CPE & Event Calendar

How well do you understand your organization’s cash flow? Good cash management techniques can provide a competitive advantage! This session shows you how to effectively measure and manage your cash conversion cycle. With a more complete understanding of how cash flows through your organization, you can eliminate impediments. Better cash management lowers your borrowing costs, reduces financing needs, and creates financial flexibility in your organization.

A significant amount of information is electronically initiated, recorded, processed, or reported and information to be used as audit evidence may be available only in electronic form. During this session, we will look at different types of information commonly presented to an auditor during the audit of an employee benefit plan and identify considerations for auditors when evaluating information to be used as audit evidence. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

In this session we focus on the early stages of a fraud investigation, including: who should be on the team, how to create an investigation plan, and the evidence that should be acquired and evaluated. Investigative techniques involving a variety of different sources will be covered, including financial document analysis, background checks, data analysis, and interviewing. This is the most practical fraud investigation course you will ever take. Rather than learning only the theory of fraud, you will learn how a forensic accountant actually investigates fraud from the beginning to the end. We focus on forensic accounting techniques used in the field to prove what happened, who was involved, how much money was stolen, and where the money went. Starting a Fraud Investigation is Part 2 of a series of four courses on fraud investigations. Each course is a stand-alone class that may be taken individually. For comprehensive instruction on completing a fraud investigation from start to finish, take all four. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This session explores the importance of internal controls with an emphasis on best practices for small- and medium-sized entities.  We will examine the roles of both preventive and detective controls and practical, cost-effective suggestions for implementing effective internal controls will be addressed.

Seismic changes in tax legislation is currently taking place, and the well-informed tax practitioner will want to attend this two hour monthly program in order to stay abreast of these developments! Approximately one-half of the program is devoted to individual tax issues, and the remaining time is spend on business entity taxation, IRS procedure, tax legislation and other issues. Due to the changing nature of the topic, learning objectives, course descriptions and program content will vary and will be provided in more specificity closer to presentation time. This course provides a concise look at the hottest topics affecting every tax practitioner. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Financial skills needed in many situations are constantly changing.  It is prudent to routinely look into your toolbox to restock or revise your tool set.  In this course we will examine three tool categories that form the foundation for many analytical processes.

The term "artificial intelligence" (AI) has become mainstream and while most have a layperson's understanding of AI, few know the depth and breadth of this technology's capability. AI is affecting just about everything in business and in people's personal lives. The operation of an internal control system is also changing because of this incredible advancement. This session explains what AI is and how it works and then goes into detail about how it can be applied to a system of internal control. The material speaks about changes occurring in today's world as well as what's coming in the not-too-distant future. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Internal Control Deficiencies and Other Matters - Adding Value Through Required Auditor Communications will help the auditor with understanding how to improve required internal control communications to be more value-added from the perspective of the client. Professional and regulatory audit standards require communication of internal control matters noted in a financial statement audit. This assists management and those charged with governance with satisfying responsibilities for designing, implementing, maintaining, and monitoring internal controls. In addition, in order to retain existing clients, lower fee pressures and gain invaluable referral sources, financial statement auditors must place a priority on being a value-added business advisor. Note: This course is recommended as a part of a 16-hour audit skills curriculum for in-charge or supervisor auditors, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has responsibilities for communicating internal control related matters to the client. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

The AICPA issued new Quality Management Standards that require all accounting firms that perform audit, review, compilation, attestation, and agreed-upon procedures engagements to comply with the enhanced Quality Management Standards by December 15, 2025. The most significant change in the new Quality Management Standards is the requirement that firms identify and assess quality risks specific to their practices and then design and implement responses to each identified quality risk. This program will help you understand the new Quality Management Standards, provide practical guidance for adoption, and respond to the requirements of the new Quality Management Standards.

This course is one of the courses dedicated to our Controllership series. This series of courses 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 will discuss the area of inventory. This specific segment in the first part of a two-part series on inventory. We explore how the controller can move these responsibilities into more of a strategic role. This course takes a look at some of the typical concepts and duties involved in the inventory function that is sometimes viewed as operational roles. We explore how these areas are strongly tied to the importance of the controllership role and how the controller can add value in each area.    

Leaders naturally wield power and influence. But, to avoid the temptation of abusing power, leaders must apply ethical behaviors for themselves and others. Words, actions and deeds which demonstrate integrity and trust yield the credibility that make others want to follow ethical leaders. Betraying trust can destroy careers, whole organizations, and lives. This is why trust is a top prerequisite for principled and ethical leadership. Positive (and negative) influence is derived from the credibility trust brings. Ethical leaders who continually work to earn and keep trust reap enormous payback in all aspects of business including superior economic, competitive, and strategic performance.

Did you know that simply by utilizing the built-in headings found under Styles in Microsoft Word you can create an automatic table of contents that can be updated in a matter of seconds if the body of the document changes? Did you know that Word can be used to open, edit, and re-save PDF documents? How about the fact that by using the Insert Caption tool in conjunction with the Cross-Reference feature, users can rid themselves of the need to manually renumber figures, tables or illustrations and will not even need to update references to these in the document text? This material shows tools and features that are easy to understand and use, will save time, and add consistency to documents. Participants in this session will come away knowing the power of Microsoft Word; this knowledge will benefit them greatly! This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This program will address recent legislation, rulings and developments affecting individual taxpayers and provide practitioners with a comprehensive update for the upcoming tax season. **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.

When asked, most people would say they are an ethical person. So why is it that every month there are reports of ethical breaches at major companies? The concept of ethics is easy to understand, easy to talk about, but incredibly hard to implement on a consistent basis. In this course, we will discuss current ethical issues, and walk-through a nine-step ethical decision-making model. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This program provides in-depth coverage of SAS 145, a major standard that helps auditors enhance risk assessment procedures through improved techniques for identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement. This session is essential for CPAs that perform audits. The discussion will also be insightful for auditees and other professionals who want to maintain awareness of current auditing guidance.

In today's data-driven world, Microsoft Excel has become an essential tool for professionals in any organization. To harness the full potential of Excel, it is crucial to understand and master its lookup functions. This course is designed to equip participants with the knowledge and skills needed to effectively utilize Excel's lookup functions and enhance their data analysis capabilities. Throughout this comprehensive course, participants will dive deep into the world of lookup functions and gain experience through practical exercises and real-world scenarios. Whether you're a seasoned Excel user looking to fine-tune your skills or a beginner eager to unlock Excel's full potential, this course is tailored to meet your learning needs. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

CPAs spend most of their working lives reviewing bank statements and books and records of businesses. They are experts in understanding how to prepare financial statements according to GAAP. But would a CPA know a possible money laundering transaction if they saw it? Would they know about a money laundering business? Money laundering is a subject of many action and thriller movies, but rarely understood. This presentation will educate the CPA in understanding the basics of money laundering and how to identify money laundering. This presentation will help the CPA know the truth about money laundering, how to identify it, the statutes that define it, and the court cases that interpret it. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

What can we learn from one of the largest municipal frauds in U.S. history? Rita Crundwell stole nearly $54 million from the citizens of Dixon, Illinois over the course of two decades. This course examines circumstances that allowed this landmark fraud to occur. We will explore internal control deficiencies and other circumstances that hindered prevention or timely detection of Rita's scheme. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Joshua, a CFO from Chicago, did not go to prison for stealing the $2 million in liquid cash he had access to on a daily basis. Instead, Joshua ended up in prison by rationalizing that he was entitled to a few small perks of the profession. This course explores Joshua's story and covers how and why executives with high annual incomes make short-sighted decisions that can cost them their job and freedom. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Auditing Investments - Understanding Risks and Procedures for the Most Common Investments will provide an overview for evaluating the proper recognition, measurement and disclosure of the most common investments types. Many small- and mid-size entities hold less-complex investments, including mutual funds, 'plain vanilla' derivatives (such as interest rate swaps), and permanent life insurance policies. Note: This course is recommended as a part of a 16-hour audit skills curriculum for in-charge or supervisor auditors, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has responsibilities for auditing common investments. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.