CPE & Event Calendar

Over the past few years, the AICPA revamped the quality management standards by issuing Statement on Quality Management Standards 1, 2, and 3 (SQMS 1, SQMS 2, and SQMS 3, respectively), SSARS No. 26, and SAS 146, Quality Management for an Engagement Conducted in Accordance with Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (SAS 146). These standards, effective December 15, 2025, modernize quality management standards to reflect an increased focus on risk assessment, technology use, and the presence of outside experts on many engagements. With a risk-based approach, the standards enhance requirements for engagement quality reviews, encourage QMS monitoring, and focus on the entire system of quality control maintained by a firm. We will cover the key provisions of the standards, how to effectively implement them, and what you need to do today to prepare for the required implementation. The earlier your firm begins the transition, the better off you will be.

As talent advance into supervisory roles they have to transition from being individual contributors to organizing a team to produce the results. However, most were never taught how to do the planning and scheduling to run projects because many of their leaders learned on the job as well. In this session we will borrow project management skills to teach a new supervisors and managers how to start making longer term plans to optimize the team. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Good writing is good business. Studies show that the average business worker receives 121 emails per day. That's a lot of emails. Are your emails effective? Are they being read? Are they professional and tone-smart? In this course, you will learn techniques and skills to get your emails to stand out and improve their effectiveness and professionalism.

Starting and owning a small business has often been referred to as the "Third Pillar of Wealth," right behind investments and owning real estate. Essentially, all businesses start off as "small businesses." Small businesses, however, require a large amount of preparation in order to successfully launch and grow. Starting a business requires the owners and managers to address a host of issues, including an understanding of applicable laws, appropriate financing, staffing requirements, marketing, liability protection, and many more. This course provides a broad overview of the critical issues business owners, as well as their professional advisors, must consider when starting and growing a small business. There is extensive research regarding best practices in this area, and this webinar is intended to distill down such information and focus on what is critical to get a small business up and running as seamlessly as possible.

The work for clients is not as linear as it used to be with the inclusion of more advisory services, more cross functional teams, and due dates moving. Quality client engagements are not just about a solid workflow, we need project management skills. In this session we will discuss how to apply project management techniques to designing a one firm, team approach to serving clients. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Why do some companies fail while others grow and succeed for generations? Common perceptions often attribute organizational success to great leadership, timing, or unique ideas. Although these traits certainly play a role in helping companies grow, research shows that corporate success often hinges on whether a company is value driven. Such companies have core ideologies that drive almost every major decision. In this course, we look at empirical data on why some companies succeed while others fail. By looking at companies that were created prior to 1950 (e.g., Disney, Marriott, or 3M), we can understand why certain organizations have been able to grow and achieve exceptional success through many different eras in the American economy. The lessons learned from these visionary companies can be broadly applied to organizations of all sizes, including accounting and financial service firms.

As uncomfortable as some conversations are, keeping your silence won't resolve the issue and may in fact add to it. No matter which side of the table you find yourself at in a "hard to have" talk, you can learn to benefit from the conversation. In the workshop, you'll learn how to recognize when a conversation becomes critical, how to plan effectively for the conversation, and which communications strategies can help you create a win/win outcome.

In this dynamic course, we'll delve into essential updates and equip you with the practical knowledge to navigate the latest changes in the field. Need insights on how the shift from the Statements on Quality Control Standards (SQCSs) to the Statement on Quality Management Standards (SQMSs) will affect your practice? We have you covered. Questions about cybersecurity requirements for CPAs? Arm yourself with practical strategies to protect your clients and firm in an increasingly digital world. From the newest accounting rules to mastering new audit standards, we'll explore the newest developments to help you navigate the changes.

This course will provide overview of key cybersecurity security domains that CPA's should evaluate in an audit. It will provide an overview of each security domain, and an overview of how to evaluate and assess the sufficiency of the cybersecurity control. Examples of security domains that will be covered include: Change management Access management Data integrity This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

You could pay $0 for this course! Whether you are a seasoned CFO or a staff professional, we all have the desire to enhance our skills and become even more effective. We discuss four methods to improve, including getting the most from the sales function, how CFOs can (and should) deliver much more value, new skills to develop, and how to find the time to do this? We also review the value of sustainability, ESG reporting, and measurement. A newer technique that adds value to our role so we can become even more effective. Each of these four topics will help you truly deliver more value. Enhancing Sales: Work with Sales to Drive Result 2 Business Management and Organization credits Sales and Accounting are not alike. In many organizations the two functions are at odds with each other, causing wasteful infighting. Many times, sales will undercut the accountants and vice versa. Sometimes this is inadvertent and sometimes not. Both functions should work together to achieve superior financial performance. We must take the lead and develop a better relationship with the sales function and the sales team. Oftentimes the sales incentive plans cause friction and result in counterproductive behaviors. If Accounting and Finance were to work together effectively, then net income, revenue and sales incentives would all increase. Thinking differently about how to work together will dramatically enhance financial performance. Imagine at least a five percent increase in the bottom line? We will discuss how. Working together yields superior results.Growth Opportunities for CFOs: Value Added CFOs 2 Finance credits Many CFOs place too much emphasis on external financial and statutory compliance reporting for government regulatory agencies and not enough on corporate performance management (CPM) methods including internal management accounting. The former is for valuation (e.g., inventories and COGS). The latter is for “creating wealth value” to support better decisions. This course provides tools and information for how CFOs can transition from bean counters to bean growers. The best CFOs not only keep score, which is necessary, but they enable the organization to score more, which is much more valuable.Ready to be an Effective CFO? Skills to Succeed 2 Business Management and Organization credits With all the buzz about the additional responsibilities of CFOs today, what are the essential skillsets for success? How do you excel when you are spread so thin? Becoming the multi-skilled CFO companies are looking for requires you to balance traditional responsibilities with new demands. How do you utilize your key relationships and your team to fill the gaps and make sure nothing slips through? To be effective requires a shift in the way financial leaders think and approach their day - rather than a never-ending chase after new skillsets. Thinking differently about how to accomplish the broad spectrum of CFO responsibilities is a key lesson in your essential lifelong learning. We will review many tactics to help you become even more effective.Measuring and Reporting - ESG and Sustainability 2 Finance credits ESG broadly covers many of the non-financial issues every organization faces. The use of ESG as a term however conjures images to many of tree-huggers protecting rare species at the expense of jobs and growth, requirements that well-qualified candidates are not hired or passed over for promotion because they do not meet “diversity standards” and that companies are constrained by restrictive laws and regulations from conducting their business. ESG is not about limiting growth or profitability. It is about measuring non-financial information and using that information to make companies more efficient and more profitable. ESG is not a fad that will go away but a method of viewing our organizations so that they can be better and more profitable This course qualifies for reimbursement through the state’s Workforce Training Express Fund. Firms/companies with fewer than 50 staff can be reimbursed up to 100% of the cost of training and firms/companies with 50-100 employees can be reimbursed up to 50% of the cost of training. You must register for the course and apply for reimbursement through the Workforce Training Express Fund website a minimum of three weeks prior to the start of the course to be eligible. The course code for this program is C-8902. To learn more, click here or contact Julia Ekelund at jekelund@masscpas.org.

With the rapid pace of change, change now happens daily in business and our personal lives. It can be difficult to navigate change when right and wrong get a bit fuzzy. New processes, new technology, new circumstances and new impacts to people must be measured and decisions made as the change evolves. Change always becomes something different than what was originally planned or imagined. In this session, learn how to measure your ethics through change. You will learn how to filter everything you do during change through a simple litmus test. Through the power of story, you will learn from the lessons of other organizations and their ethical mistakes. Lastly, you will take away what is required to manage yourself so that when ethical decisions arise, you have the mental capacity to manage through it well. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

In a recent Gallup study, 50% of respondents quit because of their manager, which makes your managers and supervisors your company's first line of defense against costly turnover. This program looks at management from a broad perspective and then drills down into key skills needed to manage effectively.

The Art of Discipline and Getting Things Done - Applying Better Time, Team, and Project Management Techniques provides best practices for various areas that support this culture of discipline, including time, team, and project management. Those in a supervisory or managerial role must create a culture of discipline, where a high priority is placed in accomplishing responsibilities in an effective and efficient manner. Note: This course is recommended as a part of an 8-hour audit skills curriculum for managers, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has responsibilities for project and time management. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Fraud can occur in the nonprofit environment. This webcast will cover fraud-related misappropriation, misuse of government funds, revenue recognition, and cyber-related fraud. We'll look at real-world examples that show the variety of fraud impacting not-for-profits and perpetrated by management within organizations. In addition, this webcast covers some recommended preventive and detective controls, and potential audit procedures.

There are great opportunities in advance tax planning, particularly in retirement plan selection, which can significantly impact an organization's tax strategy. A business can optimize tax savings for significant income years if proper planning occurs on the front end with the appropriate management of its retirement plans. This class will look at retirement plans as traditional tax planning tools and unique opportunities that can be managed with proper timing and coordination.

Cybersecurity protection is one of the most important responsibilities of every CPA professional to protect the confidentiality of sensitive client information. While there are many aspects of cybersecurity that need to be addressed, the biggest vulnerability to protect against is unauthorized access to your application login credentials. Once your login credentials are breached, the cybercriminal essentially has the keys to your data kingdom. John Higgins, a national leader in the CPA technology, will demonstrate the ease with which you can protect all of your login credentials with maximum security with minimal expense. You will leave this course prepared to deploy this state of the art security tool in your organization. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Surveys show that the average North American company completes its monthly financial statement closing in six days. However, some companies can close their books in one day or less. You don't have to sacrifice accuracy for speed. This session will show you how to close month-end faster, better and cheaper. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Management Skills - Exhibiting Traits of a Balanced Leader-Manager provides tips and techniques for striking the right balance between managing individuals and engagement teams and leading the overall strategic direction of a firm. Short-term profitability and long-term viability are important objectives of any successful organization. Note: This course is recommended as a part of a 16-hour audit skills curriculum for managers, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has responsibilities for leading or managing others. 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 will review the relevant considerations related to going concern, including assessing when substantial doubt concerning an entity's ability to continue as a going concern exists, management mitigation efforts, and required disclosures both when management, and the accountant, feel such efforts will be effective in mitigating the risk, as well as when they do not. Lastly, we'll consider the accountant's reporting responsibilities under various scopes of services in various scenarios and how to audit this often-contentious topic.

You could pay $0 for this course!This 2-hour mini course is from our Level V course, which highlights leadership skills and situations that are common for managers and senior managers in CPA firms. Participants will be encouraged to examine and challenge their beliefs and approaches to managing and leading people. Leading Others - Coaching & Developing Staff - prioritizing the coaching and development of staff in a post-pandemic work environment, including delegation for development, effective feedback, and managing virtual employees. Building Leadership Communication Skills - strategies to influence and lead others through effective communication in both individual and group settings. Helping the Firm Grow - the three levels of helping the firm grow and how to involve the entire team in expanding services to existing clients and generating referrals to new clients. All of AHI's courses rely heavily on participant interaction and these virtual programs have co-opted many of Zoom's features to preserve the same strengths of the in-person training: visual interaction between the instructor and all participants (plan to be "on screen" throughout the program) breakout rooms to ensure small group engagement and instructor interaction screen share for small group presentations easy delivery of video presentations fillable PDF for online note-taking in the course material. This course qualifies for reimbursement through the state’s Workforce Training Express Fund. Firms/companies with fewer than 50 staff can be reimbursed up to 100% of the cost of training and firms/companies with 50-100 employees can be reimbursed up to 50% of the cost of training. You must register for the course and apply for reimbursement through the Workforce Training Express Fund website a minimum of three weeks prior to the start of the course to be eligible. The course code for this program is C-9414. To learn more, click here or contact Julia Ekelund at jekelund@masscpas.org.