CPE Catalog & Events

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.

A challenge for many small business owners is choosing the `right' type of retirement plan for their businesses. Many hesitate to make a choice because they are intimidated by the governing rules. In those cases, an IRA-based retirement plan is an easy, effective, and efficient way to start a retirement plan. These IRA-based plans - SEP IRAs and SIMPLE IRAs - have low maintenance costs and are easy to communicate to employees. In some cases, employer contributions are discretionary, providing the business owners with the choice of whether to fund every year.

There are numerous federal laws that restrict what businesses can do in terms of hiring and firing employees. Many of these laws impose significant penalties if employers violate them. Accordingly, it is crucial that all employers and their professional advisors understand these laws and apply them to their employment practices.

Since the early 2000s, the estate tax burden on taxpayers has gradually decreased along with the number of practitioners specializing in the field. Nevertheless, some of your most wealthy clients will owe estate tax and this issue will eventually be thrust upon you. Finding an affordable, competent specialist who you trust to work with you and your client may be difficult. Learning the basics of the tax and how to complete the form will give you confidence to help your clients navigate that difficult time.

Charts and graphs are nothing new. However, many professionals struggle with building compelling visualizations. If that statement describes you, participate in this session to improve your skills in creating Excel charts and other visualizations. As a result, you will create visualizations to enhance your communication skills. This session is much more than just a seminar on fundamental charts. Instead, in this session, you will learn how to create advanced charts that are interactive, dynamic, and aesthetically pleasing - three qualities that will help to ensure that your readers and audience will understand the data you are presenting. This seminar is a must if you want to improve your communication skills.

Breaking the Wall of blind acceptance; avoiding habitual complacency and Yoking the dots between cause and effect.

Want to automatically update the date and time on your spreadsheet? Or pick text strings from other cells to automatically copy and update to a different cell? You will learn how to incorporate text, date and time functions in your spreadsheet that will make data entry a breeze. In this webinar, we will focus on Text functions and Date & Time functions. In the Text function section, you will learn how to use the various Text functions to join and separate text entries as well as formatting the results. In the Date & Time function section, you will learn how to perform various date and time calculations. This session is presented using Excel 2013. Regardless of the version you are using, ALL concepts covered in this course apply to ALL versions of Excel. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Getting ready for busy season involves not only knowing what's new for the current year, but also understanding how the changing limits, phaseouts and other rules apply to current-year returns. With major legislation enacted over the past few years, the present course will constitute a one-stop "shop" that brings you the essential individual tax information. In addition, this course provides an up-to-date review of important tax form changes, new tax forms, new limitations, key developments as they are reflected in the IRS forms, and IRS filing issues and deadlines that will be invaluable to attendees who prepare tax returns during busy season.

Employment taxes are often overlooked as an area where more planning may be effective. Payroll taxes have become an increasing burden for the average business and IRS penalties for noncompliance have risen dramatically in recent years. As a result, they have also been subject to employer incentives. The Service has announced that uncovering noncompliance by employers ranks high on its audit list. This course presents an overview of employee versus independent contractor criteria, the federal payroll taxes form, Form 1099, and related compliance issues.

'Whether your organization is developing a new control framework or seeking to strengthen its current controls; practical development and implementation is critical.  This course will review the intersectionality of controls and provide real-world examples and best practices from people to technology and process.  

Internal Control Fundamentals - Satisfying Audit Requirements for Evaluating Design and Implementation is a critical foundational course. Obtaining an understanding of the entity and its environment is part of assessing risk of material misstatement, in order to design the nature, timing and extent of further audit procedures necessary to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support the auditor's report. A critical component of understanding the entity and its environment is to evaluate the design and implementation of internal control over financial reporting. Note: This course is recommended as a part of a 16-hour audit skills curriculum for beginning auditors, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has responsibilities for evaluating the design and implementation of internal controls over financial reporting. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

First, in a four-part series, new and experienced leaders dive deeper into the keys to becoming more effective leaders. In this course, we'll explore the journey as you move from an individual contributor to the role of a supervisor or manager. Explore the mindset shift accompanying your updated role and responsibilities to set you up for success. Determine the type of leader you want to be and identify specific growth areas in your leadership. Be sure to register for each course in this series: New Manager Series: Making the Shift from Individual Contributor to Supervisor 2024 New Manager Series: Balancing Leadership & Likeability 2024 New Manager Series: Making the Shift from Individual Contributor to Supervisor 2024 New Manager Series: The How To's of Leading 2024

How grateful are you? In this critically important webinar, we will explore exactly what gratitude is and why it is a crucial component of your work as a CPA. Even if you believe you're already a deeply grateful person, you'll still learn some new strategies for expressing gratitude effectively. Forbes Contributor Bruce Weinstein, The Ethics Guy, will show you how to use LinkedIn in a novel way to say "thank you." You'll also find better and worse ways of letting clients, team members, family members and friends know that you care about them. You'll understand why gratitude is a matter of ethics and not merely etiquette. Finally, you'll discover how to use questions about gratitude in job interviews and performance reviews. Why not hire and promote people who are not only knowledgeable and skilled but also grateful? You will be thankful for having taken this valuable webinar! This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

We all know that Fraud Happens. But, why? Why do people we think we can trust let us down? This session will explore the minds of white-collar criminals and examine some recent high-profile fraud cases. Why did they do it? How did they do it? What were the warning signs? If you think that fraud cannot happen to your organization, this session might give you pause.

Penalty abatement is a technique that tax practitioners can utilize to help their clients reduce penalties and interest they owe to the IRS if the taxpayer can prove “reasonable cause.” This informative and insightful webinar will provide you with some insider tips, practical steps and effective strategies to help your client manage IRS tax penalties and interest. Learn about various types of penalties that you may face and the various forms and procedures used for requesting penalty and interest abatement, including First Time and Reasonable Cause abatement. Plus, learn about the procedure to follow when requesting refund of paid penalties. **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 kori.herrera@acpen.com.  

Storytelling makes wisdom stick.

Have you ever wanted to reduce the number of financial statement review points you receive? Have you ever been curious about a reviewer's thought process? This session will help you understand the role of an engagement quality control reviewer. You will leave this session understanding the role of an engagement quality control reviewer, and an appreciation of best practices to minimize your exposure to critique when your work is subject to review. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Our guidance on ethics comes from the AICPA and other groups, but it does not fully address the “why” behind ethics. Understanding what motivates people and understanding those people are key to both solving ethical dilemmas and workplace issues that can lead to greater job satisfaction and efficiency. To correct an issue, you need to delve into the root cause – the why?

Financial Acumen for the HR Professional is a part of the series "The HR Professional's Guide to Evolving Business Strategy, Finance and Development." This course identifies how HR Professionals can increase their financial understanding to participate more effectively with management as well as understand the financial results and implications for the business.

This course will review the Accounting Standard Updates issued by the FASB that impact nonprofit entities. We will also look at the work of the Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee (NAC) and the projects they are advising the FASB on.