CPE Catalog & Events

The Enhancing Audit Quality Initiative has identified inadequate or nonexistent audit documentation as one of the most significant issues facing the profession today. Over half of the engagements reviewed by the AICPA failed to meet the requirements of AU-C 230, highlighting a critical need for improvement. This course addresses common misconceptions about audit documentation and provides actionable strategies to overcome these deficiencies. Attendees will learn best practices to ensure compliance with professional standards, enhance audit quality, and mitigate risks associated with poor documentation. Whether you are an experienced professional or new to auditing, this course will help you strengthen your documentation practices and uphold the highest standards of the profession.  

In today's world, AI hype bombards us from every direction. Every system seems to boast magical AI capabilities, leading to confusion and overwhelming information. This course cuts through the noise to reveal the true, practical applications of AI for your business today. Our goal is to give you real world examples of using AI on a day-to-day basis, with a clear understanding of its particular strengths and limitations.

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.

Please join us for an introductory course in international cross border transactions.    We will discuss typical situations in which a cross-border transaction arises, and how a taxpayer can utilize the rules to potentially decrease an entities effective tax rate.  Other issues, such as documentation and IRS audit risk will also be covered.  These rules will be illustrated by a hypothetical US- Canada transaction.    **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.  

The IRS believes, perhaps with some justification, that many workers classified as independent contractors are actually employees and should be treated as such for tax purposes. The result is that worker classification audits are frequent and often costly for business clients, both in terms of time as well as money expended. This program prepares tax practitioners to assist their clients with worker classification audits, and to avoid them if possible, by discussing and explaining the circumstances under which workers will most likely be characterized as employees or as independent contractors. The program also deals with the first line of defense against the IRS in worker classification audits - Section 530, as well as the common law factors distinguishing an employee from an independent contractor. This program also explores the IRS Voluntary Classification Settlement Program and discusses whether a practitioner should advise a client to request admission into this program.

Budget methods are the key to allowing department managers to efficiently prepare their budget in Excel. For example, a budget method may be to spread prior year actuals or match prior year actuals, or match prior year actuals less 10%. In this webinar, we will explore how to allow users to pick a budget method from a drop-down list for each account and then have Excel perform different calculations depending on the budget method selected. We use several features and functions at the same time to pull this off. Even if you are not involved in the budgeting process, the underlying features and functions discussed have a wide range of uses.

Even though they have been around for several years, the tax laws pertaining to S corporations remain some of the more difficult areas of the Internal Revenue Code. Given the rising popularity of S corporations, understanding how shareholder basis and the equity section of the balance sheet work together for tax purposes is imperative for nearly any tax practitioner. In this course, we will discuss this relationship. Using examples and illustrations, we will show how contributions, operating transactions, and distributions affect shareholder basis as well as equity.

This course will focus on preparing financial statement audit documentation critical for high quality audits that can pass peer review.

This comprehensive training is designed to get the accountant up to speed quickly with partnership and limited liability company (LLC) formation and preparation issues as well as a complete understanding of calculating a partner and LLC member’s basis. The cornerstone of this course is the in-depth line-by-line analysis of the Form 1065 Schedule K and K-1 and how these items affect the partner/member’s individual income tax return. **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

Enter the complex world of elder planning with this comprehensive course tailored for financial professionals. Gain invaluable insights into estate and financial strategies designed specifically for older clients, equipping you with the knowledge and skills to address their unique needs and challenges. Throughout the course, participants will explore a wide range of topics, from understanding the complexities of Medicare and various life insurance types to navigating Social Security considerations and exploring Medicaid planning details. With a focus on practical application, attendees will learn to customize estate planning strategies, explore housing and care alternatives, and address gifting complexities relevant to older clients. By the end of the program, you'll develop expertise in executing specialized planning requirements for mature clients, ensuring you're well-prepared to provide informed counsel and support in this important aspect of financial practice. Join us and enhance your knowledge in estate and financial planning for the older client today. *Please Note:  If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Handouts Tab and submit to kori.herrera@acpen.com

This course goes beyond the basics and addresses important practical issues that an experienced practitioner must know. Even if you have attended other S corporation courses, you will learn something new in this course.

Transformation of business models As a business partner, the finance function is expanding beyond cash flow and investment decision-making. The role of finance is shifting to leading enterprise-wide transformation for value creation. This shift from business partnering to value partnering requires CFOs and their finance teams to engage with their business and enable the transformation of their business models. Success in this new value partnering ecosystem will require new leadership styles to engage, empower and upskill a diverse workforce in a workplace that will most likely continue to evolve. Leadership and development are critical to the emotional intelligence skills necessary to build relationships within the finance function and across the organization. It will also require a mindset of continuous improvement as the finance function becomes critical to ongoing digital transformation, and the role of AI becomes more prevalent. This session is a rebroadcast from the 2024 AICPA & CIMA ENGAGE conference.

This session provides insights for enhancing the preparation and utilization of budgets. Seasoned accountants will benefit from a refreshed awareness of popular techniques.  Budding financial professionals will obtain novel insight regarding fundamental budgeting concepts. All participants will develop an appreciation for the holistic nature of budgeting as an integral tool for planning and control. 

This course corresponds to our Controllership series. This course is dedicated to exploring the traditional controller role and stepping out of the box to identify areas where the controller can continue to add strategic value to their organizations. Within this segment of our controllership series, we discuss the area of cash and investments and explore how the controller can move these responsibilities into more of a strategic role. In today’s world, the role of cash management is often a pivotal role in the organization. In economically difficult times, controllers may find that they spend a great deal of their time on understanding and managing the organizations' cash position. This is certainly important and, in some areas, can be seen as a staple of the lifeblood of the organization’s ongoing viability. This course takes a look at some of the typical objectives involved in Cash management and then evaluates how those objectives can be further stretched into strategic pillars of the organization.   

Loans, rental agreements, business combinations - what do these all have in common? They all have the potential of creating a related party transaction. This program presents a detailed analysis of the financial accounting rules for transactions with related parties, as well as compares and contrasts those rules with the AICPA financial reporting framework for small and medium-sized entities. This course does not qualify for IRS credit.

Client Accounting Services (CAS) have become a cornerstone of modern CPA firms, offering opportunities for enhanced client relationships, recurring revenue streams, and streamlined operations. This course provides accounting professionals with practical guidance on implementing and optimizing CAS within their firms. Participants will explore the foundational elements of CAS, including service offerings, pricing models, and client communication strategies. The course delves into the technology tools essential for CAS, including accounting software, workflow automation, and reporting platforms. It offers insights into best practices for managing client expectations and delivering consistent, high-value services. In addition, participants will examine case studies of successful CAS implementations, review current trends impacting CAS, and identify critical steps to build a scalable CAS practice that aligns with their firm's goals. The course also addresses the importance of data security, governance, and compliance in providing CAS to ensure ethical and professional service delivery.

Most leadership development focuses on a single direction within the organizational hierarchy: downstream to subordinates. While it is important to be a good boss, leadership is much more than that. The best leaders learn to lead well in all directions. They lead upward to superiors and across among peers throughout the organization. And it all starts with self-leadership. This often overlooked or misunderstood leadership principle is essential to build a thriving and productive culture. This topic is based on Jon’s book, Mission-Critical Leadership: How Smart Managers Lead Well in All Directions. 

Many clients end up selling one or more residences during their lifetimes. Tax practitioners must be aware of the tax rules that relate to such sales in order to assist their clients regarding these sales. This program provides general tax practitioners with the tax rules they need to know to help their clients when they sell a personal residence. This program is a comprehensive survey of the various tax issues associated with the sale of a residence.

Not-for-profit organizations always need volunteers as treasurers or members of the financial oversight committee! CPAs are often asked to fulfill these roles. This course highlights the financial accounting needs of such organizations. Along with covering the status of the not-for-profit organizations, an update on recent ASC updates affecting nonprofit entities is covered. This course is geared toward hands-on, or future hands-on, treasurers of service clubs and similar not-for-profit organizations.

Taxation of partnerships continues to become more complex every year. This course highlights the significant areas of concern for tax advisors and their clients in compliance and planning for partnership operations, distributions and transactions. Topics covered include unique and targeted allocations, proper calculation of outside and inside tax basis, tax consequences of distributions, the impact of ?hot assets? on distributions, transfer of partnership interests, and issuance of partnership interests to service partners. This course will also help you add immediate value to your partnership clients by correctly calculating and reporting critical partnership tax items that generate most IRS audit adjustments.