CPE Catalog & Events

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.

Employee benefit plan audits present unique compliance and audit considerations that require auditors to remain alert to both recurring issues and evolving requirements. This course addresses current standards and developments affecting employee benefit plan audits while focusing on practical considerations encountered during EBP engagements. Participants will review common compliance issues identified in 401(k) plan audits and considerations related to correcting those issues. The course also covers best practices for audit areas such as participant data, payroll and compensation, contributions and remittances, participant loans, hardship distributions, investments, distributions, investment income allocations, and plan mergers and acquisitions. The program is designed for auditors of employee benefit plans who have basic knowledge of EBP audits and want to review best practices, common compliance issues, and considerations that arise during EBP audit engagements. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

In today's rapidly changing world, finance professionals are required to wear many hats and are often the keys to the success of the organization. On one hand, they need to be abreast of the latest proven financial skills for making the best decisions, and on the other hand, they need the best skills to motivate, manage, and lead people. Being pigeonholed into one area or another is neither good for career building nor good for the organization. We'll cover the latest issues that all CFOs and controllers need to know about and provide how-to guidance to allow for immediate use in their organizations.

Cyber threats targeting accounting and finance professionals are growing more sophisticated, putting sensitive financial data at risk. This session explores the most pressing cybersecurity challenges accounting and finance professionals face today, including email fraud, phishing attacks, cloud security risks, and securing remote work environments. It also addresses the role of cyber insurance. Through real-world case studies and practical strategies, participants will learn how to recognize and mitigate cyber threats, evaluate cyber insurance policies, and implement security measures that protect their firms and clients. Attendees will leave with actionable steps to strengthen their cybersecurity posture and ensure compliance with evolving regulatory and industry standards.

Starting a business is tough! There are lots of decisions to be made and things to think about. You may feel like you have a great idea. You have done your marketing research, developed a prototype, and even looked at locations for your new office. Then it dawns on you.... What type of entity do I need to be? Is there really an advantage to choosing one entity type over the other? In this class, we will dig into the differences between entity types - from taxes to liability. We will also look at the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of accounting. Whether you are a small business owner looking to start something new or a practitioner looking to expand your client advisory services, this course is the one for you!

Recent economic volatility has created added stress on accounting and finance professionals and their clients. When individuals or businesses lose money, they often blame others for their misfortune. Business disputes can sometimes lead to accounting malpractice claims. Understanding the most common types of accounting malpractice claims provides a roadmap of what not to do. This course provides a current overview of accounting malpractice litigation throughout the United States. The goal is to learn about the types of claims asserted against CPA firms and strategies to employ to avoid such claims. Reviewing malpractice claims allows us to identify patterns of behavior that may reduce litigation risk.

Do you love PivotTables? Of course, we all do! Traditional PivotTables are incredible, but they do have limitations. If you have ever encountered one of these limitations, you'll be excited to learn that by using the Data Model as the source for PivotTables, you'll be able to bypass many of the restrictions that exist with traditional PivotTables. The data model (also referred to as Power Pivot) is included in Excel 2016+ for Windows and available as a free download for previous versions (excluding Excel for Mac). Using the data model enables you to build PivotTables that were previously not practical. If you frequently build PivotTables and would like to do more with them, you'll want to understand how to use the data model (Power Pivot) to enhance your reports. Note about Excel versions: Power Pivot is not available in all versions of Excel, including Excel for Mac. If you would like to see if Power Pivot is available in your version of Excel, visit the Microsoft site.

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.

Digital assets have moved from the fringes of tax administration into the core of IRS compliance and enforcement strategy. Practitioners today face a rapidly evolving landscape in which cryptocurrency transactions, digital wallets, exchanges, and blockchain activity present both unprecedented transparency and significant visibility gaps. This course provides a practitioner-level examination of how the IRS approaches digital asset compliance, where enforcement efforts are focused, and where reporting blind spots still exist. Drawing on firsthand experience inside the IRS, Trish Turner, former Head of Digital Assets at the Internal Revenue Service and now with CryptoTaxGirl, explains how digital asset data is identified, analyzed, and used in examinations, collections, and criminal investigations. Participants will explore how the IRS obtains digital asset information, including exchange reporting, summons activity, blockchain analytics, and third-party data sources. The course also addresses common compliance failures seen in audits, the practical limitations of current reporting regimes, and how visibility gaps affect risk assessment for both taxpayers and practitioners. Emphasis is placed on practical takeaways for tax professionals advising clients with digital asset exposure, including how to identify red flags, assess compliance risk, respond to IRS inquiries, and navigate evolving reporting obligations. This course is designed to help practitioners move beyond surface-level crypto rules and understand how enforcement actually works in practice. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Excel charts and other visualizations can be excellent tools for conveying your intended message. Join the K2 team in this session to learn more about how you can create compelling visualizations to help you communicate key business messages.

This course provides a concise overview of the emerging role of CPAs as independent evaluators of artificial intelligence systems. Participants will explore how established accounting competencies-including professional skepticism, assurance, internal controls, risk assessment, and evidence evaluation-can be applied to AI. The course introduces major AI standards and frameworks, common AI failure modes, evaluation techniques, governance considerations, regulatory developments, and opportunities for CPAs to provide credible AI assurance and advisory services. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Accounting and finance practitioners are continually asked for strategic planning advice. In this course, we will cover topics that will make clients, and their advisors, tax smart and tax prepared for the coming year and beyond. This program is a two-hour review and analysis of what we consider some of the most important changes from the OBBBA impacting both individual and business clients.

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.

PivotTable is a fancy term for an Excel report that summarizes data. If you have not yet had the good fortune of exploring PivotTables, it is about time. In this session, we'll dig into PivotTables, understand the report layout options, and examine PivotTable formulas.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of SOC 2 reports, focusing on their structure, purpose, and how to interpret and apply them in a compliance or risk management context. Participants will learn about the five Trust Services Criteria (Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy), the difference between Type I and Type II reports, and the key components of a SOC 2 report including the system description, management assertion, and testing results. The course also covers common pitfalls in relying on SOC 2 reports and best practices for evaluating scope, subservice providers, and complementary user controls. Designed for auditors, compliance professionals, and vendor risk reviewers, this session equips attendees to effectively analyze and apply SOC 2 reports in real-world scenarios. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Do you use Microsoft (Office) 365? Are you satisfied that you are getting the most that you can from it? If you answered yes then no, this course will provide a really high return on your investment of time and money in this application suite. John Higgins, one of the profession's leading experts on the integration of Microsoft 365 into business, will explain and demonstrate the depth and breadth of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. The course is designed to raise your awareness of all that you can do with Microsoft 365 and substantially increase your monthly subscription ROI. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Learn how material participation rules can significantly impact the tax treatment of your real estate activities. This course explains the IRS tests for material participation, how to distinguish active from passive activities, and strategies for documenting participation to maximize tax benefits. A detailed analysis of the self-rental passive activity rules will be given, including forms reporting examples and integrates them with the flow-through entity rules related to self-rental. 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 agentic artificial intelligence and its emerging role in audit and assurance. Participants will examine how AI agents differ from traditional generative AI by planning tasks, using software tools, taking actions, and completing multi-step workflows with limited human intervention. The course explores current audit applications, including substantive procedures, confirmations, risk assessment, disclosure testing, and continuous monitoring, while addressing new risks involving autonomy, permissions, prompt injection, multi-agent systems, and accountability. Participants will also examine regulatory developments, professional standards, controls, evidence requirements, ethics, liability, and the strategic implications of agentic AI for audit firms. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Looking to improve the quality of your 401(k) benefit plan audits? This is the course for you. Based on recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor and peer reviews on employee benefit plan audits, we know auditors need to up their game to meet stakeholder demands and provide the best possible audit services. In this advanced course, we will discuss the audit and reporting requirements in accordance with auditing standards. We will also discuss laws and regulations (such as ERISA) that are unique to employee benefit plans and provide practical guidance on their application. Course topics will focus on the most common compliance issues identified in 401(k) audits by the Department of Labor and peer reviews, as well as recommended corrections. Auditors will identify best practices for auditing areas such as payroll and compensation, participant loans, hardship distributions, investments, and plan mergers and acquisitions.

This course provides U.S.-based accounting and finance professionals with an in-depth understanding of the EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, the first comprehensive AI regulation in the world. It explores the Act's key provisions, including its risk classification framework, compliance requirements for high-risk systems, and transparency obligations. Participants will gain insight into how the Act affects organizations operating internationally and how to prepare for compliance challenges. Interactive activities are integrated throughout the course to reinforce key concepts.