CPE Catalog & Events

This course provides an overview of audit planning considerations.

Exit planning isn't just a service—it's a strategy. This session gives financial advisers a clear framework for helping business owners prepare for what's next, from assessing readiness to building the right advisory team. You'll learn how to start meaningful conversations with clients, identify risks that can derail a deal, and collaborate effectively with other professionals for a smooth exit. Whether you're adding exit planning to your practice or refining your approach, this course will help you deliver real value during one of the most critical phases of a client's business journey. You'll learn how to: Spot the signs of owner and business readiness Address key risks like the "5 D's" (death, disability, divorce, disagreement, distress) Build and lead a trusted team of exit planning advisors Follow a structured process that supports both the client and your practice For advisers ready to lead clients confidently through the exit planning process—and stand out doing it. This session was recorded on April 17, 2025 for CalCPA's Practice Management Bootcamp conference.

Excel is a popular tool for data analysis. Yet, most users have never learned how to tap into Excel's capabilities. This session will teach you the importance of PivotTables for analyzing data and demonstrate how PivotTables can make data analysis an easy task for all accountants. You'll learn the step-by-step process to create PivotTables and PivotCharts and all the setup options and features. We use Excel 2019/Office 365 during the presentation, but most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Power BI — Bringing It All Together for Data Analysis is an advanced course for professionals ready to integrate and optimize their use of Power Pivot and Power BI. Building on foundational skills, this session guides you beyond creating models and measures to fully harness these tools for uncovering insights and building impactful visualizations. You'll learn to streamline workflows, optimize model performance, and leverage advanced Power BI Service features to create solutions that go beyond basic reporting. By the end, you'll be equipped to synthesize your Power BI skills into powerful, audience-ready analytics. From presenting to stakeholders and sharing insights across teams to managing enterprise-level reporting, this course helps you bring every piece together into a comprehensive, efficient workflow tailored to real-world business needs.

Most accountants use Excel to help them make decisions about their data. However, as the amount of data grows, this becomes much more difficult. In this course, you'll learn how to build robust dashboards for analyzing key metrics in Excel. We'll begin with some dashboard design guidelines, such as understanding your audience and identifying necessary metrics. Then, we'll work through creating key performance indicators (KPIs) for the dashboards. You'll learn how you can add charts and eye-catching visuals to make your dashboards easily understood. This course focuses on using standard Excel features to create visuals. Although we will introduce new tools like Power BI Desktop, this course is NOT about using Power BI to create visuals. We use Excel 2019 during the presentation, but most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

This course focuses on using the Power Pivot features to enhance data analysis. We will review the four components of Power Pivot (data model, calculations, hierarchies and KPIs), and you will learn how you can use each of these features. You'll spend most of the time building the data model and using calculations. You will learn how to add data to your data model either directly into Power Pivot or from Power Query. We will discuss the benefits of the data model relationships versus using the VLOOKUP function to access data in different tables. One of the strengths of Power Pivot is the formula language called DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions). We will introduce DAX so that you can use basic DAX formulas to build various calculations in the data model. As we build these different calculations into our data model, you will learn the difference between calculated columns and measures. We use Excel 2019/Office365 during the presentation, but most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Excel is a popular data analysis tool, yet most users have never learned the basics of data analysis using Excel or the tools that Excel offers to help with data analysis. Those that learned to analyze data using PivotTables, soon learned there were many weaknesses in PivotTables that resulted in elaborate calculations in order to perform simple tasks. In 2010, after much development and little hype, Microsoft released Power Pivot, a new data analytic tool that removed the weaknesses of PivotTables. This single product took Excel from a low-end data analytic tool to one of the most sophisticated and comprehensive tools. Since 2010, Microsoft has continued their development of end-user data analytic tools. This entire suite of products is called Power BI. In this course, we will provide an overview of the various Power BI tools and discuss Microsoft's Power BI Strategy. We will begin by explaining the challenges faced by many accountants when it comes to analyzing data in Excel. You will learn how each Power BI tool reduces the challenges and improves your data analytic skills. You will also gain a complete understanding of when to use which tool. This session is an overview of the various Microsoft Power BI tools and should be your first step in learning the complete set of Power BI tools. As an overview, we will not be teaching the details of each tool but you will receive a thorough understanding of what each tool can accomplish. This course is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

This course extends the Power BI series of courses that explore using OLAP (Online Analytical Processing ) formulas and advanced time intelligent functions. OLAP formulas can create a calculation in a cell that is based upon the measure in the data model. This powerful tool allows making calculations in an Excel worksheet without using a PivotTable to perform the analysis. Gone are the days of creating a PivotTable, then using those values in the PivotTable for additional calculations. When using Power BI to build a data model that connects to data files, you may want to know the date of these files. This class teaches you how to create a measure based on the refresh date of your data. In the class "Power BI—Use Advanced Calculations with DAX Formulas," you learned the basics of time intelligent functions, and the ability to calculate measures based upon dates. In THIS course, we will take it to the next step and teach you how to perform many more date-based calculations. This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version, you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

This course focuses on using DAX (Data Analysis eXpressions) to create advanced Power Pivot data model calculations. We will review what you learned in "Power BI - Go Beyond PivotTables with Power Pivot" and take your calculations to the next level using advanced DAX formulas. You will learn over 20 DAX functions that allow you to perform calculations that were not possible with standard Excel. We will also review the use of a date or calendar table that will enable us to perform date analysis that was never possible before. This will allow us to use the new time-intelligent functions to perform complex calculations on our data like month-to-date, quarter-to-date, year-to-date, last year, same period, last year-to-date, etc. You will also learn the DAX calculation process to proof and validate your calculations. We will be using Power Pivot to create our DAX calculations. However, the process is very similar in Power BI Desktop and the functions and formulas are identical. If you are using Power BI Desktop, you should be able to follow along and learn how to create advanced calculations. This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version, you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Power BI Desktop is a new stand-alone tool that adds visualization to your data. This course focus on learning the Power BI Desktop interface, connecting to data sources, and creating the visualizations. We will demonstrate the creation of each of the various visualizations and the various options related to each. We will also show how the visualization can be connected to provide fully interactive reports with drill-down capabilities. This class does not require any Excel knowledge, but understanding Power Pivot and Power Query can reduce your learning curve. This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version, you are using, most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

Data can be messy! Data can come from text files, Excel spreadsheets, databases, report files, etc., which means it's not always clean and neat. Most data analysis projects fail due to the inability to get the correct data. This class focuses on using Power Query (Get and Transform) to clean, shape and transform your messy data while allowing you a one-click refresh. We will review various data issues, including appending files, combining multiple files from a folder, adding custom columns, unpivoting data, creating a lookup table, and much more. We use Excel 2019 during the presentation, but most concepts covered in this course apply to all versions of Excel.

This course covers many useful financial negotiation tips, illustrated by real-life examples that will get you thinking. Participants will wo rk through mini-cases, to apply principles and increase their financial and business creativity, and help their organization to be financially successful in negotiations.  This is different from and complements tactical/strategic negotiation seminars, by being more financial-oriented, with lots of specific examples. It is partly about how to persuade, but also about creating different financial options that would be attractive to other party.  The tips provided are also useful for internal negotiations and for non-accountants.

This downloadable PDF course offers more than 100 practical, insightful, and sometimes unconventional tips for accountants in financial leadership roles. Designed for controllers and CFOs, the content goes beyond technical rules and dives into the real-world challenges professionals face every day — from boardroom dynamics and ethical gray areas to team leadership and reporting strategy. Whether you're navigating organizational politics, benchmarking your finance team, defending a close process, or preparing for a career transition, this course offers both wisdom and practicality. You'll also find opportunities to benchmark your own practices against industry norms and peer organizations, helping you lead with greater confidence and clarity.

This on-demand self-study course addresses practical tips to help you, your clients and your organization to get through and manage a cash crisis. It is based upon the popular live webcast "Practical Tips to Get Through a Cash Crisis," originally broadcast in May 2020. During the course, you will receive practical advice and ideas to help manage issues brought on by the pandemic.

You can learn to deliver high-quality PC&R engagements consistently and accurately and explore the latest regulatory developments through this comprehensive online learning program.

Participants will go over the changes on preparation, compilation and review engagements using SSARS rules, followed by a general overview of how to perform these services. Participants will explore how to effectively perform these services through comprehensive lectures. Designed for practitioners in small and medium-sized CPA firms, the course includes detailed explanations and practical examples, with opportunities to deepen understanding through real-world case studies. This on-demand format allows you to retain a focus on practical application to enhance your skills and knowledge.

Your client just informed you of their terminal illness. What do you do from a tax, financial, insurance, investment, retirement, and estate planning point of view? Decisions you make before death lay the groundwork for planning choices after death. Randy Gardner discusses the strategies that will prepare you for the best post-mortem outcomes and help you put your client's mind at ease.

This course is designed to help any professional to learn how to deliver presentations that have an impact. Learn how to create useful slides, prepare your presentation, manage your nerves, set up the room and handle questions and answers. This webcast was originally broadcast on August 3, 2015. Note: There is a minimum passing rate of 70% for this course.

Simplifying financial reporting without compromising quality is the mission of the Private Company Council (PCC). By advocating for the needs of private companies, the PCC reduces unnecessary complexity, making financial reporting more efficient and accessible for stakeholders like lenders, creditors, and owners. In this must-watch segment, we're joined by two industry leaders, Jere Shawver — Chair of the PCC and CEO at Baker Tilly, LLP, and Phil Marciano — Partner at Citrin Cooperman. Jere and Phil offer valuable insights into how the PCC is reshaping financial standards and streamlining processes to benefit businesses and financial users alike.

The growing interest in private equity in accounting reflects a shift towards new growth opportunities, strategic investments, and competitive positioning within the industry. Allan Kotlin, CEO of Kotlin Consulting Group, addresses the growing role of private equity in the accounting industry and explores challenges in mergers and acquisitions, including the importance of cultural fit and leadership decisions. This includes discussion of how private equity affects profitability as well as strategies for staying competitive, such as mergers, private equity rollups, and partnering with big firms. He also covers how generational conflicts and changes in compensation impact younger partners.