Professional Development and Event Catalog

Cloud computing has become a source of cyber-crime. “Cloud forensics is the application of digital forensics in cloud computing as a subset of network forensics to gather and preserve evidence in a way that is suitable for presentation in a court of law.” Cloud forensics is a combination of the varied types of accounting forensics including: •    Digital forensics •    Network forensics. •    Hardware forensics In cloud crime, the cloud is considered the object when the target of the crime is the cloud service provider they are directly affected by the act. It is considered the subject of the crime when the criminal act is committed within the cloud environment. It is considered the tool when it is used to plan or conduct a crime. This course will delve into the many concepts involved in cloud forensics. The course complements other courses in the series of Becoming a Forensic Accountant.  

This session explores tools and techniques that can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of client engagements and business processes using data analysis tools. We will introduce some of today’s popular and software tools and examine the AICPA’s Five-step approach to incorporating data analytics into public accounting engagements.

Most professionals routinely use Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint, but many are self-taught and, as a result, have not been exposed to the best features of these three applications. Consequently, they often use “brute force,” inefficient means when working with these three components of Microsoft Office. If that describes you, ensure you carve time out of your schedule to participate in this fourhour session. In it, you will learn how to work much more efficiently when using these tools to get better results in less time.  

A significant amount of information is electronically initiated, recorded, processed, or reported, and information to be used as audit evidence may be available only in electronic form. During this session we will look at different types of information commonly presented to an auditor during the audit of an employee benefit plan, and identify considerations for auditors when evaluating information to be used as audit evidence.

When the leadership in any organizations carries out their responsibilities of establishing, maintaining and monitoring internal controls, it significantly reduces the possibility of fraud occurring.  When and if it does occur, a good system of internal controls will often detect it early on.  This presentation is an illustration of what can happen when top management fails to carry out their responsibility of protecting an entity’s assets through a good system of internal controls.

Most ethics courses focus on unethical individuals and their terrible misdeeds. We don’t need another course on lessons from Enron or individuals committing fraud.  Most unethical failures result from unethical individuals.  Instead, this session will focus on how good people can do better, why there is no such thing as business ethics and why we only need one rule to lead ethical lives.

This program will provide a detailed analysis of the real estate professional passive activity rules, including forms reporting examples, and integrates those rules with when real estate is considered a "business" under the Section 199A flow-through entity deduction. A detailed analysis of the self-rental passive activity rules will be given, including forms reporting examples and integrates them with the flow-through entity rules related to self-rental. **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.

If you are an experienced Excel user seeking to elevate your skills, join the K2 team for K2’s Advanced Excel. In this laptop-friendly program, you will learn critical advanced Excel skills in six key areas: 1) collaborating with other users and securing workbooks, 2) using tables to analyze and report data, 3) integrating and manipulating data from external sources, 4) creating and auditing complex formulas, 5) advanced data analysis tools, and 6) visualization techniques to analyze and communicate information. The course draws from over twenty-five years of experience delivering Excel training to accountants and other business professionals. Throughout the program, relevant, real-world examples reinforce the topics presented. Take advantage of this opportunity to become more efficient and proficient in Microsoft Office Excel, the tool of choice for accounting and financial professionals. This course covers advanced Excel topics found in Excel 2019 and newer.

Based on an AICPA Enhancing Audit Quality study, 23% of all single audits subject to enhanced oversight were materially non-conforming with professional standards due to failure to properly test controls over compliance.  This course will provide an overview of internal controls over compliance specifically related to Single Audits. We will discuss how to apply the concept of internal controls to various compliance requirements. Additionally, a common finding in the audits of governmental entities receiving federal grants is misidentifying controls and mistaking compliance for a control. That's why this course will also focus on identifying compliance versus controls over compliance.

The audit standards state that one of the reasons auditors fail to detect fraud is that they don’t know what it looks like.  Prior to the original SAS No. 82, Consideration of Fraud In A Financial Statement Audit, nowhere in any SAS was there a description of what fraud looked like.  So, as they say, if you don’t know what you are looking for, you can often look right at it and not recognize it! This presentation illustrates some of the more common indicators of fraud they most individuals would overlook unless they 1) knew what they were looking for and were 2) actually looking for it.  Contrary to what the standards say about fraud being concealed, I have found that fraud is often laying on the table right in front of you; but no one has discovered it because they have no idea what the indicators of fraud are.

Nonprofits face unique accounting challenges. This course will introduce attendees to the financial statements and unique accounting principles applicable to not-for-profit organizations. Specifically, we will focus on the typical transactions and account balances unique to NFPs, including net assets, agency transactions, contributions, endowments, and programmatic investments.

Governmental accounting is very unique. This course will introduce the financial reporting basics for governments, including fund accounting and the modified accrual basis of accounting. Attendees will analyze the layouts of the fund financial statements as well as the government-wide financial statements. The course will also cover the concept of component units, Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A), and the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

Single Audits are an area of focus for the AICPA's Enhancing Audit Quality Initiative. The Uniform Guidance provides very unique audit requirements when auditing federal funds. This course will look into the unique performance and reporting requirements in Single Audits. Participants will have a basic understanding of internal controls over compliance, compliance requirements, how to use the Compliance Supplement, and the elements of a finding in a Single Audit.

This session provides a refresher regarding the fundamentals of activity-based costing (ABC). We will examine theoretical concepts before exploring practical possibilities for implementing ABC. A major focus of the course will be factors to consider when determining whether this managerial accounting tool is an appropriate resource for an organization.

This program addresses the critical issues and special opportunities facing S-corporations, with a focus on reporting shareholder basis and distributions.  **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.

Hacks, attacks, ransomware, malware – where does it end? Unfortunately, tech crimes continue to plague businesses of all sizes. Participate in this session to learn how you can reduce the risk of becoming yet another victim.

QuickBooks remains one of the leading accounting solutions for small and growing businesses and Intuit has added numerous advanced features to the application over the past few releases. In this seminar, you will learn how to take advantage of many of QuickBooks’ new and advanced features to solve important issues. For example, you will learn advanced inventory management techniques, including the ability to change the default costing methodology in QuickBooks, and implementing lot and serial number tracking. You will also learn how to build complete sets of financial statements in Excel that link in real-time to underlying QuickBooks data files and how to create multi-company financial statements. Additionally, you will learn how to put the Client Data Review feature to work to streamline the process of identifying and correcting errors and closing accounting periods in QuickBooks. Knowing how to take advantage of the advanced tools and features available can determine your level of success when working with QuickBooks. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn about QuickBooks’ “deep” features so that you maximize your effectiveness with the application.

Yellow Book and Single Audit engagements are considered must select engagements for Peer Review. This course will cover the Yellow Book independence requirements which are required any time an auditor is performing a Yellow Book or Single Audit even when the engagement is for a for-profit entity.  We'll take a look at the major changes in the 2024 Compliance Supplement as well as the changes to the Uniform Guidance. We'll close with major deficiencies identified by the federal agencies and peer reviewers. 

What were they thinking? Why do business leaders sometimes make horrible decisions that severely damage themselves and their organizations? It is tempting to assume that poor choices must be due to someone's incompetence, inexperience, bad character, or low intelligence. Yet, when we make a mistake ourselves, we someone rationalize it as a choice other people would make under the same circumstances. This session will discuss the common decision-making errors people make and to help you avoid making these blunders yourself. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

These are uncertain times. With constant economic fluctuation, geopolitical uncertainty and inflation pressures, corporations and their professionals are facing challenges at every turn. The Controllership function is accustomed to dealing with changing variables but when the change is constant and every evolving, even the simplest of tasks like cash flow and cash forecasting can become difficult.  This webinar is to focus on what methods the controller can elicit to attempt to address the current uncertainty when working with their cash flow issues and forecasting. Of course, there are basic measures that can be employed such as: Proactively managing receivables and payables Automate your accounts payable and receivables process Keep business expenses at a minimum Work with digital methods of payment from vendors Use credit wisely However, this webinar will explore methods used to create and manage your cash flow and forecasting processes. These methods go one-step past your typical forecasting to enable management to explore various alternatives and scenarios for the business.