CPE Catalog & Events

Retaining Talent in a Competitive Marketplace -Creating a Benefits Program Employees Care About In today's competitive marketplace, retaining talented employees is becoming increasingly difficult. A solid benefits program can make a difference in the fight for talent - but only if those benefits matter to the employees you are trying to hire! Through statistics and case studies, this course will explore what benefits are most valuable to employees. We will also explore the basic types of retirement and health insurance plans and discuss what financial leaders should consider before adopting a benefits package. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

The first half of this course will help you gain an invaluable skill set to advance your career by learning how to design and apply a comprehensive cost accounting system modeled on a real company. This course shows you how to precisely identify all direct and indirect manufacturing costs for each product, link direct costs to their base drivers, and recognize fluctuating variable and semi-fixed costs that are actually direct in nature. You’ll also learn how to trace certain fixed costs to products, distinguish which fixed costs are directly assignable, and apply budgeting techniques to establish accurate standard costs. The second half will help you enhance your career with an invaluable skill set in cost accounting. This program presents a comprehensive cost system based on a real company, guiding you through the accurate classification of manufacturing overhead costs. Learn to distinguish between true variable and fluctuating variable costs, identify fixed overhead costs that are direct or directly assignable, and account for variances from standard costs. In this model, all manufacturing overhead costs are fully traced to products, providing practical insights you can apply directly in the workplace.

This course is designed for financial professionals looking to understand Form 1120S. It covers the essential aspects of S corporation taxation, including the preparation of Form 1120S, determining taxable income, and accurately reporting and allocating income, deductions, and credits. Electing Subchapter S status as well as reviewing the mechanics of electing Subchapter S status will be discussed. It will further compare the S Corporation to other forms of entities, along with compliance with corporate formalities. Highlights of Form 1120S will be discussed, including build-in capital gains, accountable plans, taxable fringe benefits, officer reasonable compensation and audit strategies. Schedules K-1, K-2, K-3, and effectively connected income will be reviewed in this course as well. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This program addresses the many issues impacting investment scams. The unique challenges facing practitioners in finding deductions for the horrendous losses many clients experience due to these scams are related to actual practice situations – and then analyzed for their deduction implications. The situations are based on real life experiences of practitioner clients.

A controller's role in digital transformation is to act as a key facilitator in integrating new technologies within the finance function. This process moves beyond traditional accounting tasks to actively analyze data, provide insights based on financial information. This will ensure the smooth implementation of new systems that streamline financial operations, all while maintaining compliance and financial control within the organization.  This course will introduce some of those topics and methods Controllers are beginning to turn to.

This session is the beginning in a series on the new revenue recognition standard. The standard outlines five steps for proper compliance. At the surface, these steps seem simplistic. However, there are many considerations that should be considered within each step based on your process and industry. This course is designed to provide an overview of the technical guidance and outline the five steps involved in the revenue recognition model. We also explore some concepts to consider within each step and then evaluate some challenges that specific industry's may have when complying with the standard. Future courses will further delve into each step and provide example and scenarios that should be considered to properly apply the step.

Perhaps the most important element of the budget process is its communication.  If management does not understand the budget – there is an issue. Knowing the right ways to communicate at all levels is essential to stakeholders laying an ownership claim to successful budgets.  This session reveals several key guidelines in successful budget presentations and will identify key problems in how people often communicate financial plans. Presenting your budget and reporting is the final part of a four part series, but can easily stand on its own course that is intended to be fun, enjoyable and educational.

Wow! So many new Excel features and so little time! Microsoft continues to add tremendous functionality to Excel - the business professional's tool of choice. Yet most Excel users have not discovered these new tools and remain mired in yesterday's practices for working in Excel. In this session, you will learn how to use many of Excel's latest features to work more efficiently and effectively with your spreadsheets. Participate in this session to learn about recently released features such as PIVOTBY, GROUPBY, Office Scripts, integration with Copilot, new ways to share and collaborate in Excel, and data entry and formula improvements. If you work with Excel - and who doesn't - this session is necessary to help you improve your efficiency and effectiveness when using Excel.

Leaders were once chosen for their character, but today we live in an age where loudmouthed extroverts seem to take center stage in everything, including business, politics and entertainment.  While the talkative, charismatic leader makes the front page of business magazines, recent research shows that successful business leaders tend to be more reserved, pensive and sometimes outright shy.  Learn why your desire to spend significant time inside your own head may be your greatest asset. Whether you are introverted or not, you likely work with, manage or are a related to an introvert.  We will discuss proven methods to better understand introverts, how to manage them, and how to get the most out of their amazing talents.  If you want to enhance your leadership skills, this seminar is for you. 

Two conmen used lies and falsified documents to convince the State of Tennessee to give them a $3,000,000 economic development grant to create 1,000 jobs by purchasing and rehabilitating a vacant factory in rural Tennessee. Instead, they spent most of the money on an extravagant lifestyle and invested over $1M in a scheme to defraud the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) out of over $30,000,000 pursuant to a contract to provide the tarps for areas such as Puerto Rico, affected by hurricanes. This session provides a detailed case study of how the investigators accumulated, organized, and analyzed hundreds of documents, identified the falsifications and misrepresentations, conducted multiple interviews, and ultimately convicted the conmen. This case study provides multiple takeaways for detecting and investigating grant fraud, which is especially relevant in light of the numerous federal stimulus programs in recent years.

This course introduces practical ways that public accountants can use Excel to enhance both the efficiency and effectiveness of client engagements. We will reinforce core concepts by illustrating ways that Excel is a tool for analysis and reporting. We will introduce numerous analytical methods and techniques by using practical examples to illustrate how to unleash the power of Excel when obtaining, analyzing, and reporting information.

Intro to Governmental Accounting 102 is the natural follow up course to the original Intro to Governmental Accounting 101. In this session, we will tackle unique things like what makes a fund a major fund, what are the differing basis of accountings used, why geography matters in the world of state and local governmental reporting, and many other intermediate type topics. A great course to take after you have taken Intro to Governmental Accounting 101.  

Microsoft Teams is designed to be the foundation of your Microsoft 365 ecosystem deployment. When deployed effectively, Teams can serve as a powerful platform for communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing across your firm or business. Unfortunately, most organizations are substantially underutilizing the capabilities of Teams. This course provides a review and demonstration of the key features of Microsoft Teams that you can harness to optimize the return on your Microsoft 365 investment. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

It is important for accounting and finance practitioners to help their clients understand and apply the many new provisions of OBBBA. Many of these changes are effective for the 2025 tax year and beyond. This program is an introduction to and review of some of these critical changes and their impact on taxpayers. This program is a two-hour review and analysis of what we consider some of the most current and important changes from the OBBBA. If you want the latest OBBBA information to relay to your clients, this course is for you.

This course introduces CPAs, financial auditors as well as technology auditors to the foundational concepts of IT auditing. Participants will learn how IT systems support financial reporting, how to assess risk in IT environments, and how IT General Controls (ITGCs) and application controls impact audit procedures. The course also introduces IT audit planning and scoping to help auditors determine what systems and controls to evaluate.

This course provides an overview of the Quality Management standards and the requirements under SQMS 1. The AICPA requires CPA firms with accounting and auditing practices to implement a system of quality management, including firms performing preparation and compilation engagements. While the objective is to improve quality within the profession, implementation may seem overwhelming. To assist, the AICPA has developed practice aids to guide firms through the development and documentation process. In this webcast, Jeff walks through where to find the practice aids, how to use them, required documentation, use of the risk assessment template, and development of final documentation. Practical guidance is provided throughout to simplify implementation.

This course is essential and designed to assist those who need to remain up to date on recently issued and effective guidance impacting the accounting and auditing of private companies. Learn about the accounting requirements involving crypto assets, income taxes, joint ventures, governmental grants, interim reporting, and hedging. Understand the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) recently issued Statements on Auditing Standards (SASs) and Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARSs).

This course reviews the legal, fiduciary, and federal tax responsibilities of an executor or personal representative during the administration of a decedent’s estate. Participants will examine the executor’s duties from initial appointment through final distribution, including identifying and managing estate assets, settling creditor claims, and administering distributions to beneficiaries. The course also reviews filing requirements for the decedent’s final Form 1040, the estate’s Form 1041, and the federal estate tax return, Form 706, along with the treatment of income in respect of a decedent (IRD) and basis adjustments. Participants will also examine IRS procedural requirements, including obtaining an EIN for the estate, responding to IRS notices, and recognizing potential audit risks. Emphasis is placed on practical estate administration procedures, executor liability considerations, and maintaining proper estate accounting records and documentation to support compliance with federal tax requirements. *Please Note:  If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Course Materials Tab and submit to terri.storer@acpen.com    

The QuickBooks Online (QBO) ecosystem is rapidly expanding, with millions of small businesses now relying on it for their accounting and business management needs. However, many QBO implementations lack adequate internal control infrastructures, which can lead to potential risks and inefficiencies. This is often due to a lack of understanding of the internal control options available in the cloud-based version of QuickBooks and how to implement them effectively. Join our session to learn about the four common types of internal controls and how to assess the internal control structure of a small business. We'll guide you through the opportunities to enhance internal controls in QBO environments using features found within the application. Additionally, you'll discover additional internal control procedures for situations where adequate controls cannot be established in QBO. Contrary to popular belief, QBO-based organizations can indeed benefit from strong internal controls, and this session will show you how. Don't miss this opportunity to strengthen your QuickBooks Online implementation and ensure your business is safeguarded against risks. Sign up now and take the first step towards a more secure and efficient QBO environment!

This course covers recently issued accounting and financial statement reporting standards from the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Key implementation challenges and experiences from public company filings will be identified. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.