CPE & Event Calendar

Prepare to revolutionize your understanding of fraud in the second course of this two-part series. This session navigates the intricacies of Ethical Fading and Emotional Immune Systems among investigators and perpetrators-understanding how they influence auditors and investigators, often unintentionally supporting the fraud they strive to halt. Through compelling narratives and cutting-edge research, we'll unveil the flaws in traditional investigative methods, shedding light on their potential harm, and dismantle myths and uncover the concealed dangers rooted in our preconceptions about fraud. Brace yourself to challenge industry norms as we debunk established beliefs and equip ourselves with innovative strategies for more effective fraud investigation, detection, and prevention. Note: This course constitutes Part 2 of a comprehensive 2-part series.

We are all (including tax practitioners) getting older, and the need for effective retirement planning has never been greater. This course is essential for participants who wish to attain a comfortable retirement for themselves and their clients by maximizing tax saving strategies. This presentation integrates federal taxation with retirement planning. The course will examine tax and savings strategies related to determining retirement income needs, wealth building, capital preservation, and estate distribution. The result is a unified explanation of tax-economics that will permit the tax professional to locate, analyze, and solve financial aspects of retirement. This program is designed to improve the quality of services to clients and the profitability of engagements, and it projects the accountant into the world of retirement planning. This course will give the participant practice in analyzing problems, developing solutions, and presenting final, personal retirement plans to clients. The emphasis is on practical simplicity in dealing with the self-employed and highly compensated individual. Retirement income needs are calculated; net after-tax Social Security benefits are determined, and distribution options from IRAs and retirement plans are explored. Special consideration is given to the tax treatment of the home and business on retirement. Buy-sell agreements are discussed, and elder-care planning is examined.

Develop a framework of "effective" time management. Identify the three time factors: time wasters or stealers, time savers and time management techniques. Highlight concepts that distinguish the relationship of time management and behavioral science versus traditional time management tools or gimmicks. Also, explore the need for managing oneself in order to improve the management of time. The webcast was originally broadcast on May 4, 2017. Note: There is a minimum passing rate of 70% for this course.

Clients believe that estate planning is only for the wealthy. This isn't the case. Perhaps as a result of the pandemic, estate planning has a renewed focus. All practitioners should be familiar with the vernacular, acronyms and techniques. Estate planning involves personal issues that affect everyone, even when the estate tax doesn't apply. Learn strategies to pass assets to future generations; provide education benefits; distribute retirement benefits, and provide a charitable legacy.

Your clients depend on you more than ever to help them reduce risk and position themselves for financial success in the future. This course is to help keep you on top of recent developments and the top 5 ways to fund your retirement.

Clients rely on their advisers more heavily to provide perspective and clarity as legislation and regulations evolve. Gain in-depth understanding, effective strategies and connections with expert professionals who specialize in this area.

Often trusts are named as beneficiaries for Individual Retirement Accounts and other retirement arrangements. The choice has an impact on both income tax and estate planning. Trusts allow the IRA owner or plan participant to have beyond-the-grave control over the distribution payouts.

The VLOOKUP function has long been the reigning champion of Excel's lookup functions. But the recently introduced SUMIFS function is quite powerful. So which function should we use to perform our lookup tasks? In this session, we'll dig into this question and see when and how these functions can be used. Course is presented in Excel for Windows. Note: Certain items presented may not be available in all Excel versions, including Excel for Mac, iPad or web. The webcast was originally broadcast on May 3, 2016. Note: There is a minimum passing rate of 70% for this course.

In business, teams can contribute to major success or disintegrate into failure. Be sure that you're building a winning team by understanding the dynamics of teams in the workplace. Understand the relationship between the learned and what is required for successful performance within a team context. We'll focus on key team roles, characteristics of high-performing teams and other key success behaviors that support group morale and productivity. Note: There is a minimum passing rate of 70% for this course. The webcast was originally broadcast on June 8, 2015.

In today's business environment creative problem-solving and innovation are more important than ever to succeed. In this course, you'll discover how to unleash your own creative potential as well as that of your colleagues and teams. Learn when to take smart, educated risks; how to become a forward-thinking leader capable of generating fresh ideas, and how to see the positive aspects of failure. The helpful advice you'll receive in this course will bring both personal success and corporate success. Note: There is a minimum passing rate of 70% for this course. The webcast was originally broadcast on August 3, 2015.

Throw away the tax code and regulations and make sense of estate planning. Learn how to structure an effective estate plan using a highly visual, real-life situation approach. Diagrams, charts, tables, and calculation sheets are used to present key elements of any successful estate plan - from the simplest to the most complex.

Despite the rising use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings, there is substantial disagreement across rating agencies regarding what rating to give to individual firms. As what drives this disagreement is unclear, we examine whether a firm's ESG disclosure helps explain some of this disagreement. We predict and find that greater ESG disclosure actually leads to greater ESG rating disagreement. These findings hold using firm fixed effects and using a difference-in-differences design with mandatory ESG disclosure shocks. We also find that raters disagree more about ESG outcome metrics than input metrics (policies), and that disclosure appears to amplify disagreement more for outcomes. Last, we examine consequences of ESG disagreement and find that greater ESG disagreement is associated with higher return volatility, larger absolute price movements, and a lower likelihood of issuing external financing. Overall, our findings highlight that ESG disclosure generally exacerbates ESG rating disagreement rather than resolves it.

Both businesses and individual clients face major changes as a result of tax reform, and tax professionals face the considerable challenge of delivering effective planning advice and services to address this myriad of recent developments. This course addresses this challenge and also encompasses the latest tax legislation applicable to individual and business clients. Continually updated to reflect enacted legislation.

This course is designed to assist practitioners in preparing Offers in Compromise (OIC). After this course, you should have an understanding of how proper planning can make a significant difference in the amount eventually paid to the IRS and the resulting financial well-being of your client. This program covers the basics, from choosing the proper forms to utilize through the filing of an appeal if necessary. We will also explain how to increase your chances of having your OIC approved by the IRS by going over the complexities involved.

If you work with governments and not-for-profits, a thorough understanding of the Yellow Book is essential. This course will equip you with a comprehensive knowledge of the Yellow Book requirements and increase your confidence and proficiency in performing Yellow Book audits. The course materials utilize a highly illustrative and innovative format including over 20 focused exercises on key practice issues.

If you work with governments and not-for-profits, a thorough understanding of the Yellow Book is essential. This course will equip you with a comprehensive knowledge of the Yellow Book requirements and increase your confidence and proficiency in performing Yellow Book audits. The course materials utilize a highly illustrative and innovative format including over 20 focused exercises on key practice issues.

When exit planning, it is important to weigh various issues, including tax implications, to achieve an effective management and/or ownership change. Many envision tax-free reorganizations being the most preferable structure to avoid capital gains tax, but the opportunities come at a cost to the seller. This course will provide a well-rounded discussion of the various strategies to consider when advising on exiting a business.

Many small- and mid-size entities hold fewer complex investments including alternative investments. This module will provide an overview for evaluating the proper recognition, measurement, and disclosure of common investment types as well as how to audit them. Derivatives and other more complex investments will be discussed in another module. (Please Note: This module is part of Surgent's Audit Skills Training: Level 2.)

Cash and cash equivalents tend to be one of the first areas assigned to new auditors since it tends to be straightforward with less complexity and risk as other areas. In addition, there is little subjectivity involved and persuasive audit evidence from a third-party is generally available. Interestingly enough, this is an area that can have a significant risk of misappropriation of assets if the appropriate level of segregation of duties and other internal controls is not present. New auditors should approach cash with the same professional skepticism as other areas since there is always the risk of material misstatement. (Please Note: This module is part of Surgent's Audit Skills Training: Level 1.)

Designed for accounting and auditing practitioners at all levels in both public accounting and business and industry, this course provides an overview of recently issued AICPA auditing and attest standards that will be effective for December 31, 2022 audits and beyond. Next, the course will review ethics interpretations recently issued by the Professional Ethics Executive Committee and review the current status of the AICPA's proposed Statements on Quality Control Standards.