Professional Development and Event Catalog

Purchase your professional development program credits in advance and enjoy significant savings! This year’s pass applies to seminars, CTCPA developed conferences, webinars, and livestream programs now through March 31, 2025. Class Pass is also a great way to get your staff the training they need at a discounted price. Note: Class Pass is for individuals - credits are not transferable to other employees within a firm or company.   

Purchase your firm/company professional development program credits in advance and $AVE!  Coupon Books can be purchased in 80-credit increments and be used for any staff members of your firm/company.  Coupon Book can be used in 2-credit increments for any seminars, conferences, and webinars, excluding other state CPA association conferences.  Once a Coupon Book is purchased by a member of your firm/company, an email with be sent with your coupon numbers.  These can then be applied at checkout for any programs with 2, 4, 6 or 8 CPE credits. Coupon Books expire one year from date of purchase.

This course will help you develop a strategic marketing and business development plan for your firm using 7 key principles to help maximize lead generation. You will learn how to establish and grow your B2B business in any niche using time-tested strategies, proven processes for attracting and retaining customers, and how to measure your results so you can spend your money and time effectively to own your market and attract higher ROI clients. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

With new accounting standards, the economic landscape and evolving technology, accounting, financial reporting and finance continue to grow in complexity. FASB has tried to address the growing complexity, by working towards making GAAP less convoluted.  The struggle to stay on top of accounting financial reporting requirements and finance changes due to the economy continues for several reasons. Lack of in-house SMEs, managing high volumes of transactions, and data and evolving information technology systems. In the future, executives must consider the challenges they will face in future years that will bring their own nuances and complexities. Budgeting is certainly one of those processes that must be evaluated and re-evaluated for efficiency. This session delves into the corporate budgeting process and discusses methods used and which methods may or may not allow for the organization’s to properly plan for a volatile future.

When asked the question, “What would you like to improve about your leadership and communication style?” more than 65% of leaders say they want to be more confident and assertive in their communication. Confidence and clarity communicates leadership. If you are responsible for growing a profitable company or a productive team, you want team members who have the ability to reach goals, make sales, finish projects, and serve customers. Being a confident compelling leader helps to inspire better relationships, promotes trust and reduces stress in the workplace.

This is the beginning of a series that will cover major aspects of the Controllership function. Controllers are essential to the day-to-day accounting for organizations. Yet, the role is not often readily understood. In today’s world of acronyms such as CFO, CEO, COO, CAO, etc., the Controller function may get lost in the shuffle. However, they are a critical group of professionals who ensure the adequacy and transparency of accounting and financial reporting information. A Controller is an individual who has responsibility for all accounting-related activities including high-level accounting, managerial counting, and finance activities within a company. The duties of a Controller include assisting with the preparation of the operating budgets, overseeing financial reporting, and performing essential duties relating to payroll. However, in today’s evolving world, the Controller function can provide much more in-depth value to their organizations. This series is dedicated to exploring the traditional Controller role and stepping out of the box to identify areas where the Controller can add strategic value to their organizations. In this first course we focus on the typical Controller function and begin to identify ways to elevate the function.  

A detailed analysis of the calculations related to determining a shareholder's tax basis for S corporation shares and loans. How to use the Form 1120S, Schedule K-1 information for basis determination. An illustrative example demonstrates how the process works, as well as the many potential pitfalls. **Please Note:  If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Course Materials Tab and submit to kori.herrera@acpen.com.  

The topic of ethics has seemed to permeate every aspect of today’s business including occupying a significant spot in today’s business, educational and professional curriculum. Yet with all the discussion and awareness on the topic, why is it that significant ethical dilemmas and incidents continue to impact our daily lives? The concept of ethics is based in moral philosophy. In part, that is why it is such a difficult issue to “manage”. We often get caught between our independent moral ethical duty, the legal or compliance viewpoint of an issue and management concerns around reputation and ramifications. This course is dedicated to examining a time-line of historical ethical issues that have plagued the business world, evaluating the moral and perceived concepts around ethics, and taking a practical look at how moral and ethical concepts impact the creation of an ethical culture.  

What you need to know about the lessee and lessor accounting models This course explains the lessee accounting model, including Lease and non-lease components Lease classification Amortization of the right-of-use asset Interest on the lease liability This course also explains the lessor accounting model, including Transfer of risk Profit recognition Collectibility Included in this course are detailed and illustrated examples with amortization tables and journal entries.

One of the most intimidating aspects of going into business for yourself is compliance. Tax, employment, and regulatory laws are difficult to navigate, so it often falls on the CPA to know the basics in these areas to help their clients avoid costly litigation. In this course, we will cover basic compliance areas for small business owners. We will look at the main elements of a contract, taxation of entity types, worker classification, property law, and many of the other areas that are often overwhelming for small business owners. By being able to speak to these issues, practitioners will be able to add value and help their small business owner clients grow and thrive.

The complexity of S corporation tax law creates a formidable challenge to the tax practitioner for accurate compliance and reporting of their client's S corporation activities. Join us as we discuss the common errors practitioners make on S corporation tax returns that are often missed by review staff. The intent is to sharpen skills for reviewers by examining case studies and discussing issues where additional information from the client may be warranted and areas of tax law where proper treatment requires additional analysis and information. Multiple issues will be discussed including income, deductions, K-1 reporting, and K-2 and K-3 reporting. This course follows a highly illustrative case study format to increase participant comprehension and retention.

We kick off this course with a look at the GASB standards that are effective this year including GASB 100, Accounting Changes and Error Corrections and GASB 101, Compensated Absences. We then move to the NFP side of the house with a look at the Accounting Standard Updates issued by the FASB that impacts nonprofit entities. Following that, we review the work of the Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee (NAC) and the projects they advise the FASB on. After the break, we will conduct a deeper dive into Yellow Book and Single Audit engagements. The course closes with a look at the significant changes in the 2024 Compliance Supplement, the changes to the Uniform Guidance and the common deficiencies identified by the federal agencies and peer reviewers. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This highly informative course comprehensively covers all the latest tax law developments. The focus is on individual taxation and discussion of the planning opportunities practitioners need to understand to help clients respond effectively. You will come away from the course with the up-to-date knowledge to educate your individual tax clients and implement tax-saving ideas that will serve their ever-evolving needs. This course is continually updated to reflect enacted legislation. Please Note: Due to content overlap, it is recommended that this course NOT be taken together with BFTU.

The presentation includes an in-depth discussion of the when the Forms 1065 and 1120S, Schedules K-2 and K-3 must be completed, as well as important developments for filing 2021 flow-through entity tax forms and other recent developments impacting both partnership and S corporation entities. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Unhealthy behavior in the workplace can create a drama-laden, hostile work environment, negatively impact productivity and increase turnover. When team members are focused on how they can one-up their counterparts or are fearful of their co-workers/leaders actions towards them – they are NOT focused on reaching your company’s goals.   

Forensic accounting, forensic accountancy or financial forensics is the specialty practice area of accounting that investigates whether firms engage in financial reporting misconduct. Forensic accountants apply a range of skills and methods to determine whether there has been financial reporting misconduct. Financial forensic engagements may fall into several categories.  Economic damages calculations, whether suffered through tort or breach of contract. Post-acquisition disputes such as earnouts or breaches of warranties Bankruptcy, insolvency and reorganization Securities and tax fraud Money laundering Business valuation Computer forensics/e-discovery This session is designed to delve a bit deeper into the world of forensic accounting and identify some of the specific areas of expertise required to become a forensic accountant. We will then first delve deeper into the art of document analysis and handwriting analysis.  

'Whether your organization is developing a new control framework or seeking to strengthen its current controls; practical development and implementation is critical.  This course will review the intersectionality of controls and provide real-world examples and best practices from people to technology and process.  

This course will serve as an introduction to conducting effective walkthroughs to gain an understanding of the client's transaction processes as well as identify internal controls within each process. This course will review the procedures, questions to ask, and documentation requirements of walkthroughs. It will also include real-world examples of the red flags that may arise while executing a walkthrough. 

Over the past few years, the AICPA revamped the quality management standards by issuing Statement on Quality Management Standards 1, 2, and 3 (SQMS 1, SQMS 2, and SQMS 3, respectively), SSARS No. 26, and SAS 146, Quality Management for an Engagement Conducted in Accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (SAS 146). These standards, effective December 15, 2025, modernize quality management standards to reflect an increased focus on risk assessment, technology use, and the presence of outside experts on many engagements. With a risk-based approach, the standards enhance requirements for engagement quality reviews, encourage QMS monitoring, and focus on the entire system of quality control maintained by a firm. We will cover the key provisions of the standards, how to effectively implement them, and what you need to do today to prepare for the required implementation. The earlier your firm begins the transition, the better off you will be.

Professional Athletes have multiple coaches - business people rarely utilize coaches. This course will focus on creating the coaching skills that are required to raise the performance of your employees. Coaching Model / Strategies Successful Communication Techniques Root Cause Analysis Performance Gap Analysis Personality impact on coaching model.