CPE Catalog & Events

The fraud epidemic persists, resulting in billions of dollars in annual losses. Participate in this session to learn how most fraud occurs and what controls you should implement to reduce fraud risks.

This 6-hour program covers recent promulgations of the FASB and AICPA with broad applicability. In addition, the course includes the 2-hour Tax Basis Financial Statements, and 2-hour SSARS Highlight Reel, programs available as stand-alone courses.

To get started in estate planning, learn the basics of intestate succession, probate, wills, health care directives, general powers of attorney, trusts, gift and estate tax planning, as well as transfers of assets. Become familiar with some basics of transfer tax planning, including A-B trusts and QTIPs/marital deduction planning, portability, planning with life insurance trusts, family limited partnerships and more. Also, particular attention will be paid to the human elements that are impacted by estate planning and related tax strategies.

This comprehensive training is designed to get you quickly up to speed with the different types of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). The cornerstone of the course is an in-depth coverage of the contribution and distribution rules to the Traditional, Roth, Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) and Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRAs. The course will also discuss the basics of the Health Savings Account (HSA) as well as any newly enacted tax legislation related to IRAs.

Most organizations manage their income statement, but many virtually ignore the balance sheet until balance sheet problems create seemingly insurmountable emergencies. This session discusses how to analyze and manage your financial statements more holistically, allowing you to identify and correct balance sheet issues early. How do you choose whether to raise debt or equity" What are the key considerations and the advantages of each" What is the cost of capital" What are the "hidden" balance sheet risks" We will also examine several crucial ideas you can incorporate into your analyses to enhance performance and reduce risk. If you want to enhance your corporate finance skills, this session is for you.

This section of the four-part series will cover the fundamentals of Form 706 and provide numerous examples of how to properly report deductions on the estate tax return, including marital and charitable deductions. Form 706 Series: Part 1: Overview Including Portability Part 2: Reporting Assets Part 3: Reporting Deductions Part 4: GST Schedule R, Form 8971, Payments & Credits

Personal financial planning issues evolve in an increasingly challenging environment where it's harder to keep up with important and timely changes. And since changes seem to be occurring quicker than anticipated, with several recent twists, CPAs must be prepared for the unexpected and be in tune with new approaches. As a result, CPAs must challenge clients to stay focused on their goals while managing expectations and striving for realism in order to achieve objectives. We'll focus on the newest personal financial planning changes and prepare for new opportunities related to income tax, retirement and estate planning issues. You'll learn what you need to know in identifying critical exposures and providing appropriate solutions when working with your client in these rapidly changing and life-altering disciplines. Be sure to register for all of our PFP updates: PFP Update: Income Tax, Retirement, and Estate Planning PFP Update: Issues, Exposures, and Developing Client Strategy PFP Update: Investment Planning in This New Era

Transfer taxes, such as the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax, create a drag on the accumulation of wealth over a family's generations. However, with the One Big Beautiful Bill's continuation of the high gift and estate tax exclusion amounts for the foreseeable future, advisers have the opportunity to create trusts that extend through the grandchildren's generation. This course examines the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax and how it is designed to discourage avoidance of the estate and gift tax by families. Randy Gardner explores: GST tax terminology, how the GST tax is calculated, ways to avoid the GST tax, and how to design a dynasty trust to pass property from generation to generation. 

"What were they thinking"— Why do business leaders sometimes make decisions that severely damage themselves and their organizations" It is tempting to attribute poor choices to a leader's assumed incompetence, inexperience, bad character or low intelligence — but reality is much more complex. Understand what factors really cause the most blunders. When business decisions go badly wrong, financial professionals usually find themselves deeply involved. This seminar provides conceptual and case study material to better equip you for the challenge.

This four-part series covers the fundamentals of Form 706. In this final course, we will cover GST allocations on Schedule R, Foreign Death Tax credit, Prior Transfer credit, Qualified Conservation Easements, making the 6166 election for estate tax payment and considering a Graegin or other loan to pay the estate tax. Illustrations of attachments and/or narrative examples for Schedule R will be provided. Form 706 Series: Part 1: Overview Including Portability Part 2: Reporting Assets Part 3: Reporting Deductions Part 4: GST Schedule R, Form 8971, Payments & Credits

Our clients' personal financial planning issues are quickly developing and keep us challenged in a new operating environment! Many new approaches are needed in working through, understanding, diagnosing and then adopting innovative and proven strategies. Additional ways of experiencing these client situations are entering the picture. With information overload, part of the CPA's challenge is to help clients stay focused on goals while managing expectations in a rapidly changing environment. This course will update you on the newest personal financial planning changes related to insurance, investments, education, retirement, estate, cash flow management, divorce, closely held businesses and other relevant topics. We'll discuss critical issues, including planning for education, divorce, charitable, exceptional circumstances, business owners and highly compensated executives. Be sure to register for all of our PFP updates: PFP Update: Income Tax, Retirement, and Estate Planning PFP Update: Issues, Exposures, and Developing Client Strategy PFP Update: Investment Planning in This New Era

This program makes sense of the controversial lease standard. The subtleties of the standard make it difficult to implement and monitor. There will be a detailed discussion on what constitutes a lease, how to monitor them, and ongoing challenges.

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.

Business professionals can automate data collection processes by using today's electronic forms. Learn about these tools and how to deploy them in this session.

The FASB has released Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2024-03, Income Statement—Reporting Comprehensive Income "Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic 220-40): Disaggregation of Income Statement Expenses. This Update entails much more detail than the current requirements for public business entities. This Update enhances the disclosures regarding a public business entity's expenses and addresses investors' requests for more detailed information about the types of expenses, including inventory purchases, employee compensation, depreciation, amortization, and depletion. These details are provided within commonly presented expense captions such as cost of sales, SG&A, and research and development.

Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of alternatives to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) financial statement presentations is vital to making proper client choices. For example, practitioners may seek to use the Other Comprehensive Basis of Accounting (OCBOA) financial statement presentations, as GAAP will increase complexity and the cost of compliance. Here, we'll explore compliance with the preparation, presentation, disclosure and reporting nuances of cash- and tax-basis financial statements. We'll also discuss the AICPA's Financial Reporting Framework for Small- and Medium-Sized Entities (FRF for SMEs). This course meets the specific OCBOA requirements that CPAs must meet for the re-issuance of their license.

Some companies are "born" great; others change and become great along the way. This seminar will discuss how both new and established companies become great. This seminar benchmarks world class companies to understand the underlying principles that made them great. The seminar begins with key lessons about business start-ups from Paul Hawken, author of Growing a Business, and Guy Kawasaki, author of Art of the Start and Enchantment. Next, the seminar looks at research on existing businesses, beginning with the management classic In Search of Excellence and then focusing on Jim Collins" research presented in Built to Last, Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall and Great by Choice.

Taking money from ones retirement plan before age 59-1/2 or failing to withdraw funds after age 73 leads to penalties. Plan beneficiaries have a separate set of rules for withdrawals. There are penalty exceptions and waivers, but some issues have no possible resolution. A withdrawal from a retirement plan is taxable unless it's returned to a plan within 60 days. Some withdrawals cannot be returned and there are some ways to make a late rollover tax-free. Early and late distribution penalties and 60-day rollover failures are prevalent issues that tax preparers must handle despite the size of the firm or the wealth of their clients. Learn the rules of the road in this class. Note: This class presents an in-depth discussion of issues presented in the instructor's class Retirement Distributions: Planning Options.

The entire QuickBooks product family continues to evolve at a very rapid rate. Participate in this session to learn about the significant changes affecting QuickBooks Desktop, Online, and Enterprise Solutions users.

*** Save 15% on this event when you use the code SAVE15 at checkout *** The traditional manual cycle of exporting, cleaning, and formatting reports is a significant drain on professional productivity. This session demonstrates how to transform this process by integrating Excel's Power Query with the analytical power of ChatGPT. We will explore the "Extract, Transform, Load" (ETL) lifecycle, showing how to create repeatable, one-click reporting workflows that handle messy data with ease. Participants will learn advanced techniques for using AI to write complex M code and DAX formulas, automate variance analysis narratives, and bridge the gap between disparate data sources. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for building "self-healing" reports that scale with their firm's needs, turning hours of manual labor into seconds of automated processing.