CPE & Event Calendar

Forensic accounting, forensic accountancy or financial forensics is the specialty practice area of accounting that investigates whether firms engage in financial reporting misconduct. Forensic accountants apply a range of skills and methods to determine whether there has been financial reporting misconduct. Financial forensic engagements may fall into several categories.  Economic damages calculations, whether suffered through tort or breach of contract. Post-acquisition disputes such as earnouts or breaches of warranties Bankruptcy, insolvency and reorganization Securities and tax fraud Money laundering Business valuation Computer forensics/e-discovery This session is designed to delve a bit deeper into the world of forensic accounting and identify some of the specific areas of expertise required to become a forensic accountant. We will then first delve deeper into the art of document analysis and handwriting analysis.  

Today, more than ever, effective performance management is critical to the well-being of an organization, as well as the engagement and satisfaction of staff. Unfortunately, performance management is also often one of the most dreaded responsibilities managers face. This session will provide insight into what performance management is, how to prepare and conduct performance appraisals, how to coach the marginal employee, legal considerations to be aware of when conducting an appraisal, and ways to engage and motivate staff. In addition to providing tools to conduct effective appraisals, we will also look at the ethical implications of employee reviews. When done well, performance management has the power to improve communication between managers and their staff as well as help foster stronger career paths and routes for growth. It can motivate, re-engage, and energize everyone involved. Ethical values such as fairness, accountability, respect, intellectual honesty, and trust will be incorporated into 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.

Part of one's duty as a CPA working in industry is to safeguard the assets of the organization. Cost cutting is one way to preserve assets and maintain a company's competitive position in the industry. However, what keeps us from ridding our organizations of unnecessary costs? In this course, we will look at the factors that prevent our companies from being as streamlined as they could be. By using statistics and survey data, we will attempt to show how to better negotiate and navigate budgeting and contracting decisions. We will also discuss financial statement analysis techniques, benchmarking, and cash flow management in an effort to better cut costs and maintain the long-run viability of an organization.

Payroll is among the most common tasks an employer undertakes in the course of running their business. At its most basic level, payroll consists of an agreement between an employer and employee related to compensation for services. Once you look under the hood, there is so much more to payroll, including various kinds of compensation, payroll taxes and required reporting on government forms. This course will provide a general introduction to the inner workings of payroll and payroll taxes. We will introduce you to the various types of payroll statutory and withholding taxes, under what conditions and which employees these various types of taxes apply, how to calculate, withhold and deposit those taxes and the related due dates requirements that apply to payroll taxes. This course will include real-life examples of how to process payroll, the withholding and payroll tax deposit regime, familiar payroll forms, and tips and tricks for tying it all together. 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 provides a concise overview of Google Sheets, a cloud-based spreadsheet application by Google. Similar to Excel, the tool allows users to enter numbers, apply formulas, prepare graphs, create charts, use pivot tables and more. While Excel is the default tool and industry standard for most accountants, Sheets has many underrated capabilities which are clearly superior to Excel. These include online collaboration, team communications, mobility, version control, revision history, cloud storage, translation, Google integration, and scores of third-party add-ons. You'll walk away knowing how to use a whole new array of spreadsheet features not found in Excel that can boost your analytical powers and accelerate your financial workflow. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Fringe benefits are just another way of paying your employees. Do you know how to correctly track fringe benefits, as well as apply and report the various withholding tax rules for those fringe benefits? The IRS says fringe benefits must be included in and reported as a part of employee pay, but with any good tax law, there are always exclusions to that rule. Knowing how to handle fringe benefits can be complicated, especially in an area that changes on an annual basis. Attendees will leave with an understanding of what the requirements are around fringe benefits, what constitutes a fringe benefit, and whether it is taxable or not. We will also explore the evergreen areas of reporting S-Corp Shareholder Health, HSA, and when cash is not taxable compensation. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Designed especially for CPAs, this class is a practical call to action that provides CPAs with the tools and inspiration they need to be better thinkers. You'll learn habits and strategies you can use every day to dramatically improve judgment and decision-making. You'll learn how to break down mental barriers and alleviate mental fatigue. You'll achieve new levels of mental clarity, flexibility, and resilience. You will also benefit from better overall mental well-being and be more resistant to stress and burnout. Attendees leave as more powerful and confident thinkers and better communicators and problem-solvers. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

OneNote is a fantastic application included in your Microsoft 365 subscription. Yet, it is underutilized and misunderstood most of the time. If you genuinely want to change how you work, embrace OneNote. Stop using Outlook as a filing cabinet for essential emails and move them to OneNote instead. If you share a OneNote notebook with others, you can stop emailing altogether within your group and use OneNote as your collaboration and reference platform.

Why do for profit organizations exist??? To make money!!!!! What a great concept. But if the organization does not have the proper collections and credit procedures in place, they may not be able to access that money. Hence the importance of the credit and collection process.Credit and collections are critical areas for the financial statement controllers. Customer credit is a form of payment that allows small business customers to purchase a product or service before paying for it in full. The process works similarly to the way a credit card does - you procure something and pay it back later. Collections is a term used by a business when referring to money owed to that business by a customer. When a customer does not pay within the terms specified, the amount of the bill becomes past due and is sometimes submitted to a collection agency. The sales and collection process includes business activities related to selling products and services, maintaining customer records, billing customers, and recording payments from customers. It also includes activities necessary to manage accounts receivable, such as aging accounts and authorizing credit. This course delves into the topics that impact the sales, credit and collections process for management. We discuss strategic steps management can take to ensure their processes are efficient and that they are able to actually collect their revenue.  

Regardless of size, most public accounting firms are mandated to have a written security plan in place. Failing to have such a plan in place can lead to substantial fines. Join us in this session to learn what your security plan should include and how to implement it.

What were they thinking? Why do business leaders sometimes make horrible decisions that severely damage themselves and their organizations? It is tempting to assume that poor choices must be due to someone's incompetence, inexperience, bad character, or low intelligence. Yet, when we make a mistake ourselves, we someone rationalize it as a choice other people would make under the same circumstances. This session will discuss the common decision-making errors people make and to help you avoid making these blunders yourself. 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 tools and techniques that can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of client engagements and business processes using data analysis tools. We will introduce some of today’s popular and software tools and examine the AICPA’s Five-step approach to incorporating data analytics into public accounting engagements.

QuickBooks Desktop has been the go-to solution for companies since 1984 (Intuit originally created Quicken for bank reconciliations) and has grown into a powerful tool to track business finances. QuickBooks Online is one of the fastest growing applications in the accounting market today. With its ability to be an "on-the-go" solution, many service providers, entrepreneurs, and other industries prefer to keep it simple and use QuickBooks Online. Understanding the pros and cons of QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online will help you advise your client on the best solution for their business. 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.

This is not your average CPE course! In this fun and practical course, you'll learn how to remember names, where you put things, what you read, or anything else 300% (or more) effectively than before. You will also learn how to prevent dementia, and halve your stress by using exercises that take under two minutes a day to do. Additionally, you'll receive information on ways to improve your memory by improving your overall health and wellness. This course will give you an overview of natural supplements to enhance your memory as well as share tips to improve your sleep. This course will change your life both now and in the future by making sure you know the best ways to remember information, handle stress and keep your mind sharp until the day you die. The information in this course to help increase your professional efficiency and improve your overall quality of life.

For many small businesses, the standards issued by the FASB may have little to no effect as they impact topics that do not reflect the type of transactions that these entities most frequently experience. This class will focus on the Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) that are most likely to impact small businesses with a focus on ASUs initiated by the Private Company Council (PCC). We'll then look at alternative reporting options to GAAP including FRF for SMEs and IFRS for SMEs for entities who don't necessarily need to prepare GAAP financial statements but want to use accrual accounting. Finally, we will transition to audit standards that small business auditors will need to implement. 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 fills an important need for both financial managers and accountants in the practice of public accounting by offering the tools to help ensure the future success of a business. Practical guidance for the effective use of benchmarking and analytical procedure is also provided. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

The process of closing out the books every month can make year-end accounting a breeze! But isn't this time consuming? Not when you know the steps to take monthly. We'll show you what to do in your QuickBooks Pro, Premier, or Enterprise as well as learn what you can do monthly to ensure a tax return that will stand up again an IRS audit. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This presentation highlights the latest legislative changes affecting depreciation and capitalization rules, including inflation increases and Section 179 and 168(k) deductions.  Planning and potential pitfalls will also be presented.  **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 investigates actual real-world fraud schemes and discusses what controls could have prevented the fraud from occurring, and what controls could detect and curtail the fraud scheme. The instructor speaks from experience, finding multiple frauds very early in her career leading to a career-long focus on fraud prevention and detection. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.