CPE Catalog & Events

Business intelligence efforts continue to grow, and Microsoft's Power BI platform is central to many of these efforts. Participate in this session to learn more about business intelligence and how to create dashboards using Power BI.

This course will explore some of the most essential tools for measuring financial and operational success, as well as improving results. Appendices will be provided to give students hands-on applicable materials that can be utilized after completion of the course.

Recent economic volatility has created added stress on accounting and finance professionals and their clients. When individuals or businesses lose money, they often blame others for their misfortune. Business disputes can sometimes lead to accounting malpractice claims. Understanding the most common types of accounting malpractice claims provides a roadmap of what not to do. This course provides a current overview of accounting malpractice litigation throughout the United States. The goal is to learn about the types of claims asserted against CPA firms and strategies to employ to avoid such claims. Reviewing malpractice claims allows us to identify patterns of behavior that may reduce litigation risk.

Is teamwork the ultimate competitive advantage" Every manager's primary purpose is to lead a team. This seminar will help you get every member of your team on the same page, improve performance and realize the potential of the talent you have.

Business intelligence efforts continue to grow, and Microsoft's Power BI platform is central to many of these efforts. Participate in this session to learn more about business intelligence and how to create dashboards using Power BI.

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.

Many of our clients are moving to one of the seven states with no personal income tax, particularly Florida and Texas. Others may maintain multiple homes with an eye toward eventually establishing residency in a state with no income tax. This course will give you practical tips for your clients seeking to establish residency in a new jurisdiction. Cash-strapped states are increasingly attempting to assess taxpayers who have declared domicile and residency elsewhere, for example in Florida, to maintain their diminishing tax base. Arm your clients with the tools needed to save money by successfully establishing domicile and residency. As a practitioner, you can't afford to be unaware of the latest issues affecting so many relocating baby boomers and others. Avoid that state audit with the information provided in this entertaining webinar.

Positive client relationships require work. Miscommunication, unrealistic expectations, and differing personality styles may strain a client's relationship with professional advisors. Fortunately, there are tested strategies that foster and strengthen client relationships. Creating appropriate boundaries early on is one of many effective strategies that can help. This course explores actions accounting and finance professionals can take to create and grow their client relationships. This webinar provides actionable insights on how to engage new and old clients alike. Strained client relationships can harm both the client and the firm's profitability. Yet automation, for example, allows some firms to remain more engaged while others miss the mark. There is a science underlying client retention that involves understanding the client journey, ensuring consistent client interactions, and equipping employees with the tools needed to satisfy client needs. Understanding these skills should help you protect the relationships that sustain your business.

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.

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.

We tend to focus on fighting today's fires without spending adequate time on bigger, more important risks inherent in today's inter-connected, competitive world. This seminar drills down into four commonly overlooked business risks, looking at how to anticipate, manage, mitigate or exploit them. We will discuss the professional obligations of the board and executive management to assess risks and the responsibility of internal and external auditors to evaluate the adequacy of these assessments.

The purpose of this course is to provide an in-depth discussion of selected advanced-level issues affecting LLCs and LLPs.

Cyber threats targeting accounting and finance professionals are growing more sophisticated, putting sensitive financial data at risk. This session explores the most pressing cybersecurity challenges accounting and finance professionals face today, including email fraud, phishing attacks, cloud security risks, and securing remote work environments. It also addresses the role of cyber insurance. Through real-world case studies and practical strategies, participants will learn how to recognize and mitigate cyber threats, evaluate cyber insurance policies, and implement security measures that protect their firms and clients. Attendees will leave with actionable steps to strengthen their cybersecurity posture and ensure compliance with evolving regulatory and industry standards.

This course is a refresher of the more significant SSARS requirements for preparation, compilation and review engagements. Includes discussion of SSARS 26 and SSARS 27.

Participants will review how to maintain a heightened awareness of fraud with clients and gain a better understanding of how to detect fraud. This interactive workshop, designed for practitioners in small and medium-sized CPA firms, will include a lecture with generous time for questions and case studies to reinforce the concepts.

Internal control issues often arise in QuickBooks Online environments. However, that need not be the case! In this session, you will learn about internal control features that can help you maximize your QBO experience while simultaneously reducing risk.

This course provides an overview of standards for preparation services, accountants' risks, and strategies to minimize risks. The course objective is to furnish current guidance and examples from the AICPA's professional standards for financial statement preparation so that you can apply these to reduce the risk of material misstatements caused by fraud or by error. In addition, this course covers the AICPA's guidance about professional judgments when providing preparation engagements.  Together with the four-hour course "Start-up and Small-Business Financial Statements: Issues and Fraud," these two courses meet the eight-hour accounting CPE requirement for accountants that prepare financial statements for clients but do not perform client audits, reviews or compilations.

We tend to focus on fighting today's fires without spending adequate time on bigger, more important risks inherent in today's inter-connected, competitive world. This seminar drills down into four commonly overlooked business risks, looking at how to anticipate, manage, mitigate or exploit them. We will discuss the professional obligations of the board and executive management to assess risks and the responsibility of internal and external auditors to evaluate the adequacy of these assessments.

This webinar presents a variety of time-saving ideas, shortcuts, and tips that are sure to boost personal productivity. We discuss better summing, address one of the biggest pitfalls that Excel users have faced over the past 25 years, present the most important keyboard shortcuts, demonstrate a better alternative to hiding rows or columns, illustrate how to quickly navigate to other workbooks and files, and demonstrate using Excel with styles.

Data analytics and mining are the fastest growing disciplines in accounting and general management. Many organizations are either planning programs or have them already underway. Unfortunately, a number of these attempts fail due to poor planning/preparation and a lack of commitment, training, and clear vision of the program's goals. Today there is no shortage of data, but relatively few organizations have established an environment and ongoing process to isolate, capture, analyze, and convert data into actionable information. At times, even organizations that are employing leading-edge analytics are doing it with traditional, limited sets of data. This session explores how an organization can successfully become data driven. The discussion includes numerous examples demonstrating how accounting and financial professionals can build upon their current analytical skills to better perform traditional tasks and assume a role as a business partner with others in their organization. The program is aimed to assist those just beginning the journey, as well as those who want to test their current efforts or are considering the need for a restart. In addition to discussing a number of analytical tools, including available software, lists of reference books and next-level software are provided. This program continues to build upon the Controllership Update Series.