CPE Catalog & Events

The newest acronym in the business community is ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Investors’ demand enhanced information about how companies are approaching environmental sustainability. (Sustainability accounting) The foundation of sustainability reporting is for an organization to identify and prioritize its impacts on the economy, environment, and people - to be transparent about their impacts The foundation of sustainability reporting is for an organization to identify and prioritize its impacts on the economy, environment, and people - to be transparent about their impacts This session is an introduction to the topic of ESG and what accountants and management should know

Designed for accounting and attestation practitioners at all levels in both public accounting and business and industry, this course provides a detailed review of SAS No. 145 and brings you up to date on FASB and AICPA standards issued over the past few years. The course also provides many hands-on examples and illustrations to help apply the guidance in practice and discusses other important A&A practice matters to be aware of, including an update on peer review and audit quality.

This course will cover all pronouncements of the FASB relevant to nonpublic entities. It will be presented in two distinct sections: First, we will identify all Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) issued by the FASB in 2023 and 2024, as well as those ASUs issued in prior years that become effective in 2024. For each pronouncement, we will identify the topic or topics affected, the most significant provisions, how the provisions affect financial reporting and disclosure, and, when possible, the reasons for the change. This will enable those associated with the GAAP financial statements of nonpublic entities to determine which pronouncements affect them or their clients, requiring further research. In the second segment, we will look at the most common financial statement elements that have changed in recent years. It will include an in-depth analysis that will demonstrate how these elements have traditionally been accounted for and how they have evolved, concluding with the current requirements for reporting and disclosing.

Though many clients see Social Security as a government benefit, it is a covered worker's investment asset to be managed like any other asset. Examine issues like how Social Security benefits are calculated, identifying benefit-claiming strategies, and what spouses can do now to maximize benefits at retirement. You'll learn how Social Security works and explore common planning situations-including workers with and without spouses, sandwich-generation families with dependent parents and minor children, and surviving and/or divorced spouses-and techniques to maximize your clients' benefits.

Excel is the accountant’s tool of choice for analyzing and reporting financial data, yet many use time-consuming and error-prone processes to complete everyday tasks. Regardless of your level of experience, if you use Excel, you need this course to learn more efficient and effective ways to work with Excel. In this course, you will discover countless tips, tricks, and techniques to improve your general level of productivity, reduce the amount of time you spend on mundane tasks, such as formatting, and customize Excel for greater accuracy and efficiency. You will also learn valuable formula-building skills, best practices for linking Excel data from other worksheets and workbooks, and how to streamline report generation and printing processes. Your K2 instructor will reinforce key learning points throughout the program with practical, real-world examples that will improve your understanding and comprehension of the topics presented. This highly acclaimed course draws on over twenty-five years of experience in delivering spreadsheet training to accounting and financial professionals, which assures you of the relevance and usefulness of the information and guidance provided during the program.

Specifically designed for preparation, compilation, and review practitioners, this course will provide you with a comprehensive review and hands-on application for performing financial statement preparation, compilation, and review engagements. You will learn the ins and outs of applying SSARS No. 21, Clarification and Recodification, as well as the additional guidance related to SSARS engagements through the issuance of SSARS Nos. 22-26 by the ARSC. In addition to SSARS 26, the entire suite of quality management standards is discussed. However, knowing the standards is not enough. You need to be able to effectively apply them. To support this, the course will review recent peer review feedback on SSARS engagements, providing insights on how to successfully apply this guidance. Not only will this course bring you up to date on SSARS requirements and guidance, but more importantly, it will provide you with practical examples and illustrations to help you effectively and efficiently perform these types of engagements. This course is intended to be your go-to reference for training your staff and managing your SSARS No. 21-26 services in compliance with professional, ethical, and technical requirements.

This course is designed as a comprehensive guide to the core concepts of trust and estate income tax preparation. The course explains the common terminology and complicated income tax rules of estates and trusts, fiduciary accounting, and an introduction to or refresher on preparing Form 1041. This practical, over 300-page manual is an excellent reference source for your practice, which begins with quite simple cases. Building upon that base throughout the manual, the course ends with two complicated preparation cases, one trust and one estate, each with filled-in forms.

The objective of this course is to train new, rusty, or returning-to-practice staff with a hands-on, pencil-pushing gold standard for preparing Form 1065. Common to advanced issues of partnerships are explored in the current course that can double as a quick and practical reference guide for tax treatment and tax preparation guidelines. Within each chapter, we illustrate various parts and areas of interest when preparing a 1065, including examples and corresponding tax forms. We bring it all together in the final two chapters with a comprehensive example that integrates and links all previous chapters. The course and instruction delivery are geared toward a basic understanding and progress to more complex issues via Surgent's "Step-by-Step" preparation guide.

Many Excel users have received little or no formal training to help them use the ubiquitous productivity application. This session can help users that wish to improve their Excel skills to increase their productivity. The material starts by covering basic topics such as time saving tips and keyboard shortcuts and then moves to more advanced areas like conditional formatting and complex formula building. Users that find themselves looking at the spreadsheets that others design and wishing they could do as much with Excel will benefit greatly by taking this course. 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 most recent developments impacting partnerships operating as LLCs, with a focus on legislative, administrative, and tax form changes. Emphasis will be placed on partners "tax basis" capital accounts, now required for tax form reporting. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Up-to-the-minute guidance Hear the latest updates on the CARES Act and progress of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) from AICPA executive leads Susan Coffey, EVP - Public Practice, and Erik Asgeirsson, President and CEO, CPA.com in these weekly town hall webcasts. Topics will be updated weekly. *** Free for AICPA members

This course aims to reveal many examples of companies, leaders and industries who are building new talent models. The world of work is less certain than ever before and this world requires experimentation. In this course you will learn about many experiments that organizations are deploying to build a new model that fits the pace of change the world is experiencing today.  IN this course we will consider many new models and approaches and learn from them. In a world of work with few benchmarks - today organizations need to learn how to experiment and become the benchmark. 

Emerging from the pandemic is a workplace culture governed by values. Far from a soft approach, it can drive significant business results. Organizations that embrace an empathetic culture increase performance and decrease turnover, while their customers report a more positive experience. Additionally, being more “person-focused” strongly correlates with more effective ethics and compliance programs. These insights can provide a roadmap for the "new normal" as the world emerges from the crisis. How employees and management move forward from this experience will shape the workplace for decades to come.

Governmental accounting is very unique. This course will introduce the financial reporting basics for governments, including fund accounting and the modified accrual basis of accounting. Attendees will analyze the layouts of the fund financial statements as well as the government-wide financial statements. The course will also cover the concept of component units, Management Discussion & Analysis (MD&A), and the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

In today’s real estate market, IRC §1031 tax-deferred exchanges can be one of the most important planning tools available to the real estate investor. The use of this technique is filled with pitfalls and traps. This new course will assist the practitioner in understanding the mechanics of a tax-deferred exchange and the value of a tax-deferred exchange in both tax and financial planning. Updated August 2022

Managing a strong network is one of the most important things you can do to grow professionally. Yet despite its importance, maintaining an effective network is often not taught in undergraduate and graduate schools. The good news is that managing and growing a network is easier than it sounds. In fact, most professionals have some level of basic networking skills simply from helping someone find a job, attending an industry conference, or seeking professional connections through social media. Effective networking involves more than simply collecting contacts. Strong networks should be relevant to your career and consist of people you trust. Personal networks are just as important as professional networks and the two often overlap. In this course, we explore ways to strengthen and grow networks by examining proven strategies that have helped individuals meet their personal and professional goals.

This program addresses the many complex financial and tax accounting issues that are common in S corporation transactions, with discussion of common pitfalls and the new AICPA "small" GAAP accounting standards.

How do you raise your skills to the next level to master the Controller or CFO role?  Welcome to a course that provides insights that align the CGMA Competency Framework. The course will examine each of the areas: Technical, Business, Leadership and People to increase your competency.  How are your technical skills?  Are you a traditional accountant or have you learned to expand your technical skills to go beyond “what are the financial numbers?” to “why did these financial results occur?”  Are you able to use ratios to understand the business dynamics and the implications to change course or take corrective action?  Are the systems that you implement and operate best practices or merely stop-gap solutions? How are your business skills?  Can you set a vision? Can you develop a strategy?  Do you understand the macroeconomic environment of your organization?   Can you lead a major project to a successful conclusion?  This session will explore the role of business as opposed to tracking the results of the business. How are your people skills?  How good is your ability to influence others? How are successful are your negotiation skills?   How well can you communicate?  Are you a collaborator or a partner?  This section will help accountants understand that it is people skills that drive the overall success of the accounting operations. Finally, how are your Leadership skills?  Do you inspire staff or make them angry?  Do you know why your staff work for your company and you?  Do you understand what employees want from their position?  Do you know how to deal with a difficult staff person?  Can you lead difficult change?  This session will help you recognize what leadership truly is as opposed to what passes for day to day management.

Being consistently ethical is a challenge. Most of us have had to make tough choices.  This session will discuss real world cases involving thorny ethical dilemmas and how to resolve them. Being ethical is not the same as complying with the law and ethical issues are not always black and white. This session will review different professional ethical standards.  What does integrity mean in the office? If you want to learn lessons from the best in a short time, this session is for you.  Participate in engaging dialogue about how to prepare for the inevitable ethical situations.  These lessons are valuable for every business leader.

Financial accounting for trusts and estates is one of the least understood branches of accounting. It is not particularly concerned with recording income and expenses but is obsessed with determining whether receipts and expenditures are assigned to income or principal/corpus. This course will dive into this tricky area and provide a reporting guide for fiduciary accounting.