Professional Development and Event Catalog

First-time supervisors face unique challenges as they transition to management. They must supervise work with which they may be unfamiliar, and supervise employees with whom they had previously been co-workers or employees with greater seniority. They must understand the extent of responsibility and decision-making authority they have, finding ways to communicate expectations to their employees and making possibly unpopular decisions. Excellence in technical or financial skills does not automatically translate to excellence in leading and supervising others. This course will give new supervisors, managers, and leaders the skills and understanding needed to successfully navigate the transition.

The budgeting process can be a time consuming and frustrating process for accountants.  The constraints and pressures can lead to poor decisions in both the technical and human components.  This session will cover: Building Flexible Budgeting Models: Walking Through and Crunching The Numbers •    We can all learn from others and improve our budgeting process by listening to our colleagues’ wisdom and experience.  This session takes a unique review of the fundamental budget issues faced by all and walks through a detailed modeling process intended to generate discussion and best practices to improve your organization’s financial planning. 

Many organizations struggle to keep budgets current in an ever-changing business climate.  Twenty-first century performance metrics focus on determining what budgets should be rather than what they were in the past.  Using performance metrics effectively reduces work, reduces politics, provides flexibility and substantially improves the performance management process.  This session will show you powerful techniques to drive your organization’s performance.

The annual budgeting process is often criticized as an accounting exercise that is obsolete soon after it is published, prone to gamesmanship, cumbersome, not volume sensitive, and disconnected from the organization's strategy and risk management processes. You can resolve these deficiencies using capacity-sensitive driver-based projections. Driver-based budgeting allows for quick scenario planning and far easier analysis of a growing organization whose future may look nothing like today. The driver-based budgets can be periodically refreshed to create rolling financial forecasts extending well beyond the fiscal year end. Learn how managerial accounting can become managerial economics.

Two seemingly similar products can have very different costs, yet many companies are completely oblivious to these differences causing them to lose money or competitive bids.  When companies compete, those with good information win the “gravy” contracts and those with bad information lose money on “dog” jobs.  Attend this session to gain insights on how to win bids for the best opportunities and give the money-losers to your competitors.  Achieve your target profitability in the process.  

In this comprehensive course, practitioners gain a deep understanding of strategic planning considerations and potential hurdles encountered when clients face difficult circumstances. Delving into an array of scenarios often classified as "challenging," the course offers tax insights. From divorce and personal bankruptcy to intricate personal relationship matters, participants will equip themselves to adeptly guide clients through these challenging scenarios by understanding the tax implications.

Are you looking to fortify your practice against the ever-growing threats in the digital landscape? Join us for the third installment of our exclusive webinar series, "Mastering Cybersecurity," brought to you by Practice Protect.  In today's digitally connected world, the need for comprehensive cybersecurity is paramount. With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated, it's crucial to stay ahead of the curve in protecting your sensitive client data. This webinar series is designed to equip CPAs with the knowledge and tools needed to secure their practices and client information effectively.

Over the last few years, mental health has become more of a mainstream issue. In fact, statistics indicate that approximately one in four adults experience a mental health condition.  Therefore, it is more important now than ever for organizations to make mental health and wellness a priority, given all the rapid changes leading to higher levels of stress and uncertainty in the post-COVID workplace.  The goal of this course is to outline the signs of mental health challenges in the workplace, such as changes in behavior, mood, or performance, while providing practical strategies for HR Professionals and Business Leaders to build and implement accommodations for a mentally healthy work environment.

This is a 2 hour webcast that will focus on the similarities between all three of these GASB accounting standards that deal with contractual arrangements such as leases, Subscription-Based Information Technology Arrangements (SBITA) and P3s.  Compare and contrast these standards as you prepare for implementation this year of GASB 94 and GASB 96, and review the implementation efforts of Leases in Year 2. 

The budgeting process can be a time consuming and frustrating process for accountants.  The constraints and pressures can lead to poor decisions in both the technical and human components.  This session will cover: Avoiding Budget People Issues:  Managing Budgeting’s Soft Side •    Financial plans have a technical component and human component.  We can resolve some of our budget issues by exploring the process’ human aspect.  This session includes a case study that measures an individual’s personality type and then explores how to use our strengths and weaknesses to create to a better plan.  

In the last year, our country has seen the passage of multiple federal laws impacting the enforceability to common employment documents. Several federal agencies have also issued opinions that could impact common employment documents. This presentation will review those new laws and opinions and discuss the potential impact they may have on arbitration agreements, severance agreements, confidentiality agreement, and non-disparagement agreements.  

Accounting and financial reporting for construction contractors may be the most difficult area to be in compliance with the various standards. Construction engagements are, in many instances, more "dangerous" than most lines of business due to the many users of the financial statements. In this course, we will discuss why construction accounting and financial reporting are so complex and discuss the relationship between the contractor and the surety, both from an underwriting and claims perspective. We will also explore what the surety looks for in order to maximize potential bond credit, and we will discuss key areas of tax compliance concentrating on those areas which make construction unique, including the impact of recent tax legislation.

Our guidance on ethics comes from the AICPA and other groups, but it does not fully address the “why” behind ethics. Understanding what motivates people and understanding those people are key to both solving ethical dilemmas and workplace issues that can lead to greater job satisfaction and efficiency. To correct an issue, you need to delve into the root cause – the why?

In this course, participants will gain a broad understanding of the various anti-fraud preventive and detective tests available to practitioners and take initial steps in building their own library of tests unique to their business or industry risks. Specific discussions and examples will include vendor analysis to look for potentially improper payments around conflicts of interests, fake vendor schemes, bribery & corruption, sanctions and trade compliance, anomalous payments, segregation of duties, among other risk categories.  Participants will also explore tests around customers or distributors that include margin analysis, free goods, discounts and revenue recognition. Further, we will explore employee related test to mitigate travel & entertainment expense abuses. We will also point out various online and public resources for participants to start building their own library of tests to support both reactive investigations as well as proactive prevention and detection.

We encounter pressure from many varied sources every day. We will focus on one of the more overlooked areas where fraud can be found.  Employees respond to pressure, and sometime the pressure leads to unethical actions. Where should you look and what should you look for? Risk assessment is not something ‘nice to do’, but it is required for internal audits, external audits, and every leader. If you are in a leadership position, learn where to look?

Selecting the right KPIs for your organization can be complex and stressful. Rather than resorting to brainstorming and internet searches, there is a better way to discover the best KPIs for your organization - the ROKS method. In this session Bernie Smith, creator of the ROKS method, walks you through the first five steps of this powerful approach, using real-world stories to bring each step to life.  

This presentation will review what sex harassment is under the law, company compliance obligations, and describe how promoting a positive company culture can prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.   

What obligations does an employer have when an employee needs to take a leave of absence? This presentation will provide an overview of the complicated, intertwined compliance obligations triggered when an employee requests a medical leave of absence (including for pregnancy, mental health, or addiction).  

Financial Acumen for the HR Professional is a part of the series "The HR Professional's Guide to Evolving Business Strategy, Finance and Development." This course identifies how HR Professionals can increase their financial understanding to participate more effectively with management as well as understand the financial results and implications for the business.

In this five part master series, class participants will gain a comprehensive view into the world of forensic data analytics (FDA). From understanding practical use cases of FDA in the audit, internal audit, investigations and proactive monitoring to understanding necessary data sources, validation proceudres, success factors and pitfalls to avoid. We will also explore hundreds of leading anti-fraud tests around corruption, conflicts of interest, fake vendor schemes, segregation of duties, revenue recognition and sales abuse, among dozens of other schemes.  Participants will develop their own library of anti-fraud tests from various open source locations and apply them in relevant contexts such as the COSO Fraud Risk Management Guide. Finally, participants will also peek into future innovations in FDA and how technologies such as ChatGPT, data visualization, machine learning, AI and cryptocurrencies are all impacting the discipline.  We can't promise you'll be a programmer after this course, but you will certainly be armed with the information needed to project manage an FDA project and "direct" the programmers to accomplish your fraud risk / FDA objectives.