GBC Professor Evelyn Money Brings Accounting Theory Into Real-World Practice 

Accounting is often misunderstood as a field built entirely around math, formulas and memorization. 

For Dr. Evelyn Money, accounting is something broader. It is the language of business, a discipline that reaches every part of an organization and helps leaders understand how their decisions affect the whole. In a recent episode of the Practice to Profession podcast, Money spoke with host Dustin Ramsdell about her path from accounting practice to higher education, the changing role of technology in the profession and how she helps students build the confidence to apply what they learn. 

Money is an assistant professor of accounting at Goldey-Beacom College. She describes herself as an educator, researcher, practitioner and someone who genuinely loves accounting. Her academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in accounting, an MBA with a concentration in accounting and a doctoral degree supported by accounting-related research. She is also a licensed certified public accountant in Maryland. 

Across more than 20 years of professional and teaching experience, Money has worked in auditing, bookkeeping, tax and other areas of accounting. Although she spent years working in the profession, she always knew she wanted to teach in higher education. Her first teaching role was at a two-year institution, where she helped students understand accounting theory while connecting it to practical experience. She valued that work, but she also wanted more freedom to teach advanced concepts and help students prepare for the full range of opportunities available in accounting. 

Many students entered the two-year program believing they could complete an associate degree and immediately begin the accounting careers they had imagined. Money often had to explain that many professional accounting roles require further education and a four-year degree. That made GBC a natural next step.

For Money, one of the most rewarding parts of teaching is seeing what students become after they leave college. While they are enrolled, she is still guiding and supporting them. The longer-term impact becomes clearer when they graduate, begin working and apply what they learned independently. 

One of her favorite experiences at GBC came during her first year, when she taught an auditing course. Auditing is not always popular among accounting students. Unlike many accounting courses, it includes less calculation and more theory. Money had worked as an auditor for a certified public accounting firm, primarily on government and nonprofit audits. Later, one of her audit clients hired her, giving her experience from the other side of the process as someone working directly with external auditors. 

Those experiences gave her a large collection of stories she could bring into the classroom. When she reviewed the course roster, she recognized several students she had taught years earlier. That made the opportunity even more meaningful. As the course progressed, however, Money found that she was learning from students as well. She could explain how a challenge had been handled earlier in her career, and a student with more recent professional experience might describe the technology now used to address it. Students without work experience benefited from hearing both perspectives. 

The course was taught through Zoom, which can make student engagement more difficult to assess. Even when students could not turn on their cameras, they consistently participated, responded to questions and remained engaged through the end of each class. The experience reflected the kind of classroom Money values: one where theory, professional experience and student perspectives contribute to the same conversation. She sees similar moments in introductory accounting courses. 

Those classes often include students majoring in other business disciplines. Many enter with the assumption that accounting is primarily difficult math and delay taking the course for as long as possible. Once they begin seeing accounting from a different perspective, some discover that they enjoy it. Students who are already far into another major have approached Money to ask whether they should add accounting as a second major, pursue a double major or consider graduate study in the field. That change often begins when they understand how widely accounting applies. 

Accounting information reaches every part of an organization. Leaders may not work as accountants, but they still need to understand financial information to make responsible decisions. When students recognize that connection, the subject becomes less about completing calculations and more about understanding how a business operates. The way accounting is taught has also changed substantially during Money’s career. 

Twenty years ago, she relied more heavily on traditional lectures, handwritten work and paper examinations. Today, technology affects the format of her courses, the activities students complete and the way their learning is assessed. The growth of online and Zoom courses required her to provide students with more ways to process information. Rather than building every problem from the beginning during a live class, Money prepares Excel models and templates students can use while following the lesson. 

For fully online courses, she created lecture videos that students can access when they need additional help. That gives them another option beyond attending office hours or sending a question by email. They can return to the material and review the process at their own pace. Money has also worked to reduce the gap between what students do in class and what accountants do in professional settings. 

Early in her teaching career, students completed much of their work by hand even though accounting professionals were already relying on spreadsheets and software. She now incorporates Excel models and accounting software into her courses. When teaching tax, she has used tax preparation software so students can experience the process of completing an actual return. 

The purpose is not simply to teach one specific program. Working with technology in a controlled classroom setting helps students become more confident when they encounter an unfamiliar spreadsheet, accounting platform or workplace system later. They learn that they can experiment, make corrections and adapt. 

Assessment has changed as well. Professional examinations such as the CPA exam are delivered digitally, so relying entirely on paper-and-pencil multiple-choice tests would not fully prepare students for what they will encounter. Traditional online exams also create new academic integrity concerns because students can easily search for answers or use artificial intelligence tools. 

One student returned after an internship interview and told Money that questions about Excel had been a major part of the conversation. He was able to explain the models he had built in class and show examples of his work. He received the internship. Another student told her that the assignments in a new job closely matched the Excel models completed in class. Those experiences confirm for Money that the work remains relevant. 

Students do not leave her courses knowing only accounting definitions. They have also practiced applying those concepts in ways they can describe during an interview and use in a workplace. The classroom gives them a lower-risk environment in which to build those skills. They can ask questions, make mistakes and try again before being responsible for the same type of work in a professional setting. When asked what she hopes every student takes from an interaction with her, Money identified three qualities: positivity, joy and compassion. 

Accounting can be intimidating, particularly for students who have had difficult experiences with math or already believe they will dislike the subject. Money brings visible enthusiasm into each class. Even when she is the only person who begins the session excited about accounting, she hopes that energy makes the environment more approachable. 

Her goal is not necessarily to make every student love accounting. She wants them to leave class feeling better than when they arrived and to know they learned in a positive environment. Compassion is equally important. Money wants students to understand that she cares about them as individuals, including the circumstances and responsibilities affecting their lives outside the classroom. She works to reflect that care in discussions, assignments, activities and assessments, whether the class meets in person, online or through Zoom. 

For Money, effective accounting education is not limited to explaining rules or teaching students how to use software. It means helping them understand the language of business, develop confidence through practice and learn in an environment where they feel supported. That balance can change how students view accounting and better prepare them to apply it wherever their careers take them. 

Watch the episode here!