CPE & Event Calendar

We have passed the 15 year anniversary of the start of the cryptocurrency market with the release of Bitcoin in 2010. It is estimated today that 1 in 5 people in the U.S. trade in cryptocurrency. With the recent changes in the legislative landscape, this number is poised for substantial growth. In addition, there will be natural evolution towards "smart contracts" powered by AI and the integration of cryptocurrency as the payment mechanism. For these reasons, it is important for every CPA to have a baseline understanding of the cryptocurrency marketplace and the technology it is built 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 course is one of the courses dedicated to our Controllership Series. This series of courses is dedicated to exploring the traditional controller role and stepping out of the box to identify areas where the controller can continue to add strategic value to their organizations. Within this segment of our controllership series, we continue our discussion on inventory from segment one. This specific segment focuses on areas of inventory valuation, the types of physical inventory methods, and inventory fraud. These areas are critical for the controller to have a strong comprehension of and also participate in the development of policies and procedures.      

The One Big Beautiful Bill has removed much of the uncertainty concerning the estate tax exclusion. Nonetheless, clients still need to address: the estate, gift, generation-skipping, income, and property tax implications of estate plans; the pros and cons of relying on the portable exclusion to avoid estate tax; and strategies to benefit non-citizen spouses. In this course, we examine the role of the marital deduction and Survivor's Trusts ("A" trusts), ways to maximize planning opportunities by building flexibility into the modern estate plan, the qualitative and quantitative implications of various strategies affecting blended families, whether to use Bypass ("B") Trusts, QTIP ("C") trusts, or qualified domestic trusts (QDOTs), and whether to file a Form 706 when it's not required.

This course is a comprehensive overview of critical Federal tax law updates resulting from changes to current laws, regulations and court cases impacting individual taxation. We will also review recent modifications to tax forms, small business tax law and administrative updates, retirement plan changes and tax practice and procedures.

Business leaders often view an internal control system as a security measure. However, a well-designed system can also drive entity objectives. Learn to design a robust and well-supported system, leveraging years of experience and key concepts from authoritative pronouncements and frameworks. Explore strategies to address new business challenges, including evolving markets, rapid changes in business, and increasing governmental and industry-based regulation. This course is for anyone working with internal controls.

This course provides a concise overview of how artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the construction industry and reshaping financial oversight, accounting practices, and regulatory compliance. From autonomous equipment to predictive risk analytics, construction firms are increasingly adopting AI to enhance safety, efficiency, and profitability. As this transformation unfolds, accountants and financial professionals must evolve their roles-leveraging AI for smarter budgeting, automated compliance, and real-time auditing. The course highlights the top 20 macro-level AI trends in construction and explores how accounting professionals can align financial systems with operational AI, uphold audit integrity, and prepare for emerging tax and compliance challenges. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Most of the models of work that we use today were not built for the pace of change and the dynamism of work today. In this course, you will learn how so many models we use at work are fundamentally broken and no longer useful. Models that rely on people staying a long time in a firm are no longer helpful in a reality where employees are staying for increasingly shorter periods with their employers. This course will reveal how so much of the architecture of work was not built with short tenure in mind: career paths, compensation, and retention objectives.

This is the beginning of a series that will cover major aspects of the Controllership function. Controllers are essential to the day-to-day accounting for organizations. Yet, the role is not often readily understood. In today’s world of acronyms such as CFO, CEO, COO, CAO, etc., the Controller function may get lost in the shuffle. However, they are a critical group of professionals who ensure the adequacy and transparency of accounting and financial reporting information. A Controller is an individual who has responsibility for all accounting-related activities including high-level accounting, managerial counting, and finance activities within a company. The duties of a Controller include assisting with the preparation of the operating budgets, overseeing financial reporting, and performing essential duties relating to payroll. However, in today’s evolving world, the Controller function can provide much more in-depth value to their organizations. This series is dedicated to exploring the traditional Controller role and stepping out of the box to identify areas where the Controller can add strategic value to their organizations. In this first course we focus on the typical Controller function and begin to identify ways to elevate the function.  

Participants will learn how to interpret the most common IRS correspondence, adhere to response deadlines, and effectively communicate with the IRS to resolve issues and minimize risks. It provides professionals with knowledge and strategies needed to handle the most common notices including audit requests, collections & return inquiries as well as error notices. Focusing on best practices to ensure compliance and avoiding penalties or escalation. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

In February 2016, FASB issued ASU 2016-02, Leases, which provides new guidelines that change the accounting for leasing arrangements. To be able to properly account for leases, financial professionals must understand ASU 2016-02 (also referred to as Topic 842). This guidance covers information on how leases should be accounted for. The previous leasing standard (ASC 840) had been in existence for almost 40 years. Under ASC Topic 842, lessors continue to classify leases as operating, direct financing, or sales-type. While lessees now classify leases as operating or financing leases. Previous guidance only required capital leases to be reflected on the BS. The new guidance requires all leases to be reflected on the BS. This is a major change for organizations and will cause their balance sheets to swell as leases must now be disclosed on the balance sheet. The standards original effective dates were prior to 2019. In April 2020, due to COVID-19, FASB voted to defer the effective date for ASC 842 for private companies and certain not-for-profit's for one year. For private companies and private not-for-profits, the leasing standard will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2021, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022. For public companies the leasing standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The course covers elements of lease classification for both lessees and lessors. Also, numerous examples are incorporated as reference.  

Communication is the glue that connects people, but it doesn’t come easy for many of us. If you want to quickly and effectively handle problems with co-workers or clients, and you want people to do what you want without a lot of hassle, this seminar is for you. The bottom line will be better client and co-worker relationships, leading to increased enjoyment and productivity at work.

Ethical behavior is not a destination it is a journey with twists, turns, and bumps in the road. We are faced with ethical dilemmas every day. Do I speed to make it to a meeting? Do I call in sick because I need a break? When does "helping my child with their homework" become "doing it for them"? CPAs are ethical most of the time, but staying ethical is hard. It gets harder when we are under stress. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This is a two-part series that discuss new trends and concepts the financial controller should begin to execute in order to truly become a valued member of the senior leadership team. The rapid pace of the evolving technological landscape has promoted changes in how accountants and financial professionals focus attention on strategy and modernize their roles to leverage digital technology. There is increased demand for enhancing flexibility into finance cycles and initiating real-time reporting and insights. These are the core attributes that will assist in transforming the work that controllership function performs. Is the financial controllership prepared to meet future business demands? The IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) and Deloitte’s Center for Controllership aimed to better understand the current state of controllership and expectations of future demands for controllers and accounting professionals. They conducted a survey in late 2022 and identified several trends. The survey takes a look at how prepared controllership is to meet future business demands. It also highlights some insights for leaders to consider that may increase their preparedness. It also identified areas of additional insight and questions to answer on the controllership transformation journey. In this segment one, we go through numerous concepts in detail and the remaining concepts will be covered in segment two.

In today’s business world, there is a war for talent and organizations with the best talent will win. We clearly need to motivate talented personnel. Equity compensation plans are useful to retain, reward and recruit. The GAAP and tax accounting for equity compensation plans is not static and decisions that you make during plan set-up can have major consequences to your organization’s bottom line and your management team’s personal tax situations. We will review nuances and details that impact proper accounting. Whether you are the CFO or CEO who has not been happy with prior equity compensation plans or the accountant who performs the intricate analysis and detailed accounting for these plans - this session will help you understand the issues and get it right the first time.

Tax rates, personal liability, operations - these are all factors to be weighed when advising clients about their choice of entity decision. This session provides a comparison of the multiple entity choices to start the discussion with clients and selecting the best tax efficient option for them. *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

Working in accounting and finance offers strong earnings and growth, yet chronic overwork remains the top driver of anxiety and attrition in the profession. Evidence shows that long hours and poor recovery harm both health and output: large studies link greater than 55-hour weeks to higher cardiovascular risk, specific-hour thresholds to productivity drops, and insufficient sleep to eroded performance. At the same time, well-designed flexibility works. A recent randomized trial of a two-days-from-home hybrid schedule improved satisfaction and cut quits without hurting results, and multi-firm pilots of shorter workweeks report lower burnout and stable revenue. This webinar translates that research — along with sector-specific findings on accountants' work-life priorities — into practical tools for financial professionals and their firms. We'll cover how to set evidence-based workload and availability norms (e.g., hybrid cadence, meeting discipline, focused work blocks), build manager habits that reduce stress without sacrificing delivery, and document simple recovery practices (sleep, boundaries, and time off) to sustain peak periods. We'll also address policy design: aligning work styles and responsibilities within teams, metrics that reward outcomes over hours, and how to pilot changes safely. Participants will leave with a concise checklist and templates they can implement immediately.

This course provides a detailed discussion on the key topics related to financial reporting, though in a summarized format. The course will focus on recent ASUs issued by the FASB, including the 12 ASUs issued in 2025, with a concentration on issues of greatest significance to most accounting practitioners. The greatest emphasis on the ASUs will focus on those effective in 2025 and 2026. Specifically, the course will review ASUs addressing financial instruments, disaggregated expenses, government grants, credit losses under ASC 326, and the final stages of the ASC 842 post-implementation review (PIR) report findings. Other hot-button accounting issues, such as what is on the FASB's technical agenda, are also discussed. This course is the place to go for a succinct but thorough update on the big topics impacting financial accounting and reporting.

Recent economic, societal, and political changes have shown us the need for numerous projects and the need to manage those projects in a unique way. Project management is a way of thinking highly recognized and practiced by large organizations, but often neglected by the smallest companies and entrepreneurs. This course quickly discusses the basics of project management thought and practice and then spends the majority of the time exploring some of the greatest mistakes that can be made, the ways to avoid them, and some of the tricks that have been introduced into the discipline. In the program we will explore some of the specific types of project management as well as some of the available software programs to make the task of project management easier.

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 state taxation, ranging from individuals to pass-through entities to corporate taxpayers. This class will focus on issues of small and middle-market companies and offer guidance for minimizing tax liability and negotiating the treacherous waters of compliance.

Unlock the full potential of Microsoft Excel PivotTables with this comprehensive course. This training is designed to equip participants with the skills to effectively analyze and summarize data, transforming raw numbers into actionable insights. Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to data analysis, this course provides an in-depth understanding of PivotTables and their capabilities, helping you uncover patterns, compare data, and make informed decisions. The program includes a step-by-step approach to creating and customizing PivotTables, focusing on how to use them to analyze data efficiently. Participants will learn how to group and filter data, identify trends, and apply advanced features to solve real-world business challenges. Beyond technical knowledge, this course introduces data visualization through PivotCharts, teaching participants how to present their analysis effectively to stakeholders. By the end of the course, you'll not only master PivotTable fundamentals but also gain advanced techniques to streamline data analysis and support strategic decision-making in any context. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.