Professional Development and Event Catalog

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. 

With many technologies now ready for “prime time,” it’s exciting to see some of the options for improved productivity in CPA firms. Learn more about these new tools in this session.

Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bard, and Copilot are available to everyone and offer great promise for improved productivity. Learn how you can begin to take advantage of these tools by participating in this session.

Unless you expect your organization to be stable in the short, medium and long term, you need to understand how to create long-term balance sheet and cash flow projections. Growing organizations must know whether they will have the resources to execute their business plan. Struggling organizations need to know if they will have the cash to survive. This session will increase your organization's ability to see its future and increase the confidence that your CEO, Board and bank have in you. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This session describes a state agency's quality review of a not-for-profit organization's A-133 Single Audit.  The case study describes the organization audited, its federally- and state-funded programs, and the CPA firm retained to do the audit.  Various anomalies in the financial statements alerted state officials to potential problems, and a detailed quality review followed.  Find out how the entity turned hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank overdrafts into hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash on its balance sheet.  Explore other “creative” ways to deal with fixed assets, accounts receivable, and related-party transactions.  Were the auditors just sloppy, ignorant, negligent?  Or were they active participants in producing fraudulent financial statements?  You be the judge.

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.

PowerPoint is a widely available resource that is potentially underutilized by accountants because many accountants do not stray beyond Excel and Word in the Microsoft Office suite. You will learn how to create and edit a professional PowerPoint slide deck. This session places particular emphasis on efficiency tips and tricks that will allow you to develop creative, professional visual aids while minimizing time and effort. The course’s author will share personal insights he has cultivated throughout more than two decades of public speaking. Although the session will focus on creating and editing slides, we will illustrate best practices for presentation delivery. We will also explain how PowerPoint can be used for purposes other than delivering presentations.

In this cutting-edge course, participants will gain a deep understanding of how to leverage ChatGPT, OpenAI's powerful language model, to innovate and enhance business advisory services in the accounting sector. The course integrates theory and practice, demonstrating how various enterprise evaluation methodologies can be applied in conjunction with ChatGPT for increased business analysis efficiency, profitability, and growth. It also provides hands-on training for implementing these techniques in real-world scenarios. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

While once thought just to apply to banking and financial institutions, entities now need to apply fair value accounting under ASC 820 across a variety of transitions. From financial instruments to leases, business combination accounting and impairment measurement, GAAP either requires or allows the use of fair value measures in an ever-increasing number of circumstances. Now is the time for you to get up-to-speed on the basics of the fair value approach. In this course, we will review when fair value accounting is required and when an entity can select to use it. Then we will review the basics of the ASC 820 model, including the concept of "exit price," the various approaches which an entity may follow when using a fair value approach and the different levels of inputs which an entity may consider when determining fair value. Lastly, the course will provide examples on when and how to apply this complex accounting guidance.

There is always too much to do and too little time to do it all.  Fortunately, if you know the right ways to manage people, projects and your time, you can get on top of everything by working smarter.  In this seminar you'll learn the best ways to get more done in less time, how to stay sane with all you have to do, and how to get other people to do some of "your" work by building great relationships.

Blockchain technology offers the promise of digital truth. It provides a transparent, permanent, immutable, and high-speed record-keeping system when appropriately implemented. The possibilities are endless, from managing the logistics of supply chain networks to facilitating international commerce. The adoption of this technology is growing, with millions of new users every year. Organizations adopt this technology every day to help improve their existing operations through its ledger capabilities or executing smart contracts. Cryptocurrency is one example of blockchain technology. Its growth and value have exploded to over $2 trillion in the last few years. This growth has helped to fuel widespread adoption amongst Wall Street and regular investors alike. While more popular than ever, few business professionals understand these technologies, their capabilities, risks, and potential impacts on business operations and processes, such as contract execution, recording and maintaining real estate ownership records, and supply chains. In fact, this incredible technology is a mystery for most accounting professionals. This course will provide a detailed and in-depth look at this technology, including a detailed overview of the underlying technology, the benefits, the risks, the major players, and many practical applications. By participating in this session, you will gain a deeper understanding of the inner workings of this technology and recommendations on getting started.  

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 will then switch to the audit side of the house to examine the impact of the 2024 Compliance Supplement on Single Audits and the changes to the Uniform Guidance. We close with a look at common deficiencies found in Single Audits. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Designed for accounting and attestation practitioners at all levels in both public accounting and business and industry, this course provides a comprehensive review of recent standard-setting activities of the FASB and AICPA. In addition to providing a detailed review of SAS No. 145, this course will bring you up to date on FASB and AICPA standards issued over the past few years. The course also provides many hands-on examples and illustrations to help you apply the guidance in practice. In addition to a financial accounting update, the course will discuss what you will need to do differently as you adopt new audit standards 142-149 over the next few years, including a detailed review of the new audit requirements under SAS 142. The course will also cover the key changes related to SSARS No. 25. Finally, the course reviews the AICPA's quality management project. In summary, the course is your go-to source for all things A&A and will prepare you for your upcoming engagements throughout the rest of the year.

Our financial and economic series is designed to take key topics for financial executives and explore them in detail such that the CFO/controller/financial executive can take away useful and practical recommendations dealing with the topic at hand. The program explores the current economic trends and analyze their impact on you as the financial executive in areas professional skepticism, medical care costs, social security viability, the dollar as a world currency, the national infrastructure and the "fate of the states" as well as the AICPA's top 10 trends and technologies. Specific recommendations and insights will be offered to you to deal with the challenges.

This course has significantly changed for the better the lives of a significant number of practitioners and their clients. Participants will learn a step-by-step process for performing an annual personal financial health checkup for themselves, family members, employers, and, if in the practice of accounting, their clients. This course is loaded with practical aids to enable CPAs to help individuals get a "great" financial health checkup result! This course will enable practitioners to add a huge value to their tax preparation services. 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.

One of the three major forms of occupational fraud, along with corruption and asset misappropriation, is financial statement fraud.  From improper asset valuation to fictitious revenues, this course will review financial statement fraud red flags and examine real-life examples.   

Staying current on significant changes in Government Audit Standards can be difficult. This course covers the most important issues and changes relevant to Yellow Book financial statement audits. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Spear phishing. Ransomware. Malware. Like the threats your business faces, the cybersecurity lexicon is constantly evolving. This comprehensive presentation imparts practical privacy and data security know-how and creates fluency with the latest terminology. Learn best practices for cybersecurity safety, as well as tailored training for those in positions responsible for implementing security policies. It is just as important to be diligent, safe, and well-versed in the attacks that we face in our personal lives.

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.