Professional Development and Event Catalog

George Washington once wrote, "We ought not to look back, unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dear bought experience." The cost of fraud, dearly paid by governments and nonprofits, is too severe not to learn and profit from. In this course, we will look back at real-world government and nonprofit frauds and derive useful controls to stop them. The course materials utilize a highly illustrative and innovative format. Over 15 focused exercises are included to provide an enhanced working knowledge of fraud and anti-fraud controls to both auditors and industry professionals.

Whether you are responsible for managing 1 employee or 20, your leadership can make or break your team. Learn practical leadership strategies that you can implement when you return to your office. In today’s competitive market, it’s more imperative than ever that as leaders we are inspiring and motivating our teams to success.  

The objective of corrective action is to change conduct through teaching.  Corrective action may be sequential, out of order, repetitive, or not appropriate to take at all.  The action selected should reflect the type, frequency, and severity of the misconduct.  Changing conduct through teaching requires effective employee relations skills. This course provides practical knowledge and scripts for handling a wide array of sensitive misconduct situations with good judgment, such that personal and employer liability is avoided.

HR Professionals are business leaders who, regardless of their level of experience, are responsible for maintaining a high level of interpersonal proficiency in their job function. The willingness to gain a genuine understanding and respect for diversity and the incorporation of a safe and inclusive environment of employees in the workplace, is a strong measure of the HR Professionals’ efficacy in this area. This training is geared towards improving and/ or elevating the HR Professionals’ knowledge of cultural competence in the workplace and what it means to truly adopt a culture of diversity and inclusivity. When HR professionals take responsibility for teaching others about the differences and benefits that multiple cultures and diverse backgrounds bring to the organization, research shows that companies are more likely to win top talent and yield improvement in customer orientation, employee satisfaction and decision making, as well as a cycle of increasing returns.

Organizations that use primitive costing methods make predictable mistakes. They allocate too much cost to easy, high-volume "gravy" products and too little cost to difficult, low-volume "dog" products. This puts the organization with inferior information at a significant disadvantage against a competitor who has a better cost model. The secret to having a great cost model is learning how to deal with overhead. This webinar will show you how to assign 16 key categories of overhead. Whether you work in a wholesale, retail, health care, service or manufacturing business. This session will give you important insights into how to handle overhead. If you get your costing right, you will be able to give the "dogs" to your competitors and keep the "gravy" for yourself.

Leaders naturally wield power and influence. But, to avoid the temptation of abusing power, leaders must apply ethical behaviors for themselves and others. Words, actions and deeds which demonstrate integrity and trust yield the credibility that make others want to follow ethical leaders. Betraying trust can destroy careers, whole organizations, and lives. This is why trust is a top prerequisite for principled and ethical leadership. Positive (and negative) influence is derived from the credibility trust brings. Ethical leaders who continually work to earn and keep trust reap enormous payback in all aspects of business including superior economic, competitive, and strategic performance.

Government Auditing Standards (or Yellow Book) has a unique perspective on ethics and transparency due to accountability owed to taxpayers, oversight bodies, and others. This course will discuss the foundational principles in the Yellow Book relevant to professional conduct on related engagements. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Tax practitioners advising their business clients must be fully informed regarding the multiple loss limitation provisions that apply to individuals conducting businesses and pass-through entities. This program covers the loss limitation rules that tax practitioners must know in order to advise their individual and pass-through entity clients fully and adequately as to when and if a loss limitation applies. The loss limitations discussed in this program start with an introductory discussion of hobby loss rules and graduate to a more substantive discussion of the remaining loss limitations: basis limits, at-risk rules, passive loss limits, excess business loss limits, net operating losses, and the Section 163(j) interest limitation. Knowing when loss limits apply is essential for any tax practitioner. This program will put you in a position to advise clients fully and intelligently regarding each of the loss limits.

Many small to medium sized companies do not properly address the risk that arises related to fraud because these organizations do not have the resources needed to mitigate this risk or because owners or those in top level management underestimate the scope of the issue. All organizations, regardless of size, must be aware of the risks associated with intentional fraudulent acts and know that a significant and effective fraud scheme could even create going concern issues for some entities. In this session, we delve into the reasons that fraud takes place. The material discusses the types of defalcations that are often executed against smaller entities and then explores measures that organizations can implement to help stop fraud activities and add security. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

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. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

When we’re going through change and life feels out of balance, it’s normal to get stuck focused on all the problems and challenges that stress us out. How will the changes impact our team, our job, our lives? It doesn’t help that our brains are wired to anticipate the worst possible outcome. This wiring can make it difficult to be our best; to provide our best teamwork, our best ideas, and our best leadership. However, studies show that there are things we can do to shift our thinking so we can spend more time in positive emotions, like curiosity, enthusiasm, and optimism. Now everything gets easier and better, including: ~ Productivity ~ Customer relations ~ Change management ~ Teamwork ~ Leadership Join Tina to learn and apply The Path for Positivity™ framework based in Positive Psychology. You will learn strategies and insights to help you experience less stress, a smoother transition, and higher productivity even when the future seems uncertain. Share the framework and strategies with your team, too.

Job titles for individuals can vary in different organizations even though the work is the same. This webinar is designed for the individual whose role is to oversee the work of others. This webinar includes an overview of Aristotle's virtue ethics and its application to the responsibility and privilege of developing employees to be their best and for the success of the organization. We will also address issues such as going from "buddy to boss", how to manage if you are newly assigned to an existing employee that was previously supervised by someone else, and critical skill sets necessary for supervisory/managerial positions. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

If there is a potential error, the IRS will assess a tax and add a hefty penalty, without even knowing the facts. As a tax professional, you will be exposed to the IRS and their methods of penalizing taxpayers for the smallest of violations. This presentation will focus on the rules and regulations that create the penalty, and the reasons that exist that the IRS will consider to remove those penalties. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

In today's world of everchanging demands and dynamics of the workplace, it is imperative that we use a tool to help us bring balance, strength, and stability in all we do at work and at home. Mindfulness is an easy and effective tool to help us with this. The Mindful-CPA program via this webinar is designed specifically for Finance and Accounting Professionals. You will learn: The fundamental principles of Mindfulness An 8-minute Mindfulness Practice to be done daily Creative and fun ways to apply Mindfulness to work activities Effective overall strategies to bring creativity, balance, and energy to daily activities. Sunish Mehta, CPA has been a practitioner and instructor of Mindfulness for over 20 years and has worked with several Mindfulness Organizations to date. Having studied with some of the top Mindfulness Teachers in the world including His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Sunish has integrated mindfulness into his learning and consulting work with the focused goal to help conscious professionals bring focus, creativity, and balance to their professional and personal lives. You can learn more at www.mindful-cpa.com.

Understanding the complexities of estate and gift taxation can be challenging for many financial professionals, especially those who lack direct experience in this area. In this comprehensive course, participants will gain a solid foundation in Federal estate and gift tax law, providing them with the necessary tools to confidently handle tax compliance issues related to Forms 706 and 709. By exploring the details of the Internal Revenue Code sections pertinent to estate and gift taxation, attendees will gain a thorough understanding of key concepts, including deductions, valuations, and tax credits. This practical knowledge will not only enhance their expertise but also empower them to provide effective tax planning strategies for their clients. Throughout the course, participants will investigate essential topics such as the valuation of assets, deductions for funeral and administrative expenses, charitable and marital deductions, and the calculation of tax credits. By mastering these critical areas, financial professionals will be better equipped to navigate the challenges of estate and gift taxation, ultimately enabling them to provide comprehensive and effective tax planning services for their clients. Whether you're looking to expand your expertise or deepen your understanding of tax compliance issues, this course offers invaluable insights and practical knowledge that can immediately be applied in your practice. **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.

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.

If sales increase, so should profits.  Yet, the opposite result often leaves executives scratching their heads.  When organizations work with inferior cost information, they make mistakes in four specific situations.  Bad information causes sellers to overprice easy, high-volume work and underprice difficult, low-volume work.  This session discusses how to use activity-based costing data to build accurate costing models that consider far more than just the labor and materials necessary to provide goods and services.  

Unlock the full potential of data analytics with our specialized course, "Leverage PowerBI.com to Create Data Analysis for Others". This two-hour, intensive training is specifically designed to empower professionals in harnessing the powerful features of Microsoft PowerBI.com. Whether you're a data analyst, business intelligence professional, or someone keen on mastering data visualization and report creation, this course is your gateway to becoming a proficient Power BI user. Dive into the dynamic world of data analytics and learn to transform raw data into visually compelling stories that drive decision-making. Our expertly crafted program offers a deep dive into the essentials of PowerBI.com, starting with a comprehensive tour of its interface and core concepts. You'll gain experience in connecting to diverse data sources, creating stunning visualizations, and building interactive dashboards that communicate insights effectively. The course also covers the innovative Q&A feature of PowerBI.com, allowing you to explore data with natural language queries. By mastering the art of sharing datasets, reports, and dashboards, and creating comprehensive apps, you'll be equipped to deliver top-tier data analysis solutions to colleagues and clients alike. Through this course, attendees will gain a deep understanding of how to leverage the PowerBI.com platform to disseminate datasets, reports, and dashboards, catering to the specific needs of their audience. Our course is tailored for those who aspire to lead in the data-driven landscape, offering not just theoretical knowledge but real-world applications. Upon completion, participants will not only have a thorough understanding of PowerBI.com but also the confidence to apply this tool in creating impactful data analysis for diverse audiences. Join us to elevate your professional skillset, make data-driven decisions with ease, and add a valuable credential to your portfolio. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

You spent your life building retirement savings.  Now you want to make sure your savings last the rest of your life and perhaps pass some on to the next generation.  Come hear a veteran financial educator talk about money management and planning issues for this phase of your life.  

This CTCPA conference is designed to update practitioners on new developments in the nonprofit arena.