CPE + Events Catalog

This course examines actual fraud circumstances through the lens of potential prevention. We will examine how selected frauds were accomplished and consider what internal controls may have prevented fraudsters' ability to accomplish their nefarious acts. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Understand the new pronouncement from FASB specifically related to financial instruments and leases. Learn up-to-date requirements and how to apply the guidance.

By the nature of our work and training, financial professionals have more personal finance knowledge than the general population. However, sometimes we spend so much time planning our company's future that we neglect or defer taking steps to build our own personal net worth. If you are dissatisfied about the speed that you are accumulating savings, this session will help put you on the right track. Even if you are meeting your goals, this session will provide insights and ideas which will add to and reinforce what you may already be doing.

Have you ever opened a blank workbook in Excel and just stared at it, wondering where to begin? Or, do you spend most of your time just formatting cells to make your spreadsheet look pretty? Or, do you just wonder if there is a better way to create your spreadsheets? This course is designed to take you from a blank worksheet to a completed report. Our example will be a financial statement but you can use the knowledge gained in the course and apply it to your specific job function. You will learn to import data instead of manually entering it. Learn that you can use functions and formulas to build calculations that will eliminate the need to manually manipulate your data. Our goal is to make sure you have all the information needed to build reports without having to manually enter it every month. You will learn techniques to use your data to build your reports. This will include building formulas that are flexible with your changing data. You will learn techniques to validate your report calculations so you can improve the accuracy of your reports. You will also learn how to quickly format reports and techniques that allow you to efficiently change the format. Lastly, you will learn how PivotTables can provide a more dynamic reporting option instead of using pre-defined report formats. Obviously, we will be covering a lot of ground, so to enhance your learning experience all examples will be provided to each participant along with instructions. This will allow you to follow along and use as you apply your new knowledge to your spreadsheets. This session is presented using Excel 2019/Office 365. Regardless of the version you are using, most 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.

When a purchaser buys an existing partner's partnership interest or the interest of a member of a limited liability corporation (LLC) taxed as a partnership, the amount paid becomes the basis for the purchaser's partnership interest (outside basis). If the partnership's assets have appreciated sufficiently, the difference between the new partner's inside and outside basis can be substantial. This disparity can deprive the new partner of depreciation deductions and inflate his or her share of the gain from subsequent property dispositions unless a Section 754 election is in effect. The Section 754 election can also apply when a partnership makes a distribution of property and the basis of the distributed property to the partnership and the basis the partner/distributee will take in the distributed property are not equal. In this case, a partnership can recover basis it would otherwise lose if the 754 election were not in effect.

S corporation taxation has a lot of pieces. There are helpful elections you can make that can potentially save your client money, but there are also rigid rules to adhere to. For example, if there is more than one class of stock, it can terminate the S corporation election. Learning how to successfully navigate these rules can make all the difference. In this course, we will discuss some of the more common specialty areas experienced by practitioners - late filing relief for S corporation elections, disproportionate distributions, and selling S corporation shares. While these items may not come up on every single Form 1120-S, you will be able to add more value to clients when they do.

This comprehensive case-driven training is designed to get the accountant up to speed quickly in the area of basis calculations and distribution planning for the owners of pass-thru entities (i.e., S corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies (LLCs)). The cornerstone of this course is the line-by-line analysis of the Schedule K-1s and how it affects the basis calculations.  **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

When federal prosecutors contemplate charges against business owners, two of their most potent and readily available tools include charges for mail fraud and wire fraud. The elements to convict for these crimes are clear: 1) The defendant devised or intended to devise a scheme or artifice to defraud, and, 2) in executing or attempting to execute the scheme, the defendant used or caused the use of mail or an interstate wire or wireless transmission. Mail, emails, cell phone calls, text messages, Internet transmissions, and even tweets could form the basis for charges of wire fraud or mail fraud. The crime of wire fraud is a reason that many business owners go to prison. In this course, we'll learn about a few people who've experienced a conviction for wire fraud. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Internal Controls to Mitigate Financial Reporting Risk - Designing Stronger Internal Controls for Small or Mid-Size Entities provide practical analysis and tips for how a reporting entity can manage financial reporting risk in an effective and efficient way. Internal controls are applied within an organization to satisfy objectives related to operations, compliance, and financial reporting. This module will also differentiate the auditor's responsibilities for internal controls under Sarbanes Oxley, Government Auditing Standards and Single Audit Act requirements. Note: This course is recommended as a part of a 16-hour audit skills curriculum for supervisory or managerial auditors, while it is also appropriate for anyone who has responsibilities for designing or evaluating the design of internal controls. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Keep current on ethical requirements imposed by standards-setting organizations and legislative action. Discuss regulatory, legal and ethical requirements affecting the profession. Take a pragmatic approach to ethics, recognize potential regulatory problems, and avoid liability.

Valuation techniques and cash management activities are two other tool categories that can round out your analytical toolbox. In this course we will initially discuss how to turn your financial plan into a powerful valuation engine.  We then will discuss the formation of an efficient cash management program based on solid banker relationships.  Finally, we will review Ten Steps for keeping your financial toolbox full.

The need for a forensic accountant has grown in the last two decades, with more expected in the future. From oil well spills to divorces - from stealing trust funds to partnership disputes - forensic accountants are needed to find and calculate losses. They are financial detectives that are needed to explain the money story to attorneys, judges, and juries. If you are interested in starting a forensic accounting practice or adding on this service to your existing firm, this course is for you. In this presentation, you will know what service to provide possible clients, how to find those clients, and the cost-effective ways to start the forensic accounting practice. Your instructor has over 20 years of experience as a special agent with IRS-Criminal Investigation where he conducted investigations into tax and money laundering crimes across the globe. After his successful investigative career, he started a CPA firm from scratch that focused on forensic accounting. He shares the successes and failures in starting a forensic accounting practice, including getting the right credentials, various ways of marketing to potential clients, closing the deal with engagement letters, and delivering the service to the client. 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 is designed to help individuals from first time buyers to veteran entrepreneurs navigate the acquisition process. It discusses practical ideas on finding potential targets, letters of intent (LOIs), the due diligence process, building the business case financial model, obtaining proper financing, negotiating the deal documents, and integration of the acquired entity. The course will cover how to build a plan, execute the acquisition process, and lead a team to be a successful acquirer of other business entities to grow revenue and enhance net income.

Individuals are leaving the workforce in droves due to retirement or resignation, and many are choosing to start their own businesses. This course explores the planning opportunities for those starting their own businesses or advising clients. Issues addressed include making sure you will be treated as a business, choice of entity, Schedule C deductions, depreciation, avoiding the self-employment tax, retirement plans, self-employed health insurance, employing family members, and loss limitations.

This course approaches financial statement preparation and review from a tax practitioner's perspective. Often tax motivated clients have different needs concerning financial statements. Topics in the program are:

Clients believe that estate planning is only for the wealthy. This isn't the case. Perhaps as a result of the 2020 pandemic, estate planning has a renewed focus. All practitioners should be familiar with the vernacular, acronyms and techniques. Estate planning involves personal issues that affect everyone, even when the estate tax doesn't apply. Learn strategies to pass assets to future generations; provide education benefits; distribute retirement benefits, and provide a charitable legacy.

The Professional Ethics Executive Committee (PEEC) of the AICPA has been very busy issuing new and updating existing ethics rules. This course will provide an overview of recently issued and soon to be effective ethics rules that CPAs in both industry and public accounting need to know to be compliant. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

What exactly is cryptocurrency and its cousin named blockchain? Are they here to stay? This session will provide a big picture examination of the technologies and currencies by explaining how we got here. We discuss the systems and technical aspects of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. What is the broad view of the technologies that currently do, and will continue to, impact our workplace and lives?

Our guidance on ethics comes from the AICPA and other groups, but it does not fully address the “why” behind ethics. This session will examine and define what ethics is and what it means to varying people in the workplace. 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?

Excel can do so many things but what are some of the features that can really help accountants take their Excel skills to the next level? This course is designed to do just that. To learn ALL the capabilities of Excel would take hundreds of hours of training, so this two-hour course is designed to give you a jump start on the most important features that you can immediately begin implementing in your spreadsheets. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.