Professional Development and Event Catalog

Navigating the complexities of estate and trust administration is a vital skill for professionals, who play an integral role in the administration team. This comprehensive course is designed to equip professionals with a thorough understanding of their responsibilities and the processes involved in estate administration, enhancing their ability to address estate settlement issues effectively. Participants will be provided with a detailed overview of the professional’s role in estate and trust administration, emphasizing practical insights and strategies for managing assets, addressing the legitimacy of debts and creditors, and ensuring the proper distribution of assets. **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.

Looking to stay ahead in tax matters? Join our 2025 Individual Tax Update course for an essential deep dive into Form 1040 essentials. Designed for tax pros eager to sharpen their skills, this course unpacks recent tax code changes and equips you with the know-how to navigate them effortlessly. From mastering IRS Form 1040 to leveraging new tax benefits, you'll emerge ready to optimize returns for your clients while staying compliant with the latest regulations. Don't miss out on this opportunity to boost your expertise and ensure financial success for both you and your clients! **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.

This course focuses on how to integrate integrity and objectivity in situations accounting professionals face daily. The participant will be able to know not just what is the right thing to do according to the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, but how to put values into action! As part of this course, we will also walk through real world examples of individuals and companies faced with these dilemmas. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Adapting to the Engagement - Differentiating the Requirements of Preparations, Compilations, Reviews, and Audits is a critical foundational course. A CPA may perform various attest services under relevant professional standards, including compilations, reviews and audits. Reviews and audits are also considered assurance services, providing either limited or reasonable assurance that financial statements are free of material misstatement. In addition, the CPA may perform non-attest services, such as bookkeeping or preparation of financial statements. CPAs must fully understand the professional responsibilities related to each of these varying levels of services, in order to effectively and efficiently satisfy engagement objectives. Note: This course is recommended as a part of a 16-hour audit skills curriculum for beginning auditors and attest providers, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has assurance responsibilities under the SSARS. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Does your organization encourage timely reporting? Does your organization provide substantive protection for those who report? Organizations should be aware of characteristics indicative of a retaliatory culture - one in which bad actors are provided ample opportunity and cover to retaliate.

In this session, participants will delve into the differences and similarities that coexist between the Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z in the workplace. Guided by generational whisperer, Summer Jelinek, this immersive session will equip HR professionals with actionable strategies to foster understanding, drive productivity, and promote a harmonious working environment, irrespective of generational backgrounds.

Today's senior executives use LinkedIn to impress hiring managers, find talent, develop opportunities, and build relationships. This interactive session is for the financial executive who wants to position themselves internally and externally for career success by leveraging the #1 professional digital platform. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

In the course of legal actions, payments may be made pursuant to a final disposition of a court case or a mutually agreed-upon settlement.  This course will cover the tax implications for payments made for personal injury, emotional distress, lost wages, punitive awards, pre- and post-judgement interest, contract claims, among other damages. **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.  

How do you raise your skills to the next level to master the Controller or CFO role?  Welcome to a course that provides insights that align the CGMA Competency Framework. The course will examine each of the areas: Technical, Business, Leadership and People to increase your competency.  How are your technical skills?  Are you a traditional accountant or have you learned to expand your technical skills to go beyond “what are the financial numbers?” to “why did these financial results occur?”  Are you able to use ratios to understand the business dynamics and the implications to change course or take corrective action?  Are the systems that you implement and operate best practices or merely stop-gap solutions? How are your business skills?  Can you set a vision? Can you develop a strategy?  Do you understand the macroeconomic environment of your organization?   Can you lead a major project to a successful conclusion?  This session will explore the role of business as opposed to tracking the results of the business. How are your people skills?  How good is your ability to influence others? How are successful are your negotiation skills?   How well can you communicate?  Are you a collaborator or a partner?  This section will help accountants understand that it is people skills that drive the overall success of the accounting operations. Finally, how are your Leadership skills?  Do you inspire staff or make them angry?  Do you know why your staff work for your company and you?  Do you understand what employees want from their position?  Do you know how to deal with a difficult staff person?  Can you lead difficult change?  This session will help you recognize what leadership truly is as opposed to what passes for day to day management.

Being consistently ethical is a challenge. Most of us have had to make tough choices.  This session will discuss real world cases involving thorny ethical dilemmas and how to resolve them. Being ethical is not the same as complying with the law and ethical issues are not always black and white. This session will review different professional ethical standards.  What does integrity mean in the office? If you want to learn lessons from the best in a short time, this session is for you.  Participate in engaging dialogue about how to prepare for the inevitable ethical situations.  These lessons are valuable for every business leader.

Isn’t it time you learned how to take advantage of critical features available in your Microsoft 365/Office 365 subscription? In this session, you will learn to use tools such as Teams, Planner, Power Automate, and others to enhance productivity and efficiency.

Get ready to elevate your tax game with the 2025 Business Tax Update, designed exclusively for tax practitioners looking to sharpen their skills in business income taxation. This course doesn't just scratch the surface – it thoroughly explores the complexities of the tax code, ensuring you're equipped to navigate the ever-evolving tax landscape with confidence. From recent legislative updates to complex tax considerations like COVID-19-related subsidies, this course covers it all. Gain practical strategies and insights that you can immediately apply to assist your clients in optimizing their business income tax planning. Don't miss this opportunity to stay ahead in business taxation and enhance your expertise in a rapidly changing regulatory environment. With a focus on real-world application and comprehensive exploration of essential topics, the 2025 Business Tax Update promises to be a game-changer for your tax practice. Whether you're dealing with partnership, corporation, or LLC taxation issues, this course provides precise guidance tailored to diverse business clients. Plus, you'll gain invaluable insights into recent legislative changes, including their implications on tax code sections like Section 199A. Stay at the forefront of business taxation and ensure you're delivering top-notch advice to your clients by enrolling in this essential course today. **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.

Business intelligence efforts continue to grow, and Microsoft’s Power BI platform is central to many of these efforts. Participate in this session to learn more about business intelligence and how to create dashboards using Power BI.

This course provides a concise overview of how to utilize ChatGPT for advanced financial analysis in accounting. The session reveals how to combine sophisticated evaluation and interpretation of financial data with the cutting-edge AI capabilities of ChatGPT. Aimed at enhancing the understanding of an entity's performance, predicting future financial health, and aiding in informed business decision-making, this course goes beyond basic financial statement analysis to include a wide array of techniques and tools. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Forensic accounting encompasses fraud investigation and prevention, as well as a wide variety of functions in litigation. Forensic accountants provide services ranging from serving as an expert witness, to litigation consultant and bankruptcy trustee. As our economy grows more complex, the need for forensic accountants grows as well. One critical role of the forensic accountant is exposing and examining financial fraud. Technology expands the way companies conduct business; however, technology also provides greater opportunities for those willing to commit fraud. Forensic accountants rely on their skills in accounting, coupled with their investigative skills, to explain to clients, courts, and jurors how fraudulent schemes occur and the effect caused by fraud. Forensic accountants also provide expert opinions in calculating damages in litigation and administering bankruptcy estates, as well as a host of other services.

Calculating partnership basis is one of the most important things that we do as practitioners. However, it is also one of the most confusing. When we use the term "basis," we really could be referring to one of three different things. This course will explore the differences between inside basis, outside basis, and 704(b) basis. Through several examples and practice problems, we will show you how to easily distinguish among these terms. We will also explore the tax implications of initial contributions of property to a partnership as well as the different types of partnership distributions.

Microsoft Teams is one of the most exciting personal and organizationally productivity tools to ever appear on the business landscape. With Teams, you can communicate and collaborate easily and securely with others, including colleagues outside your organization. Further, you can extend the already-robust functionality in Teams by incorporating add-in solutions with just a few clicks of the mouse. Unfortunately, despite Teams’ power and relatively simple interface, many organizations struggle with deploying and using Teams.  In this session, you will learn how you can get up and running quickly in Teams so that you can take full advantage of this powerful tool. More specifically, you will learn how you can get started in Teams and critical decisions that will affect your deployment. Also, you will learn how to work in Teams, including how to take advantage of the chat, voice, and video call services and how to share documents securely with others. Moreover, you will learn how to extend your Teams platform to external organizations for improved communication and collaboration. Additionally, you will identify how you can add other applications into Teams and optimize Team's configuration for the best overall efficiency and security. If you are working with Teams or plan to do so, this is one CPE session you can’t afford to miss!

Excel has over 500 functions and among those, Defined Names is one of the top choices in creating formulas that make your spreadsheets work better for you. After understanding what they are and how to properly create Defined Names, you will wonder how you managed without them for so long. This course is designed to build the foundation to becoming an Excel Formula Expert. Our focus will be on design techniques that should be used when creating formulas. You will learn how to use Defined Names and Excel Tables as an important and fundamental part of EVERY spreadsheet. You will learn techniques that most advanced users don't implement in their spreadsheets but should. After completing this course, you will be well on your way to becoming an Excel Formula Expert. This session is presented using Excel 2013. Regardless of the version you are using, ALL concepts covered in this course apply to ALL versions of Excel. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

For the past two decades the trend has been to move away from brick and mortar offices and have a greater number of people work or telecommute from home. Because of the upheaval caused by recent events, the rate of this move has been accelerated. This has and will continue to create control challenges and organizations must work to address these. Such things as moving from time based employee value to task completion based measurement and the ability to drive needed inter-company communication are just a sample of the issues with which entities must contend. This session looks at the benefits and pitfalls of workers that telecommute. It then discusses important risks and controls to consider as this trend continues and evolves in the business world. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This one-day course will teach effective skills for coaching and training employees. You'll learn how to identify the characteristics of effective coaches and develop coaching strategies to support and assist your team, with the goal of helping them improve morale, productivity and quality. And, you'll learn a five-step approach for giving constructive criticism while managing defensive reactions.