CPE Catalog & Events

This course provides a technical overview of IRC 1031 like-kind exchanges, focusing on the application of current law and regulations following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Presented by a former IRS subject matter expert, the course is designed for practitioners who advise on, prepare, or review transactions involving real property exchanges. Participants will examine qualification requirements, definitions of real property, and the determination of like-kind versus non-like-kind property under Treasury Regulations. The course covers key concepts including relinquished and replacement property, boot, realized and recognized gain, and basis calculations. Additional topics include the interaction of 1031 with cost segregation studies, depreciation treatment under 1245 and 1250, replacement property basis allocation, depreciation of carryover and excess basis, and multi-property exchange rules. Practical compliance considerations relevant to tax return preparation and review are emphasized throughout. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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.

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing forensic accounting, giving professionals powerful new ways to trace funds, uncover fraud, and analyze massive volumes of financial data in minutes instead of weeks. In this engaging course, you'll discover how AI can enhance financial investigations, strengthen expert witness reports, and support litigation and discovery efforts. Learn where AI can create strategic advantages in the courtroom, as well as the disclosure, reliability, and admissibility challenges that every expert must understand. Through practical examples and real-world applications, you'll see how AI can uncover hidden patterns, identify critical evidence, and generate actionable insights. Whether you investigate fraud, support litigation, or serve as an expert witness, this course will help you harness AI with confidence, credibility, and defensible results. 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 advanced, real-world applications of Claude Cowork, focusing on how accountants can operationalize agentic AI within complex financial workflows. Moving beyond foundational concepts, this session explores how AI plugins, structured workflows, and integrated data environments elevate Cowork from a capable assistant into a specialized accounting partner. Participants will examine high-impact use cases such as variance analysis, invoice automation, and board-level reporting, while learning how to embed domain intelligence through the Finance Plugin and firm-specific customization. A central theme of the course is the application of the Sparring Partner Protocol, enabling accountants to rigorously validate, challenge, and enhance AI-generated outputs. The session emphasizes that while AI can execute 70-80% of the work, professional judgment, verification, and strategic interpretation remain essential. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Thsi course provides a comprehensive overview of Written Information Security Plans (WISP), focusing on their purpose, requirements, and implentation. All PTIN holders must certify they have a WISP prior to renewal, along with certifying the training of employees, staff and contractors as necessary. Participants will explore the history and legal foundation of WISP under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and how compliances is enforsed through IRS Circular 230, AICPA Statments of Standards, The American Bar Associations and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Leaders in CPA firms often spend time on work that sits below their highest and best use: meetings they do not need to attend, work delegated upward by their teams, client scope creep, administrative tasks, and avoided accountability conversations. Survey data cited in the course indicates that most leaders say yes to commitments they know they should decline, at a cost of hundreds of hours per year. This course introduces the distinction between hard work (time-bound), smart work (skills-based and intellectual), and uncomfortable work (emotional), and shows why avoided "Uncomfortable Work" is the common root of these low-value commitments. Participants complete a structured 32-item self-inventory across five categories: meetings and events, unrealistic expectations, strategies and opportunities, tasks and projects, and suboptimal performance. They then quantify the estimated annual hours lost to the commitments they identified, select one commitment to decline over the next month, and name the higher-value leadership activity (such as delegation, business development, project oversight, or performance management) that the reclaimed time will support. With the self-awareness and clarity gained through this program, you will know exactly which gaps need closing before work ramps back up. 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 critical thinking and professional skepticism in AI-augmented CPA work. As artificial intelligence increasingly performs drafting, analysis, calculation, research, and other preparation tasks, CPAs are shifting toward higher-value roles involving review, verification, challenge, and professional judgment. Participants will examine professional standards, human cognitive biases, AI failure modes, evidence requirements, questioning techniques, vendor claims, documentation practices, and firm-level controls. The course emphasizes a central principle: AI output should be treated as an unverified claim requiring appropriate human challenge before professional reliance. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This one-day course will teach effective skills for coaching and training employees. You'll learn how to identify the characteristics of effective coaches and develop coaching strategies to support and assist your team, with the goal of helping them improve morale, productivity and quality. And, you'll learn a five-step approach for giving constructive criticism while managing defensive reactions.

This advanced course examines the federal tax consequences of business dissolutions, ownership changes, and related restructuring transactions involving partnerships, S corporations, and closely held businesses. Using a cradle-to-grave framework, the program addresses planning, execution, valuation, reporting, and post-transaction compliance issues arising in sales, redemptions, liquidations, divorces, deaths, and internal restructurings. Participants will analyze inside and outside basis, debt basis, Section 754 adjustments, Section 302 redemption tests, Section 1041 transfers, F reorganizations, Section 751 hot assets, and the treatment of goodwill and other Section 197 intangibles. The course also incorporates practical guidance on NIIT, potential Section 1202 considerations, final-year return procedures, and selected state tax issues that commonly affect business exits and ownership transitions. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

For each digital asset sale that a broker has affected for a customer in 2025, the broker must complete Form 1099-DA. A broker includes any person who, in the ordinary course of a trade or business, stands ready to affect sales of digital assets to be made by others. This program covers the required rules for reporting digital asset transactions on Form 1099-DA.

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.

Reconciliation is how you confirm that your QuickBooks Online checking accounts, savings account, credit cards, loan balances, and liabilities are correct. If you don't reconcile correctly every month, your reports will be wrong! Even if you use the QuickBooks Online banking feed, it's not a guarantee that your bank balances are correct. And when you have extra or missing transactions, your Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet are wrong! Reconciliation is the monthly step to confirm your checkbook balance, credit cards, liabilities, and loans have been entered correctly. The problem is that most businesses reconcile the transactions that ARE on the statement, but ignore the ones that are not. That's not Reconciling, that's "reconciling," and the result is that you may be paying your taxes wrong! In this class, not only will Alicia show you how to reconcile properly, but she'll show you how to trick out the interface to finish in seconds instead of hours. Even better, learn how to identify errors in your accounting data by how they appear in your Reconciliation window. Use reconciling as a troubleshooting tool for duplicated entries, misclassified categories, transactions coded to the wrong funding source, and receipt captures that didn't match the banking feed. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Microsoft 365 is likely the most underutilized software investment in your firm or business. This course will show how to tap it to many of the lesser known features of the Microsoft 365 ecosystems of apps to maximize your productivity and produce better outputs. Through a series of practical case study demonstrations you will learn how to leverage the full potential of Microsoft 365 in your organization.

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.

Persuasive communication follows a structure that has endured for centuries. In this 1-CPE session (Professional Development), participants explore the Aristotelian framework of Ethos, Logos, and Pathos and examine how credibility, logic, and emotional resonance function together in professional messaging. Drawing from course examples comparing historical and corporate speeches, participants analyze how different persuasive appeals influence audience response. The session also introduces the concept of emotional dynamics and volatility in presentations, based on research discussed in the course materials. Participants will evaluate how variation in tone and emotional movement increases engagement and how to apply this strategically in professional settings. The emphasis is on designing communication deliberately - balancing credibility, reasoning, and appropriate emotional appeal. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Compliance with standards Do you perform preparation, compilation, or review engagements? Staying in compliance with all professional standards surrounding engagements performed in accordance with Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARSs) is essential to your engagements. You'll gain insight into how to perform these engagements in accordance with the relevant guidance. Building a foundation for successful engagements You'll cover several key topics to help you complete preparation, compilation, or review engagements successfully and compliantly. Topics covered include: Frameworks, objectives, and general principles Standards and guidance Documentation

Recently issued SSARS 27, Applicability of AR-C Section 70 to Financial Statements Prepared as Part of a Consulting Services Engagement, will significantly change the way public accounting firms assist in the preparation of financial statements. This program will discuss the practical implications of the standard, how it can affect the need to adhere to SSARS standards,  peer review applicability, and how CPAs can help businesses using the Consulting Standards instead of SSARS.

This course provides a thorough examination of qualified tuition programs (Section 529 plans), focusing on their tax treatment, planning applications, and recent legislative changes. Participants will learn how 529 plans operate, what qualifies as education expenses, and how contributions, distributions, and beneficiary changes are treated under federal law. The course explores practical planning strategies, including 529-to-Roth IRA rollovers, multigenerational "dynasty" 529 planning, grandparent-owned account considerations, and interplay with financial aid. It also addresses state-level variations, compliance issues, and common pitfalls. Using real-world scenarios, the course evaluates when 529 plans are advantageous, the limitations families may encounter, and alternative approaches to education and long-term savings. Participants will gain a clear understanding of tax benefits, penalties, strategic funding approaches, and planning opportunities for high-net-worth families as well as typical households.

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.

Data security is a front-of-mind topic for most businesses because the risk and cost statistics are sobering. Each of us is in the crosshairs because a typical internet-connected computer faces a cyberattack every 39 seconds. Businesses of all sizes should be cognizant of the ethical issues that must be considered when planning their approach to privacy and data security. In this webinar, we will explore both the risks we have traditionally faced in the workplace personally, as well as the novel set of data privacy threats and compliance challenge issues employers face with a remote and mobile workforce.