CPE Catalog & Events

This course provides an in-depth comparative analysis of Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and S Corporations, focusing on their tax implications, compliance requirements, and operational structures. Participants will explore key aspects of entity formation, tax treatment, and compliance with corporate formalities. Topics include electing Subchapter S status, mechanics of Form 2553, and relief options for late filings under Rev. Proc. 2022-19. The course also highlights entity-specific tax forms, accountable plans, taxable fringe benefits, officer reasonable compensation, estate planning, business continuation planning, and audit strategies. Additionally, participants will review Schedules K-1, K-2, K-3, and effectively connected income for both entity types. *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

Cash flow management is often the most important task of any CFO or financial leader. Regardless of whether one works in start-ups or established companies, non-profit or for-profit entities, cash flow makes our organizations run. Have you ever wondered whether you are optimizing your company's cash flow? In this course, we will explore how to improve your company's cash flow using analysis and financial theories in the context of real-world situations. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Staff accountants have specific needs when working with Excel – needs that are often not met by their existing Excel knowledge. Chief among these are the needs to quickly summarize data, prepare accurate and aesthetically pleasing reports, and create accounting-centric calculations for elements such as depreciation, amortization, and interest. By participating in this eight-hour session, staff accountants will gain the essential skills they need to maximize their efficiency and accuracy when working with Excel. This session begins with a quick overview of Excel best practices. It then progresses rapidly into discussions that address PivotTables, sophisticated formulas, Tables, formatting, and working with dates in Excel. Throughout the session, you will learn from accounting-centric examples to reinforce key learning points. In this session, you will learn in a “laptop-friendly” environment, and participants will have access to all the demonstration files used in the session. In sum, this seminar is a “must” for all staff accountants seeking to improve their efficiency and accuracy when working with Excel.  

Specifically designed for preparation, compilation, and review practitioners, this course will provide you with a comprehensive review and hands-on application for performing financial statement preparation, compilation, and review engagements. You will learn the ins and outs of applying SSARS No. 21, Clarification and Recodification, as well as the additional guidance related to SSARS engagements through the issuance of SSARS Nos. 22-26 by the ARSC. In addition to SSARS 26, the entire suite of quality management standards is discussed. However, knowing the standards is not enough. You need to be able to effectively apply them. To support this, the course will review recent peer review feedback on SSARS engagements, providing insights on how to successfully apply this guidance. Not only will this course bring you up to date on SSARS requirements and guidance, but more importantly, it will provide you with practical examples and illustrations to help you effectively and efficiently perform these types of engagements. This course is intended to be your go-to reference for training your staff and managing your SSARS No. 21-26 services in compliance with professional, ethical, and technical requirements.

Your company is only as good as your written communication (bold) During this webcast, you'll learn the art and science of writing, and how to write more effectively with increased clarity and stronger effect.

When asked the question, “What would you like to improve about your leadership and communication style?” more than 65% of leaders say they want to be more confident and assertive in their communication. Confidence and clarity communicate leadership. If you are responsible for growing a profitable company or a productive team, you want team members who have the ability to reach goals, make sales, finish projects, and serve customers. Being a confident, compelling leader helps to inspire better relationships, promotes trust, and reduces stress in the workplace. Lack of confidence and assertiveness can lead to resentment, depression, low self-esteem, and loss of respect from colleagues and employers. Confident communication cultivates cooperation, goal achievement, and a more respectful work environment. Clear and compelling leaders are better equipped to move projects forward and make things happen while improving cooperation and respect from partners and subordinates.  

Network forensics - defined as the investigation of network traffic patterns and data captured in transit between computing devices - can provide insight into the source and extent of an attack. It is used in forensic accounting and with the expansion of information technology it has become a growing field. Network forensics is a relatively new field of forensic science. Computing has become network centric. Data is now available outside of disk-based digital evidence. Network forensics can be performed as a standalone investigation or alongside a computer forensics analysis. When used alongside a computer forensic analysis it is used to reveal links between digital devices or reconstruct how a crime was committed. Network investigations deal with volatile and dynamic information and is a sub-branch of digital forensics. It relates to the monitoring and analysis of computer network traffic for information gathering, legal evidence, or intrusion detection. This course is a complement to our other courses in the series on becoming a forensic accountant.  

This is the beginning of a series that will cover major aspects of the Controllership function. Controllers are essential to the day-to-day accounting for organizations. Yet, the role is not often readily understood. In today’s world of acronyms such as CFO, CEO, COO, CAO, etc., the Controller function may get lost in the shuffle. However, they are a critical group of professionals who ensure the adequacy and transparency of accounting and financial reporting information. A Controller is an individual who has responsibility for all accounting-related activities including high-level accounting, managerial counting, and finance activities within a company. The duties of a Controller include assisting with the preparation of the operating budgets, overseeing financial reporting, and performing essential duties relating to payroll. However, in today’s evolving world, the Controller function can provide much more in-depth value to their organizations. This series is dedicated to exploring the traditional Controller role and stepping out of the box to identify areas where the Controller can add strategic value to their organizations. In this first course we focus on the typical Controller function and begin to identify ways to elevate the function.  

This session is the beginning in a series on the new revenue recognition standard. The standard outlines five steps for proper compliance. At the surface, these steps seem simplistic. However, there are many considerations that should be considered within each step based on your process and industry. This course is designed to provide an overview of the technical guidance and outline the five steps involved in the revenue recognition model. We also explore some concepts to consider within each step and then evaluate some challenges that specific industry's may have when complying with the standard. Future courses will further delve into each step and provide example and scenarios that should be considered to properly apply the step.

If you are efficient and want to learn lessons from the best in a short time, this seminar is for you.  Popular speaker Don Minges will review the key lessons from five fantastic business books that will help you become more effective.  The topics are; leadership, how to create a valuable business, how to turnaround a business, how to make terrific presentations and how do humans think?  These lessons are valuable for every business leader. 

Many public accountants desire to have a quick overview of only the most current changes to professional and ethical requirements. This course will provide an executive summary of the major changes in audit and other attest requirements. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

With recent updates to partnership tax regulations, including adjustments to the rules surrounding the allocation of income, deductions, and credits among partners, businesses and individuals must adapt their strategies to remain compliant while maximizing tax efficiency. This session explores the significant changes in partnership taxation and their implications for tax planning, with a focus on "basis shifting," allowing partners to adjust the tax basis in their partnership interests to reduce taxable gains or maximize deductions.  **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.  

What makes a business valuable? Who determines value? What are the key factors that make businesses valuable? In this course, we explore the different ways to value a business. We will apply foundational valuation and corporate finance concepts to real world examples in an effort to see what makes up an investment's price.

With the AICPA's heightened focus on enhancing audit quality, increased oversight of the peer review process and the auditor's overall responsibility to provide high quality services, the focus on compliance with professional standards has never been greater. Add to that the requirement to implement the revised risk assessment standards (SAS 145) and it's easy to see why it's more important than ever to ensure that auditors have a good understanding of the requirements and comply with documentation standards. Recent peer reviews have indicated that auditors are often failing to perform and/or document certain critical components of an audit such as the auditor's assessment of risk and linking the results of the assessment to substantive procedures performed. In addition, auditors are not adequately documenting their consideration of fraud, expectations in analytical procedures and the appropriate level of work needed to understand an entity's internal control. The AICPA issued its Quality Management Standards in 2022. Firms are required to implement the standards by December 15, 2025. And the firm's evaluation of the System of Quality Management is required within one year after that. This is not just a matter of tweaking the firm's existing QM document, the standard requires a risk assessment process to identify risk. The objective of the course is to provide the insights necessary to help auditors and accountants improve not just the quality of their work but also the perception of the accounting profession as a whole. We will focus on the most significant items resulting in deficiencies identified in the peer review process. We will also discuss the applicable audit standards, documentation requirements, and best practices. We will address the new QM standards.

Inventory observations are often a right of passage for audit staff. This course will cover the basics of auditing inventory, including the related audit assertions, risks, & threats to inventory. During this course, we will also highlight the various substantive auditing procedures that staff should perform, and also walk through how to conduct a physical inventory observation. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

It's crazy to try to audit not-for-profits in the same manner that you do for-profits! The sane approach to auditing not-for-profits is to incorporate what makes them unique into the planning and performance of the audit. This course is designed to help you do just that! Obtain a superior working knowledge of auditing not-for-profit entities effectively and efficiently.

Why not learn, or re-learn, some amazing business lessons from the past that are still effective today? What did Henry Ford do when annual employee turnover was 370% and workers demanded more pay? Sound familiar to today’s world? Ford’s solution worked! We see today’s problems and believe that these problems have never occurred before. Not true. We will discuss timeless business lessons that are as practical today as when they were written decades ago. We will review; ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People,’ ‘Today and Tomorrow,’ and ‘The Art of War.’ Let's learn from the very best, as these lessons have been battle-tested and proven over time.

This course offers an in-depth exploration of the "vision" capabilities of ChatGPT specifically tailored for accountants. The session demonstrates how artificial intelligence can interpret and analyze visual content to revolutionize financial management. The curriculum covers a wide range of applications, from understanding GPT Vision and its unique benefits to leveraging aerial and street view imagery for comprehensive financial analysis. Through detailed case studies, participants will learn how to access and utilize GPT Vision effectively, incorporating it into tasks like data visualization, text and object recognition from images, and the use of descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive (DDPP) analysis methods to enhance decision-making processes. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

To make more money in less time, all accountants need to learn to market themselves effectively to their clients or their firm. For better or worse, promotions and more money go to those who are the best marketers, rather than the most competent accountants.  In this fascinating and fun workshop, participants will learn seven key ways to get more clients and/or promotions through the art of marketing.

This business coaching course is designed to enhance your coaching effectiveness by integrating innovative tools like ChatGPT (Generative AI) to support and elevate your coaching practice. You'll explore the key differences and similarities between coaching and managing, uncover the most important skill every coach should master, and learn how to get to the root cause of any problem. With hands-on coaching strategies, including neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) techniques, you'll enhance your ability to drive results. Additionally, you’ll discover how to use performance gap analysis to identify and bridge gaps, ensuring the success and growth of the individuals you coach.