CPE Catalog & Events

Whether you asked for it (or not) and its here!  The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed on July 4.  This program will dig into the meat of the Act that will matter to your clients, including No Tax on Tips, No Tax on Overtime, increased Section 199A Deduction, 100% Section 168(k) Bonus and much, much more! *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  

The course provides a concise overview of how accountants can use ChatGPT to assist with communications involving intricate and often sensitive topics that require a deep understanding of both financial principles and human resource policies. These conversations can range from budgeting and compensation to ethical considerations and regulatory compliance. The course also explores the use of ChatGPT in crafting clear, accurate, and empathetic responses to complex queries related to financial audits, tax planning, and employee benefits. It emphasizes the importance of balancing technical financial knowledge with effective communication skills to address diverse stakeholders' needs in various scenarios, from internal team discussions to client consultations. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Various legal tests are used to evaluate whether a worker should be classified as an employee or an independent contractor. There is no uniform standard or bright-line rule for determining whether an individual is properly classified as an independent contractor. Instead, the inquiry is always fact-intensive, and the analysis can vary based what body is performing it, i.e. the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), Department of Labor (“DOL”), various state agencies, or the courts. This presentation will review the various tests and highlight some of the common, most important factors for consideration.   

Many accountants desire to have a quick overview of only the most current issues in accounting and financial reporting. This course will provide an executive summary of the most important changes in U.S. GAAP. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Sometimes the vernacular of accounting seems more challenging than technical aspects. This session offers suggestions for translating the foreign language of taxation into tangible terms for non-accountants. We explore techniques for simplifying the complexity of taxation terminology. This course will equip you with tools for demystifying tax technicalities so you can help clients and other non-tax professionals grasp fundamental concepts. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This is a two-part series that discuss new trends and concepts the financial controller should begin to execute in order to truly become a valued member of the senior leadership team. The rapid pace of the evolving technological landscape has promoted changes in how accountants and financial professionals focus attention on strategy and modernize their roles to leverage digital technology. There is increased demand for enhancing flexibility into finance cycles and initiating real-time reporting and insights. These are the core attributes that will assist in transforming the work that controllership function performs. Is the financial controllership prepared to meet future business demands? The IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) and Deloitte’s Center for Controllership aimed to better understand the current state of controllership and expectations of future demands for controllers and accounting professionals. They conducted a survey in late 2022 and identified several trends. The survey takes a look at how prepared controllership is to meet future business demands. It also highlights some insights for leaders to consider that may increase their preparedness. It also identified areas of additional insight and questions to answer on the controllership transformation journey. In this segment, we will go through numerous concepts in detail.  

Sampling is often identified as a common audit deficiency in peer review. This course will review when is sampling applicable and basics of planning a sample. We'll then focus on the application of sampling in financial statement audits with a look at sampling for substantive procedures. We'll look at the use of monetary unit sampling and tools that can be leveraged to reduce bias in sampling.

When performing a financial statement audit, auditors have always been responsible for the detection of anything that would cause a material misstatement of the financial statements whether caused by error of fraud.  However, in the past the audit profession focused on material misstatements due to errors and more or less ignored the possibility of misstatements due to fraud.  Now, SAS No. 122, AU 240 requires significant documentation as to what the auditor did in order to determine if there any material risk of a misstatement of the financial statements.  This presentation is an overview of what the auditor is to document in there working papers on every financial audit as to the procedures they performed in order to determine the risk of a material misstatement.  If a material risk is discovered, they are then required to document what they did in order to determine if the financial statements were misstated.

In this webinar, accountants will discover how to double their firm's revenue through CFO and advisory services. Many accounting firm owners are stuck in what we call The Accountant's Trap. It's where the firm owner is trapped working for low fees, dealing with high-demanding clients, all the while being burnt out on compliance and transactional work. To make matters worse, these firm owners can't raise their fees because there is always another accountant or bookkeeper willing to do the work for less -- not to mention all the tech companies trying to get into our space. Does this sound familiar? If so, this webinar is for you. This course is for any practice owner looking to transform their practice - and double their revenue - by offering a productized CFO/Advisory service. We'll cover the systems you need to transform your practice and the services you should offer to double your firm's revenue. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Do you understand the root cause for many professional and personal goals not being achieved? The SMART acronym is valuable in setting goals but insufficient for achieving them. You need two types of goals to boost your chances of success. Outcome goals focus on the results you want to attain. Process goals identify the action steps required to accomplish those desired outcomes. This session explores the essence of both types of goals, and practical examples and tips for the execution of your goals.

Increasingly, accountants and auditors are called upon to use data analytics to understand and improve results. Yet, many professionals struggle with the concept of data analytics and remain unaware of how to obtain the results needed using tools they already own. In this session, you will learn about the four primary types of data analytics and when to use each. Further, you will learn how to generate meaningful analytical measurements using Excel, Power BI, and other tools and, more importantly, how to interpret the results. If you seek to use data analytics – and who isn’t – this session is for you.

This course focuses on the most common aspects and tax implications of Limited Liability Companies and S Corporations. It will further compare forms of entities, along with corporate formalities compliance issues of each entity type. Electing Subchapter S status as well as reviewing the mechanics of electing Subchapter S status will be discussed. Highlights of entity specific tax forms will be discussed, as well as accountable plans, taxable fringe benefits, officer reasonable compensation, estate planning, business continuation planning and audit strategies. Schedules K-1, K-2, K-3, and effectively connected income will be reviewed in this course as well. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

FASB ASC 842, *Leases*, standards decoded By learning essential information about lease accounting requirements, you'll understand the core principles of the standards and how to apply them. You'll explore topics, such as: Identification Recognition Measurement Presentation and disclosure requirements Deliberate application of lessee accounting model You'll also learn about classifying leases, the amortization of the right-of-use asset, and the interest on a lease liability. Additional topics include: Short-term leases Purchase options Variable lease payments Sale and leaseback transactions Leveraged leases

If you use Outlook on a daily basis to process your email, chances are pretty good that you are missing out on a lot of opportunities to improve your efficiency in composing, processing and organizing your messages. There are many different features in Outlook that often get overlooked, even though we are working in the app all day, every day. John Higgins, a strategic advisor to the profession on Microsoft 365 deployment, will review numerous tips and features to improve your productivity in Outlook. You will learn many time-saving, practical ways to improve the quality of your email message. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Many leaders in business organizations of all sizes view the system of Internal Control almost purely as a protective security measure. A well-designed internal control system can and will drive all entity objectives which includes successful operations. This session uses information gathered from years of creating internal control systems as well as concepts from well-respected authoritative pronouncements and frameworks to illustrate the power of a strong and well supported control system as well as actions that can help establish such a system. Those that work with internal controls who are tasked with developing ways to improve operation level capabilities should strongly consider this session. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Award winning discussion leader Mark Hugh discusses how to create and capture value with consulting services. Whether you want to consult a little or full time, this valuable course reviews identifying a specialty, growing a practice, capturing value, creating deliverables, and effective marketplace marketing strategies.  

Have you ever found yourself wondering why people won't just listen to you? Or maybe you have found yourself surrounded by people that make your jaw clench...you know the people...the challenging people.  HR Professionals walk a tight rope of being strong, but not aggressive, polite, but not a push over. It is exhausting! In this session, you will uncover the secrets to working with (and overcoming) challenging people derived from the decades of experience Summer brings from her time on the frontlines and as an HR Professional working with companies such as Walt Disney World, H-E-B and even a dude ranch.  

Most productivity planners could have been made in 1975. However, we have learned more about the brain in the last 5 years than in the last 500!  If productivity involves filtering out distractions, focusing, and executing on what is most important, shouldn’t there be a brain-based approach that incorporates the new science to help your organization fight distractions and find time?  Yes, there should be, and now there is!  It is time for a new productivity for the new world. In this course, you will learn science-based whole brain approach to help people across your organization boost focus, energy, and motivation toward what matters most so they can increase their opportunity to achieve your organizations most important goals.

The Secure Act 2.0 was passed in a flurry of year-end legislation. This one hour program will cover the important changes that individuals need to know about contributions to accounts and new ways of accessing these funds.  This course will provide a concise look at these hot topics.   **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.

This course is a continuation of our series on preparing to become a forensic accountant. Within this segment we focus on elements of computer forensics. This session is designed to delve into further investigative procedures used in computer forensics.