iMSA Program Requirements
The iMSA was developed by top accounting faculty to build expertise in leading analytics methods, financial reporting, audit and control, and US federal taxation. This degree helps prepare you to sit for the CPA exam. The 20 accountancy hours required are ACCY 501 through ACCY 505 (each of the five courses awards 4 hours credit).
For successful completion of this program, all iMSA students must:
- Complete 32 Credit Hours
Of which at least 20 hours are in accountancy (ACCY) courses, and at least 4 hours are in a non-accountancy course. - Earn a Cumulative GPA of 3.0
This is the minimum term GPA required to maintain good academic standing in each term and to graduate.
Course Information
iMSA accounting courses are offered once a year. You can view the Annual Course Offering List for information on both accountancy and non-accountancy course offerings. If you have any questions on degree planning or course information, please visit the Planning & Advising section.
Core Accounting Courses
Accounting Analysis I - ACCY 501
- 4 Credit Hours, Fall and Spring
- Coursera Components: Accounting Analysis I: The Role of Accounting as an Information System and Accounting Analysis I, Measurement and Disclosure of Assets
Accounting Analysis II - ACCY 502
- 4 Credit Hours, Spring Only
- Coursera Components: Accounting Analysis II: Measurement and Disclosure of Liabilities and Accounting Analysis II: Accounting for Liabilities and Equity
Managerial Accounting - ACCY 503
- Spring Only
- Coursera Components: MOOCs available to enrolled learners during Soft Launch
Auditing - ACCY 504
- 4 Credit Hours, Fall Only
- Coursera Components: Conceptual Foundations of Auditing and The Practice of Auditing
Federal Taxation - ACCY 505
- 4 Credit Hours, Fall Only
- Coursera Components: Federal Taxation I: Individuals, Employees, and Sole Proprietors and Federal Taxation II: Property Transactions Business Owners and Shareholders
- Learn more
Accounting Elective Courses
Advanced Financial Reporting - ACCY 506
- 4 Credit Hours, Fall Only
- Coursera Components: Accounting for Business Combinations and Preparation of Consolidated Financial Statements
Taxation of Business Entities – ACCY 507
- 4 Credit Hours, Spring Only
- Coursera Components: Taxation of Business Entities I: Corporations and Taxation of Business Entities II: Pass-Through Entities
Professional Responsibility and Ethics for Accountants – ACCY 516
- 3 Credit Hours, Summer Only
- Coursera Components: Professional Responsibility and Ethics for Accountants
Financial Statement Analysis and Valuation - ACCY 517
- 4 Credit Hours, 8 Weeks in Length, Spring 2 Only
- Coursera Components: Financial Statement and Ratio Analysis for Accountants and Forecasting Financial Statements & Valuation for Accountants
Government & Nonprofit Accounting - ACCY 519
- 4 Credit Hours, 8 Weeks in Length, Spring 1 Only
- Coursera Components: Governmental Accounting and Reporting I and Governmental Accounting II and Nonprofit Accounting
Multistate Taxation - ACCY 550
- 2 Credit Hours, Summer Only
- Prerequisite of ACCY 505
- Coursera Components: Multistate Taxation
- Learn more
International Tax - ACCY 554
- 2 Credit Hours, Summer Only
- Prerequisite or Concurrent enrollment in ACCY 505, ACCY 507, or ACCY 551
- Coursera Components: U.S. Taxation of International Transactions
Data Driven Decisions in Accounting - ACCY 569
- 2 Credit Hours, Fall Only
- Coursera Components: Introduction to Accounting Data Analytics and Visualization
Risk Management and Innovation - ACCY 574
- 4 Credit Hours, Spring Only
- Coursera Components: Empathy, Data, and Risk and Empathy and Data in Risk Management
- Learn more
Data Preparation for Accounting - ACCY 576
- 2 Credit Hours, Spring Only
- Coursera Components: Accounting Data Analytics with Python
Machine Learning for Accounting - ACCY 577
- 2 Credit Hours, Spring Only
- Coursera Components: Machine Learning for Accounting with Python
Accounting Analytics Applications – ACCY 578
- 1 Credit Hours, Fall and Spring
Non-Accounting Elective Courses
Most non-accountancy electives are 8-week, 4-credit hour courses and can be taken year-round (fall, spring, and summer semesters). Additional non-accountancy electives are available. You can find the full list of non-accountancy electives can be found on the course offerings page.
Corporate & Commercial Law - BADM 403
- 4 Credit Hours
- Coursera Components: Corporate & Commercial Law I: Contracts & Employment Law and Corporate & Commercial Law II: Business Forms, Financing & Governmental Regulations
- BADM 403 is charged at the iMSA tuition rate although it is considered a non-accounting elective for degree purposes
Infonomics - MBA 565
- 4 Credit Hours, Summer Only
- Coursera Components: Infonomics I: Business Information Economics and Data Monetization and Infonomics II: Business Information Management and Measurement
BDI 577 - Disruption & Emerging Technologies
- 4 Credit Hours, 8 Weeks in Length, Spring 1 Only
- Coursera Components: Emerging Technology, Disruption, and AI and Blockchains, Tokens, and The Decentralized Future
ACCY 593 - AI in Business: Fundamentals, Applications, and the Future
- 4 Credit Hours, 8 Weeks in Length, Spring II Only
- Coursera Component: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence – MOOCs forthcoming! and Advanced Topics in Artificial Intelligence – MOOCs forthcoming!
Transcriptable Concentrations and Graduate Certificates
iMSA degree-seeking students have the option to obtain one additional transcriptable credential while in pursuit of their MSA degree. The addition of a concentration or Graduate Certificate is optional based on your coursework and your personal and professional goals. Learners can only select the Accountancy Analytics concentration or one embedded Graduate Certificate while in their iMSA.
Accountancy Analytics Concentration
The iMSA Program currently offers one transcriptable concentration, the Accountancy Analytics Concentration. Students who wish to have this concentration appear on their transcript must complete 12 hours of approved courses. The recommended course completion of this concentration is:
- ACCY 569
- ACCY 576
- ACCY 577
- MBA 565
- Two sections of ACCY 578
A Graduate Student Petition is required to request the concentration be added to your record. The concentration will be listed on your transcript, but will not appear on your diploma. No coursework substitutions are allowed to complete the concentration.
If you are interested in completing the Accountancy Analytics concentration as part of your degree, please work with our student and academic success specialists.
Required Coursework:
- ACCY 569: Data Driven Decisions in Accounting (2 credit hours)
- ACCY 576: Data Preparation for Accounting (2 credit hours)
Select 8 hours of approved electives below. MBA 561 should be completed prior to taking MBA 563 or MBA 564 in order to be successful.
- ACCY 577 Machine Learning
- ACCY 578 Accounting Analytics Applications
- MBA 563 Data Toolkit: Business Data Modeling & Predictive Analytics
- MBA 564 Special Topics 1 and 2
- MBA 565: Infonomics
Embedded Graduate Certificate
iMSA learners can elect to earn one Graduate Certificate during their degree program. To earn a Graduate Certificate as part of your iMSA, you must complete 12 credit hours and all coursework within the Graduate Certificate you wish to add to your academic record.
The following Graduate Certificates are available to iMSA learners:
- Accounting Data Analytics (ADA)
- CPA Pathways
- Taxation
- Digital Marketing
- Entrepreneurship and Strategic Innovation
- Global Challenges in Business
- Business Analytics
- Mergers and Acquisitions
To add a Graduate Certificate to your record, you must submit a Curriculum Change petition to the Graduate College by the deadline in the semester you wish to earn it. It is highly recommended that you submit this petition as soon as you register for the final course in the Graduate Certificate.
Fall Deadlines l Spring Deadlines l Summer Deadlines
Follow these instructions to successfully submit your petition:
- Login to the Graduate Student Portal using your NetID and password
- Under the "Forms and Resources" section, click on the "Graduate Student Petition" link and "Start a new petition"
- Select "Curriculum Change" and "Other" as your request type and complete all fields on the form
- Are you currently on an upcoming degree list? Select "Yes" or "No" to indicate if you have already applied to graduate from the iMSA. You can verify this by clicking on the “View Graduation Application” in the UIUC Self-Service “Graduation” section
- Enter the effective Term: Enter the term you wish to desire to add this to your academic record
- Select Curriculum Change Category: "Current doctoral or master's student adding a secondary certificate program curriculum"
- Add first certificate in the "New Degree Program" from the drop-down list
- Please provide a detailed explanation of your request.
"Please add {Grad Cert} as the secondary Graduate Certificate” - Click "continue" when you have completed these steps and to submit your petition.
It may take up to four weeks to see this added to your academic record. Once it has been added to your record, you must submit your application to graduate in Student Self-Service.
Degree Planning
Your degree plan is an important step that will give you a road map toward graduation. Our dedicated Student & Academic Success Specialists will work with you throughout your iMSA journey to help you plan a degree path that will meet your professional and personal needs. Because you will need to budget 10 to 15 hours per week per course to complete the work, you should not take more than 1 to 2 courses at a time. Additionally, there are certain courses we recommend you not take together. For this reason, it is always a good idea to contact a specialist to review your plans.
iMSA Resources
iMSA Sample Plans
iMSA students can follow the basic accounting or tax path. The Data Analytics concentration is transcriptable. Students must submit a Graduate Student Request form.
Annual iMSA Course Offerings
For your convenience, we provide you with an Annual View of iMSA Course Offerings to give you a good idea of when our courses are offered throughout the year.