Professional Development and Event Catalog

Develop your soft skills in training courses that benefit both the person attending and their organization. This course, part four of the five-course series, is applicable for various accounting departments (i.e. audit, tax, consulting, and accounting services) but because these are universal leadership concepts, they are equally applicable to other professional business leaders. AHI soft skills training will help improve efficiency, make managers and senior managers more effective with others, and increase the organization's bottom line. Also, as these courses often include other industries besides accounting, there is an opportunity to work and network with leadership professionals from other industries.

Staff accountants have specific needs when working with Excel. Unfortunately, their existing Excel knowledge often does not meet these needs. Chief among these are summarizing data quickly and accurately, generating accurate and aesthetically pleasing reports, and creating accounting-centric calculations for elements such as depreciation, amortization, and interest. By participating in this eight-hour session, staff accountants will gain the essential skills to maximize efficiency and accuracy when working with Excel. This session begins with a quick overview of Excel best practices. It then progresses rapidly into discussions that address PivotTables, sophisticated formulas, Tables, formatting, and working with dates in Excel. Throughout the session, you will learn from accounting-centric examples to reinforce key learning points. In this session, you will learn in a "laptop-friendly" environment, and participants will have access to all the demonstration files. In sum, this seminar is a "must" for all staff accountants seeking to improve their efficiency and accuracy when working with Excel.

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 experience level, 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 streamlining report generation and printing processes. Your K2 instructor will reinforce key learning points throughout the program with practical, real-world examples to improve your understanding and comprehension of the topics presented. This highly acclaimed course draws on over twenty-five years of experience delivering spreadsheet training to accounting and financial professionals, assuring you of the relevance and usefulness of the information and guidance provided during the program.

If you are an experienced Excel user seeking to elevate your skills, join the K2 team for K2's Advanced Excel. In this laptop-friendly program, you will learn critical advanced Excel skills in six key areas: 1) collaborating with other users and securing workbooks, 2) using tables to analyze and report data, 3) integrating and manipulating data from external sources, 4) creating and auditing complex formulas, 5) advanced data analysis tools, and 6) visualization techniques to analyze and communicate information. The course draws from over twenty-five years of experience delivering Excel training to accountants and other business professionals. Throughout the program, relevant, real-world examples reinforce the topics presented. Take advantage of this opportunity to become more efficient and proficient in Microsoft Office Excel, the tool of choice for accounting and financial professionals. This course covers advanced Excel topics found in Excel 2019 and newer.

Advance your skills to propel your career. This course, the second in a five-course series, provides the guidance needed to handle small engagements and to complete small audits, reviews and compilations with minimal supervision. Gain knowledge to improve your skills to perform more complex analytical procedures, as well as drafting financial statements and footnotes.

Do your budgeting and forecasting processes work as well as they should? Probably not, as many organizations report that budgeting and forecasting activities consume tremendous time and yield only marginal benefits. In this course, you will learn to achieve a greater return on your budgeting and forecasting activities using various tools and techniques available in today's market. In addition to learning how to utilize Excel more effectively for budgeting and forecasting activities, you will also learn about other tools, such as Budget Maestro, PROPHIX, and Host Analytics, and how reducing your dependency on Excel can lead to better results. Additionally, you will learn how to account for risk and uncertainty in your budgeting and forecasting models and why doing so is a best practice for more meaningful budgets and forecasts. Join us in this course to learn how to reduce your time on budgeting and forecasting tasks while simultaneously increasing their value.

Fraud continues to plague businesses at epidemic levels, and technology control failures are a significant reason fraud occurs. Using a case study approach, in this session, you will learn about the pervasiveness of fraud, the control failures contributing to fraud, and what you can do to mitigate fraud risk. A specific focus of this course is applying information technology general controls and information technology application controls. In this course, you will examine numerous reported fraud cases and identify the general and application control failures that contributed to each fraud. By learning through these real-world case studies, you will be positioned better to reduce fraud risk.

Although the IRS continues to lose its audit workforce due to budget cuts, it continues to examine specific individuals and small business taxpayers. Now, more than ever, Accounting and Financial Professionals need clients to understand the need for documentation and procedures to substantiate what IRS examiners are pursuing. Learn the high audit risk areas and ways to help clients survive an IRS audit with little or no change. It is critical for Accounting and Financial Professionals in public accounting to understand the risk to clients and to themselves in tax return preparation and planning since the IRS has currently increased its audit coverage and is examining more taxpayers than in the recent past.

Improve your planning, review, audit and other engagement skills. Master techniques for effective communication with clients and colleagues in part three of this five-course series. Discover the secrets to planning and efficiently completing engagements, explore methods for assuming higher levels of responsibility, develop your ability to assess risk and materiality and learn to make non-statistical sampling decisions. Designed to offer audit staff members extensive training in crucial procedural, evaluative and supervisory areas.

*IMPORTANT:  This is a virtual conference being run in partnership with the Iowa Society of CPAs The ISCPA Financial Institutions Conference brings together CPAs and other professionals working in or with the banking industry to discuss the latest trends, innovations and challenges facing the industry today. Gain valuable insights, connect with industry leaders, and expand your network. Please note that the Class Pass does not apply to this program.

*IMPORTANT:  This is the IN-PERSON option for the Employee Benefit Plans Conference While we are planning for all speakers to attend in person, due to the uncertainty of today’s environment and varying company policies, some speakers may need to appear via livestream if circumstances necessitate it. This CTCPA conference updates practitioners on a variety of topics in the employee benefit plans area.  

*IMPORTANT:  This is the VIRTUAL option for the Employee Benefit Plans Conference While we are planning for all speakers to attend in person, due to the uncertainty of today’s environment and varying company policies, some speakers may need to appear via livestream if circumstances necessitate it. This CTCPA conference updates practitioners on a variety of topics in the employee benefit plans area.  

In the ever-evolving field of estate planning, addressing the complex issues that arise upon a client's death is of utmost importance. Postmortem estate planning plays a critical role in managing various aspects, including the decedent's estate tax return, final income tax return, estate income tax return, and the financial planning of the heirs. This comprehensive course equips practitioners with a thorough understanding of after-death planning issues related to a decedent's estate.

This course is designed for firm partners and managers to explore ways to incorporate data analytics and related technologies in their audit practices. Participants explore how small and mid-size firms are using these tools to improve engagement efficiency and quality while providing opportunities for value-added services to clients. All of AHI's courses rely heavily on participant interaction and these virtual programs have co-opted many of Zoom's features to preserve the same strengths of the in-person training: visual interaction between the instructor and all participants (plan to be "on screen" throughout the program); breakout rooms to ensure small group engagement; and instructor interaction screen share for small group presentations, easy delivery of video presentations, and fillable PDF for online note-taking in the course materials.

This 2-hour mini course is from our Level V course, which highlights leadership skills and situations that are common for managers and senior managers in CPA firms. Participants will be encouraged to examine and challenge their beliefs and approaches to managing and leading people. Leading Others - Coaching & Developing Staff - prioritizing the coaching and development of staff in a post-pandemic work environment, including delegation for development, effective feedback, and managing virtual employees. Building Leadership Communication Skills - strategies to influence and lead others through effective communication in both individual and group settings. Helping the Firm Grow - the three levels of helping the firm grow and how to involve the entire team in expanding services to existing clients and generating referrals to new clients. All of AHI's courses rely heavily on participant interaction and these virtual programs have co-opted many of Zoom's features to preserve the same strengths of the in-person training: visual interaction between the instructor and all participants (plan to be "on screen" throughout the program); breakout rooms to ensure small group engagement; and instructor interaction screen share for small group presentations, easy delivery of video presentations, and fillable PDF for online note-taking in the course materials.

The accounting profession and financial markets have been plagued during the past several years with numerous cases of financial reporting problems. This course will go through some real life examples of financial statement fraud and/or failed audits. The course will cover how to recognize deceptive practices related to revenue recognition, detail related party and off-balance sheet schemes, and how earnings can be manipulated through inappropriate estimates.

This course provides an overview of cryptocurrency basics and use cases. Learn the latest trends in crypto applications and the current state of accounting applications of cryptocurrency. It will cover the appropriate accounting for cryptocurrency and address some of the challenges in accounting for cryptocurrency.

FASB ASC topic 326, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses, has a significant impact on all reporting entities across all industries because it applies broadly to financial instruments, including accounts receivable. It also has far-reaching implications for companies because it impacts operations, data management, and internal controls over financial reporting. This course will offer tips on complying with the guidance and what the appropriate governance is related to the guidance in this topic.

This course gives CPAs the knowledge to help their clients plan for retirement by evaluating how much retirement income they will require and planning for how to reach their retirement goals.

This 2-hour mini course introduces how data analytics can be used to improve engagement quality and efficiency. Participants explore the use of data analytics to assess risk, support financial statement assertions, assess internal controls and uncover fraud. Apply the ADA IDEASc approach to using data analytics on engagements to ensure compliance with audit and review standards and to provide value-added services to clients. All of AHI's courses rely heavily on participant interaction and these virtual programs have co-opted many of Zoom's features to preserve the same strengths of the in-person training: visual interaction between the instructor and all participants (plan to be "on screen" throughout the program); breakout rooms to ensure small group engagement; and instructor interaction screen share for small group presentations, easy delivery of video presentations, and fillable PDF for online note-taking in the course materials.