Professional Development and Event Catalog

Internal controls are more important than ever, and their importance increases daily. However, internal controls present a challenge for many smaller organizations. This program will teach you how to evaluate, develop, and implement an effective internal control structure in a small business environment. You will identify how to assess risk in smaller organizations and implement preventive, detective, deterrent, and compensating controls to mitigate these risks, even without proper segregation of duties. Additionally, participating in this program will teach you technology-focused techniques for preventing and detecting fraud and securing information systems and sensitive data. For small organizations, maintaining an effective system of internal controls presents a significant challenge. Realistically, implementing many theoretical concepts surrounding internal controls may not be possible in some cases. Consequently, many internal control structures foster an environment where too much risk exists. This factor and uncontrolled information systems can often lead to disastrous results. Participate in this program to learn the necessary insights and tools to design, implement, and monitor effective internal controls, security, and anti-fraud measures in small organizations.

Combatting today’s cybercriminals takes all of us working together. The Internal Revenue Service works with state tax agencies and the tax industry to fight these 21st-century identity thieves. Unfortunately, data thefts at tax professionals’ offices are on the rise. Online providers also must follow the six security and privacy standards in Publication 1345, Handbook for Authorized IRS e-file Providers of Individual Income Tax Returns. In addition, you fall under the PTIN and 4557 considerations if you prepare tax returns. Learn how to fulfill your obligations by participating in this session.  

Although Windows incorporates the OneDrive app, you may not have configured it correctly for your specific needs. Using the OneDrive app and the related Cloud storage service to their fullest potential means you can access your files when and where you need them. Further, sharing your files and collaborating with others is easy when using OneDrive correctly. In this session, you will learn best practices for taking full advantage of OneDrive.

Collaboration is a key to productivity and success. But remote work can make collaboration more challenging, including collaborating on spreadsheets. Fortunately, tools such as portals with check-in/check-out capabilities, version control, comment tracking, and co-authoring can enable online spreadsheet collaboration. Further, Excel’s Inquire tool can facilitate spreadsheet collaboration in offline environments. Don’t let remote work hamper your spreadsheet collaboration needs! Participate in this session to learn how to collaborate on spreadsheets effectively from anywhere using tools you already own or license.

What were they thinking? Why do business leaders sometimes make horrible decisions that severely damage themselves and their organizations? It is tempting to assume that poor choices must be due to someone's incompetence, inexperience, bad character, or low intelligence. Yet, when we make a mistake ourselves, we someone rationalize it as a choice other people would make under the same circumstances. This session will discuss the common decision-making errors people make and to help you avoid making these blunders yourself. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Remote work environments have created many new opportunities for cybercriminals and other fraudsters to exploit, and accounting professionals are some of the most commonly targeted individuals. This session is a series of case studies that examine actual criminal filings and news accounts and use them to highlight some of the actions you can take to limit your exposure to similar schemes. Attend this session and learn more about how high-profile control failures occurred so you can be more effective at preventing crimes in your organization.

One of the biggest challenges, if not the most critical challenge in business, is attracting and keeping an engaged and productive workforce. Navigating the world of engagement and retention requires an understanding of human needs as well as deliberate and intentional actions to strengthen an employee's investment and connection to their place of work. For all the HGTV lovers out there, this session mirrors a television show where an individual/family must decide if they want to stay in their current home (after renovations and home improvements) or move to a new space. This webinar title seems apt in describing the current issues around engagement and retention. When an employee chooses to "love it" or stay with their current employer, it typically means they are engaged in their work and they feel seen, heard and valued- they are content. Conversely, the notion of "leaving it" typically symbolizes an employee who cannot wait to get out of their current job. These employees often have negative attitudes and/or behaviors at work. The purpose of this webinar is to recognize the significance of attracting and retaining employees, building your brand as an employer of choice and developing a culture where individual employees feel valued, cared for and ultimately engaged, all though an ethical lens. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

A clear and concise set of proper financial statement disclosures can make or break an entity's financial statements. Such disclosures are no longer simply additional information provided by a business; they can be complex in nature and difficult to both prepare and understand, especially for small and medium-sized businesses. Oftentimes financial statement users will first turn to the notes in the financial statements in order to get a feel for where the business and its numbers might be heading, so these disclosures need to be well-written and follow applicable standards. This course will focus on key balance sheet and income statement disclosure as well as those relating to adoption of new accounting standards related to revenue (ASC 606) and leases (ASC 842), accounting policies, changes in accounting estimates and errors, subsequent events, going concern, and related party disclosures. The course will use illustrations, examples based on private company financial statements disclosures, and real-world excerpts from financial statements to provide you with a hands-on feel for the disclosure requirements across a number of accounting standards.

With the largest overhaul of the federal income tax code in 30 years and the repeal of the physical presence nexus standards for sales tax in the Wayfair case, the states are working fast and furious to overhaul their tax laws. As some states scramble to fund their budgets, they continue to look for additional forms of revenue. Plan to attend this fast-paced class that covers developing topics in the area of nexus. Learn how nexus requirements have changed and where the state laws may be heading in the future.

This course covers recently issued accounting and financial statement reporting standards from the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Key implementation challenges and experiences from public company filings will be identified. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

As our business environment shifts, so do trends with fraud schemes and perpetrators. This course will give you the absolutely latest information with how to identify and mitigate shifting fraud risks in any entity. 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 reviews the statutory and regulatory guidance as they relate to fringe benefits. There will be an emphasis on entertainment, meals and business transportation expenses, including qualified employer-provided parking, with a focus on planning opportunities. Recent federal tax legislation, cases and rulings will also be addressed. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Many businesses are being held back by legacy solutions. The old way of doing things just doesn’t work anymore. Instead, Software as a Service (SaaS) has transformed many mid-market companies. In this new world of cloud-based, workflow-enabled, data-centric, and connected solutions, you can solve existing and future business problems in new ways without being bogged down by paper-centric environments. This session covers integrated and ERP solutions that should work for businesses in the $10 Million to $1 Billion range. If your existing system has been in place for seven or more years, it is time to consider upgrading or replacing it. Leverage your instructor’s knowledge of the market to minimize your risk.

This course provides a concise overview and non-technical explanation of the Omniverse and Metaverse - a shared virtual space that integrates various virtual, augmented, and actual realities. While futurists have been predicting and describing this concept for decades, interest and investment in this platform have recently exploded. Facebook has changed its very name to Meta - as in Metaverse - to reflect its pivot from a social media company to a virtual space company. Other tech companies, big and small, have announced ambitious plans to enable people to access digital environments and experiences through different devices. While sometimes perceived as science fiction, the metaverse is no entertainment gimmick. A growing consensus is that it will be the successor to the mobile Internet, and fundamentally transform the Internet, and perhaps even reality itself. You'll walk away with a foundational understanding of how the metaverse is transforming the modern business world, and how accountants can position themselves for success in this emerging economic digital dimension. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

QuickBooks Online's (QBO) market share continues to expand, and the Cloud-based accounting platform now dominates the small business market. Yet, most accounting and financial professionals have not participated in any formal training on the Cloud-based accounting service. Thus, they are unaware of many of the tool's available features and do not work with QuickBooks Online as efficiently and effectively as they should. This course teaches you how to set up QBO and convert QuickBooks Desktop files into a QBO instance. You will learn how to process all types of transactions, including accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank feeds, inventory, and payroll. Further, you will learn how to implement appropriate internal controls and how to capitalize on advanced features such as workflow management and management reports. Join us in this session to learn how to set up QBO properly and take full advantage of all it offers while avoiding common errors and mistakes.

If you find yourself working with PDF files consistently throughout the day, this course will teach you how to review, annotate, format and organize PDF files more effectively and in less time. You will also learn how to use Adobe Acrobat for e-signatures to reduce document processing time significantly and enhance confidentiality. Adobe Acrobat has many features that you can take advantage of and this course will explain and demonstrate how to use them. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Most small and mid-sized businesses are at least considering cloud-based suites for business management, performance management, and productivity. Unfortunately, many owners and accounting professionals need to learn the difference between using cloud-native tools, employing a managed service provider, and utilizing a desktop hosting provider. This session helps participants understand the differences in the levels of service provided by these offerings and will also highlight some of the regulatory barriers which could create problems for your organization. Attend this session and learn what you need to know before saying “see ya” to your servers.

Seismic changes in tax legislation is currently taking place, and the well-informed tax practitioner will want to attend this two hour monthly program in order to stay abreast of these developments! Approximately one-half of the program is devoted to individual tax issues, and the remaining time is spend on business entity taxation, IRS procedure, tax legislation and other issues. Due to the changing nature of the topic, learning objectives, course descriptions and program content will vary and will be provided in more specificity closer to presentation time. This course provides a concise look at the hottest topics affecting every tax practitioner. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

For many small businesses, the standards issued by the FASB may have little to no effect as they impact topics that do not reflect the type of transactions that these entities most frequently experience. This class will focus on the Accounting Standards Updates (ASUs) that are most likely to impact small businesses with a focus on ASUs initiated by the Private Company Council (PCC). We'll then look at alternative reporting options to GAAP including FRF for SMEs and IFRS for SMEs for entities who don't necessarily need to prepare GAAP financial statements but want to use accrual accounting. Finally, we will transition to audit standards that small business auditors will need to implement. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Auditing Contingencies and Going Concern Uncertainty - Testing for Completeness and Proper Disclosure will provide tips and techniques for obtaining sufficient appropriate audit evidence to support conclusions related to contingencies and going concern uncertainty. Financial statements may contain significant uncertainties requiring special audit consideration for evaluating proper accounting and financial reporting treatment. 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 evaluating loss contingencies and substantial doubt about going concern. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.