample comes back free within 24-48h.
ACC 423 questions, answered
Is ACC 423 about auditing or fraud examination?
Both. It covers how fraudulent financial reporting is committed and detected, drawing on auditing standards, accounting rules, analytics and corporate governance.
What is the difference between earnings management and fraud?
Earnings management uses choices within the rules to shape results; fraud deliberately misstates or omits facts to deceive users. The line is crossed when rules are violated or facts hidden.
Do ACC 423 assignments use real companies?
Some sections use SEC enforcement cases; others use case companies. Real cases are useful, but the analysis should still tie each scheme to the specific rule and signal.