Professional Development and Event Catalog

This course provides an overview of cybersecurity from the CPA perspective. We will discuss the components of an IT environment that need to be considered in audits - e.g. network, operating systems, database, and application layers. Additionally, we will discuss an overview of cybersecurity frameworks under the influence of the AICPA and/or ISACA - e.g. SOC2, COBIT, COSO, SOX IT controls, etc. and key cybersecurity controls. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

PivotTable is a fancy term for an Excel report that summarizes data. If you have not yet had the good fortune of exploring PivotTables, it is about time. In this session, we'll dig into PivotTables, understand the report layout options, and examine PivotTable formulas.

The Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC) of the AICPA has been very busy issuing new and updating existing ethics rules. This course will provide an overview of recently issued and soon to be effective ethics rules that CPAs in both industry and public accounting need to know to be compliant. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Reviewing Workpapers - Embracing Responsibilities for Quality Control will provide the tips and tools for satisfying important workpaper reviewer responsibilities. Audit documentation provides the principal support for an auditor's report. Therefore, it is critical for workpaper reviewers to perform quality control procedures to ensure that technical, professional, and regulatory standards are met. In addition, the workpaper review process should be used as a tool for professional development and promoting efficient audits. Note: This course is recommended as a part of a 16-hour audit skills curriculum for in-charge or supervisor auditors, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has workpaper review responsibilities. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Clients are living longer. Not only does that present challenges to the work we do with them to make sure that their money lasts, but it also brings into play additional issues and challenges that we may not have had to tackle in the past. How do we plan for where clients will live (possibly as solo agers)? How do we deal with issues of diminished capacity? How do we plan for long term care and end of life issues? How do we have complicated family conversations? How do we make sure that our clients have their best long lives possible both financially and otherwise?  Find out in this session where we will present tools you can use with clients to engage them in the planning process.

Once an employee decides to report an issue, the risk for retaliation must be minimized. Metrics matter. As such, capturing and reviewing employee data for indicators of possible retaliation are key to protecting those who report. The more subtle forms of retaliation, though, require a focused communication plan to address. This course offers recommendations for implementing specific retaliation monitoring protocols.

With increasing competition for finding the best qualified candidates and retaining today’s workforce, it’s more important than ever to consider flexible work options in the workplace. We will review the most popular flexible work options your company could consider implementing: telecommuting, compressed work weeks, flexible hours, phased return from leave of absence, job sharing, early release days, and more! We’ll discuss the benefits of this talent management strategy, including increased productivity, decreased costs, better work-life “integration”, and increased employee engagement and satisfaction. You’ll learn how to propose flexible scheduling to your executive team, including how to logistically roll out this program. Whether you’re in a manufacturing plant, corporate headquarters, or retail industry, you can apply any of these flexible work options to your organization. 

We have all heard the statement that it is the people that work at a company that gives it value. It is, sometimes and unfortunately, also the people that provide fraudsters with an entry point into an organization that can lead to hardship. This is even more true now because cyber-attacks on both organization and individuals have increased notably. Many highly publicized corporate hacking events are successful, at least in part, because an individual was targeted. In this session, we look the types of fraud that take aim at individuals with a special focus on the growth of cyber-attacks. We then discuss measures that can be put forth to help employees protect both themselves and the organization. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

The phrase "time management" is misleading. No one manages time. Instead, we manage events in our lives which consume time. Like money, time is both finite and valuable; it should be budgeted and used wisely. Those individuals who "manage" or budget their time wisely often are more productive, less stressed, and able to achieve their goals more effectively than others. Professionals by nature place a high value on their time. Still, successful time management strategies vary based upon the personality, motivation, and discipline of each individual. This course provides simple, practical, and powerful techniques that help professionals work efficiently and achieve better balance in their lives. Successful time management skills also reduce the risk of burnout, which in turn improves the likelihood of achieving success in any endeavor.

Tax practitioners advising their business clients must be fully informed regarding the multiple loss limitation provisions that apply to individuals conducting businesses and pass-through entities. This program covers the loss limitation rules that tax practitioners must know in order to advise their individual and pass-through entity clients fully and adequately as to when and if a loss limitation applies. The loss limitations discussed in this program start with an introductory discussion of hobby loss rules and graduate to a more substantive discussion of the remaining loss limitations: basis limits, at-risk rules, passive loss limits, excess business loss limits, net operating losses, and the Section 163(j) interest limitation. Knowing when loss limits apply is essential for any tax practitioner. This program will put you in a position to advise clients fully and intelligently regarding each of the loss limits.

This program examines the critical issues, rules, and special opportunities when preparing your clients' Form 1041 US Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts. Learn what is considered taxable income; filing requirements and deadlines; impact of the 3.8 percent Medicare surtax on net investment income; and the 10 principles of tax accounting for trust income. **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 IRS has recently increased the pressure on how to calculate and report partner and shareholder basis.  Changes in the forms reflect these developments.  This program provides a detailed analysis of the calculations related to determining tax basis for a partnership interest and S corporation shareholder shares and loans. How to use the Form 1065, Schedule K-1  and Form 1120S, Schedule K-1 information for basis determination.  Illustrated examples with filled in forms will demonstrate how the processes works and their 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.

Accounting standards affecting not-for-profit (NPF) organizations have become increasingly complex, and, as a result, a great deal of confusing exists as to how to properly account for certain transactions unique to these organizations. This course will clarify proper accounting and reporting for these troubling areas. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Award winning discussion leader Mark Hugh discusses how to create and capture value with consulting services. Whether you want to consult a little or full time, this valuable course reviews identifying a specialty, growing a practice, capturing value, creating deliverables, and effective marketplace marketing strategies.  

Numbers and especially the digits within those numbers can conceal a lot of information.  Benford's Law and other digital analysis techniques can be the keys to unlocking that information.  This session will explain what Benford's Law is, how it works, and how it can be used to reveal bogus information and made-up data.  Accountants and auditors should understand how to use this valuable audit tool as well as other digital analysis techniques.  But, if you attend this session, you must promise not to reveal the secret behind these techniques to any fraud perpetrators.

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.

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: Understanding and Preventing Budget Calamities •    Most of us lead or participate in the budget process at least annually.  Inherent flaws exist in the standard budget building process that you can solved by recognizing them and committing to solutions.  

Two of the hottest topics in the CPA profession today are CAS (client advisory services) and ChatGPT. This course will explain how to bring these two worlds together by integrating ChatGPT and other generative AI applications into your client advisory services. John Higgins, a leading advisor to the profession on ChatGPT and a seasoned client advisor on technology based solutions, will show you how you can position your firm and yourself as a "go to" advisor on how to embrace this technology in virtually any type of business. John will address how to use this technology as a research and writing assistant in your client services and how to advise your clients on this revolutionary technology and all benefits and "gotchas" that come with it. If you want to step up your advisory game, this course is a "must take." This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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.  

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.  The same theory applies to departmental performance—the overall result is only as strong as its weakest contributor.  Leave our interactive and entertaining session with insight for developing and sustaining the best team you can possibly assemble.  The four elements in this process are (1) development, (2) leadership, (3) hiring and (4) environment.  Discuss how to effectively use these elements in your creation of an outstanding organization. Discover the power of the 10 Attributes for Leadership Success and the negative impact of Leadership’s Fatal 13. Above all, learn how to combine these four elements as a successful catalyst for sustained high-quality output and results.