Professional Development and Event Catalog

Purchase your professional development program credits in advance (as either a 40-hour Class Pass or 80-hour Class Pass) and enjoy significant savings! This year’s pass applies to seminars, CTCPA developed conferences, webinars, and livestream programs now through March 31, 2025. Class Pass is also a great way to get your staff the training they need at a discounted price. Note: Class Pass is for individuals - credits are not transferable to other employees within a firm or company.   

When you need to create a simple survey or form to capture data online, the Microsoft 365 Forms app can be just the right solution. You can use it for simple forms such as a client information form or client service evaluation form. You can create more sophisticated forms, such as a client tax organizer. All responses can remain confidential and can be viewed in Excel format for further analysis or to prepare the form data for import into another application. This course will take you through the step-by-step process for creating, distributing, compiling and analyzing digital forms and surveys. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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.

An audit is an investment in reliable financial reporting and compliance, and an increased return on those dollars can be achieved by hiring the right auditors. This course will provide key factors for you to consider when evaluating whether you are getting the most quality and insight from your auditors, to enable them to perform the most value-added audit possible in the given circumstances - while retaining the trust of a CPA. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

As litigation becomes more complex, attorneys are relying more on accountants to serve as consulting experts or expert witnesses at trial. Serving as an expert witness is not as difficult as you might expect. Accounting experts educate lawyers and jurors on issues such as valuation, tax liability, and forensics. Learn how accountants become expert witnesses, the role they play during pre-litigation through to trial, and the techniques experts employ to avoid challenges from opposing counsel.

The AICPA's Auditing Standards Board has issued numerous standards that are effective in 2023. We'll review the impact of the changes to auditing estimates, risk assessment, noncompliance with laws and regulations (NOCLAR), as well as the changes coming down the pike for quality management. This course will keep auditors up to date on the work of the ASB.

Stay current on recent changes to the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and keep abreast of emerging trends in ethics standards and regulatory initiatives and their potential impact on your practice. Explore frequent practitioner ethics compliance challenges, including competence, due professional care, audit quality, and independence. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has made significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code.  This, in turn, has created a need to make changes in a client’s planning needs.  In addition to traditional issues faced by a business owner regarding the operation of his or her business, business ownership creates complexities in the tax, estate, and financial planning arenas. By focusing on the development of many unique business planning tools, this course explores the entrance and exit strategies available to business owners.   **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 leighanne.conroy@acpen.com.

This program compares and contrasts the financial accounting for partnerships and LLCs, as well as discusses the tax accounting for these entities. It includes a thorough discussion of the important differences between financial accounting for partnership capital accounts and the tax accounting for partnership capital accounts. Financial accounting for operations of a partnership will also be addressed.

If you use Outlook to process your email, you are likely spending a substantial part of your day processing incoming email messages. This course is designed to show you a multitude of tips and tricks to reduce time spent processing emails. We will cover every feature available in Outlook to streamline and automate your email processing. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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 entities are the second largest victims of embezzlement. This seminar examines recent events involving theft of public money and circumstances that allowed the fraud to occur. Case studies we examine include the 2012 $54 million embezzlement from the City of Dixon by Rita Crundwell. The events that impacted the small Illinois town of 16,000 residents was the largest governmental fraud case to date, and spanned an astonishing 20 years. This remarkable story inspired an award-winning documentary, "All the Queen's Horses." We will also examine factors that led to scandals involving the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, World Com, Collin Street Bakery and the Ohio American Cancer Society, among others. This course is ideal for CPAs, government finance personnel, all Internal Auditors, lawyers, governance professionals, accountants and human resource personnel. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This course provides a concise overview of the Dark Web, a part of the internet that isn't indexed by search engines, and is often associated with anonymous transactions and nefarious activities. Discover the leading threats and risks that the Dark Web poses to accounting firms. Explore how practitioners can effectively mitigate the risk of data breaches, ransomware attacks, financial fraud and other risks connected to the Dark Web. You'll walk away with a foundational understanding of leading cybersecurity strategies that can help you maintain client trust and protect your firm's sensitive data in this complex and ever-changing threat landscape. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This course will provide an overview of the work and impact of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) on the US tax system, regulatory ethics, and accounting profession. TIGTA is an independent organization that provides oversight of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and conducts audits, investigations, and inspections and evaluations to promote integrity, economy, and efficiency in the administration of the nation's tax system. The course will explore the role of TIGTA in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the IRS, identifying opportunities to improve the administration of tax laws, and upholding ethical standards in the accounting profession. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Practitioners need to exercise caution to ensure they maintain independence as they assist their clients with reviews, audits, and compilation engagements. This course provides a roadmap to best practices and guidance provided by the AICPA's Code of Professional Conduct and analyzes and applies it to actual scenario-based case studies, providing accounting professionals with ethical standards to integrate into their practices. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available for questions during the event.

For many business professionals, accessing and managing data in Excel is one of the biggest stumbling blocks when creating reports and analyses. Common practices include far too many manual processes and formulas, including never-ending manual processes needed to update your data and related reports. Make plans now to join us in this session to learn best practices for accessing and managing data using Excel. In this session, you will learn how you can use Power Query and other Excel tools to quickly access and manipulate your data and generate reports in record time! This is a “must-see” session for any business professional working with Excel!    

This program addresses the many complex financial and tax accounting issues that are common in S corporation transactions, with discussion of common pitfalls and the new AICPA "small" GAAP accounting standards.

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.

One of the most talked about emerging technologies that has the potential to significantly disrupt the accounting profession is blockchain. This course is designed to bring you up to speed on what this revolutionary technology is all about. You will learn about the concepts, nomenclature, technology and potential applications related to blockchain. This will prepare you to participate in conversations about blockchain technology with your colleagues, peers and others. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have created a new generation of millionaires, with the benefit of anonymity. Whether the cryptocurrency is being used for criminal activity or held as a legitimate investment, the IRS is spending substantial resources in finding those who possess, purchase, and sell cryptocurrencies to ensure that the tax, banking, and money laundering laws are being followed. Are you or your firm prepared to advise your client when reporting cryptocurrency transactions? Can you identify when cryptocurrency is being used for potential criminal purposes? Can you prepare an accurate tax return related to cryptocurrency transactions? Do you know what questions to ask your client or what documents to request? This course will give you a brief overview of cryptocurrencies, how this new technology is being regulated, the common ways that cryptocurrencies are used to evade tax and money laundering laws, and what is expected from taxpayers and their return preparers when cryptocurrencies are involved. Your instructor is a former special agent with IRS-Criminal Investigation. He spent many years finding, investigating, and prosecuting tax and money laundering crimes that were using cryptocurrency as the form of payment. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.