CPE Catalog & Events

Companies often offer stock options as an additional form of compensation to attract and retain the best talent. Used appropriately, stock options can generate significant wealth, yet many employees are unfamiliar with how stock options work and why options serve as a valuable opportunity for employees to establish and grow their wealth. Unfortunately, employees who receive stock options are often unaware of their inherent risks. Research has shown that over 76% of employees have never exercised their stock options. Almost half of these individuals (48%), say they held off on selling their options due to fear of making a mistake. This course provides accounting and finance professionals with a broad overview of employee stock options. The webinar is designed to help participants better understand the fundamentals behind these investments and, in turn, better advise their clients.

This course is designed to present the most common types of financial statement fraud and embezzlement, illustrated through real cases and situations. We'll distinguish financial reporting fraud from misappropriation of assets and highlight common schemes involving one or both types of fraud. We'll review high-profile cases and other real-world situations to emphasize the CPA's role and responsibility. This course will also touch on updated GAAS requirements. Get ready to examine the methods used to perpetrate and disguise schemes, learn how fraud can be detected by both management and auditors, and explore the CPA's role in preventing and detecting both types of fraud.

SSARS 21 significantly changed the way CPA services are being offered. There is still confusion about CPA responsibilities and procedures. The course will discuss differences between bookkeeping, preparation and compilation engagements and how they differ. It will also discuss financial statement frameworks and how they influence the engagement as well as analytical procedures in review engagements.

New to AI" Start here. This beginner-friendly course explains how generative AI works, what terms like "LLM" and "agentic AI" really mean, and how CPAs can safely put these tools to use. You'll leave with a solid understanding of AI fundamentals and how they apply to accounting, tax, and finance.

Tax credit and incentive programs offer significant but rarely utilized savings. This presentation will introduce the most important federal and California tax credits and incentives available to business taxpayers. Attendees will hear an overview of these benefits and learn how to identify these opportunities for their clients.

When a purchaser buys an existing partner's partnership interest or the interest of a member of a limited liability corporation (LLC) taxed as a partnership, the amount paid becomes the basis for the purchaser's partnership interest (outside basis). If the partnership's assets have appreciated sufficiently, the difference between the new partner's inside and outside basis can be substantial. This disparity can deprive the new partner of depreciation deductions and inflate his or her share of the gain from subsequent property dispositions unless a Section 754 election is in effect. The Section 754 election can also apply when a partnership makes a distribution of property and the basis of the distributed property to the partnership and the basis the partner/distributee will take in the distributed property are not equal. In this case, a partnership can recover basis it would otherwise lose if the 754 election were not in effect.

Our country and our accounting methods have undergone huge changes in the previous few years, most of it challenging. Individuals and entire businesses have been left reeling by new tax regulations, doing more with less, and employment restructuring. Organizations must adjust quickly; notwithstanding how painful these changes have been. This course instructs accounting managers on how to deal with change and stress in the workplace. Before it affects them in a negative way, the accounting professional will learn how to best manage the changing work environment and the stress that comes with it. "The first wealth is health," remarked Ralph Waldo Emerson, but for many of us, stressful jobs are putting our health at jeopardy.

Understanding unconscious bias is key to creating an inclusive workplace and to making the best business decisions. This course explores the concept of unconscious bias, the science behind it, and how it can affect the way employers hire, evaluate, and treat employees. We will also discuss strategies employers can use to reduce unconscious bias and create a more inclusive workplace.

The taxation of real estate is tricky. Taxpayers can own real estate in a number of different ways, including direct and indirect investments. There are numerous exceptions to being classified as a rental activity. How do you know if someone is a real estate professional? In this course, we will explore all these issues and many more. Through real-world examples and discussion, this course will delve into exceptions to rental status, qualifications for material participation, and requirements for active status. Additionally, we will cover the QBI and Section 1237 safe harbors and touch on some planning ideas related to depreciation recapture.

Whether you're heading across town or across the globe, traveling with electronic devices carries real risks to the sensitive client and firm data stored on them. In this session, we'll explore the ethical obligations CPAs have to protect confidential information, including guidance from the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and applicable laws. We'll examine how data can be accessed — legitimately or maliciously — by third parties during travel, and offer practical strategies to minimize risk, from using loaner devices and mobile device management to coordinating with IT before departure. The session includes current border search rules, international considerations, and actionable tips for staying secure in transit.

Accounting and finance practitioners are still grappling with the many changes OBBBA has made to the tax laws, many of which will impact tax filings. This program is an introduction to and review of some of these critical changes and their impact on taxpayers. Accounting and finance practitioners will gain a better understanding of this very complex set of new tax rules. Practitioners will grasp what is new and what is a continuance of prior rules to develop deeper insights into the many changes that the OBBBA made to the law. If you still feel you need to learn more about how OBBBA works, this program is for you. We have assembled a two-hour review and analysis of what we consider the most important changes from OBBBA that impact client transactions. To the extent that Treasury has provided guidance relating to these new OBBBA changes, we will discuss that guidance. Where guidance is lacking, we will point out areas that require future attention from Treasury.

Advisors often ask clarifying questions as they increasingly gain an understanding of new and existing tax laws that govern IRAs. Some provisions see more questions than others due to their complexity, popularity, and level of impact on tax benefits. This course focuses on the top 20 of these questions and on SECURE Act 1.0, SECURE Act 2.0, and other hot topics. This course aims to help the advisor provide clients with the correct responses based on their IRA profiles.

PDF documents are a staple of the business community, yet most users are unaware of how to utilize this technology effectively. Participate in this session to learn ten valuable tips to help you get more from your PDFs.

Recent research shows that emotional intelligence is twice as important as IQ in the development of business leaders. But what's the difference between emotional intelligence (EI) and manipulation? This course is designed to help you understand how EI is linked to leadership success. You'll learn how to assess your own emotional intelligence and how to identify the negative consequences of unmanaged emotions. You'll learn techniques that will improve your self-awareness, self-control, and self-motivation and you'll create a plan that increases your EI so that you can achieve optimal results in your relationships with others.

From Enron and WorldCom in the early 2000s to Wirecard and FTX in recent years, the risk of fraud in an audit remains high, and the potential loss to the public has only increased. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) annual reports find that fraud is potentially lurking in all businesses, including not-for-profit organizations. It often goes undetected for years, and, when uncovered, management and the board may question why an auditor did not identify it - even though most corporate frauds are identified by internal personnel. Still, the auditor's responsibility in a financial statement audit is to assess risk and perform sufficient procedures to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement due to fraud (or error). However, failure to perform an adequate fraud risk assessment and report deficiencies in internal control, such as a lack of segregation of duties, can leave a firm vulnerable. This course will discuss the audit procedures that should be performed in accordance with AU-C §240, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit, as recently amended; best practices in performing fraud risk assessment procedures; when and how to report control deficiencies noted in an audit; and the most frequent types of fraud found in small to mid-sized entities along with internal controls that could be implemented to help prevent and detect them. We will also look at various cyber fraud schemes and how they might be prevented or detected, the use of analytics as fraud risk procedures, and assessments of fraud risk in a Single Audit. Fraud is now more complicated than ever. From deepfakes to complex denial-of-service attacks, auditors have more to consider in their risk assessment than they did even five years ago. This course features case studies and detailed illustrations to help auditors know what to look for and how to respond to potential fraud in their audits.

When a new employee is hired, there are a lot of things the employer needs to take care of. Aside from getting employment contracts signed, training lined up, and the new hire breakfast planned, employers are tasked with making sure all of the payroll forms are filled out. For many small business owners, this can be a source of anxiety. They often wonder if they have everything they need. They also hear horror stories about potential IRS penalties for not having all of the boxes checked. In this course, we will explore the payroll compliance side of hiring new employees. From the alphabet soup of forms that need to be filled out to the initial payroll tax forms, we have you covered if you are a new practitioner or new business owner. We will even discuss the surprisingly difficult-to-navigate world of unemployment insurance.

Schedule 1-A is a new tax form designed to consolidate four key OBBBA deductions that can be taken for the first time in 2025. Ultimately these four deductions: the tip deduction, the overtime deduction, the deduction for interest paid on a new car loan, and the senior deduction, appear as a single entry on line 13b of Form 1040. These deductions are phased out at higher income levels, the calculation of which takes place on Schedule 1-A. Accounting and finance professionals who wish to understand the mechanics of the four deductions and how they are expressed on Schedule 1-A and consolidated on Form 1040 would benefit from taking this program.

Accounting and finance professionals often receive questions concerning all facets of Medicare. How does Medicare work? How do I apply? How much does it cost? Is Medicare optional or required? This program provides a basic introduction to the Medicare program and covers many of the areas of the Medicare program that clients are most interested in. If you, or some of your clients, have questions relating to Medicare, this program is a must for you.

This annual update covers activities of the FASB and Private Company Council (PCC) and reviews new SAS and SSARS. Stay current on new standards related to financial accounting and attest and assurance services including compilations, review and auditing. You'll learn the specific requirements of the standards and their potential impact on financial statements and we will review the pipeline of proposed standards. This years' update will cover induced conversions of convertible debt, stock compensation accounting and disclosure, income tax disclosures, crypto currency accounting, joint venture accounting, and updates to the accounting for government grants. We will cover new audit standards including group audit standards, and new fraud, evidence and materiality standards. We'll do a deep dive into SAS 145 and the new quality management standards. Note: SEC reporting requirements and public company audit requirements will not be covered.

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.