CPE Catalog & Events

Risk-based factors are becoming exponentially important considerations for accountants in both public practice and industry. We examine the nature of risks for today's enterprises while exploring the role of internal controls for mitigating business risks. We also explore SAS 145 and other guidance aimed at risk considerations for professional engagements. Public and private accountants will enhance their capabilities for assessing and addressing risks faced by today's organizations. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Form 1041 is considered a complicated return by many practitioners, and the complexities have increased with recent legislation. This stems from the fact that there is terminology specific only to fiduciary entities, special accounting rules that fall somewhere between book and tax, and odd calculations such as "distributable net income" and "deductible DNI.— In this series of webcasts and through a series of schematics and spreadsheets, some of the mystery will be removed from the workings of fiduciary taxation and be replaced with an understanding of the structure and consistency that underlies this interesting little entity that has been around since the Crusades and has a long history of use and effectiveness. Be sure to register for all courses in this series: Fiduciary Taxation Part 1: Introduction to Form 1041 Fiduciary Taxation Part 2: Fiduciary Accounting & Simple Trusts Fiduciary Taxation Part 3: Complex Trusts & Charitable Deduction Fiduciary Taxation Part 4: Miscellaneous Topics & AMT

Microsoft Teams is designed to be the foundation of your Microsoft 365 ecosystem deployment. When deployed effectively, Teams can serve as a powerful platform for communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing across your firm or business. Unfortunately, most organizations are substantially underutilizing the capabilities of Teams. This course provides a review and demonstration of the key features of Microsoft Teams that you can harness to optimize the return on your Microsoft 365 investment. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This 6-hour program covers recent promulgations of the FASB and AICPA with broad applicability. In addition, the course includes the 2-hour Tax Basis Financial Statements, and 2-hour SSARS Highlight Reel, programs available as stand-alone courses.

Pass-throughs (S corporations and Partnerships) are the most popular choice of newly formed business entities. However, for years, taxpayers and their preparers have struggled to calculate, update, and maintain the pass-through entity owners" tax basis information in each investment correctly. Calculating and accounting for tax basis and adequately reporting the impact of operating and liquidating distributions for these entities are among the most frequently cited audit deficiencies. Taxpayers have also misapplied the tax rules when calculating the gain or loss from the sale of the interest. Recently, the IRS initiated enforcement initiatives designed to audit owners of pass-through entities regarding their calculations of tax basis and their tax treatment of distributions. This course will teach you how to properly account for both items for your clients who own an interest in a partnership or an S-corporation. Learn to identify the most common mistakes and errors and report these items correctly before your client is audited.

Any corporation or individual can be vulnerable to scams and hoaxes. Learn how to break down the deception into the psychology of the con. We'll review best practices to avoid embezzlement and fraud and case studies of embezzlement, including payroll scams, fraudulent payees, skimming and new technology scams. Fraud can also arise when companies downsize and technology goes missing because there aren't enough gatekeepers on watch. Learn about opportunistic vulnerabilities that stem from having few employees/contractors and using free software.

In today's challenging talent market, accounting firms face unprecedented pressure to retain their best performers. This course provides actionable, research-backed strategies to help firms keep their top talent from leaving. Based on comprehensive surveys of both current accounting professionals and those who have recently left the profession, participants will learn the real reasons employees stay or go-and what firms can do about it. The course goes beyond simple solutions like "pay more, expect less" to explore comprehensive retention strategies including whole-person compensation, work-life balance improvements, career development pathways, and necessary business model transformations. Participants will discover why 73% of surveyed professionals want to stay with their current firm, yet many still leave-and how to bridge that gap. Key topics include understanding the true cost of turnover versus retention, implementing flexible work arrangements that actually work, creating meaningful career paths for non-partner track professionals, and transforming firm operations to support both profitability and employee satisfaction. Special attention is given to retaining diverse talent and adapting to the expectations of younger professionals who will comprise 27% of the workforce by 2025. Whether you're a firm leader, HR professional, or manager responsible for team retention, this course provides the insights and tools needed to build a sustainable talent strategy in an evolving profession. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Penalty abatement is a technique that tax practitioners can utilize to help their clients reduce penalties and interest they owe to the IRS if the taxpayer can prove "reasonable cause". This informative and insightful webinar will provide you with some insider tips, practical steps and effective strategies to help your client manage IRS tax penalties and interest. Learn about various types of penalties that you may face, and the various forms and procedures used for requesting penalty and interest abatement, including First Time and Reasonable Cause abatement. Plus, learn about the procedure to follow when requesting refund of paid penalties. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This year practitioners need to keep abreast of tax changes affecting pass-through entities used by their business clients and employers, and this enlightening course delivers that information. You will learn invaluable strategies, techniques, innovative tax-planning concepts, income-generating ideas, and other planning opportunities available to S corporations, partnerships, LLCs, and LLPs. In addition, this course will discuss current trends and emerging issues, helping practitioners stay informed about relevant and significant topics that may impact their clients. Continually updated to reflect enacted legislation.

This course empowers accountants with the knowledge and skills needed to strategically implement generative AI within their firms, positioning them at the forefront of innovation and operational efficiency. As generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini transform business practices, accountants will learn to harness these tools to drive value, streamline processes, and enhance decision-making. Through examination of the current AI landscape, practical frameworks, and real-world applications, participants will learn how to leverage AI technologies to enhance accounting operations while maintaining professional standards and ethical considerations. The course emphasizes a balanced approach to AI adoption that focuses on augmenting human capabilities rather than replacement. 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 investigates actual real-world fraud schemes and discusses what controls could have prevented the fraud from occurring, and what controls could detect and curtail the fraud scheme. The instructor speaks from experience, finding multiple frauds very early in her career leading to a career-long focus on fraud prevention and detection. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Stay current on key developments affecting governmental audits with this focused update on the 2024 revision of the Yellow Book. This course highlights significant changes related to quality management and updates affecting key audit roles, with an emphasis on how these revisions impact audit planning and execution. The course also addresses the GAO's implementation delay and its implications for 2026 audit planning. Participants will gain context around recent leadership changes at the U.S. Government Accountability Office and what those transitions may signal for future guidance and oversight priorities. In addition, the course includes an overview of recent updates to the Green Book, helping auditors understand changes to internal control guidance that may affect governmental entities and Single Audit engagements. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

In part 2 of this four-part series, we'll focus on the concept of fiduciary accounting and its relationship to fiduciary taxation. It also addresses the identification of a "simple trust" for purposes of taxation. Problem examples will cover both the calculation of fiduciary accounting and the taxation of simple trusts through the use of an Excel spreadsheet that translates to a completed Form 1041. Be sure to register for all courses in this series: Fiduciary Taxation Part 1: Introduction to Form 1041 Fiduciary Taxation Part 2: Fiduciary Accounting & Simple Trusts Fiduciary Taxation Part 3: Complex Trusts & Charitable Deduction Fiduciary Taxation Part 4: Miscellaneous Topics & AMT

Many business owner clients wish to minimize their Social Security and self-employment tax liabilities. This course provides accounting and finance professionals with the background to understand what kinds of income constitute self-employment income and earned income. It covers strategies that can be used to reduce clients' exposure to the self-employment tax and Social Security tax.

Many partnerships and S corporations are now required to complete the voluminous Schedules K-2 and K-3 to report foreign-related tax information. Updated for the 2024 tax year, this course is an essential guide for tax preparers on how to identify which entities need to complete these schedules and how to identify which parts are applicable to a given taxpayer. The filing requirements are broad and often not very intuitive, catching many practitioners unaware that more schedules and parts are applicable to more taxpayers than anticipated. This course includes a deep dive into the domestic filing exception, a discussion of filing requirements of each part of Schedule K-2, and numerous examples of common taxpayer scenarios. Please note: Surgent also offers a companion course, "Schedules K-2 and K-3: Preparation of Forms" (KPF2).

Be the go-to person on financial statement compilation and preparation engagements. Specifically designed for those performing preparation and compilation engagements, this course will provide you with a hands-on application for performing preparation and compilation engagements under AR-C Section 70 and 80, respectively. You will learn the ins and outs of relevant sections of the SSARS related to preparation and compilation engagements with a focus on how recently issued updates to SSARS No. 21 impact these engagements. More importantly, you will be provided practical examples and illustrations to help you effectively and efficiently perform those engagements, including a detailed discussion of the reporting requirements under AR-C 80 related to compilation engagement. Lastly, the course will review recent peer review feedback on these types of engagements, highlighting areas where you can improve engagement quality.

Technology has created numerous ways for us to communicate with each other - but it's also increased the number of ways in which the message can get garbled. Effective communications skills are crucial to successful management. Learn how to control your message with clear communications strategies. You'll learn to recognize communication barriers, assess styles and behaviors, and learn how to listen more effectively as well.

Fraud continues to make headlines, underscoring the importance of understanding how fraud occurs, how it can be prevented, and how auditors are expected to respond. This course begins with an overview of common fraud schemes identified in the 2026 Report to the Nations issued by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, along with key characteristics commonly observed among fraud perpetrators. The course then explores practical approaches organizations use to prevent and deter fraud, highlighting controls, policies, and cultural factors that can reduce fraud risk. Participants will also review recent fraud cases reported in the news to reinforce how these schemes manifest in real-world settings. The course concludes with a discussion of the auditor's responsibilities related to fraud under AU-C 240, including an overview of proposed changes to the fraud standards and what they may mean for future audit engagements. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

*** CPE SAVINGS CODES DO NOT APPLY TO STAFF TRAININGS ***This course introduces how data analytics can be used to improve engagement quality and efficiency. Participants explore the use of data analytics to assess risk, support financial statement assertions, assess internal controls and uncover fraud. Apply the ADA IDEAS© approach to using data analytics on engagements to ensure compliance with audit and review standards and to provide value-added services to clients. All of AHI's multi-day courses rely on live participant engagement. For this 2-hr. course, we encourage you to have a working webcam and microphone to take advantage of a live discussion leader and participant interaction.

Specifically designed for preparation, compilation, and review practitioners, this course provides 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 additional guidance related to SSARS engagements through the issuance of SSARS Nos. 22-27 by the AICPA's Accounting and Review Services Committee (ARSC). The course also reviews 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 SSARSs requirements and guidance, but more importantly, it will provide you with practical examples and illustrations to help you effectively and efficiently perform compilation, preparation, and review engagements.