EYARC Access Newsletter October 2022

Analytics mindset – Case studies

Alternative data case study series

The Overview case is designed to give students exposure to various types of alternative data and to learn about the growing importance of alternative data and its use by professionals in decision-making. Students will also learn about and consider the challenges and risks in use of alternative data.

The Apollo Investments Research case is designed to provide students a hands-on opportunity to develop their analytics mindset by working directly with alternative data, which is satellite imagery of parking lots for four major companies (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Target and Walmart). Students assume the role of a financial analyst at Apollo and are asked to consider whether the use of this data can assist Apollo in improving its financial forecasts, valuations and investment recommendations.

The case solutions are provided in Tableau and Alteryx.

This content is appropriate to utilize in an Introduction to accounting, Financial accounting, Accounting information systems, Data analytics, or Business statistics course.

Tax Technologist case study

This case ask students to assume the role of a tax professional and demonstrate their technology savvy. Students are asked to work with various client tax fixed asset information schedules and IRS MACRS tax depreciation rate tables to calculate tax depreciation and test the accuracy of personal property mid quarter convention determinations and then automate these processes.

The case solutions are provided in Excel and Alteryx.

This content is appropriate to utilize in a Tax, Accounting information systems, or Data analytics course.

ETL with RegEx case study

This case is designed to have students use regular expressions (RegEx) to answer some basic questions about a small set of messy, unstructured customer data and then transform the data into a structured layout so it can be loaded into an application for analysis.

This content is appropriate to utilize in an accounting information systems, or data analytics course

Cybersecurity case studies

Blue Yarrow Unicorns case study

This case is designed to have students perform a cybersecurity penetration test of password strengths at Blue Yarrow Unicorns. Students are provided with over 5,100 usernames, hashed passwords and job unit descriptors of Blue Yarrow's employees. Using a dictionary of nearly 2 million plain text compromised passwords discovered from data breaches of various organizations, students will be required to perform a test of which company passwords are contained in this dictionary by hashing it and combining the words. Students are then asked to use their own methods to crack as many additional passwords as possible and to prepare a memo of their findings and recommendations for the Board of Directors for Blue Yarrow.

Solutions are provided in both Alteryx and Python. This case is accompanied with how-to videos for the Alteryx solution. This content is appropriate to utilize in a Cybersecurity, Accounting information systems, Auditing (external or internal), Fraud, or Data analytics course.

Liberty Data Systems case study

This case asks students to consider cybersecurity risks and their potential impact on the financial statements and to learn more about best practices for password policies to help mitigate cybersecurity threats. Students are asked to perform manual audit procedures on a sample of user names and passwords of employees of Liberty Data Systems to determine whether the passwords meet the best practice standards, and then automate these procedures. Students are asked to determine if the sample passwords have been compromised utilizing a dictionary of nearly 2 million passwords discovered from data breaches of various organizations. Lastly, students are to document the next steps and any concerns for the audit based on their findings.

Solutions are provided in both Alteryx and Python. This case is accompanied with how-to videos for the Alteryx solution. This content is appropriate to utilize in a Cybersecurity, Accounting information systems, Auditing (external or internal), Fraud, or Data analytics course.

Long-term value and sustainability reporting curriculum module

Many businesses today are now moving from a financially driven strategy to one that is guided by purpose and focused on a broader definition of value creation for a broader array of stakeholders for the long term. 

• This curriculum provides an opportunity for students to gain introductory exposure to this important and evolving topic through coverage of the following:
• Market conditions driving a focus on long-term value;
• The definition of long-term value and the expanded view of company stakeholders;
• Increasing importance of intangible value;
• Challenges and opportunities with developing the measurement and reporting of long-term value and sustainability; and
• The key role of accountants in this process.

The curriculum module includes a user guide, slides, videos, handouts and exercises.